23. Austin
Austin
B ringing Hannah along had been a horrible idea.
Her scent wraps around me like a damn caress, but instead of its usual warm, sweet aroma, it's tinged with bitterness.
She's worried about Noah, that much I can tell, and I can't help but wonder if he's going to be pissed at me for letting her see him…
however he's going to be. But if I hadn't brought her along, she would have tailed me all the way down to an abandoned warehouse in the Industrial District, and at least this way, I can keep her safe.
It probably would have been a good idea to clue at least Enzo in on what was going on, but Noah will be spittin' mad at me as it is with just Hannah knowing.
We ride in silence, my truck playing the local country station on low volume, my fingers tight on the wheel. The freeway is basically empty this time of night, the only lights are from my headlights and the street lamps that line the roads.
It's much too similar to the last time we were in my truck together, except this time her arms are wrapped around her legs, her head leaning on the window. Her stress pheromones are setting my alpha on edge, and everything in me itches to make it better.
Before I can think of something to say though, she speaks. "Hey. So. Um, I know things are weird between us, and I wanted to apologize for what happened that night. You know, the night you took me home."
I'm stunned. Downright speechless. What on the gods' green earth would possess her to think she has anything to apologize for? I glance over at her, mouth slightly agape, the streetlights we pass by giving me staggered glimpses of her flushed face.
She's embarrassed.
But then she keeps talking. "I swear, I didn't plan any of it. Sure, I'd hoped you'd grab my number, but I didn't…"
"Hannah," my voice comes out strained, "you don't have to—"
"No, but I do." She lets out a breath and turns to look at me.
We're doing this then. I suppose it's time to stop dancing around each other and finally get it all out in the open.
"When my neighbor texted me that I had a package on my doorstep, I thought it was a new coffee table I had ordered.
I didn't realize it would be….what it was.
" A delivery of two knotted dildos with packaging that would not be classified as discreet.
"And when we were in the car, when I said I might need your help with a package I got, that's what I meant. "
I mean, I had figured as much. The look of absolute mortification on her face when she saw the words "Knotty Love" on the side of the box, and a detailed diagram of the err…product, is an expression that I've been replaying in my mind the last four months.
"I know that, darlin'," I say gently, glancing over at her.
"You have nothing to apologize for. I'm the one…
" I trail off shaking my head. "I…Hannah, I never thought you were up to anything untoward.
Is that what you've thought this whole time?
That I ran away because I thought you were trying to seduce me? "
"That was the only thing I could think of." She lets out a derisive snort. "Or you were offended that I thought we would need the dildos."
"I…" My own cheeks heat at the memory. The way I straight up panicked.
I had never been with an omega, let alone seen a knotted dildo before, and I ran.
"I grew up very sheltered," I explain, my eyes fixing back on the road.
"Georgia Hills, South Carolina. Mama and Pa are both betas, and while we learned about what omegas need in school…
" I sigh. "I panicked. I took too long to say something, and I knew you'd be able to tell just how…
how…naive I am. You were looking at me with that mortified look on your face, and before I knew it, my feet had taken me halfway down the stairs.
So, Hannah, you don't need to apologize. I'm the one that ran like a coward."
Her gaze stays on my face, and she looks at me in silence for…
too long. The quietness of the car is interrupted by a snort, and then she's covering her mouth, a choked laugh leaving her.
"Oh my gods. It's not funny." She keeps laughing though, and my lip tilts in minor amusement.
"It's really not funny," she says again over a fit of laughter, holding her stomach.
"But this whole time…I thought you thought I was a whore or something!
Or that you were so put off with the very idea of me that you left.
When in reality…" she looks over at me, tears in her eyes from her laughter, "you were just…
embarrassed. Just like I was. Shit, Austin!
" Her eyes go wide as she tucks one leg under her.
"This whole time…Austin, I thought you were repulsed by me! "
"What?!" The laugh that leaves me at that, is shocked.
"Hannah, darlin', I obsessed about you every day for months.
Noah was about ready to send me to a psychologist. That day, Titus' party?
I only came because I thought you might be there.
I made Titus cupcakes with frosting the same shade as your hair for cryin' out loud.
" Her lips form a soft little "o", and her cheeks flush more pink than red.
"You did?" She asks quietly. "You…wanted to see me?" I hate that she doubts herself, and it's doubts I helped put there. It's my job to fix it now.
"Of course I did." I reach over and take her hand in mine, and she weaves our fingers together.
So warm and soft in my calloused palm. There's a hesitancy in her expression, like she's holding herself back.
It occurs to me then that if she thought I was put off by the very idea of her, she must think I'm not happy about the scent match.
Welp, time to put the truth out there. "Hannah, only a fool would not want to be with you." We're turning off the freeway, and I meet her eyes again. "An idiot. An absolute imbecile. Only someone who couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel would not want you."
Her smile produces enough electricity to make the dead rise.
"I mean it, darlin'," I tell her, meeting her green eyes. "I may be a lot of things, but I'm no fool. Not when it comes to this."
We park in front of the abandoned warehouse Noah's location is blinking from, and Hannah takes a deep breath.
"Before we go in," she says quietly, looking up at me, "I just want to make sure of one thing."
"Shoot," I tell her, turning off the car.
"You want this? Me? The scent match? Not just because I matched Noah too?"
"More than anything I've ever wanted in my entire life." I'm not sure that I've ever said truer words, and she nods, biting her lip.
