3. Sage
Sage
Some people believe in fate. Some believe in chance. I’m not sure what I believe in, but there must have been some kind of god or entity watching over me at that exact moment. We’d been in the small town for weeks. It’s been almost five more weeks since we had that awful phone call from Daega.
Eleven weeks.
I had, in a fit of frustration, decided to get out of the house we’d rented and walk down to the local market. It’s one of those in-a-carpark boot markets, but there is a beta there who sells the best freshly squeezed juice icy.
I walk back sipping and absently wondering what the hell we are still doing here.
There has been no sign of them. The last thing I want to do is go home and get into another argument with Blaze, so I decide to take the longer route, and I walk past a house.
Nothing special about it. Big shrubs form an almost natural barrier, and five foot wood panel fences hide the rest.
And it was a flash, just the smallest amount, just enough to send my heart tripping over itself as I struggle not to shout her name. I don’t want to lose them again, so I clamp my mouth shut, refusing to let out any sound that might indicate that their cover is blown.
She runs past the fence again. This time, it’s clearer. I recognise that body, I know it intimately.
In the smallest of gaps, I watch for her. My stomach jolts, and I run closer, peering through gaps, desperate to see her again. For the first time in weeks, I feel close.
I almost float across the footpath, begging myself not to get my hopes up in case I’m wrong as I move around the property.
Another flash.
I could cry. It’s her, I know it.
I step back out of sight and ring the pack. It kills me to wait, kills me, but I circle the house. It’s a corner property, and she’s running around the back and side. As I approach the front of it, I start shaking.
What if she doesn’t know me?
What if she hates me?
I lick my dry lips and wish I hadn’t drunk the juice. No part of me is okay. I set the container down on the sidewalk. I see the pack racing down the street towards us, running. Instead of waiting, I walk into the front yard, staring as she comes into sight.
The bonds are cold, almost dead, but I don’t want to wake them yet.
I’m much more focused on her. I wait, kneeling in the garden, trying to make myself smaller, watching the woman who is clearly a little girl in her mind play with a skipping rope.
She lets out a delighted chuckle when she sees a butterfly, but when she follows its path to me, her face shows no recognition.
We knew that meeting her would be an event rife with uncertainty and there was always the chance we would meet this version of her, but it still shocks me to see a child stranger in the body of the omega I love.
The pain is unbearable, but I am so happy to see her; it doesn’t even matter. She’s alive. Oh, thank you. Whatever the hell is out there, thank you.
“Hello,” I say softly, forcing a smile.
“Hi.” She scrambles backwards and almost jumps back three steps while I rise slowly to my full height. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.” Nervous, scared. Smart girl.
That is the right body, but I don’t think this version is someone I have met before. There’s only two I haven’t met. Raven and Dove.
“That is excellent advice, but I’m not a stranger,” I say. “I am so, so very glad to see you. I have been looking for a long time.”
“You’re not? You’ve been looking for me? Why? I’ve been here the whole time.”
So innocent. There’s a mix of terrified caution and innocent curiosity in her that is making me want to weep.
“I really, really have. My name is Sage. Did your alpha and omega tell you about me?”
She frowns, confused. “I…uh…” The fear is back, she glances at the house. “I should…”
“Is Kestrel home?” I ask sharply, trying to hold her here.
Her eyes widen like saucers, and she shakes her head. “No. You know Kest?”
“Kest and I are good friends,” I say with total confidence. “Ah, what about Raven or Raptor?”
She backs up a step. “And you’re friends with them, too?”
“Of course,” I say easily, grinning. “And Jay, is he around?”
Her lip wobbles, and she looks completely devastated. “They are lost.”
Lost? What? What the fuck does that mean?
I look up sharply when a door opens, revealing Pix.
I stare at him with the same hungry desperation that I watched Dove with.
This person is my person, and being without them was agony.
Not knowing if he was okay or sad, if he was sick or needed me.
The bond tugging late at night, stretching and aching with loneliness.
I walk up to her and take her hand, defying him, defying this moment. She doesn’t struggle, just watches me with wide eyes that reveal her every thought. Pix is struggling to hold it together, his face twitching and contorting as he bites on his bottom lip.
I can see him falling apart.
“Where is Merle?” I ask Pix gently.
He shrugs a shoulder, his voice thick, harsh and broken when he answers. “Merle is gone.”
Not acceptable. Not acceptable at all.
“Dove?”
She jolts, surprised to hear me use her name.
“I am an alpha who is best friends with your other selves. So is my pack, and we’re hiding from the bad man. Would it be okay if we stayed with you and your friends for a few days?” I do not take my eyes off Pix.
He looks so relieved. He’s not even going to try to get rid of me.
“You’re hiding from a bad man?”
“A very bad man. We could use your help.”
