Chapter 11
Ash
“Hold on!” I slap the side of the car, jogging to keep up. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Stop this car right now, Reed!” Bram shouts from the other side, running alongside the passenger window.
Reed’s hands are white-knuckled on the steering wheel, the car rolling down the driveway. The engine screams in second gear, kicking up a rooster tail of dust.
“I’m not waiting here a second longer while our scent match is trying to hide her distress by helping Jenna prune some trees or whatever!” Reed shouts, staring straight ahead.
“Goddammit, Reed.” I slow down just enough to let his window pass, manage to yank the back door open, and jump into the backseat.
“What the fuck is this all about?” Bram jumps into the passenger seat, slamming the door.
“I’m fixing it,” Reed says, his jaw locked tight.
“Fixing what?” I ask, my brows furrowing. The scent of Luna’s distress still clings to his clothes—to all of ours—making my Alpha demand I go back to her and pull her into my lap. He better have a damn good reason for making me get away from her.
“That fucking retreat.”
“And what’s your plan exactly,” Bram scolds. “Run the car into the place?”
Reed wrenches the wheel and floors it, tires screaming and kicking up gravel as the car fishtails onto the asphalt of the main road.
“You realize what I said earlier about the owner was complete bullshit, right?” Reed says, flooring it.
“Didn’t even talk to the guy directly, and I could already tell he was the biggest douchebag I’ve ever come across.
There’s zero chance Luna will get her retreat spot back.
So I’m going to have a civil conversation with the owner and make sure her problem goes away. ”
“And you decided to do that alone?” I lean forward between the seats, gripping the back of Reed’s headrest. “Screw you, man. She’s our scent match too.”
“Yeah, assface,” Bram adds. “Don’t you know conversations go better when there’s someone to play good cop and bad cop?”
“Well,” Reed says, a smirk breaking through his scowl. “I could’ve driven away faster, don’t you think?”
I lean back in my seat and let out a long breath. Good cop, bad cop, right. Without me, the only thing these two will achieve is getting Luna banned from that place for life.
***
“Hi, I’d like to speak to the owner.”
The receptionist looks up at me, then her eyes go wide as they sweep over the three of us. I suspect having an alpha pack loom over her river-stone desk has to be intimidating, no matter how serene the waterfall walls behind us are meant to make this lobby feel.
“S—Sure, let me get him.” She slides out from behind the counter and slips down a hallway lined with framed mandalas.
“This place must use an awful lot of water,” Bram mutters.
“Shhh. Who cares? Let’s focus,” Reed mutters back.
“You shhh,” Bram replies, jabbing an elbow into Reed’s ribs.
I exhale slowly and step between them, planting a hand on each of their shoulders to ease them apart. “How about you two let me handle this one? No reason we can’t do this the easy way, right?”
Two matching grunts. They cross their arms in unison and turn their heads the opposite way.
I swear, they’re two overgrown six-year-olds...
A few moments later, Chloe returns with the owner trailing her. She slides back into her chair behind the counter, and he stands next to her—linen mandarin collar, perfectly styled blond hair, and a string of wooden beads.
“Namaste, I’m Jake, the owner,” he says, pressing his palms together. “How can I help you?”
“Hi.” I give him my easiest smile. “We’re here because there’s been a misunderstanding regarding Luna Sae’s reservation, and we’d like to sort it out.”
“Ah, yes,” Jake says, tilting his head. “Chloe told me about it earlier and I hear your frustration. The thing is, from our side, we simply received a priority letter from Ms. Sae asking to cancel her stay. We processed it, and now her spot has been automatically reassigned.”
I feel my brothers’ scents spike on either side of me. The air in the lobby becomes heavier. “Well, that’s the thing.” My smile holds. “The letter wasn’t from her. It was fraudulent. I’m sure we can—”
“Unfortunately, our energetic container has a strict capacity limit,” Jake says, his voice soft. “Expanding it arbitrarily would disrupt the collective vibration of the other guests’ journeys.” He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.
“Come on,” Reed says, his voice dropping low. “You’re saying this huge place can’t accommodate one more person?”
Jake straightens his linen shoulders. “I don’t think you understand feng shui, man. We curate a very specific flow of energy here. Balance is paramount.”
“Are you kidding me?” Reed plants his hands flat on the counter, leaning his weight forward. “We’re talking about a woman whose identity was stolen and you’re going on about energetic flows?”
“I’d think a place like this would care about an innocent guest being defrauded,” Bram adds. “Come on, there has to be something we can do.”
Jake sighs. “Well, I suppose... if I stretch our resources to the absolute limit, maybe we could rework the feng shui of our facilities to accommodate Ms. Sae.”
