Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
Dhara
My little brother was looking at me as if he barely recognized me. He sat down heavily on the bench next to me before finally demanding answers.
“What the hell is going on?”
The fact that my brother was cursing meant he was overwhelmed. Gavin and I were both alike in the way that we needed at least some control over our lives. It was about all we had left at this point.
“August was our neighbor.”
“Yeah, I got that much,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But why are you being weird? Why are all these alphas and deltas hanging around you?”
“Maybe I’m someone worth hanging around,” I shot back, trying to go for lighthearted, but it definitely did not land. He stared at me evenly, waiting for me to give him the real answer.
He deserved to know what was going on and it wasn’t like I could avoid it this time. Not one of these men were going to give up on me.
“They’re my scent-matches,” I admitted. Once I started talking, I couldn’t seem to stop. “Mom sent him away because we were too close. I think she knew before we did that we were matches.”
“Of course, she did,” he said bitterly. “Hockey isn’t that important. We can go if you don’t want them. Mom doesn’t exactly have the resources to find us if we run.”
“No. We have to stay. This is your best bet at getting some kind of scholarship for hockey or start a full career,” I said. “I’m not taking that away from you. This is your future, Gavin.”
“I know,” he sighed, deflating. His shoulders slumped and he frowned up at me. “You matter, too, though.”
Lachlan and Conrad walked out of the locker room before I could find an answer. My chest ached as they cast looks our way. They’d walked away earlier looking defeated.
Even now I didn’t know what to say to them. I hated feeling pathetic and that’s all I felt lately. I wished more than anything that I was a different omega. That I could simply meet my scent-matches and let them sweep me off my feet without consequences.
But my reality was different. I couldn’t leave my brother behind, no matter how much he wanted to push me away.
“I have to get to work,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze. “Make sure you get your homework done. Otherwise, you have to do it during breakfast.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, rolling his eyes, but it was half-hearted at best.
I busied myself in the utility room, filling the large mop bucket with water and solution before filling the cleaning cart with everything else I needed. The familiar work didn’t help clear my head this time. It was too much of a mess.
Hoping that the guys would simply let me do my work, I popped in my earbuds and put on my usual cleaning playlist.
Only a few minutes in I could sense someone. The cleaning products drowned out the scent and I spun around to find August leaning against the wall right in front of the door, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
He was never good at giving me space.
August gave me space like this, where he watched over me. When I had bad days with Mom and wanted alone time he’d sit a few feet away, space that also included him.
There was still so much left unsaid between us at this moment that I wasn’t sure he knew what to do with me.
I pulled my earbuds out, put them in their case, and slid them into my pocket, knowing it was useless to keep them in.
“You know I’m capable of cleaning a locker room alone, right?”
“I do, but I told you, Firecracker. Things are changing now.”
“Fucking delta,” I muttered under my breath, which only made him laugh.
Good. He was meant to hear it.
“You may as well say what you need to say. You’re going to be stuck here a while. I just started.”
He didn’t say anything at first. August simply watched me push my mop around the floor, taking care with every corner and crevice like my life depended on it. I was using it as a way to avoid him.
As time went on, I found I actually liked the way August watched over me. It made me feel like somebody cared.
Maybe I was just fucking pathetic for needing that reassurance.
“Well omega, we are definitely going to talk about the fact that you think you’re not good enough for the alpha and delta pining after you.”
I dropped the mop and glared at him. “Oh, come on. You know I’m out of their league.”
“You are. You’re much too gorgeous for assholes like Flynn and Evans.”
I shot him a look. He was purposefully being dense.
“Oh, come off it. If you thought that I was ever going to agree about that, then you were absolutely delusional,” he argued. His dark green eyes were indignant. He truly believed what he was saying.
The trouble was, so did I. It wasn’t about self-deprecation, it was reality.
“Do you want them?” he questioned, his voice quiet and controlled, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
I didn’t know how to answer. The omega side of me wanted them. My logical brain disagreed. We knew what hope could do to us.
“Firecracker, you have to know what a catch you are.”
“I can’t even think about it, August. Don’t you understand?” I argued, my voice rising this time. “I can’t let my focus shift anywhere other than keeping Gavin safe.”
“Is this about your mom?” His gaze hardened at the thought.
It was always about my mom. She would always be the thing that kept me from ever being free.
“Six more years. That’s what I have ahead of me,” I admitted in a raspy whisper that echoed my heartbreak. I was in a prison I couldn’t escape. Not even he could help.
“There’s no way that you have to stay there six more years, Firecracker. We can figure this out.”
“Seriously, August. Go find an omega who can give you what you want. One that can be there for you. Hell, one that has heats.” I bent over and picked up my mop, angrily dipping it in the water and wringing it out before swiping it over the floor.
His expression hardened, and he was moving before I could react, stalking toward me and then backing me right into a locker.
The fact that it smelled a whole lot like Lachlan’s familiar scent didn’t stop my heart from pounding against my chest as August’s hand went to my throat.
Not enough to restrict any airflow. Just enough to force me to stop and focus on him.
A strange calmness settled over my brain, quieting my thoughts.
“You listen to me, omega, and you listen good,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “I don’t give a shit what your mother thinks or says about you. None of it is true. But, I won’t have my omega putting herself down. You are worth so much more than you give yourself credit for.”
August’s chest was heaving, his face inches from mine. This delta was infiltrating every one of my senses. His scent was strong and powerful and his touch searingly hot.
“Tell me you understand, omega.”
I opened my mouth, but it wasn’t to agree, it was to argue.
He must’ve sensed that, leaning even closer so all I could see was his handsome face.
