Chapter 17
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
ARBOR
I’m so enamored with Glenn that I don’t notice us even pulling up to the construction site. I’m too busy staring at him, but I see his eyes widen and his mouth drop open. It’s only then that I turn and see it.
The destruction. Everything is gone—the buildings, the trailer, all leveled and covered by heaps of mud. Trees lie sideways on the small hills, as if they were pulled from the earth.
“What the fuck?” he murmurs as he shuts off his car and stares. Neither of us moves, frozen from shock.
“Is this a dream?” I ask and then add, “A nightmare?”
“I don’t know, but we need to call Jericho,” Glenn murmurs, before stepping out of the truck and approaching the disaster. Rain is still falling from the sky, growing puddles on the ground. I skirt around them as I follow, trying to make sense of this. Everything we worked so hard on is gone.
Who did this? It looks like a tornado came through, yet not. We would have heard about a natural disaster. And there aren’t enough hills around to cause this level of mudslide.
No, this was planned. Someone did this. But how?
“Where’s the security?” I ask, looking around for the car I usually see patrolling. But it’s nowhere to be seen.
“No clue. Fuck.”
Glenn pulls out his phone and puts it up to his ear, eyeing me as it rings. “No fun times in the trailer, it seems.”
All I can do is nod, unable to even think about sex at a time like this.
“Yeah, Boss,” Glenn says suddenly. “You need to come down to the site. Someone fucked with it.” He pauses and then sighs. “It’s all gone.”
I can hear Jericho bark out questions on the other end of the line, Glenn wincing as he listens.
“I don’t know. It’s just destroyed. Almost like a mudslide. Right. I’ll send the pictures and meet you here.”
I walk away from Glenn, skirting around the most obvious puddles, swiping my wet hair back from my forehead. My heart sinks as I take it all in once more; the realization that someone did this on purpose is a hard pill to swallow.
Was it because of me? Someone didn’t like an omega running the project? Or maybe it’s my fae side that got us in this mess.
My gaze flits to the forest edge, and I see something glittering in the distance. I blink, rubbing at my eyes, and when I open them, whatever I saw is gone. It could just be a hallucination, a trick of the mind. Or it could be the reason for all of this.
“Jericho will be down soon. I’ve called the cops, too,” Glenn says, pulling my mind from a spiral.
“Who do you think did this?” I whisper.
“I don’t know. But I know what you’re thinking. You’re not to blame for this.” His finger moves to the small crease I know is between my eyebrows. He smooths it out. “Neither of us knew this was coming. And whoever did it, this is on them. Not you. You did nothing wrong.”
“It could be because of me, though.”
“No, Arbor. It’s not.”
We continue walking around the site, taking in the mess, our shoes caked in mud, our feet slipping occasionally. The only sound is the rain hitting the leaves and the occasional nervous twitter from a bird that hasn’t yet fled the site.
Glenn’s hand wraps around mine and squeezes. It should make me feel grounded right now, but it doesn’t work.
And then suddenly the ground growls. It starts as a slow rumble and then turns into a vicious shake. My heart thrums loudly in my head, my ears. I can almost feel the metallic taste on my tongue, and I feel a zapping move across my skin.
“Run!” Glenn shouts, and he yanks me forward. A violent roar meets our ears as the ground starts to cave in behind us. Trees snap in half, soil collapsing like waves beneath us. We sprint toward the truck, our feet sliding and our lungs burning as the world behind us falls into the abyss.
As fast as it started, it stops, the cacophony of noise suddenly eerily silent. The lone bird stops singing, and even the rain ceases to fall.
All we can sense is our uneven breaths and the stillness they’re exhaled into.
We fall back against the truck, our chests heaving as we look around, trying to comprehend what just happened.
The job site is completely gone. The earth just opened up and swallowed it all. All that remains is a gaping hole, dozens of feet deep.
If there was any hope of rebuilding, it’s gone now. There’s no way anything can ever be built on this plot of land again.
Our employers just lost a lot of money on this project, and there’s a good chance we will lose our jobs as well.
“What the fucking gods,” Glenn murmurs, his voice strained. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t—” I breathe. “I don’t know, but we should leave. Who knows what will happen next? This ground isn’t stable.”
“Do you think that was natural? An earthquake, maybe?”
I let my tongue slide across my teeth and shake my head. I may only be part fae, but I could sense the magic in the air. I could taste it, feel it on my skin.
“No, it was something more. Someone wanted this place gone, and they succeeded.”
Glenn stares at me intently and ushers me into the truck, turning it on and driving us away from the site. We’ll meet Jericho at the end of the road, where it’s safer.
He eventually pulls up, his clothes far more casual than anything I’ve ever seen him wear before. As he nears, Glenn sniffs and asks, “Just come from a barbecue, Boss?”
