Chapter 2 - Brooks #2
“Look,” I begin with an irritated sigh. “It’s not like we can get out of this, anyway. Avoiding it won’t change what the council has decided, but I’ll give you a day to think about what you want. Is that enough time? We only have until the weekend to see this through.”
With my patience running thin, I tap my foot against the recently uncovered stone path and raise my brows until finally, Rissa places her hand in mine. A light, barely noticeable current sparks between our palms, but it’s so faint that I can easily ignore it even though a frown flits over my face.
“Fine,” Rissa relents with an exasperated sigh.
“Good,” I comment with a bemused grin as I shake on it once before retracting my hand.
Folding my arms across my chest, I stare at the top of her head just as she straightens up.
She’s staring at my midriff again, appearing ridiculously tiny and fragile when all I can see are the honey-brown curls framing her face, catching the setting sun’s orange glow, lighting up as if she’s wearing a crown.
I consciously remind myself that she’s just the omega in the pack, and she’s far from uncovering her mystical powers—gifts that she isn’t even aware of. She has no metaphorical crown on her head or in my life, and I need to remain neutral at all times.
Sniffing to hide the fact that a plethora of thoughts threaten to arrest my mind if I don’t get out of this omega’s proximity, I lift my eyes and stare beyond her head at the outline of the village up ahead.
I would have preferred if they’d matched me with any other she-wolf, but this one; our history is tainted by the trouble I’d caused her, amongst other things.
It’s not like I’d bullied her without good reason…
But I’m not ready to face those reasons now. Never was, never will be ready.
This is only for the sake of the safety of this pack and appeasing the Snehvolk Council. I will fulfil my duties, as I always have.
“We will have a final discussion of the details tomorrow evening at my place. You tell me what you want in exchange for agreeing to the mate bond, and we’ll shake on it. I’ll even have a contract drawn up if you don’t trust me.”
“That won’t be necessary, Alpha Brooks,” Rissa whispers meekly, then mumbles something unintelligible under her breath.
“What’s that?” I quiz with a raised brow, but Rissa looks up with wide, doe eyes like she’s a deer caught in the headlights.
“N-nothing,” she murmurs, blinking fervently. “I will meet you at your house tomorrow.”
“Six p.m. sharp,” I announce before unfolding my arms and casually strolling past her, catching a whiff of a sweet scent that momentarily paralyzes my senses and stops me in my tracks.
Frowning hard, I glance over my shoulder and notice that Rissa is gone from the spot where I’d left her. I turn again, frowning at the garden of chocolate lilies and wild irises that have been blooming since the end of the bitter Alaskan winter.
Usually, the gardens are not as fragrantly potent as this.
Shrugging off my confusion, I head home for the evening. The other alphas are going to get an earful from me at tonight’s hunt, but I know that blowing off steam will do nothing to change my circumstances or ease me into mating with the omega she-wolf who’d been the bane of my existence growing up.
This is why I need to remain neutral.
***
Adding another sixty seconds to the tally of minutes that Rissa Rudolph is late for our meeting, my growing impatience threatens to burst at the seams and unfurl my glossy fur across my limbs.
I shouldn’t shift inside my house, but it will do me no good to do it outside, either. What if someone sees me losing my temper, all because the omega she-wolf is late for our meeting by fifty-eight minutes and twenty-nine—
Woah!
I catch myself with a frown and stop pacing the floor behind the front door.
Am I really counting the seconds as they tick by? Why does it feel like a subconscious thing that my inner wolf seems to be doing?
No.
It’s just that I hate untimeliness. Time is something that should be respected, and I made it very clear that Rissa needed to be here at six p.m. sharp.
There are only a few seconds to go before the clock strikes seven, further cementing how late Rissa is to our appointment.
Becoming more irritated with every second that crawls toward the hour delay, I grunt under my breath as I close my eyes and focus on the mind link I share with the other pack members.
Not wanting to stir any more disruption than I already have since I’d blown a fuse with the other alphas last night, I focus my mind on my second-in-charge, Beta Connor, and send him a mind link to get Rissa from her cottage in the village.
After waiting for what feels like an eternity, Beta Connor reports back through the mind link.
“She’s not here, Alpha Brooks,” his voice comes out of breath telepathically.
“Check the clinic, Connor.”
“She’s not there either, Alpha. I was at the clinic when you called me.”
My impatience and irritation explode, propelling me out of my house and down the aisle of wooden-structured cottages in my part of the large village.
I know exactly where the healer lives because I’ve made mental notes of every werewolf who lives on my side of the village.
When I arrive at her cottage on the farthest end of the dirt road leading to the woods, Connor is about to knock on her door again.
“Move,” I instruct him in a hostile tone, and the beta immediately moves aside.
Without thinking, I walk up the low porch and kick the door in to the sound of cracking wood and croaking metal hinges when it explodes from the impact, revealing the empty living area with only a single-seater couch, a paisley-patterned robe tossed over it.
“Rissa Rudolph!” I call out, entering without invitation and feeling how cold the empty cabin is. “Omega Rissa Rudolph!”
The silence that answers me prompts me to instruct Connor to check the tiny cottage, but his only discovery is the empty closet with the doors flung open.
The Omega has run away.
“Fuck,” I murmur under my breath, instantaneously becoming enraged. This feels awfully familiar.
It’s not the first time an omega has fled Girdwood, and it almost didn’t end well for Alpha Elias when Aurora ran away, and he had to look for her out there, facing a demon attack on his own.
I walk out of the cabin, my fists curling as I clench my jaw angrily. Why do I have to go through this when I don’t even want the omega as my mate? But knowing that the council has already made its decision, I’m left with no choice but to find her and bring her back.