Chapter 12 Bonnie
Bonnie
There is something about what happened this afternoon that is nagging at me. It’s too early for snakes, and I’ve never seen that species this far south before. I’m not sure why I jumped at Kevin. I can’t explain that feeling of impending disaster. Thankfully, I reacted, which was lucky.
Except…I don’t believe in luck. Something about the group tipped me off, I’m just not consciously aware of it.
The species of snake is extremely venomous, and I’m not sure we could have got him back fast enough had he been bitten. He would have died.
That sits heavily on me.
I climb up a stack of twelve boulders and pause at the top, surveying the pristine view. The river is off to my left. I can just see it snaking through the landscape. It’s beautiful.
But I can’t appreciate it right now.
Dakota climbs up beside me and sighs. “Now, that’s the money shot. It’s amazing.”
“It is.”
“Just as gorgeous as you.”
I roll my eyes and start climbing down the other side, giving Rojer and Nathan room to climb up.
Dakota stays on my heels.
“So, you don’t believe you are beautiful?”
I grunt in irritation as I catch an exposed root that’s peeking out from between the boulders and swing myself down to the next boulder.
“I’m working right now. This is inappropriate.”
“You could write me up to your boss.”
He jumps the last few feet and immediately bites his bottom lip, all the while looming over me. Too close. The fact he’s trying to appear small and harmless is like a wild bear trying to pretend it’s cute and cuddly. It just doesn’t work. I am not charmed at all.
I snap my head around to him and glare. “Haha.”
“So, Daddy Sanderson taught you the ropes?”
“My father,” I emphasize, “gave me a reason to keep going when you took it away.”
He flinches. “Ouch.”
“Good, I hope it hurts,” I mutter and glance around, making sure no one heard. How do they keep making me lose my damn mind? At this rate, I may as well just announce I’m an omega and be done with it.
There’s one more boulder until I’m on the forest ground.
I jump down but land in Cyn’s arms when he comes out of nowhere and snags me from the air.
He smiles at me and lowers me to the ground, stepping back.
Where the hell did he come from? My tongue is tied, and all I can do is stare because Cyn has dimples, and he’s smiling at me in a way that’s private, just for me.
No tabloid ever photographed that expression.
“How did you get here so fast?”
He points up, and I see a steep descent.
“You went up and came down there?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t do that again! You could have been hurt.”
“Do you care?”
Cyn’s question is so quiet that I almost dismiss it, but when I look up, he’s got this vulnerable expression on his face that gives me pause, and that pause unravels my brain.
“Of course, I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt.” Which completely goes against what I just said to Dakota. Why are they confusing me so much? I expected hostility, not this strange flirting banter.
“Because I’m one of your hikers?”
I speak without thinking. “And because you’re my alpha.” Where did that come from, and how can I delete it? I slap my palm across my mouth.
Cyn and Dakota whip their heads towards me, their shock flavouring the air with their scents and turning it spicy.
I grit my teeth, furious at my distraction and the ridiculous weakness I’m still harbouring and hiding like a deep, unhealed scar.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I choke out. “I meant-”
Dakota shuffles me back, out of sight of the others, and leans down. I slam my palm against his chest, holding him back.
“Don’t do that.”
“But-”
“No. I’m working, and this is not…whatever you think it is. You rejected me, remember?” I let out a thread of my anger.
“An increasingly annoying decision,” Cyn murmurs.
“But still one that you made, so take your hands off me.”
He doesn’t move fast enough, so I duck under his arm, putting space between us. Cyn is the one who follows me, though, walking side by side with me.
“So, your father brought you out here and taught you how to survive.”
“He did.”
“Why out here?”
“Why not? Besides, I couldn’t get away from it. Everywhere I went, there were cameras and people watching. Out here, it’s just me and nature.” I try to keep the barbed anger out of my voice, but I can’t help it. Cyn’s expression isn’t mocking or filled with false guilt, it's contemplative.
That confuses me more.
“How did you stop the journalists from coming out here?”
I bark a laugh, remembering one of my favourite trips.
“I didn’t. I took them on a two-week hike, and we came to an understanding,” I continue to chortle as we walk. “It was a really good trip.”
Cyn’s confusion just adds to my satisfaction. I smile at the memories of their terrified faces. A three-day hike turned into a two-week bid for survival, and only when they all agreed to stop hounding me did I lead them out. I never laid a finger on a single person.
I saw Jolie Malkon a week ago. She saw me and crossed the street as fast as her legs could carry her.
“The press can be a lot. It’s definitely something I never got used to.”
I’m surprised, and I must show it.
“Oh, don’t be like that. They give all of us a hard time. We’re just used to it. The fact is, we give the press very little about ourselves, and so they make a lot up.”
“Oh, so you’re saying they made up your crusade to fuck through every omega and beta in the country after we met?”
Cyn winces. “They exaggerated it.”
“Sure, they did.”
I pause on the trail, waiting for the others. Cyn shuffles sideways, looking uncomfortable.
“What is it?”
“I just feel bad for everything that happened. It wasn’t supposed to go like that. I am sorry.”
It’s the first time I’ve heard any of them apologise. It’s empty.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s over.”
Cyn opens his mouth to argue, but Rojer stomps up to us, muttering something about useless idiots.
