Chapter 15 Cyn
Cyn
That’s three times, no, well, if you include the drugs we put in the food, four. I’m starting to think the alphas we’re after are touched by a freaking angel or we’re cursed. Perhaps she’s been touched by pure luck or something. Maybe Dakota is right.
She turns, and I find it impossible to avert my eyes. Her wet clothes are plastered to her body, and she’s looking mildly panicked.
“Let’s get moving. We need to go see if we can find our packs and more of the paddles.”
She pushes the raft back into the water and looks back, waiting for us to get in.
I surge forward, leaping in and landing in a crouch up the front of the boat. The pack doesn’t hesitate, but the rest of them do. Still, in minutes, we’re off, and an hour later, we’ve got almost everybody's pack back.
Hers is missing, though, and I’m not sure why her smile has turned brittle or desperate.
The thread of panic in the air has me tense and ready to kill anything that moves.
Okay, sure, these last couple of days have been awkward, but I never thought I would see her again, let alone when we were out murdering people.
Strangely, the perverse enjoyment I get from people’s fear doesn’t come when she is afraid. No, it’s making me homicidal, more than normal. I just want to eliminate whatever is causing her fear.
Now, I know I’m in trouble.
We paddle the boat to the bank and drag it up. She pulls out a cover and fits it over the raft before securing the whole thing to the ground using rope and pegs.
“Set up camp up there,” she points. “I need to check something out. We need a fire, and get some of the jerky and veggies going. You should all be carrying small amounts of food as per the instructions I sent you.”
She walks away without saying anything else.
I follow her immediately.
She curses when she hears me but doesn’t bother to tell me to go back.
We walk downstream, and I realise she’s looking for her pack, but it’s the frantic energy and the way she’s worrying her bottom lip, how she is in and out of the river, standing on boulders, peering into the depths that really raises my suspicion.
“Okay, what’s in the pack?” I ask.
She stops and lets out a tiny scream of pure frustration. It’s adorable.
“Do not smile at me like that, Cyn.”
“I’m not,” I say, not even trying to fight the smile.
She hisses, a sound that is adorably cute and feline that it just makes me want her even more.
“What have you lost?”
“The suppressant patches.”
I freeze, my smile falling away.
“Not funny now, is it?” she growls.
No, it’s not funny at all. There are three very incredibly dangerous alphas out here that will start coming off their patches. Tempers will get wild.
Wait, the expression on her face, what does that mean? Oh, you can’t be serious?
“Yours as well?” I yelp.
She hisses and snarls at me, but I grab her wrist, pulling her up close, staring down at her. Peanut butter cookies turn the world to silence; they blind me to everything but her. I edge closer, needing to inhale more of her intoxicating scent. I fight to focus my thoughts.
“Are you telling me you’re going to be out here in the wilderness with seven alphas and three betas, and you’re going to start smelling like the damn delicious omega you are?”
“Will you lower your voice!” She yanks her arm, trying to get free.
“Don’t you have any backups? Like a spare one left somewhere? Anything?”
“Yeah, I keep them tucked up inside my vagina pouch for emergencies,” she growls and flicks me in the forehead.
“Did you…flick me?”
It takes me a long second to figure out what she’s saying before I can brush it aside. Except I have this terrible urge to giggle. Very unalpha-like behaviour. And somehow, she’s escaped my hold and is back to scanning the riverbank.
“We have to find them.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to accidentally inflict myself on you. I have control of my omega nature,” she says loftily.
I stare at her because she has no idea how bad this is going to get. Should I tell her?
No, that would panic her.
We didn’t bring any patches with us either. We have trained hard to suppress our scents.
But not around our scent match.
And not when she’s around three people that we consider to be extremely dangerous.
I growl, and she stabs a finger into my chest. “Don’t you growl at me.”
“I wasn’t growling at you. It’s the situation, it’s fucked.”
“I am aware of that, Cyn. To be honest, I’ve been sitting here thinking this trip has been sunshine and roses flying out of my ass.” She drops the sarcasm and glares up at me. “I don’t need you to make things worse.”
“I would never want to make things worse for you. I just…I think you underestimate how bad this is going to be.”
She barks a laugh, looking all kinds of feral and untouchable.
“Would you go on a date with me?”
I snap my mouth shut, but it’s too late; her laughter has faded, and she’s staring up at me like I’m insane.
“No. Of course, not. On every planet, no.”
Disappointing but not unexpected.
I smile at her adamance.
“We would make such a cute couple.”
