Chapter 4
My spiral of self-pity was knocked straight out of me when I zipped past three figures walking down the side of the highway.
It was cold, but not dangerously so, though I suppose if you were out in it for long enough, it could be.
I slowed, turning around after checking in the distance in both directions, rolling slowly up behind them.
“Excuse me!” I shouted out my open window. “Are you all right?”
Now that I was closer, I saw it was a young woman carrying a toddler, two young children trailing after her with brightly colored backpacks. Her long, blonde hair was whipping in the wind, her cheeks red and tear-streaked.
Well, shit. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Ma’am, are you hurt? Can I help?”
I didn’t recognize her, but then I didn’t recognize most people around here.
Moving to Montana at all had been a terrible, impulsive decision after my life imploded in every possible way.
The brother of my former omega’s new mate had taken pity on me and invited me to stay at their ranch, and, without any other option, I’d accepted.
It was an adjustment, to say the least, but far more peaceful than I’d thought possible…
if I ignored the fact that my host was my scent match and I was too steeped in shame to do a damn thing about it.
I didn’t deserve an omega. Carter had alphas who loved him already, he didn’t need me, so I kept my scent locked down, keeping the temptation at bay, at least from my side.
The woman looked back at me with enormous eyes, fear practically radiating off her.
How could I convince her that she was safe?
“Mama.” The little girl walking at her side tugged her mother’s sleeve. “I’m cold.”
I pulled off onto the shoulder, keeping some distance so the mother would hopefully be more comfortable. “I can give you my keys if you’d like to let the kids warm up in the car for a few minutes.”
She looked so uncertain, but I couldn’t in good conscience leave her walking out here with those little kids when she was obviously distressed.
I tossed the keys in her direction, her son scooping them off the road, then I walked to the opposite side of the highway. It was only a single lane on each side, so we could still talk, but I wouldn’t be close enough to panic her. Hopefully.
After a few more moments of hesitation, she bundled the children into the car, letting the girls cuddle together on the passenger seat up against the heating vent while the boy took the driver’s seat. When they were cozy, she focused on me, keeping the car between us.
“What happened?” I asked again.
“A cow got out of its field, bolted onto the road right out of the ditch. I swerved and we ended up in the ditch ourselves.”
“Is anyone hurt?”
She shook her head. “Just shaken up. Who’re you?”
“Bryan Reed, ma’am.” My name used to mean something, connecting me to a business empire that had consumed my life, but it meant nothing anymore. I was nothing anymore, an alpha adrift with no purpose.
She stared at me, gaze darting over my face. I hoped she might offer her name, but she didn’t.
“What is it?”
“Trying to figure out if we’ve gone far enough. I don’t recognize you or your name.”
“Oh. I’m actually from New York. I’ve only been here for a couple of months.”
“New York?”
“It’s a long story. Can I give you a ride home?”
“We don’t have one anymore.”
Well, that was curious.
“Where are you headed?”
“I don’t know. Away. Anywhere but back down that road. Please go on ahead, we’re fine.”
I considered my options, wondering how she’d take an offer to go back to the ranch to get things figured out. It was certainly a better alternative to wandering the highway with children.
“I’m staying at a ranch. If you’d like, I could take you there.
You don’t have to stay, obviously, but it would be a warm place to sort things out, and someone could probably use the tractor to pull your car out of the ditch.
” I pulled up the ranch’s website and gingerly passed her my phone.
“This place. The Balor Conservation Land Trust. The people who own it are very kind.”
Pushing her wouldn’t make her feel safer, but I couldn’t help but consider that fate might be presenting me with an opportunity to make up for my past failures. I hadn’t done enough when Riley had needed me, and maybe helping this family would be some small way to do something of value.
She scrolled, her eyes widening, lips falling into a little O shape. After scrolling for another moment and what looked like her zooming in on something, she looked up at me. “How far?”
“About ten minutes.”
She took a slow breath before nodding. “Okay. We’ll take the ride. Thank you.”
Transporting the children with no car seats wasn’t ideal. “Should we go back to your vehicle first? How do you feel about the children riding in the car as they are?”
She glanced nervously down the road. “Honestly, I’d rather get farther away. If the ranch is only ten minutes away, the kids will be without their car seat and booster seat the same amount of time, anyway.”