He nods his head, looking toward the construction site. Or what used to be a construction site. We move toward it cautiously, carefully.
“This wasn’t a mudslide,” he says, and Glenn peers over at him.
“The earth swallowed it up just ten minutes ago.”
“What the fuck?” Jericho breathes, his shock clear.
“Yeah. Don’t know why or who, but Arbor seems to think it was magic.”
Jericho eyes me, and I wring my hands. Jericho knew I was part fae when he hired me.
When the previous superintendent was fired for doing a shit job, Jericho thought I’d be good for the position.
Not only was I a hard worker, but I was part fae.
He thought it might appease whatever protests and frustrations there were over our building on this supposed sacred land.
Well, it seems that was all for naught. Even with my presence at the site, it still ended up as a disaster.
I’m not entirely sure it’s fae, but it is magical.
“Well, shit,” Jericho exhales, a hand running down his face. “The entire place is gone.”
“Yep,” Glenn says, and he eyes us.
“Authorities have been called?”
“Yeah.”
“I should contact some of the pack leaders around here, see if they know anything, and damn, there goes my relaxing Sunday.”
He pulls out his phone and gets to work, calling up whoever he can find, asking them to meet. It leaves Glenn and me to stare into the abyss, the faint hint of magic still lingering in the surrounding air.
I don’t know who did this or why. I don’t know how they leveled an entire construction site, but someone is going to need to find out before they do more damage.
The cops show up eventually, but are just as perplexed as we are, offering no solutions, but documenting everything. Photographs are taken, our statements are written down, and by the time we’re back at Glenn’s, we’re both exhausted.
“Gods, that was hours of our day,” Glenn murmurs, flopping down on the couch and kicking off his shoes. He extends his arms outward, and I crawl up against him, draping my body over his.
“They really didn’t know who did it, or have any idea?”
“Yeah, that’s what I got from it. I mean, I know Timberwood was having issues with that small group of protestors, but then they disappeared. So, I figured it had been resolved.”
“Apparently, something wasn’t entirely right. Because I’m positive it was some kind of magic that did that.”
“Could have been anyone. Jericho is trying to hunt down the security guard. Hopefully, he saw someone or something to give us a hint of what could have happened and why.”
“Oh,” I sit up slightly and stare down at him. “He was weird. I had bad vibes when I spoke to him, but I brushed it off as nothing.”
“Me too. He didn’t have a scent, which was weird. Don’t want to blame the guy if he’s innocent, but it is possible he could be behind this. We just don’t know.”
My mind spins as I sink back into Glenn’s embrace, trying to make sense of it all.
“Do you think Red was involved?” I finally ask, and Glenn grunts.
“Could be. Wouldn’t put it past that fucker. Although he was up north when this happened. Forest got back to me. They’re still all up there, sorting through their own mess.”
“Right. But Red is tied to a fae, or that’s what Ten and Jex said, and they were both here in town at one point.”
“Yes, and if this is his doing, he’ll have to answer for it.”
“I should let Attie know…”
“Yes. But don’t worry yourself too much. No need to involve yourself with people who don’t truly appreciate you.”
“They don’t, do they?”
“They don’t. I mean, Attie does, but the rest of the pack…I didn’t like how they treated you. So, call him later, maybe after a bath and a cup of tea.”
“I just really hope it wasn’t a fae who did this. Because if that’s the case…gods, that would be so bad for me. I’m existing on the fringes here already. No one will trust me anymore.”
“No one will blame you, Arbor. You’re still part omega. You belong here. And you’ll have me by your side. You’ll be my mate,” Glenn says, his hands rubbing up and down my back soothingly.
“We aren’t mates yet. We haven’t bonded.”
“But we will be when you’re ready. I’ll make sure you and everyone else have no doubt where you belong.”
That makes my chest expand, and I wiggle against him, leaning up to kiss him deeply.
When we finally part, I let him pull me up and toward the bathroom. He runs the bathwater, strips us both naked, and sits me between his legs in the tub. His hands move up to my shoulders, massaging gently, making my muscles loosen and my head loll back.
I feel his fist twist around me, tightening around my cock and stroking. I slide onto his lap and ride him slowly in the tub, water sloshing over the edge as our lips and tongues tangle, my body takes his.
When we finally step from the water, it’s lukewarm and our skin is the texture of raisins.
We fall into bed, still damp and heaving.
And as soon as Glenn’s soft breaths tell me he’s asleep, I reach for my phone and let Attie know what happened, who I think could be behind it, and let him do whatever he wants with the information.
Glenn is right. Attie may love me, but the pack doesn’t truly respect me.
I’ll focus on myself, on Glenn, and on keeping my job or finding another. And if Red is involved, the Crimson Howlers can take it from here.