Chapter 22 – Zale
Chapter Twenty-Two
Zale
B lake nudges my knee with his, wordlessly telling me to stop bouncing my leg as we sit on the couch. When we’d realized Shiloh had left, and no one could get hold of him, alarm bells had started blaring in my head. What if he’d been in an accident? Was he hurt or injured? What if he’d gone into heat? What if another alpha stumbled upon him?
I’d been too restless to go back out onto the patio with the others and attempt to socialize, brooding by the fireplace just made me even more anxious. Keeping my jock boyfriend mask in place was getting harder and harder the more time passed.
Knowing the reason for my agitation, Blake had opted to sit in the cabin with me, waiting for news while we pretended to be watching football reruns on the TV. Evans had been napping on the sofa since our conversation in the kitchen, the alcohol and painkillers finally claiming him and forcing him to actually rest. Hunter was sitting around the fire pit with Caz, Sage and another omega I don’t know, looking like he was half asleep.
“Where is he?” I ask, as Millie sashays into the room as if her brother going missing is no big deal. “Has there been any update yet?”
“Will you chill out babe? I’m sure Shiloh has just gone off having a bit of a tantrum because none of the attention is on him.” She perches on the arm of the sofa, a bottle of champagne in her hand. She snorts, the sound impatient and unimpressed. “Or maybe he just needed a bit of space. My brother can be a fussy creature like that.”
I hated that he felt like he needed to leave, that I had chased him away. My alpha instincts hated that he wasn’t where I could see him and know that he was safe.
“He’s not fussy, he’s introverted. There’s a difference.” I grumble, scratching at the back of my neck before tugging on my hair.
It’s clearly the wrong thing to say as she stares at me with suspicion written all over her face. “You don’t even know him.”
She leans in, smelling like alcohol and something bitter. Was she angry? Is that what I was picking up in her scent? Glancing away, I sigh. She was right, I didn’t know him—not when it came to things like knowing his favorite color, how he liked his coffee or what temperature he liked the thermostat set at. No, I didn’t know him like that.
But I was conscious of him on a deeper level.
I knew what noises he made when he was desperate for my touch, what his lips tasted like, how he’d been strong for so long. Too long. I knew his hopes and dreams. That he felt crushed under his sister.
“Why do you care so much?” Her words are sloppy, and I know that she’s volatile when she’s like this.
Her face scrunches up into a frown, and for a moment, I can see him in her features. But it’s all wrong. The shape of her mouth. The color of her eyes. The little lines that wrinkle on her forehead. All wrong.
“Are you suddenly best friends now?”
She laughs, and it sounds almost cruel. Is the thought of us being friends so out of the realm of normal? With a tilt of my head, I think about it and realize she’s right.
Shiloh Vos would never be friends with the Zale Blackwood everyone else in this room knew. But the one who’d been afraid of the dark, and had spent an afternoon critiquing corporate responsibility? The one who’d shared a glimpse of the responsibility hanging around his neck? Shiloh had liked him. Liked him enough to share a drunken kiss that had morphed into something much bigger. That version of Zale could be more than best friends with Shiloh, easily.
But Millie didn’t need to hear that. Not now, and not like this.
“Look Mills, hun, we’re just worried about your little brother, that’s all.” Sadie chimes, offering a sickly-sweet smile as she places a hand over Millie’s, giving it a comforting squeeze.
“Will you stop saying little brother? There’s only six minutes in it.” I grunt, rolling my eyes, knowing that my frustrations were making things awkward, but I didn't know how to tone it down. “And he has a name.”
How had I not noticed how everyone talked about Shiloh? Like he was an accessory? A spare part, that wasn’t even worth addressing correctly? Fuck. Never again.
“I think maybe you need to lay off the beer and have some water, babe.” She makes a droll expression, placing extra emphasis on the word ‘babe’, giving it sharp edges as it tumbles from her mouth.
