CHAPTER SIXTEEN - COLT
I open my eyes to a pitch-black window and an empty bed. The attic bed, and for a moment I reach for Charlie, before the truth comes crashing down.
Charlie’s dead.
The attic isn’t just empty; it’s a no man’s land that I usually avoid like a splinter in the dick.
Why the fuck am I up here again?
I squirm on the pillow, and the scent of vanilla and salted caramel fills my nose.
Oh, Baggage. That bundle of trouble with haunted eyes and a smile that knocks your heart into your ribs. Not to mention the kind of slick that turns the air into saltwater taffy.
Hmm. I trail a hand down my chest, running a thumb over the waistband of my sweats.
I can feel my skin tingling at the attention, and I’m tempted to grab my cock, give it a little more of the TLC I’ve been denying it for so long.
But jerking in any empty bed doesn’t have the same appeal as doing it with Baggage’s slick pussy on my lap and her sweet flavor on my tongue.
I groan and press my head back into her pillow.
Fuck, that messy, hands-free release was the best thing I’ve felt in months. Which makes me all kinds of a shit, since Baggage is Charlie’s sister, and casual sex with her has to be a new low, even for me.
Okay. I’ll admit, until Charlie came along, that’s all I thought sex was meant to be.
Heat. Friction. Release.
A connection that lasted an hour - if I was in a generous mood - but never went deeper than the surface of my skin.
Yeah, I was a selfish asshole, but Charlie taught me different.
He made me care about all the parts – from his weird, overlong second toe, to that velvet patch of skin behind his ear – but also the nights where it was just cuddles, and kisses, and sleepy talk that I didn’t even remember in the morning.
Mate stuff, which is why I shouldn’t be thinking about his sister while I palm my hard, hungry cock.
I bite my lip in punishment, but my thigh muscles are already tingling.
And who can blame me after the way Baggage rode my lap like a golden-eyed goddess?
Her gaze sizzled on my skin like sunburn, and when I smelled her slick in the air, I was suddenly ravenous for more.
I wanted her hands on me, and her tongue in my mouth, and for a moment I’d thought about taking it.
Just rolling over her and sweeping her up until she was panting and writhing on my knot…
Instead, all I gave her was a little hands-free show and a puddle of drool on her pillow.
What the actual fuck is wrong with me?
My lust shrivels faster than frostbite on my nuts, and I roll over to stare at the three portraits propped against the wall.
Charlie’s art, which you can tell is worthy of a fancy gallery wall despite the inch of attic dust. But then, he always saw the world he wanted, instead of the one that kicked him in the face.
Goddamn, it’s too early – or late - for heartbreak.
I heave myself off my bed, grabbing a stick of chewing gum out of my pocket to fight the nausea I get just from putting two feet on the floor.
I need a drink. Or maybe a shower. I pause to smell my pits. Yep, definitely scrub-a-dub time. Maybe I can multitask and have a drink in the shower. Better yet, maybe I can entice Baggage to join me, and I won’t need a drink at all.
I click my tongue at my wayward brain. I need to remind it that fraternizing with a saltwater taffy omega is off limits, by order of our pack alpha. In fact, all the good stuff is on lockdown… except for ice cream. The big dog hasn’t put a leash on that sweet treat just yet.
Maybe that’s where Baggage has snuck off to, I muse as I weave my way through Hog’s furniture graveyard. Maybe she’s a secret midnight snacker, and right now she’s nose deep in a tub of chunky monkey.
I grin at the thought of creeping into the kitchen and busting her. Maybe I’ll steal her spoon right out from under her button nose, and watch it scrunch up in outrage when I lick it clean.
Fuck, she might be trouble, but it’s good to have someone to tease again.
Axel couldn’t find his sense of humor with a topo map and a pair of NODs, and joking around with Hog is exactly like poking a bear.
But Baggage gets this evil look in her eye and dishes it back with an extra dose of pinchy fingers.
Except for last night. That was… something else.
Because under all the cheeky banter, I felt something. A connection that went deeper than a warm body on my lap and an afterglow that chased me into my dreams.
Anticipation tingles in my belly as I pad out of the attic, and I try to work out why Baggage is so hard to ignore.
On one hand, she’s kinda plain in the looks department.
A smudge more than a person, with a permanent sneer on her pouty lips.