She scowls at me, and when I reach out to touch her cheek, she slaps my hand away.
I laugh, I can’t help it. How is this my life? How did we run into her here, and she’s suddenly so wildly perfect?
She swings back to the river and groans. “This entire trip has been messed up.”
I don’t deny it. I just watch her carefully.
“Come on, let’s get back. It will be dark soon, and we need to get your clothes dry.” I let the soothing alpha notes out, my chest aching with the need to purr.
She snaps a glare in my direction like she knows what I’m about and hurries off, keeping an enormous distance between us.
On the way back, I find another paddle and a small first-aid kit that is normally on the raft.
She turns suddenly, and because she’s standing on a half-buried boulder, our faces are at the same level.
The sun is down behind the trees, so we’re standing in shadow, and I’m losing the ability to see her clearly, but with the water rushing, the wild all around us, we could be alone. Just Bonnie and I.
I wish we were.
“You let that pack of yours know that I am accomplished in self-defense, I can and will kick your asses.”
I grin and lean in closer to her so I can taste her breath. “You just made a huge mistake, Bonnie.”
“Oh?”
“You’re in me now, in my lungs, in my nose, my whole body is awakening and tuning to the scent of you. Whatever happened in the past was the past.”
“Ha!” She throws her head back and laughs. “You rejected me.”
“We did.”
“And I’m just supposed to ignore that?” Her voice is shrill and angry.
“No. It will be a story we tell our grandchildren.”
“Grandchildren?” she splutters, and the look on her face is one I’m going to remember forever. “You are never touching me.”
“Aw, sweetheart, we can go slow. It doesn’t have to be all right now.”
She lets out an outraged noise. “What is wrong with you alphas? Do you really expect me to forgive you? Don’t you need to grovel or something?”
“We don’t grovel, sweetheart. But you will forgive us.”
“And why would I do a stupid thing like that to myself?”
“You would do it because we are your scent matches.” I smirk, cocking an eyebrow knowing it will get under her skin faster than any words I could say..
“You were.”
“Are.”
“Were!” She stomps her foot in outrage, not backing down.
“Are forever and ever.”
“Why are you being so annoying? You are the sane alpha.”
“None of us are sane. Fair warning. But we’ll be yours.”
“Oh, and when did you have this discussion with yourselves?”
“I don’t need to discuss it with them; I can feel how they feel. Bonded, remember.”
For a second, devastating sadness flickers in her eyes, but then it's gone.
“You are mad.”
“For you.”
Her mouth is open, her lips rosy red; she looks so offended and so fucking alive. She’s turning my world to colour, to 3D, and I don’t ever want to go back.
I reach up, and before she can stop me, I boop her on the nose.
“Boop.”
She recoils. “What the hell is wrong with you, Cyn? Did you hit your head?”
“Nope. I inhaled my omega’s scent, and now I’m drowning in her.”
She hops down, but when I jog towards her, she backs up fast, picking up a branch and wielding it in a defensive attempt to keep me back.
“You are so cute when you’re trying to stay away from me.”
Her eyes get really big, and she tries to say something, anything, but the words won’t come out.
The river is rushing behind us; the sound drowning our conversation out. All I can smell is the water and earth, and peanut butter cookies.
I want to lick her and see if that taste is on her skin.
“You all rejected me! You remember that, don’t you?” she almost yells.
I step closer, and she sidesteps, her eyes wary.
“Mmm, that was then, but today is a whole different day.”
She lets out a shriek that sends birds into the sky. The forest gets quiet but for the sound of the river and my heartbeat as it thuds in anticipation of her being mine.
Rory slinks out of the shadows of the trees, making no sound. He approaches our omega on silent feet and, when he gets close, slides his hand up her side.
She reacts instantly, grabbing his wrist and flipping him onto his back in the sandy soil.
I lean against a rock and laugh.
“Stop. It!” she hisses at both of us. “Just stop. I’m not forgiving or forgetting. You keep your damn hands to yourself. It’s going to be hard enough as it is.”
“Hard is exactly the problem,” I say under my breath.
She cuts me a look that could turn granite to dust.
“Stop.”
I flutter my eyelashes at her. “Okay, I’m behaving. We will woo you when you are less panicked.”
“I’m not panicking.”
“No?”
“No!” she says firmly. “This is just obscene. You four stay away from me.”
“Okay, sweetheart.”
She cringes and then races off, not letting Rory get a word in. I hold out a hand and pull him up.
“The suppressants are gone.”
