109. Chapter One-Hundred-Eight
Chapter One-Hundred-Eight
Riley
Ilimp along, leaning on my pack brothers while the rain soaks all of us through to the skin.
Telling them wasn’t as hard as I expected, and it’s a relief now that they know.
Kinda funny how easy it was.
I spent so long hiding from what happened that night.
Any time Xane and I were alone I would walk away if he gave any hint of wanting to talk.
I made it impossible for him to help me.
I pretended like nothing was wrong.
All I really wanted was for him to see I needed help, even if I only made it harder for him to see that with my actions.
I pushed him away every damn time and I couldn’t come out and ask, either.
I thought instinct would tell him what to do.
Now I can see he was as lost as I was.
He felt the loss of a friend when he fired Larry.
He was close to the guy, so it had to hit him hard.
Taking on Larry’s workload was fucking insane.
But I guess he was only doing what I was.
Using something else to hide from his feelings.
I chose booze. He chose work.
Neither of those choices were healthy.
Guess we’re as crazy as each other.
“Watch it!” Kian blurts, staggering slightly as I lean a little too hard his way.
“Sorry,” I mutter, as I straighten up.
“You’ve got it easy, Ki. This side’s the bad foot.”
I draw Trick a look and he gives me a wry smile.
“What?” he asks. “You want us to go easy on you now?”
I laugh. “No. I didn’t ask for that.”
“Good. Coz you’re still a dick,” Kian says quickly. “Can’t you hop a bit faster?”
“I’m going as fast as I can. Calm down, we’re almost there.”
We’re at the forest’s edge at least. Not far from a bit of shelter from the rain.
The sky rumbles above, and we all stop to look up as thunder crashes above.
“The weather’s never like this out here,” Kian grumbles.
“It’s usually rainy for a day or two before we arrive, actually,” I tell him. “I start checking the weather here before we get on the tin-can death-trap. There’s no way I’d get on board if there was a storm coming in.”
“Tropical places can be like this,” Trick says. “At least, from what I’ve read.”
There he goes again, hinting at a desire to travel.
It makes me nervous to think about getting on any flight.
These shorter trips are hard enough. I don’t think I could manage a longer one.
Even if at least one of my pack brothers is desperate to see the rest of the world.
I let go of my human crutches once the forest makes it impossible for all three of us to move straight forward together. Kian goes ahead, because he’s desperate to check on Scarlett.
Trick lets me go next, and he walks slowly behind me.
He’s always had the patience of a saint.
I know he thought about leaving the band recently, and I didn’t know what to say when he admitted that. I still don’t. It’s not that I wouldn’t miss him. I guess I’m not great with words.
“Scarlett!” Kian yells up ahead.
I can’t see him but I’m certain he’s a few feet ahead of us, running up to the jet, ready to hug his mate dramatically and make some kind of relieved declaration.
I glance back at Trick. He just shakes his head.
Yeah. There’s nothing we can do to calm Ki’s theatrics.
Might as well let him have them.
It’s not like we could do much to stop him.
A shriek sounds out up ahead, and this time, when we exchange a glance, both of us know we need to run. I let Trick jump ahead of me, and I run even though the pressure makes the pain flare up. I can move quickly when I need to, apparently. It just fucking hurts.
“Kian! Scarlett!” Trick calls out. “What’s wrong?”
I get to the clearing we’ve been calling our campsite since we got here, and we both watch Kian dart out of the tin-can death-trap, eyes wild.
“She’s not in there, and neither is Xane!”
He looks around frantically, but if he’s looking for a clue to chase, it’s clear there isn’t one to be found.
“We need to do something!” Ki yells as if we’re not right in front of him.
Thunder crashes through the sky above us.
Rain falls harder, and I let out a sigh.
“Get in the fucking jet!” I yell, making it an order. “Now!”
Kian frowns at me, but then he glances at Trick.
His best buddy is probably nodding at him.
I don’t look away to check.
I’m in charge when Xane’s not around, and they know it.