Before I know what's happening, she's sitting up on her knees, leaning over the center console, and brushing her lips over mine. It's over in an instant. Too soon. But the way lightning tingles at my lips at the brief contact, I know it's a feeling I won't ever forget.
"Right," she lets out a breath, righting herself, "let's go get our packmate."
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit .
I should not have brought Hannah here.
The warehouse, which is not as abandoned as we thought, has a basement level.
A basement decked out as an illegal underground fighting ring.
Where Noah is currently beating the ever loving shit out of some other alpha.
I have Hannah tucked protectively against my side, but she's still an unbonded omega, and this place is crawling with disgusting pricks. The crowd is bloodthirsty, shouting and screaming over each other as they surround the pit dug into the ground that serves as the ring.
"What the fuck is he thinking?" Hannah is panicking, moving her head back and forth to try to keep her mate in her line of sight.
"I…I didn't know it was this bad." My voice is weaker than I'd like. "I thought he was…picking fights at bars or something."
Noah's circling his opponent, in only a pair of shorts that hit mid-thigh. His hands are wrapped, and his hair is pulled back out of his face in a man-bun. At least he removed his eyebrow piercings, because that would scar if someone ripped it out, alpha healing or not.
His opponent is an alpha who's definitely more built than he is, but Noah's faster.
Hannah and I watch with bated breath as the blonde alpha charges him, but Noah easily side-steps, grabbing the guy's arm as he passes and twisting it behind his back.
Blondie breaks his grip easier than I would have thought, and Hannah lets out a little gasp.
Yeah, it was a really bad idea to bring her here.
In the next moment, Noah and Blondie are rolling on the floor, exchanging punches.
But then, Blondie gets him pinned, and starts wailing on him.
"No, no, no," Hannah's eyes are wide, and I have to chase after her as she rushes through the crowd.
Where Hannah is tiny and can duck and weave, I'm stuck having to brute-force my way through.
She makes it up to the metal barrier that separates the crowd from the pit.
"Hannah, wait!" I call after her, throwing an elbow or two into the rowdy crowd.
"NOAH JAMESON! YOU BETTER KICK HIS ASS!" Her screamed words shock me to my core, and I watch with horror as Noah's eyes leave his opponent, track up the walls of the pit, and land on me and Hannah.
Have I said, shit?
His expression hardens considerably, and before the next twenty seconds are up, he's flipped so he's back on top and beats into Blondie so hard, he lays a knocked out heap on the floor.
He stands, spitting out some blood, and scowls at me. Where does he get off leaving our omega in the middle of the night, and then being pissed that I helped her track him down?
"We have a winner, folks!" A voice blasts through the speakers I hadn't noticed before. "Next fight up is Killian, the Beta Beater!"
Noah jerks his head towards the gate that leads out of the pit, and I grab Hannah's arm, intending to lead her there.
"He won!" She says excitedly, the adrenaline of watching the fight seemingly making her forget about how worried she was not twenty minutes ago.
"Noah won the fight!" Then, thoughtfully, she adds, "He didn't look too happy to see me though. "
I don't answer—there's no point. She won't be able to hear me over the crowd, and by the time we make it around to where Noah indicated, her nervous energy is back.
It should be difficult to scent her in a crowd like this, but now that I've experienced her warm brown sugar and sweet peach signature, singling it out is as easy as picking her out of a crowd.
The slight bitterness in her scent intensifies when we come up to Noah, who looks about ready to murder me.
Instead of saying anything, he grabs my free arm, dragging us around to a corner near an emergency exit staircase.
It's quieter here, the thick concrete walls separating us somewhat from the loud cacophony of noise surrounding the pit.
Noah and I have never physically fought.
I used to protect him from bullies back when he was scrawny, and he never had to thank me for it, but I'm half convinced he's going to take his remaining aggression out on me.
"Why the fuck would you bring her here?" He rounds on me, but Hannah steps between us.
" Excuse me, I'm the one who dragged him out of bed to come get you. If you're going to be pissed at anyone, be pissed at me." Her hand is on her hip, and she looks sassy as all hell, staring down the alpha she witnessed beat another alpha to a pulp.
Noah's expression freezes as he looks down at our little omega, his mouth opening and closing once before he looks like he's about to say something else.
"Is this why you come home beat up so much?" I ask, hoping to get a straight answer for once. Is this where he disappeared to the night that we found out about Hannah? To come get the shit beat out of him?
His gaze hardens, his jaw clenched as he looks between us. "Yes," he finally says. "I've been coming here for around five years now. This…it helps keep the demons at bay."
I don't need to ask what demons. I know he sometimes struggles with keeping his alpha under control, but there has to be a better way to do it.
Hannah's voice is so small when she speaks. "Why…I don't understand. When we fell asleep, you were fine. Was it me? Me being in your bed? I'm sorry, I—"
"No," Noah says sharply, making Hannah jump slightly. "No." Softer this time, he takes both of her hands, holding her gaze as if he's trying to figure out just how much he should say.
"You left when I was in your bed, Noah." Her voice, if not for the slight waver in it, nearly seems emotionless. "What else am I supposed to think? What would be bothering you in the middle of the night if it wasn't me—"
"You want the truth?" he asks harshly. Harsher than I've heard him talk to her before.
"Of course I want the truth, Noah," she snaps, and back is the spitfire who demanded I take her with me to find him. "That's all I've ever wanted."
"Fine, princess." But when he says his nickname this time, it doesn't sound endearing. It sounds…pained. "I left the bed where my perfect, sweet omega was cuddled up next to me, because I woke up with my teeth on her throat, and I was this close to biting her."