Cyn steps out of his way and brushes his fingers through his hair, sending me a frustrated plea. I ignore him.
“Hold on, Jo!” Dakota says with laughter in his voice.
“Don’t call me Jo!” he shouts back instantly.
“But, Jo, come on, it was a joke. Quincy thought it was funny.”
“He thinks everything is funny.”
I frown, looking between them and the rest of the group that is slowly joining us.
“What happened?”
“He offered me a berry,” Rojer hisses.
Dakota gets the giggles.
It’s a little unnerving how attractive the alpha looks while he’s being an absolute pest.
“I did do that,” he says between wiping his tears away.
“I don’t understand. There are no berries. It’s the wrong time of the year.” My confusion is obvious and apparently the wrong reaction.
Rojer tilts his head back and howls.
I watch him and wonder if there were meds on his application form that he mentioned. Maybe he’s on something.
I turn back to Dakota and find Quincy red faced and looking at the ground. Except his cheek is spasming as he fights a smile, and he’s breathing in a very controlled and forced way.
“What did you give him?”
Dakota, the shit, just zips his lips shut and throws the key away.
Adorable and annoying.
“Quincy?”
“Rabbit poop.”
“Rabbit poop?” It takes a few seconds too long for that to make sense. “Really, Dakota?”
He doubles over, slapping his knee again, and I find my anger and frustration fizzling.
“Harmless prank.”
“Harmless?” Rojer shouts. “What if I catch a disease and die? What if I get dysentery or, or…” he struggles and then just roars wordlessly again.
Kendall reaches into his pocket and pulls out spray-on hand sanitizer and spritz’s his hands and face.
Nathan and Kevin are smiling but not terribly interested, but Justin is standing with his arms crossed, looking a million miles away, with Rory and Vale beside him.
My gaze falls on them because they aren’t looking at anyone else but me.
The hairs on my arms rise, and I get this very uneasy feeling, as if I’m being hunted.
I rub my temples. “Do not feed anyone else poop, Dakota.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I growl at him, but he just grins wide and charmingly, and I know I’m in for a losing battle.
“You won’t die, Rojer. People have eaten worse things, but we will monitor you as well and get you to see a doctor if you feel ill when we get back.”
“I hate you four. The day the merger of our companies goes through, I’ll be making your lives a living hell.”
Cyn’s anger is in his shoulders. There is nothing else anywhere on him to give away how he’s feeling but his posture, but the rage is there. Whatever Rojer just said, it was deeply offensive to Pack Prince.
Rojer wastes the last of his water rinsing and spitting. I protest, but he ignores me. We’ve still got a few hours to go, and now it looks like I’ll be sharing my fluids with him.
“Let's go! We’ve got a whole lot of hiking to cover yet.”
I lead the way, setting a cracking pace. But making sure to check and count them every fifteen minutes or so.
No one really talks, but we’re on a downhill trek now, and paying attention to where we put our feet is of the utmost importance. Still, I can’t help but try to mull over the problem that is the Prince pack.
Should I make them suffer? Should I show them just how capable I really am?
This sudden obsession with me is nothing but a novelty, and I’m not going to get fooled by it. I remember far too clearly the events that happened after I was rejected.
“Bonnie?”
I jerk to a stop, turning to find a red faced Quincy trying to catch up to me.
“Hey, Quincy, how can I help you?”
“You remember my name?” He looks absolutely delighted.
“Of course, I do.”
“Oh, well,” his cheeks turn an even brighter red. Somehow.
“How can I help you?”
We start walking again, and I can see how unsteady he is. He’s puffing and sweating heavily, but I’ve had worse up here.
“I just wanted to ask why you did this. It took me a minute, but I remember how I recognised you. I just…I think you’re really brave.”
I peer at the side of his face, trying to determine his angle. It’s happened before, people recognise me as the Prince pack’s rejected omega. Nothing I can do about it but wait to see how they will use the information against me. “Thank you.”
“I just don’t know how I would have managed it. All the humiliation and the press. But then you come out here, and you started again, and you get to live this life.”
His words are strained and off, but I’m not sure why.
“Do you not like your job?”
“I don’t know, I guess sometimes I just feel trapped? I mean, I put everything into getting to this position, but it’s not what I thought it would be. Hmm. I guess I just never really thought there was another option, but seeing this…I guess I’m just rethinking my choices in life.”
“There’s never a right or wrong time to change your life, Quincy. It’s just a decision in your mind, and then you follow through with it. Why waste time doing something that makes you unhappy?”
“Yeah, that’s what I keep saying to myself.” He huffs as we climb over a fallen tree. “There’s a girl that I met. It was love at first sight.”
“Oh?” I tease.
“Yeah,” he grins back at me. “I think I’d like to not live at an office anymore. Go on holidays, travel. Get bonded. Have kids.”
“Sounds like you know what you want already.”
His grin is so much lighter that I have seen yet. “Yeah, it does sound like that. Thank you.”
I shrug. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You didn’t tell me I was dumb.” His eyes darken, but he hides it with another smile. “That’s something pretty important to me, that is. Thank you, Bonnie.”
I open my mouth to respond, but Vale steps up on my other side, and Quincy melts away.
I hold my silence and, surprisingly, so does the alpha. I don’t trust him, but now I’m wondering if this life I have is enough.
And that’s when the screaming shatters the silence.