He stomps back inside the jet like an angry toddler.
Trick follows without the theatrics.
It’s not my favorite place to be, but any port will do in a storm.
I look around slowly, making sure I can’t see any sign of Xane or Scarlett.
The rain is heavy enough to obscure my vision, and there really isn’t anything obvious pointing to where they went.
Sighing heavily, I climb the steps to my least favorite place on earth.
Once I’m inside, Trick throws a towel at my face.
It’s one of mine, because of course it is.
No one else brings towels on vacation.
I snatch it and wipe myself down.
“Fucking crazy out there,” I mutter.
“So, what’s the plan?” Kian asks.
He’s staring at me like I have magical abilities and he’s waiting for them to show up.
“Look, we know they’re together, right?”
“They must be,” Trick says, nodding. “She came back here to find him.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Kian protests.
“Well, if he wasn’t here …” Trick starts, realization dawning on his face.
“What?” I ask, hearing Kian echo my question a second later. “What?”
“Uh, well … Remember he decided he would walk to the resort alone? Maybe he did that, instead of taking a nap.” Trick winces as he shrugs.
He’s hit the nail on the head. Xane is stubborn. Once he gets an idea in his head, he doesn’t like to deviate from it.
“That asshole!” Kian curses. “Who does he think he is?”
“We don’t know for sure …” Trick tries.
“Oh, we know,” Kian says, running a hand over his sopping wet hair. “And Scarlett must have figured that out as soon as she got here. Our mate is missing in the jungle now, and it’s all our stupid lead Alpha’s fault!”
He growls under his breath.
There’s another crack of thunder outside, louder than before.
“We can’t go out there,” I warn him. “Not right now.”
“How long has it been?” Trick wonders out loud.
“What? Who cares? We have to get out there and go looking …”
“Not while there’s a storm brewing,” I tell Ki, before I look back at Trick. “How long since what?”
“Since Scarlett came to find Xane.”
I think about it, and I can’t help but feel a little guilty.
Kian had wanted to check on her after ten minutes.
Trick told him it was too soon.
Then, I used the chance to trauma-dump.
“It can’t have been more than a half hour, I don’t think.”
“Since Xane went to the jet, or since Scarlett did?”
“Since Xane, maybe.”
“Call it forty minutes,” Trick says. “That means they can’t have gone far.”
That’s probably true, but that doesn’t make it smart to go chasing them down.
“Xane would know the jet is the safest place to be in this weather. He’ll be coming back, and since it seems like she went after him, then he’ll bring her with him.”
Something inside me knows Xane is safe, and that he’ll do just that.
The only worry I have is over her.
She’s not super predictable.
What if she didn’t find him?
She could be lost in the jungle right now.
Alone.
“This is torture,” Kian mutters. “We need to do something.”
He’s right, but if I tell him that he’ll only rush out there, and I’ll have another lost person to worry about. In this storm, two lost people is bad enough.
Think, Riley. There’s got to be some way to find them.
It hits me suddenly, and I feel weird about mentioning it.
But it might be the only thing that could lead us to her.
“She perfumed already,” I state, remembering it clearly.
The scent was nicer than … well the only other Omega’s perfume I’ve ever smelled.
It was light and sweet, more like tropical fruit than some kind of musk.
“Uh, yeah, but that’s not so helpful now,” Trick says.
“What do you mean?” I ask, raising an eyebrow as I realize it only happened that one time, while I was tipsy and not exactly expecting to smell an Omega’s perfume.
I’d already decided the smell made me hungry, before I figured out what it was.
Trick looks at Kian, and Kian blows out a breath.
“Xane’s an asshole. He upset her so she took more suppressants to get her perfume under control. Trouble is, those pills can stop an Omega’s perfume from ever coming back, and she took just enough to make that a very real possibility.”
He crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“That’s why she hasn’t perfumed again?”
“Seems like it,” Trick says, shrugging.
“Not even …”
“Not even then,” Kian cuts in.
“Then, I guess we can’t use that to track her.”
We’re back to square one.