Chapter 2
Sofia
Dad bustles around the kitchen, muttering grumpily, but every now and then throws out random recipe names with childlike enthusiasm.
I get a pang of homesickness that I haven’t had in years.
His green eyes shine with happiness, and his auburn hair is only just showing up the grey.
Milton Sol bites his tongue in that way I’ve seen him do a million times and suddenly looks like he hasn’t aged at all.
I cover my mouth with my hand when I read the words on the frilly pink apron. “Hands off my buns.”
Mum pulls her stool up closer beside me as Dad hands us mugs.
My siblings have been chased out, and it’s just my parents and me, and the nerves are starting to set in.
Danger has disappeared with Devon, curled up like a floozy in his arms. Though, I mean, I would be, too, if he’d speak to me the way he spoke to Danger.
I look down at the mug and feel myself soften. The answer to my life’s woes came from this drink. Bad day at school, love woes, hurt, sick, scared, sad, lonely. The answer was always the same. Secret recipe cocoa.
“Of course,” Pops says, and the familiar, steady calm of his alpha presence settles me like nothing else can.
He’s aged; his face has more lines, his hair a touch more silver, but he’s still got that beautiful gentleness that has calmed many a fight between siblings. He’s wearing a cerulean blue jumper that matches the eyes I always thought held the answers to the universe.
Why didn’t I come home to visit? Would things have been different?
My mum hasn’t changed at all. She’s still beautiful with a thicker waist and thighs and an energy that has me wanting to hide behind her. We’ve got the same hazel eyes, and where her hair is brown, I inherited my red hair from Dad.
I sip the cocoa so I don’t have to talk, but after a couple of minutes of silence, I set my mug down and turn to them.
“Are you staying?” my mother asks calmly. Her omega scent spikes and fades, giving away her anxiety.
“If you have room for me?” I murmur, and my scent rises, evidence of my fear.
She pulls me into a hug. “I don’t care if you are a hundred, you will always be welcome here. This is your home, and it always will be.”
I sniff. The emotion hits hard, taking no prisoners. Always welcome, always safe.
“Now, the boys are staying in your room, but only because they are having work done on their house. They will be gone in a few days. In the meantime, you can have the guest room.”
The guest room, which is directly opposite my room, where Devon will be sleeping.
I pick up my mug again and finish it, feeling the chocolatey warmth in my belly. I swear, it’s got magic in it.
“Honey, what happened-” Mum gets cut off by her phone ringing. She looks at it, then snorts. “I have to take this, but we’re not finished.”
I watch her escape and look up to find my dad staring at me.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, honey. But if you decide you do, we will be biased listeners. Absolutely, and one hundred thousand percent on your side.”
I shake my head. “I’m going to go down to the beach. Show Danger around.”
He gives me this knowing look. “The old traditional back to town inspection, huh?”
“I just drove straight up here because…” I trail off, not wanting to tell him about Heather the Hellbeast. “I wanted to come home.”
It’s not a lie. I did want to come home.
“Go, have fun. I know you’re part fish. Swim it off and come back up for dinner; we can all catch up properly when your mother has finished her meeting and Pops is back from work. And then you can tell us all about your pack.”
I wince.
His eyes sharpen.
“Danger needs to be walked,” I say in a rush, stepping back and tripping over a new chair.
“He’s really cute, Sofia.” Dad lets go of whatever he was going to ask, and I love him all the more for it. If it were Pops or Mum, they would have pushed.
I smile and lift my hand, waving to him as I go to the front of the house and out onto the porch. I have a secret weapon in the war of affections, no croon from Devon can beat it.
“DANGER! WALKIES!” I shout at the top of my lungs.
There is a beat of silence and then the frantic scrabbling of an out-of-control sausage dog as it comes flying down the hall, long ears flapping out of either side of its head like a cape.
I pick him up, refusing to look at the alpha I can see just out of the corner of my eye.
“Can you stop making it so hard for me to avoid him?” I beg the dog as I get his harness on him.
“Rebel?”
I let out a squeak of sound and turn, racing out the front door. Once I’m sure he’s not following, I finally relax enough to notice the salty air. I can pinpoint what each smell is, but the combination is home.
To get to the beach, I just need to walk seven minutes and thirty-five seconds towards the ocean. One road, no turns, but as I get closer, that’s when the magic happens.
My stomach flutters, and I feel myself walking faster. I clip Danger’s lead on and set him down so he can run beside me. That first glimpse of the azure ocean hits me with a massive wave of rightness.
The salt gets stronger, the sun brighter, but it’s when I see that white sand that everything slips into place like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that wasn’t in quite right. I kick off my shoes, leaving them up in the carpark.
The sand is hot, not enough to burn, but it’s enough to have me moving quicker. Danger barks and buries his face, flicking his muzzle up and spraying my leg with sand.
I giggle and try to dance out of the way, but he spins, and sand flies everywhere.
Before I can go more than three feet towards the ocean, he’s dug a hole half his body size and is lying in it, looking up at me with huge, devious eyes.
“Come on, Danger, this way.”
He bounces out of the hole, butt low to the ground, the whites of his eyes showing as he explodes into movement.
With Danger at my side, jumping and zooming like a little brown merle hurricane, I make my way down to the water.
The sand transitions from soft to hard, cracking under my feet.
Waves lap at the shore, leaving white bubbles behind before they vanish.