I’d stopped drinking hours ago and even then, I’d been limiting myself, so I’d only actually had three beers at most. Leaning back into the couch cushions, I try to force myself to look relaxed. I wasn’t a big drinker, did she even know that? The whiskey incident and the night we’d met we’re my exceptions. Was she that unobservant or did she just not care?
Her phone rings and she jumps up to answer. “It’s my parents.”
She goes out onto the patio to take it and we all watch as she walks back-and-forth talking animatedly.
“What’s really going on here?” Sadie asks as she leans in, her faux sweetness gone. Her gaze is calculating as she looks from me, to Blake and over at Evans, who’s awake now. “Don’t tell me you had a taste of the slutty beta? Isn’t that beneath you?”
It’s always struck me as odd that someone pretty, can spew such vile things. Leaning in so that our faces are only inches apart, I growl, “You need to watch your mouth.”
She rears back like I’ve slapped her. “You can’t talk to me like that.”
Nudging Evans, she’s indignant, her eyes blazing with fury. “Did you hear him? Did you hear how he’s talking to me?”
Shrugging her off, he pushes himself up into a sitting position with a wince. “Give it a rest, Sadie.”
“Fuck.” She chuckles angrily, getting to her feet. Standing in front of the TV, still only wearing her tiny bikini, she places her hands on her hips. “Did you all take turns of his sloppy hole? Was he that good? All stretched out and loose?”
Blake sighs, looking past her and pretending to watch the TV. “Shut your fucking mouth before one of us shuts it for you.”
He wasn’t the kind of alpha to get all shouty and aggressive when he was angry, no, his wrath was quieter. He reminded me of a pot, slowly simmering away until it eventually exploded.
“Seriously?” Sadie screeches, throwing her hands up before towering over Evans. “Still nothing?”
He’s been resting in the corner of the L shaped sofa, and with her standing, it felt like she was backing him into a corner. Blake and I share a look, expecting him to try and placate her for an easier life, but instead…he rubs his face and mutters something under his breath.
“What do you want me to say? You’re not my girlfriend.” He looks bored and tired as he shakes his head, “I didn’t wanna do this now, but I’m done with our little friends with benefits arrangement. It isn’t working for me anymore.”
There’s a heavy pause.
“Friends with benefits? Excuse me?!” Her words are low and full of fury, sounding like air being let out of a balloon. “Is that all I was to you?”
Hunter strolls into the lounge, still shirtless from the hot tub earlier, wearing a pair of grey sweatpants pulled over his trunks. Without saying a word, he climbs over the back of the sofa before settling down in the space next to Evans and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Our housemate tries to shrug him off, but Hunter holds firm.
“I mean, he repeatedly told you that you weren’t in a relationship.” Hunter drawls, before rolling his eyes dramatically. “Granted, he gave you some mixed signals, but I feel like a lot of that was you taking advantage, using your omega charms since he does a lot of thinking with his dick.”
Sadie’s face flushes as she makes a huffing noise and stomps her foot. Crossing her arms she looks up to the ceiling as if she’s counting to ten in her head. Finally, she speaks, her word laced with a venom she usually reserves for Shiloh. “Who invited you into this conversation Hunter? You’re always sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Blake raises his brow at me before making an ‘Oh shit’ expression. Hunter was typically pretty chilled, but we never knew what was going on under that cool facade of his.
“It’s not like this is a private conversation.” He laughs, pulling Evans closer to him and ruffling his hair before placing a playful kiss on his temple. “Now, what happened in Crest Haven…that was private. But I was explicitly invited to take part in that.”
“Fuck you. Fuck you all.” She screams before storming off upstairs and slamming the bedroom door behind her.
None of us say anything as we just sit there and continue to pretend to watch the TV.
When Millie eventually comes back in, she immediately picks up on the tension in the room. “What’s going on?”
“I think Sadie and Evans just broke up for real,” Blake offers with a small smile.