“And he’s going to hurt you?”
“Yes.” I don’t feel bad manipulating her at all.
She looks at Pix. “Can we help him?”
Pix nods, his chin wobbling. I let go of Dove and walk up the steps. He flings himself into my arms, strangling me with how tightly he holds on. He’s crying.
“I’m here now, Daega. I’m never going to leave you again.”
He holds me tighter, shaking. Our bonds open, and I feel his fear, pain, and loneliness. He missed me as much as I missed him. That soothes the last of the anger.
The door slams open, and I’m ripped off Pix, only to find myself face to face with my stepbrother.
Aaron Roseland looks different, he looks broken. I wonder what’s happened to him.
Eleven weeks of hunting for your lost omegas and then finding…that, will fuck you up. But apparently, eleven weeks of whatever they were doing has been worse.
“We could use the help, Rose,” Pix says. “I need them. Please. I can’t do it anymore.”
Aaron dips his chin; he’s not fighting me.
I am both surprised and relieved and worried.
I suddenly don’t want to beat him anymore but wrap him in my arms and catch him before he falls.
He moves towards me, and I meet him, pulling him hard into my chest, holding him as he buries his face in my neck, completely collapsing.
What is happening here?
I hold him up while he hides in my embrace.
What happened to you?
Blaze comes out of nowhere and goes straight to Dove, kneeling before her and smiling easily. He’s always had a way with children and animals.
King walks up to the porch and pulls Pix into a hug that lifts the omega off his feet, while Rolly stands in the middle of the yard staring at Dove like she’s a ghost.
Roseland pulls free and turns, blinking quickly and clearing his throat.
“You can stay,” he says in a rasp.
Dove smiles widely at Blaze and shakes his hand. Now that I know she is safe, I turn back. Pix is still buried in King’s arms, and the alpha is rocking him gently, whispering to him. I don’t know what’s being said, but then I don’t need to know.
I return my attention to my Rose, who has moved away, like he’s trying to put distance between us. He looks like shit but better than anything I’ve seen in a long time. I approach my stepbrother softly, gently. I reach out and cup his cheek. He tilts his head into my caress, his eyes soft and warm.
“Sage,” he whispers.
“I killed our parents,” I coo. “They won’t ever hurt you again.”
His eyes open wide, and his nostrils flare.
“Then, you are mine, forever,” Aaron Roseland says in a stark whisper.
It’s not what I expected, but it sends me over the edge. I don’t care about anything anymore but this, us. The pack together. I step into him, walking him back into the house. I don’t look away, not for a second.
He’s changed, but so have I. Absence didn’t make my heart fonder, it made our destiny crystal clear.
I don’t think I’m sane anymore.
When I kiss him, he kisses me back, and he tastes broken, but that’s okay, I’m going to put him back together and make him mine.
I’m going to put this whole pack back together. One piece at a time. Starting with this.
I trail my lips down to his throat and bond my alpha.
He grunts, and though his fingers thread through my hair, he doesn’t pull away, he pulls me towards him, straining against me. Sobbing for air.
When I break free, I drag his lips to my neck and, to my surprise, without argument, Rose bites me. Claiming me back.
The bond is thick and warm and desperate.
The frenzy goes, and he slows until he rests his forehead against mine.
“Help me, Sage. We can’t do it alone.”
“I’ll do anything you need, Aaron, except leave. I’m not leaving you again.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Aaron shudders hard in my arms, and to my utter horror, he starts to cry.
What could be so bad that it’s brought my alpha to tears?
I lead him deeper into the house, watching cautiously as Blaze and Rolly tease and harass Dove. King and Daega have disappeared.
I turn back to Aaron.
“It went wrong right from the start. He knew everything.”
I stare at him, listening to his story, told in hushed whispers.
His exhaustion shows in dark bags under his eyes and the weight he’s lost. He explains how Pix suppressed his heats, struggling to cope with the breakthrough, dealing and raising a traumatised eight-year-old who can’t be seen in public.
How they wanted to come home, but she needed time to heal.
Time to heal?
Those words bother me, but the way he says them are so horrified I can’t ask.
I put Roseland to bed and bully Daega in beside him.
We cook Dove cheese sandwiches and entertain her, then put her to bed in the room beside theirs.
Blaze and I exchange looks.
I turn to Rolly. “Go.”
“But-”
“You and King, one in each room. No one gets in or out.”
They go quietly. Rolly will doze in the rocking chair in Dove’s room, while King will sit and watch the other two.
Blaze and I will make sure the rest of the house stays safe and plan our extraction.
Now that we’ve found them…it’s no longer safe.
Rose’s words return, echoing in my mind in a confusing, horrifying admission that I can’t silence.
A horrifying truth.
“The other alters have disappeared.”