The water is mirror-smooth with only the tiniest lift, one of those perfect days.
The sun glimmers off the ocean, leaving white, glowing shimmers in a world of turquoise and aquamarine.
The cove looks the same. Oh, there are tiny differences.
At one end is a cliff and rocks that can be climbed at low tide.
The town is situated more towards the middle of the cove.
There’s a couple of new houses, and the signs in the carpark are new.
As I turn, I see the lighthouse on the far point of the cove, the jetty not far from it.
Just where it was when I left. It looks like someone has built something at its base, but I can’t be sure from here.
We used to go out to the lighthouse and have parties when we were teens. Playing music and dancing with friends. Drinking when we got older.
I’m so distracted in memories that I don’t hear him until he’s almost on top of me.
“You can let the little guy off if you want. Everyone is getting ready for Smitten Knot Bitten. He should be safe to stretch his legs.”
My shoulders tense, and I mouth his name in a panic. Nope, being home has me imagining things.
“What’s his name? He’s kinda adorable?”
Is this really happening? It can’t possibly be happening. I pat my hair down and turn because I must be wrong. Obviously, I’m wrong. And I think I am looking at this broad-shouldered alpha who is a foot taller than me. He’s got a wide smile and the most arresting and warm brown eyes.
I recognise those eyes, even if I don’t recognise the body that goes with them.
“Mack?”
His head jerks up. It would be almost comical except I’m hit by the full force of him, and it’s potent. I clench my hand behind my back, swallowing the urge to purr.
There’s stubble on his jaw, his hair is brown but with golden highlights, and he’s got this confidence that the nerdy guy I was besotted with didn’t have.
“You came back?” I say in the most undignified squeak.
“Yeah,” he says at last, finally breaking his silence. “Yeah, as soon as I was old enough, I came back.”
I exhale roughly.
“Sofia, you look so different.”
I wince and look down at Danger’s lead in my hand, twisting it in my fingers.
“Good different.”
He steps closer, and I inhale before I can stop myself. Rain on warm concrete and cinnamon. It’s strong, and I want nothing more than to throw myself into his arms.
I think he must be a mind reader because, suddenly, I’m pressed against his chest, his arms around me in a hug that I remember.
“I thought about you so much over the years,” he says.
He holds me for ten seconds longer than is appropriate and then lets go, and I feel the loss of that warmth keenly.
“My pack and I had no idea you were coming back.”
Pack? He has a pack? Of course, he has a pack. I try not to let my disappointment show on my face.
“So, uh, Danger, by the way,” I gesture to the dachshund trying to climb his leg. “So, what is Smitten Knot Bitten?” I ask, grabbing anything to change the subject with.
His face drops. “No way, surely you know all about it? This is your mother’s love child.”
Okay, I am terrified now.
“No?” I say hesitantly.
“Your mother and her friends accidentally helped an omega find a pack a few years ago.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” I mutter and start walking. He joins me, and I try not to look at his tanned forearms. They are bronzed, very strong-looking, with rough hands. He obviously works outside in the sun.
“So, they started doing it as a hobby, and they had some success. They call themselves the Pack Makers now.”
My brain stumbles. Pack Makers?
“Oh, for crying out loud,” I mutter.
He grins at me, and I see the boy who spent forty-eight hours as my boyfriend. I was so happy to be his. We were barely old enough to even be a thing at fifteen, but on the third day, I woke up to him gone. He lost everything, and I lost him.
“What are you thinking that is making you so sad?” Mack murmurs.
I shake my head and try to laugh it off, but I could never lie to him. “I’m really sorry about your parents, Mack.”
His expression softens. “Thank you, I am, too. I like to think I can still feel them here. I think it’s one of the reasons I came home. After my uncle took me to the city, everything felt wrong.”
I bend down and unclip Danger. He looks at me with huge, disbelieving eyes and then explodes into bucks and circles before racing down the beach, chasing the water as it recedes.
“Smitten?” I prompt.
“Oh, it’s their Valentine’s Day Pack Making event. On top of our usual loved-up celebrations, all singles have been entered into a matchmaking experiment, courtesy of the Pack Making Queens.”
“What?” I say in horror. “You can’t be serious?”
“I am deadly serious.”
“Luckily, Mum didn’t know I was coming back, so she won’t have time to enter me.”
Mack grins but doesn’t say anything.
“What do you know?”
“Nothing,” he says too quickly. “So, there are three dates, group dates. And then on Valentine’s Day, if you want your match, you can present your love rock to them and make it official.”
“Love rock?” I ask in horror.
“You’ll find out.” He looks at his watch and hisses. “I have to go, but, uh,” he pauses and looks at me with a softness in his eyes. “Can we catch up? Dinner?”
My mouth is dry, but I shake my head. He’s got a pack. I won’t do that again. “I don’t think that's a good idea.”
His smile falls, and he nods. “Of course. Well, maybe I’ll see you around.”
I nod politely.
He lets out a shrill whistle that has Danger racing back towards us. He captures my little bestie and kisses him. It’s totally wrong to be jealous of my dog, right?
“Goodbye, Sofia.”
“Bye, Mack,” I whisper. My omega side wants to stop him, gather his attention back, make him mine. The calm energy of his is as steady as the Earth, and I don’t want him to go.
He hands me Danger, turns, and runs up the beach, and I can’t look away, watching as he leaves me all over again.
And just like I did all those years ago, all I want to do is follow him.