“I’m here now, omega. There’s not a damn thing you can say to make me walk away, now. We are going to figure this out.”
I swallowed hard, the action pushing me further into my delta’s hold. Tears were starting to run down my cheeks, but he gave me no sympathy.
“If you try to push me out, I will absolutely stalk you,” he said, completely unrepentant. “I have thought of nothing but finding you for years, and now that I have you, I will not be walking away. You aren’t going to fight me every step of the way. You’re going to let me help you figure this out.”
“August, I can’t,” I argued, a whine echoing out that I couldn’t stop if I tried.
“Can’t, Firecracker? Or won’t? Because it sounds a whole lot like you’re getting in your own way here.”
“She’ll never let me go, August,” I argued. “Not as long as Gavin is under age.”
“We’ll solve every one of these issues. Maybe not right away, but we will.” His voice rang with a confidence I was desperate to believe in.
“Tell me you believe me. Tell me you’re going to let me try.”
It wasn’t a request.
It was an order.
Somehow, in all the years apart, I’d forgotten just how bossy August could be.
“You have to let me go. I have to clean and get him home,” I begged, ignoring everything he tried to make me say.
“Evans and Flynn are hanging with him. Gavin is fine.”
I winced at the mention of the other two scent-matches.
“We’re going to talk about that, too, Firecracker.”
I groaned because the last thing I wanted to do was talk about the mess that was my life.
He studied me for a second longer before, apparently, finding the answers he was looking for, though I’d not spoken once to give him any.
I was just happy to have him release me.
At least I thought I was.
The moment his hand slipped away, all I felt was cold. Then a crushing loneliness washed over me. It was achingly familiar.
That was enough to have me rebuilding the bricks he’d torn down from my resolve.
I forced myself to put my headphones on and get back to work as he watched from where he leaned against the wall. It wasn’t easy to ignore him but I tried, scrubbing the locker room from top to bottom. My anxiety gave me the extra energy to scrub it thoroughly.
The air smelled of lemons, and no longer the lime, cedar, and basil that August had scent-marked me with.
I felt like I could finally draw full breaths into my lungs.
The entire time I worked, his eyes burned into me, his gaze never wavering.
This man was not giving me an inch.
My omega was relieved but I wasn’t. All I knew how to do was survive. That alone reminded me that I couldn’t give in no matter how enticing he made it sound.
When I finally finished cleaning, I tried to push my cart past him.
He held open the door, but as I walked past, he plucked my phone from my back pocket.
I didn’t even bother to ask for it back yet as I headed for the utility room, cleaning up my cart, wiping everything down, and putting everything away meticulously.
Gavin was waiting outside the door with my phone in his hand when I finished.
“August offered to give us a ride home,” he said as he held it out. “It might be nice not to lug my gear all the way back.”
My eyes widened in surprise.
“Who are you, and what did you do with my brother? Weren’t you ready to rip his head off earlier?”
“Yeah, and then you told me he was your scent-match and your former best friend, so if you trust him, I trust him. And I’m exhausted.”
I studied his face, the dark circles under his eyes marring his pale skin. That was enough for me to crack completely.
“Okay, we can get a ride today. Just don’t get used to it.”
“Maybe we should get used to it,” he countered under his breath. “You can’t stop living your life because of me.”
“We’re not having this fight again,” I told him. “Grab your stuff. Did you get your homework done?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes.”
“Good. Because, if you didn’t, I was going to make Lydia serve your butt oatmeal in the morning,” I said as I brushed past him.
“What? That’s terrible! Why would you do that to me? You know I hate oatmeal.”
“You’re not falling behind because of me and my job,” I said evenly. He couldn’t argue with that logic so he stayed quiet for now.
All three of my scent-matches were waiting at the front door when we reached it. I ushered everyone out before locking the doors behind me.
“August said he’s going to give you a ride home,” Conrad said. “Are you okay with that?”
I nodded once at the alpha.
“Yes, that’s fine. Gavin said he’s tired, or we’d be walking,” I said pointedly at the Delta who looked a bit too smug.
“You have all three of our contacts in your phone now,” August said.
When anger flared across my face at him being pushy, he only smiled wider.
“There’s my firecracker,” he said before taking Gavin’s gear and heading out, leaving me to follow.
He dropped it in the back of a sleek, black pickup truck.
Gavin climbed into the back of the cab while I moved to the front seat, staying almost comically far away from the delta, pressing myself against the window.
“I’d be hurt, but I’m trying to be a gentleman here,” he said with a chuckle, before turning on the truck.
He didn’t press me further as he drove us across town, not even having to ask where we lived because some things never changed.
It wasn’t until I was climbing out of the truck that I realized what a mistake this was.
My mom’s bedroom curtain was open, but quickly fell closed. She saw us.
August must have noticed the shift in me as he put the truck in park.
“You can’t come in,” I said, my voice wavering this time, but fierce as I tried to protect him from her.
“She’ll hit Dhara if you do,” Gavin said from the backseat, his voice so loud in the cab that I flinched.
Silence lingered after the words hit. I braced myself for the delta’s reaction.
“She hits you?” August asked in a strained voice.
His green eyes were burning with anger, but I just waved him off.
“It’s fine. I can take it.” I pushed open the door instead of arguing. The more time we spent out here, the worse it would be.
August watched helplessly as we grabbed Gavin’s things and hurried into the house.
I met his eyes one last time before closing the door behind me.
“Who the fuck was that?” my mom’s voice echoed the moment the door clicked shut.
I turned to face her, bracing myself for what was going to be a long night.