But the first time I saw her, I perked up.
I wanted to reach out and grab her, just to see if she was as prickly as she looked.
Maybe it’s the eyes. A brittle gold more than hazel, and nothing at all like her brother’s soft brown. They’re cat’s eyes, too exotic in her pinched, pale face.
I can admit that I’m just hungry for company. Hugging big dogs and growly bears just isn’t the same, although right after Charlie died, we clung together like a bunch of soggy Kleenex.
Not that I couldn’t find a hug or two if I went looking.
It’s always been easy to get people to like me.
Comes with the territory when you’re an alpha with a ready smile and a pretty face.
But I’m pretty sure Baggage sees right through me, and damn if that doesn’t make me want to peel back some of her layers, too.
I thumb my puffy bottom lip, remembering how she bit down on it like she wanted to steal a piece of me.
It’s another bruise I’ll relish and I’m almost whistling as I run downstairs and into the living area.
I look around for Baggage, but the grin slides off my face as my coat hits me in the chest. Axel is at the counter filling a flask with coffee, his expression grim.
“She’s out there. We need to go check on her. ”
“Out where?” I glance at the door, my brows lifting. “She’s not… she left?”
I wait for him to scowl at me, to say that of course she’s not gone, she’s just crawling around on the roof again. But he sets the flask on the counter and grabs the medicine kit from under the sink. “She took the truck. We’re an hour behind.”
“An hour?” Irritation twists in my gut, and I jerk my jacket on. “What the fuck, Axel? Why did you wait so long?”
He holds up an arm, yanking back his sleeve to show me the broken zip tie dangling from his wrist. “Nice bracelet,” I smirk. “Wait up. Was it Baggage? She tied you up?”
I can’t keep the incredulity from my voice, since Axel has avoided any kind of bondage situation since he suffered through the real thing.
Three months at the hands of some fuckers who tested his SERE training to the limit.
But he let Baggage get the drop on him? And why exactly did she feel the need to tie him up in the first place?
Like always, he puts his mind-reading powers to good use. “She thought I’d stop her from leaving. She was pretty spooked. Seemed to think I’d command her to stay.”
He sounds slightly freaked about that, but I narrow my eyes at him. “Why? Did you try?”
“What do you think?” His nostrils flare, his scent souring. “You know I don’t do that shit unless it’s a life-or-death situation.”
I shrug, because Axel is honorable down to his marrow, but Charlie’s death has pushed all three of us to some dark places. “You’ve been a hardass to her since she arrived. Maybe she misread the situation and thought you were gonna lock her up again.”
He sighs and rubs his face, but then his gaze cuts to me, and some of his dominance leaks into the air. “What about you? Did you do or say anything to spook her?”
“Me?” Do I sound guilty? Yes. Is that a default setting for me?
Also, yes. But my mind is scrambling, still a little stunned that Baggage would take off in the middle of the night.
It doesn’t make sense, especially since I’m literally digging her escape route so we could take her down the mountain in a couple of days.
Why the urgency? Why was she so spooked?
A cold thought stops me dead. Was it because of what happened between us?
I thought she was okay with it, but maybe I triggered her somehow…
I glance at Axel, who’s still studying me like a bug under a microscope.
I don’t need to tune into our pack bond to know he’s sick to the back teeth of my shit.
When our omega was a buffer between us, he was prepared to forgive a lot, but Charlie was his scent mate first and foremost. I loved him, and he loved me, but Axel balanced us out.
Charlie needed a steadying hand, someone to remind him to slow down and guard his six, and all I wanted to do was give in to his every reckless desire.
“I didn’t spook her,” I say quietly, “but I might have crossed a line. Not intentionally, but stuff happened. Maybe she regretted it.”
Axel gives me the look that deserves. “She’s Charlie’s sister and our responsibility. Get your goddamn head on straight, Colt.”
I try not to flinch, but it’s hard when your pack alpha is leaking disappointment into your bond. “It’s straight. I thought we were on the same page… But if I scared her, I’ll make up for it. I promise.”
His nostrils are still white with disapproval, but he finally relents and tosses the flask and med kit into a rucksack. “We need to move.”
I nod and glance at the clock over the stove. It’s half-three, but still pitch black outside, and I’m suddenly struck by a logistical issue. “Wait, if she took the truck...”
“We take the skis.”