“Really?” Reed says enthusiastically. “That’d be awesome. We can even help—”
“But restoring that balance,” he adds, his voice dropping an octave, “would require an... equivalent exchange. To make up for the disruption.”
Reed’s mouth opens, but no sound comes out.
“Forgive me.” I pull my phone from my pocket and tap the screen to check the time. “I think my brain’s running on fumes, it’s past noon already and I haven’t eaten much, so... may I ask what you mean by that exactly?”
Jake maintains a serene, practiced smile, his hands resting on his wooden beads. “Of course, my friend. Basically, making all these expedited adjustments takes time and expertise. And time, well... time isn’t free.”
Bram stares at him. “Are you out of your mind? So you do have space and you’re trying to squeeze more money out of an unfair situation?”
“I am just offering a solution, bro.” He rests a hand near the desk phone. “But if you continue to flood my lobby with this hostile energy, I will have to ask security to handle you.”
The air goes thick as Reed’s hands curl into fists and Bram lifts his chin, dropping a hand to his belt.
Shit, of course these shitheads are ready to scuffle.
“Ahem.” I lift a hand to each of my brothers’ chests, easing them back a step. Then I unlock my phone, still in my hand, thumb open an audio file, and angle the screen toward the owner. “Would you still keep the same opinion after I post your ‘solution’ on social media?”
Jake pales. “What is that?”
“Audio proof,” I say, “of you trying to extort an omega for cash after she was the victim of fraud.”
The color drains from his face, leaving him chalky under the warm lights. He looks at the phone, then at the two massive alphas ready to dismantle his lobby.
I tilt the screen toward him, offering an easy smile. “Do you have more to say? I’ve got thirty gigabytes of storage left if you’d like to tell us more about ‘equivalent exchanges’.”
Jake swallows hard.
“I... suppose,” he stammers, his voice barely above a whisper, eyes avoiding ours. “We could do a... gesture of goodwill.”
“And we’ll gladly take it,” I say, my smile still on.
“Well.” He arranges his face into something approximating a smile. “I’m glad we’ve reached a mutual... understanding. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have a meditation seminar to prepare for. Chloe will see to Ms. Sae’s reservation.”
He glances at Chloe, who is frozen behind her monitor, then quickly heads back down the hallway.
I look at her. “When you call Ms. Sae with the good news, would you mind not mentioning we were here?”
“O-Of course,” she stammers, her fingers already flying across the keyboard.
“Have a blessed day,” I tell her with a wink.
When we step out of the lobby, the silence rushes back in, broken only by the crunch of gravel under our shoes.
Reed lets out a sharp breath and claps a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Quick thinking back there with the recording, Ash. I was about two seconds away from tossing him in his own waterfall.”
“Yeah,” Bram says. “Even though recording him without consent is technically illegal. You took a hell of a risk, Ash. But... well done.”
I stop walking and look at Bram, then Reed.
“What recording?” I pull my phone out of my pocket, wake the screen, and hold it up for them to see. “That’s a recording of the broken tractor engine from three months ago.”
Reed stares at me for a beat, then a bark of laughter escapes him. He throws an arm over my shoulder, pulling me toward the parking lot. “Well done, brother.”
“How the hell did you know he’d buy the bluff?” Bram asks as we walk.
“Simple,” I say. “The fish bites the bait, not the hook.”
“I think you just channeled the owner’s frequency there, brother.” Reed claps a hand on my shoulder, laughing.
“Namaste, the fish bites the bait,” Bram adds, pressing his palms together and bowing.
“Hilarious,” I say, though I can’t keep the grin off my face.
They’re still going as we cross the gravel and pile into the car, slamming the doors behind us.
Reed jams the key into the ignition, and his hand freezes before he turns it, the laughter dying in his throat. Bram’s grin slips next. Then mine. The car goes quiet.
“So she’s actually going,” Reed says softly.
“Yeah,” Bram says quietly. He stares off toward the tree line, his jaw tight. “She is.”
My chest aches, damn.
It’s stupid. Scent match aside, I just met her. And yet, a part of me wishes we hadn’t come. That we’d let the cancellation stand so she’d be forced to stay with us.
Real classy, Ash.
“It’s better for her,” I say despite my thoughts, leaning back against the backseat.
“Yeah...” Reed says.
Bram twists in the passenger seat, looking at Reed, then me. “We’re her scent matches, she’ll be back. Besides, we still have today with her.”
For a long minute, none of us says a word. We just sit there, staring at the dash.
“Come on,” I finally say, clapping a hand on Reed’s shoulder. “Let’s go see her.”