Millie laughs crossing arms, “Yeah right. We all know they’re going to end up married with the mini mansion, two kids and some expensive breed of dog that will fit in a designer handbag.”
Hunter clicks his tongue as he twirls some of Evans' hair between his fingers. “Yeah, that’s never gonna happen. Trust me.”
I have no idea what really happened in Crest Haven, or why Evans was so docile for a change but it was none of my business unless he wanted to share. My priority was Shiloh.
“Anyway…” Millie says, casting strange sideways glances in their direction. “My parents said that Shiloh called them. He’s back in Oakley so we can all stand down and stop panicking.”
“Did they say why he left?”
“He’s not feeling well and he didn’t want to make anybody else sick,” she lies smoothly, covering for him. I supposed at least there was one thing she did right when it came to her twin.
He wasn’t sick, he was going into heat. Being around this many people was probably triggering his anxiety and most omegas liked to feel safe and protected during their heat since they weren’t always fully aware during the haze stages.
“So, he’s in Oakley on his own?”
“I mean, his roommate should be there...” she trails off, clearly bored of talking about her brother. We all know Bell’s gone home for the holidays, she’d told us that herself earlier. “He’ll be fine. Shiloh is an adult who can take care of himself.”
How was she so self-absorbed? And how had this never bothered me before?
Turning the music up, she grabs a bottle of something green and sickly looking. “Now how about we do some shots and keep partying?”
While she’s preoccupied doing shots and playing drunken Twister in the lounge with Caz, Ivy and a few of the others who are still awake, I sneak upstairs and pack my bag. I have no idea what my plan is. I might have to borrow someone’s car or see if I can call a car, but it’s almost three am. All I know is that I cannot stay here while my Mate is struggling.
When I come back downstairs, Blake, Hunter and Evans are waiting by the door, all fully dressed, with serious expressions on their faces.
“So, who’s driving?” Blake asks with a wide grin as he carries his bag and Evans’ out the door. He presses a button on a set of keys and the trunk of a sleek black car pops open. Since they’d flown into a local hangar from Crest Haven, they’d had to arrange hire cars to finish the rest of the journey to the cabin. Evans’ could be a bit of a snob about traveling in style, and normally, I’d rib him for it. But as we throw all our bags in the trunk, I’m grateful.
Hunter raises his hand, before Blake tosses him the keys. “That’ll be me since I’ve only had two beers.”
Opening the door and clambering into the back seat as if he was made of glass, Evans chuckles. “Man, I’m out. I’m off my tits. I’m just gonna nap in the back and pray that I don’t throw up.”
“What are you doing?” I ask looking at all of them as it hits me what we’re about to do. This was going to change everything when we were back in college. The people inside the cabin were who we spent most of our days with. Were they ready to handle the fallout from this?
“You didn’t think we were gonna stay here without you?” Hunter scoffs as he starts the engine.
Blake lifts his finger as he opens the other passenger door. “I mean, number one, Evans has nowhere to sleep now since Sadie kicked him out of their room.
Hunter chuckles, but shows me two fingers as he leans across the steering wheel. “Number two, Millie’s being a bit of dick about her brother and since he’s your Mate that makes us super uncomfortable…”
Evans doesn’t miss a beat, lifting his hand to show me three fingers like some boy scout salute. “Number three, you need someone to drive since you need to conserve your energy. You have a few days of glorious, but exhausting, fucking ahead of you.”
They’d realized Shiloh’s secret.
I close his car door for him, shaking my head. “Did you have to say it like that?”
The fucker rolls the window down and grins. “That’s what we’re here for.”
Glancing back at the cabin, I can hear the music and voices coming from inside. I should go in and explain, but what would I say? Millie wasn’t in the frame of mind to listen to me right now. “I can’t just leave without saying something.”
“I think you can, in fact, we even took a vote on it.” Hunter’s smile scares me a little, reminding me of a wolf as he beckons for me to get into the front passenger seat. “So, get in the fucking car, Blackwood. Do you have an omega to Claim?”