A fair point.
I let her get the kids arranged in the backseat, the baby on her lap, before taking my spot in the driver’s seat. “I’ll drive slow.”
With my hazards on, we set off, thankfully pulling onto the ranch’s long driveway without incident.
The kids seemed relaxed, but their mother was tense, a spine of steel keeping her upright in my backseat.
No one was immediately visible as I pulled up to my little guesthouse and parked.
All the better. I imagined it wouldn’t help her tension to suddenly have three additional men around.
“You’re welcome to set up camp here,” I told them. “It’s not much, but it’s comfortable. There’s some food in the fridge, cable on the TV, and extra blankets in the linen closet if anyone needs a nap.”
“Thank you,” the woman whispered.
I hopped out of the car and opened up the house for her, standing quietly on the little porch while she stood in the doorway, checking to make sure the interior wasn’t full of metaphorical snakes. When she’d carefully settled inside, the children in the living room, she returned to peek out at me.
Her dark eyes were terrified, triggering every instinct I possessed, yelling at me to protect her.
She had something fierce in those eyes, though.
Maybe she needed help now, but a core of strength was visible even through the tears staining her cheeks.
I knew without a doubt that she was a lioness standing between me and her children.
She had nothing to fear from me, but I understood why she couldn’t trust that.
She didn’t know me, but I’d do what I could to help her feel safe while she was here.
“I’ll see if I can find the owners,” I told her. “I have no idea how to use the tractor, but they do. We’ll get your car sorted, but please make yourself at home in the meantime.”
Leaving them in peace, I went in search of Carter.
The pack’s scents hung in the air, Carter’s sweet peach cobbler snaring me by the throat as it did every single time I caught it. It stirred a craving within me that stole my breath, at least until the guilt followed, sweeping me away.
I had accepted my personal failures, but I hadn’t figured out a way to atone for them yet.
My former packmate had been…a force of nature.
Intense, domineering, but so similar to the personalities I’d grown up with that I hadn’t questioned it.
At least, not until I’d seen the true impact of it on my former omega, the way she’d wilt and capitulate, because it was my own behavior reflected back at me.
I hadn’t protected her, had chosen to placate instead of push back even when I knew it was hurting her.
I’d comforted her when he’d gone too far, I’d tried to make her life happier, but I hadn’t stood up to him until it was too late.
“Carter?” I called out. “Wyatt? Colt?”
My omega came down the stairs in soft, blue plaid pants and a white T-shirt. No, Carter wasn’t mine. I kept doing that, even when I’d tried to convince myself otherwise.
“Hey, Bry. You okay?”
I stepped toward him despite my intention to keep space between us.
Every moment I was in his presence my fingers itched to reach out.
“I picked up a woman and her children walking down the highway. She’s scared.
They need help, but I’m not sure what the best way to do that is.
Her car is in the ditch, and I’m not sure if it’ll be drivable if we can get it out, but it sounds like she’s on the run, so we should try. ”
Carter’s blue eyes were wide as he absorbed every word, running a hand through his blond waves. “Holy shit. Okay, where are they now?”
“In the guesthouse. The mother is an omega, I think. She might be more comfortable with you. Pretty sure she only came with me because she had no other option.”
“Give me one second to get dressed and then we can go over together. Wyatt and Colt took the dogs down to the river, but I’ll give them a call.”
The moment Carter was out of sight, I relaxed.
Even with his scent in my nose, the craving as strong as ever, it was easier to exist without his gaze on me.
It wasn’t because he’d done anything, I just couldn’t shake my nerves when I was around him, like I was waiting for the moment when I’d somehow fail him, too.
He returned a moment later, his pajama pants traded out for jeans. “Colt and Wyatt are on their way back. Let’s go talk to our new guest.”
When Carter slipped on his shoes and coat, he hooked his arm around mine, leading me out while I tried to shove down the urge to lean down and huff the peach scent wafting off him.
He knocked on the guesthouse door and the woman opened it a crack, peering out before her visible eye widened, the door flinging all the way open.
“Carter?”
His grip on me tightened, peach bursting and almost taking me out at the knees. “Maisie?”