Chapter 15 Mona
I wake up with a groan, once again relishing the beauty of sleeping in a freakin’ bed. I told myself the first time I got here that I’d never take a bed for granted again, and I haven’t. The bed in the cabin doesn’t count, that was more like a wick for sexual fluids. I shudder.
Find mates, Beep says as soon as I’m coherent.
“They’re downstairs,” I yawn. The bedroom door is cracked and I can hear their murmured voices.
Not them. The others. They should remain with us. Please inform them they are not allowed to leave.
I take a measured breath. It’s too early for this. “Did they leave already?” I ask anxiously, as if she might know.
Their alphas want to stay. The men are hesitant. It is unacceptable they chose to sleep elsewhere. As your alpha mates, it is their duty to show complete devotion to us. Convince them to stay, Mona.
I thought the alphas were the men, I snark back, still pissed at them and taking it out on her. Isn’t that what Ghost told me? The alphas are the men, Beep. If the men want to leave—
The alphas want to stay, she argues back. The men do, too, but they are being stubborn.
Actively working against us, to push away the attraction, the pull of our fated mate bond takes effort. Even with Grayson, sharing the face of the man I was terrified of, I still let him in. To have everything working for us, nothing standing in our way, and to still not want it…
“I shouldn’t have to convince them to want me.” Throwing the blanket off, I get up and get dressed.
I can still smell Orion and Grayson on my skin. I have them. I love them.
I don’t need anything else.
Once I’m dressed, I tiptoe down the stairs, surprised to find a new scent in the house.
Not surprised to find Andrea’s, though. Groaning before I even reach the last step, I call out to her and Grayson. “I just want it on the record that I never agreed to this bodyguard bullshit!”
They ignore me. I round the stairs and head to the living room, stopping short at the sight of a man I don’t recognize. He’s taller than me, but short compared to the guys.
His brown hair looks like it’s in need of a cut. Wearing cargo pants and a gingham plaid shirt, he reminds me of those guys in school who got really into A/V club.
“Hi,” I wave awkwardly. There’s something strange about him. He smiles and tilts his head, then takes a deep inhale, breathing me in. That, I’m used to.
Most new shifters, when they meet me, want to hug me or touch my arm.
But he just closes his eyes and breathes. I can’t feel his alpha, but something about him tells me that’s the correct designation. Not very strong, then.
“Hello De—Mona,” he corrects. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Umm… you too…”
“Kendrick,” he shares.
“Oh!” This guy is like the king of the shifters. Wow, he seems so… ordinary. “How’s Lily?” I ask.
His eyes soften, and I hadn’t realized how tense his posture was until I mention his mate. “She’s healing well. She’s looking forward to meeting you.”
I hated my jealousy when Silas asked after Lily in the car on the way here. Of course he was concerned about her, I’d have thought less of him if he hadn’t cared about her well-being. But it only amplified his indifference toward me.
Thinking of Lily reminds me of the dream I had about the girl who smells like strawberries. So much has happened since then, I can’t believe I forgot. I smack my forehead, and Kendrick takes a step closer.
“I’m such an asshole,” I groan. This seems to annoy Kendrick, so I appreciate Andrea waving her hand sarcastically.
“We’re all aware. But what is it this time?”
I shoot her a glare. Grayson and Orion also grumble at her, and I snuggle under Orion’s arm as he hugs me close. “What is it, firefly?”
“I had another dream, I forgot to tell you last night with all the drama of getting home. A different woman this time. Only she wasn’t in the basement. Maybe she hasn’t been taken yet?”
“Ghost and Silas filled me in,” Kendrick says gently. “Do you remember anything else about her? Her surroundings?”
I recount my dream exactly as I remember it: the cactus, the bar, the woman’s smile. Her scent. But nothing new stands out.
He says, “If you think of anything else, or if you have another, please let me know right away. Meanwhile, I have a call out to all the clan leaders. I’m waiting to see if her scent matches anyone’s description. The landscape is a helpful description.”
I tell him I will, and Kendrick thanks me. Then he lingers a minute too long, as if he wants to say something else, and I fidget under his gaze.
But he just smiles, dips his chin, and turns to leave. But before he does, I blurt out, “Did Ghost leave?”
Orion’s arm tenses around me.
Kendrick’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, then a curious look crosses his face. “He’s hunting. He’ll be in and out, though, until we find Deidre.”
We have until he finds Deidre, Beep says, as though I didn’t literally just hear Kendrick say the same thing. I nod awkwardly before he smiles again and says goodbye.
Once it’s just the four of us, I turn to Andrea. “We’re not really doing this, are we?”