Rory’s hand tightens on mine, but that’s the only reaction I get from him.
“Well, that’s going to be fun. Should we send her back without us? It would be safer.”
“Do you think she’d let us? I’m fairly certain she can handle herself.”
I get into camp where a warm and welcoming fire is glowing and sit down beside Vale, who is staring at Nathan. The other alpha is glaring at Vale as if he’d like to jump through the fire and kill him. I almost wish he’d try.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, we’re just having a moment to work out who the top dog here is.”
Bonnie hands out stew in our collapsible bowls. I frown, realising she doesn’t have one.
She passes me mine. I wait until she’s sitting and then shove the bowl and my spoon into her hands. I don’t acknowledge her attempts to protest, just turn to Kota, who spoons a huge mouthful into my mouth from his bowl.
It is a very effective way of silencing her.
She’s dressed in Vale’s jumper, but I can tell she’s cold. Her clothes are hanging on a rope near the fire. I make a note to make sure the fire burns long enough to dry her clothes.
Her sleeping bag and tent are gone, too.
I rub my forehead, thinking about what we can do. The four of us are sharing a tent. We could fit her in, but I don’t think she’d be okay with that.
On the other hand, if she even attempts to sleep with the others, they’ll wake up with an extra smile.
“Okay, so we need to have a very important discussion.” She looks at Kendall and Justin, ignoring the rest of us.
“We’re not where we need to be, but half the paddles are missing, and I don’t think anyone here wants to get back in the water.
So we have two choices: we can try the rapids, though at this point, I think that’s not an option.
Or we can go on foot. But,“ she holds up her hand for silence when everyone starts murmuring opinions. “My pack is gone with all my supplies, and most importantly, the food and suppressants, which means from here on out, we’ll need to forage for food and prepare to be hit by our designations.”
“You lost our fucking suppressants?” Rojer shouts.
I glare at him, willing him to twitch a finger, just one.
“Unfortunately, yes. They are gone. So, now we have to deal with the situation.”
“And what is the situation? Why can’t we go back the way we came?” Kendall asks. He looks exhausted and scared.
“We could go that way, but it’s risky. In order to do it safely, it would put us an extra week out here.
If we try to follow the river, we’ll get caught in the canyon and need to swim, and no one here is a good enough swimmer to safely get up out of the river.
Our best option is still to continue on.
We’re making good time, and the river puts us a third of the way.
If we cut through, we can easily get where we need to be and continue on as planned. ”
“Won’t we be out here longer because we aren’t on the river?”
She shakes her head. “No, the shortcut will marry up with the marked path on the way. I have done it before, we won’t gain any extra time out here, in fact, we could get out a day early.”
“You stupid fucking bitch!” Nathan hisses. “You’re going to kill us all.”
To my surprise, Bonnie shakes her head but remains completely calm in the face of the enraged alpha.
“No, I’m going to save you.”
“You?” he sneers. “What could you possibly do?”
She inhales, and I can almost feel her anger in the air around us. “I’m trained for this. I am your best bet for getting out of here.”
He grumbles, but Kevin hisses in his ear, and he subsides.
“I vote we keep going on foot,” Quincy pipes up. To be honest, I’m surprised he’s the one speaking first.
“I agree,” Kendall says.
I look at Vale. He hesitates for a moment, and I know he’s worrying more about her safety than ours, but then he nods.
“We’ll vote for the on-foot path, too.”
“Well, I guess we have no choice,” Nathan spits. He stands up, tosses his bowl on the ground, and goes into his tent.
“Tonight, we eat and get an early night. Tomorrow, we need to cross the river and get moving,” she says calmly.
Bonnie stands up and walks into the darkness. The dark is so complete out here, like another personality. It’s loud and quiet at the same time. The darkness out in the wild is oppressive; it’s a world that most humans don’t belong in anymore.
I love it.
I corner her and shove my sleeping bag into her arms.
“No, I can’t-”
“Just take it, Bonnie. I’ll cuddle with Rory.”
She scowls.
“And you’ll be taking our tent.”
“What? No!”
“Not up for discussion, Bonbon.”
“Firstly, don’t call me that, and-”
I press a finger to her lips. “I’m going to need to stop you before you get carried away, and I lose the last of my restraint and kiss you.”
“Don’t you dare!” she snarls in outrage.
I dip in, and she squeaks and jerks several feet away from me, staring at me with huge eyes.
“Enjoy your tent, my queen.”
She growls, but I know I’ve won, so I happily walk away, leaving her to stew in her failure.