7. Chapter 5
The girl winced at the bluntness of my words, but I didn’t spare her a second glance as I headed inside.
Theo shook his head, turning to her. “I’ll talk to him.”
There was nothing to talk about. He knew I hated visitors. Whoever she was, she wasn’t welcome.
I was removing my thick coat when I heard Theo on my heels, closing the front door and coming after me.
“Noah, hear me out.”
I grunted a reply as he followed me into the kitchen.
“Noah, she just wants to rent a room. She’s an artist and—”
“Since when do we rent rooms?”
I meant to grab a bottle of water in the fridge, but my fingers closed around the beer bottle instead. I hated people. I hated their pitiful looks, hated their happiness around their mates.
I hated everything here, and if I didn’t hate the outside world too, I’d leave this community behind.
But I was born here, right here at the bottom of this mountain. This land belonged to my family since the beginning of time, the land my dads offered to my mother. It was the land I was supposed to offer to our mate.
Now, it was a sign of our failure.
We lived this shallow existence, just surviving day by day. The furniture was dated from when it belonged to my parents. We were supposed to redecorate for our omega, but that never happened.
The house was the salt in a wound that would never heal, and I preferred to suffer alone. In silence. With a beer in my hand.
“Send her away,” I told Theo.
“You’re not listening to me…”
“As usual! What’s going on?” Wylder ran down the stairs, already taking Theo’s side before even hearing mine.
I blew through my nose and took a swing from my beer. Not even them ganging up on me was going to change my mind.
“We don’t need the money,” I suddenly argued.
It didn’t even make sense. We never even talked about renting a room. Couldn’t the stranger go to Lana’s place like all the other tourists?
Wylder grabbed an apple and leaned over the counter. “Do we need money?”
“No,” I cut him off. “That’s the point. Theo wants to rent a room to someone. Are you in debt?” I asked Theo.
“He does like to play cards with good old Rhett,” Wylder added helpfully.
“It’s not about the money,” Theo breathed out. “She… She’s an artist, and she wants to paint the mountain—or sculpt the mountain.” He shook his head. “She needs to be around the mountain.”
“Not my problem.” I shrugged.
Wylder took a bite of his apple. “I hate being on Noah’s side, but I don’t get why would we want a tourist in our house.”
“She’s…” Theo started but stopped himself. “She’s different,” he finally finished.
I scoffed, but it seemed to grab Wylder’s attention. He straightened his spine, forgetting his apple for a second.
“Different how?”
Silence descended on the kitchen in a way that made my skin too tight for my bones. I licked my lips, watching before responding negatively for the first time in my life.
“I think she’s an omega,” Theo finally spit out.
Wylder whistled, his eyes going straight to me, like he expected some kind of reaction.
What reaction could I possibly have?
“I don’t think she knows it,” Theo kept going. “She didn’t act like she knew it, anyway.”
I couldn’t form words. We hadn’t seen a single omega for twenty years. Both of them were already part of my pack, but I was the oldest. Wylder was only sixteen when Marion mated, Theo eighteen.
Maybe being young helped them in some weird way. I was twenty-one at the time, and I understood more than the others about loneliness.
I only had one parent left. My mother lost her mates in an accident when I was ten, and I saw what being alone could do to someone.
I could taste her loneliness in the air. It grew thicker over the holidays, unbearable when she was around other people. When Marion mated, I was the only one who truly understood what our future looked like.
Hope never suited me.
“How can you be sure she’s an omega?” Wylder asked.
“I’m not sure.” He swallowed. “I just feel something, something I can’t explain…”
“So you’re saying she’s our omega,” Wylder completed.
“No.” I couldn’t let him do it. I couldn’t let Theo tell that much of a lie to Wylder.
“Noah…” Theo started, but I was already marching to the door, ready to chase the girl away.
“We don’t have an omega, Theo. We’re meant to be alone!”
I roared, surprising even myself. My throat was raw, my soul hurting even at the possibility. Theo was being irresponsible by saying something like this after twenty years of pain.
Wylder’s eyes were bright with hope, and I hated that for him. It helped with nothing, brought nothing but pain.
We were meant to be alone.
Alone in this house.
On this mountain.
Before they could say another word, the front door opened once again, bringing the icy wind with it. The girl in the orange puffy coat stepped in, her thick black hair wet with snow.
“It was cold, even inside the car,” she said, looking accusingly at Theo.
“Julia…” Theo breathed out, going to her, but she ignored him.
“Theo told you I can pay?” she said directly to me. “I can. I can pay whatever you want.”
“I don’t want your money,” I barked.
She was small, but her chin rose in challenge. The freckles across the bridge of her nose were like stardust, her cheeks high and rosy from the cold. I recoiled from the brightness.
She was too much.
Too interesting, too intense, even though she only said a few things.
My gut twisted as I sensed her perfume invading our home. I bet it was torture for Theo to keep her in the car.
But no.
No to Theo.
No to her.
No to everything.
“I need this,” she pleaded, looking me in the eye. “I know I need to be close to the mountain. I know it’s what’s going to make the difference.”
My lips parted to refuse her, but Wylder was faster. “Why?”
Her eyes left me to focus on him, and suddenly, inexplicably, I missed her terribly. It was like when the sun disappeared on the horizon, leaving nothing but cold and night.
“My parents were famous painters. Everyone knew them. Now that they’ve passed, people expect something from me. I had no idea what I wanted to create until this mountain. I just saw it, and I knew.”
“You knew?” Wylder asked with wonder in his voice.
I growled with a warning, grabbing the attention of the newcomer.
“I won’t be on your way. I’m just here for a couple of weeks, and then you’ll never see me again. I promise.”
“Jules…” Theo started.
Nicknames already?
It wasn’t unreasonable to want her out of the house. In all the years we’d lived in this house together, not once had we invited someone to stay, and definitely not a stranger. A tourist. A woman.
This soil was sacred, our home filled with the energy of what never was. We all knew the reality was too sad to invite people in.
“You can stay in the room upstairs.” That came from Wylder.
I whipped my head in his direction, a curse dislodging itself from my throat. We all looked at him, the girl more surprised than any of us, but Wylder never took his eyes off her, avoiding me completely.
Theo looked from Wylder to me, an apology in his gaze, as if he wasn’t happy that they’d won.
I felt her relief in my bones. She sighed, bringing a delicate hand over her chest and blinking away tears. Why was she crying?
It distressed me that I cared.
Her eyes found mine again. “I promise I won’t be in your way.”
She was already in my way. I couldn’t think straight anymore. Without any explanation, I left the room. There was no point in my presence if they were so set on ignoring my wishes.
The girl should thank me for not dragging her to our mausoleum. She was an artist, huh? This house was going to eat her creativity away. If anything, my refusal was a sign of kindness.
No one cared in that moment, though. Not Wylder or Theo. Not the girl. So, I left.
I hiked upstairs and closed my bedroom door, sulking like a teenager.