She smiles evilly. “Fuck yes, we are. Come on, we’re heading to the gym.”
My look of desperation only makes my mates laugh. “Nope. Not a chance. And you can’t make me,” I add petulantly.
Andrea crosses her arms across her chest. “Wanna bet?”
Orion dips low, grips the backs of my legs, then lifts, throwing me over his shoulder. I screech and pound my fists into his back as he follows Andrea into the driveway.
“Orion! Put me down right this instant!”
From inside the house, Grayson laughs. Oh, what a beautiful sound. He’s smiling wide, like all the turmoil and fear over the last week has slid right off his skin.
Orion stuffs me into the truck, then climbs in the back, and while Andrea drives us toward the gym, down the dirt lot, Grayson smiles, watching me as we disappear from view. I decide being silly is totally worth the exercise if it means I get to see those smiles that I missed so fucking much.
Twenty minutes later, I’ve changed my mind.
“Andrea, you cannot be serious.”
She’s fitting boxing gloves on my hands, but refuses to give me a helmet.
Apparently, there aren't any. When we arrived, I thought I’d get out of training because of all the hugs and well-wishers.
A flood of Silent Peak enforcers hugged and patted my shoulders, and I got so swept up in their enthusiasm, I’d forgotten what she actually dragged me here for.
“Andrea, don’t you think you’ve punched me in the face enough to last a lifetime?”
“No. Also, I apologized for that.”
“Did you, though?”
She smirks wryly as she ties on her own gloves. “Look, I’m sorry about that. I… hate apologizing, so appreciate the rarity. I didn’t know omegas healed so slowly. I wouldn’t have beaten you so badly if I’d known you were that pathetic.”
Punch her in the face, Beep says. Now. I ignore her.
“Okay, well, I can see why you don’t apologize often. Could use some polishing. That said… I forgive you. But I’m still not going to let you punch me in the face without a helm—“
My head whips back when she lands a sharp blow to my eye.
“Ow, motherfucker!” I try to cradle my cheek, but the gloves make it impossible.
“Duck.”
She goes to punch me again, but I duck in time. She still clips me on the chin, wrenching my neck.
“Dude!” I yell, but she’s bouncing around on her feet with her fists up.
“Your wolf is with you. Orion told me about your struggles with her, working together.”
I look around the room, searching for my traitorous mate, but he’s probably outside. Andrea warned him he likely shouldn’t watch, or his alpha would intervene. I regret not taking that threat more seriously now.
“I mean, we’re a lot better than we were. But yeah, we aren’t the fastest.”
“You can partial shift though, right? When you’re threatened, or in trouble?”
I don’t like where this is going.
“You can hear Beep, right?” she asks, and Beep preens a bit that Andrea knows her name.
I nod, and Andrea continues, “Well, Beep, I’m talking to you then. Don’t blame your human for being slow. You’re the one with the power. You weren’t raised together, so you’re at a disadvantage, but that’s over now. No more excuses.”
She jabs at me again, and I duck, barely in time. Andrea pauses to offer a few minutes of explanation—how to stand, how to hold up my arms—but that’s all the training I get.
Beep is rumbling under my skin, getting irritated. I throw a punch, and I internally cringe when it’s a slow arc about six inches from her face.
Andrea doesn’t even laugh. Her eyes widen. She’s offended for me. “Wow.”
“Shut up,” I hiss. Then I throw another. But this time, I can feel Beep in the punch. It’s a little faster.
Andrea notices the difference and nods excitedly. “Again.”
So I punch again, and Andrea counters. We go on like this, back and forth, until my arms ache. With each throw, I feel more of Beep’s power. Like she’s using my body to hit. Her magic tingles beneath my skin, but we aren’t shifting. She’s still there though, along my nerves, firing with me.
“Better,” Andrea says flatly. I take the praise, and it spurs me on.
An hour later, I tap out, mostly because I need piles of food and a gallon of water. Andrea’s barely broken a sweat.
“You’re pretty amazing,” I tell her, still in awe of how she moves.
I assume she’s going to say something sarcastic and mean, but when she doesn’t, I roll my head to face her. I’m laying flat on my back, sweaty and tired. She’s staring at me like she’s trying to figure me out. When she reaches an arm out to help me up, I gladly take it.
“So, that’s it then? We’re done, right?”
“For now. When the witches aren’t an issue, we’ll try the training course in the woods again. I was bummed I missed it the last time Gray set it up for you.”
I shudder, thinking of what would have happened to me if Andrea had been one of the wolves instructed to scare the shit out of me as I ran through the woods a few weeks ago.