Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
We leave as soon as we get there. Malaki and Jamie meet us at the front before we can even get through the door, letting us know that Josie and Florence are ready to head back. By the guarded looks on their faces, I can tell something happened, but they don’t think it’s their place to tell.
I let it be, because I trust my mate’s judgment, but then I see Josie’s face when she walks out arm in arm with Flo.
She looks exhausted, her eyes flickering between all of us like she’s awaiting some kind of storm.
I’m about to ask her what’s wrong when Flo yawns and obnoxiously says, “So, where am I sleeping?”
I force out a laugh. “I got you a hotel room. Let’s go.”
The van ride is frustrating. Florence talks a mile a minute, keeping everyone occupied.
I can’t find it in myself to listen. All I want to do is comfort my omega, who is sitting diagonally from me in the middle row.
She’s as far away as she can possibly be, but I can still see the worry etched across her face.
Through all the scents, I can pinpoint her champagne scent, the edges of it burning into a chemical reaction while she stares out the window.
My alpha paces in my chest, wanting nothing more than to reach out and touch her, soothe her, but I can’t do anything. I can’t help her.
When we get into the hotel and go up to our floor, I turn to Flo and point over my shoulder. “Your room is this way.”
“Walk me?” she asks.
I swallow a sound of frustration, but Remi gives me a very specific look. “We’ll walk Josie back.”
Josie looks up at me—finally—and gives a small smile that instantly eases some of the tension in my chest.
“I’ll see you soon?” I ask her.
She nods. “Goodnight, Cyrus.”
When we turn the other way, the walk to Flo’s door feels like a million miles. Florence wraps her arm in mine, her blue eyes flashing with something soft. “You really like her.”
I nod. “She’s my scent match.”
“Well, yeah, duh, but I mean you like her. Not just that she’s your scent match. You like things about her; her personality, who she is.”
We come upon her door and I turn to face her. “Yes. Everything I learn about her seems to solidify that more and more.” I pause. “Did something happen at the club?”
Florence sighs. “There was a run-in with someone that Josie doesn’t like. She tried to give me cocaine.”
My stomach drops as a growl accidentally crawls up my throat. “What?”
She laughs. “Relax. Josie told her off. Besides, I wouldn’t have taken it. You should know me better than that.”
“Well, yeah, but you’re an adult now so I didn’t know if you’d want to experiment,” I snap. “Just don’t get involved with that shit. It’s the worst kind of poison.”
“Huh. She used the word poison too,” Flo muses.
Once my red vision clears, her words from a moment ago finally process. “Josie helped you?”
“It was really cool, actually. Josie tore into that girl.” She smiles. “She sounded just like you.”
Something about that information leaves me glowing. My heart swells, wishing I could see Josie in her rage when she discovered what was happening. I knew she was protective of Cleo, trying to help her in the same way, but knowing that she did that for my sister does something else to me entirely.
“I’m glad you have someone that’s just as fiercely loyal as you.”
She takes the keycard from my hand and slides it into the door. When she’s halfway in, she turns to me with a ribbing grin. “Go tell her how you feel, Cy. She won’t know unless you do.”
The walk back to my room feels like miles. I ponder if I should text Josie, ask to see her. I’m the only one who hasn’t texted her directly, worried that I’ll come on too strong, that she’ll be reminded of her best friend’s distaste for me and run the other way.
But my alpha is becoming too difficult to tamp down, his desire for her a well that has overflowed.
When I turn the corner, my steps slow to a stop. Delicious carbonation fills the air with an intoxicating bite woven in the notes. I look up and meet my scent match’s eyes—green pools of emerald that shine bright in this dimmed hotel hallway.
“Hi,” she says.
I can’t contain the smile that takes over my face. “Hey. I thought you went to bed.”
“I was going to, but… I wanted to talk to you first. Is that okay?”
“Of course, Josie. I always want to talk to you.” I gesture toward the door and guide her inside.
The guys are still lounging in the living room when we walk in, their drunken conversation meeting our ears. When they see us, they all holler in excitement.
“Bubbles!” Malaki exclaims like he always does when he sees her, his arms around Jamie. “Our beta is tired, so excuse me for missing out on the party, but I should get him to bed.”
Josie’s smile is sincere. “Take good care of him, Alpha.”
His cheeks blush. “Yes, ma’am.”
They disappear into their room, and then it’s just Remi. He looks at me intuitively, his stare piercing right through me.
“I’m going to head to bed too,” he announces before coming over to Josie’s side. “Goodnight, Omega.”
He leans down to kiss her, the touch tender. When she pulls back, her face is flushed, and she is breathing deeper than before. Her eyelashes flutter as she composes herself long enough to whisper, “Goodnight, Alpha.”
I catch my friend’s eye as he walks past me. He winks, and I choke on a cough as he finally goes into his room.
That little shit.
When Josie and I are alone once more, the energy crackles.
“Would you like to sit?” I ask her, gesturing toward the couch.
She’s frazzled, avoiding my eyes as she curls her nails in a repetitive motion before nodding. “Thank you.”
Her scent is subdued, but still just as glorious.
It hits me right in the chest, just as hard as it did in that hallway in Silver Records.
The memory flashes through my mind. Her eyes were red and swollen, her scent muddled by stress and anxiety, but when she looked at me, it had bloomed.
My sudden presence had frightened her, sure, but it had also taken away whatever she had been thinking about before, whatever was burdening her.
I scoot a little bit closer, close enough that our legs touch, and that same response happens. Her perfume spills out, lighter than before, less charged. She looks up at me finally, inhaling and letting her eyes close with a sigh.
“I know I looked like a twat earlier, with Flo at the venue,” I start. “I’m sorry about that, but my sister is… She’s trusting and sensitive. Watching her constantly people-please has made me a bit overprotective throughout the years.”
She nods, taking in my words. “I think you don’t give her enough credit.”
I chuckle under my breath. “That’s probably true. I haven’t seen her in a few years, especially since I came to America. So I probably don’t know how she is anymore, actually.”
She nods, still in her head. Her fingers aren’t fiddling anymore, though, which I count as a win.
“She told me what you did for her,” I confess.
“She did?”
“Yeah.”
She sighs. “I probably don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to the way you reacted earlier tonight, then. I was the same. I went a little bit crazy.”
“So I heard.” A big smile falls over my face. “I would have done the same thing. I appreciate you protecting her even if she was strong enough to handle it on her own.”
There’s another pause before she asks, “Why haven’t you seen her in a few years?”
I knew it was coming, but I’m still nervous to respond. Everything about my past life is where I want it to be: in the past. Bringing it up now, reliving it, feels like I’d be cutting myself open in places that have healed over. Exposed. Raw.
But Josie is slowly working towards being a member of my pack, one that I hold dear and wish to cherish. Our relationship is finally heading in the right direction, and I know being honest is the best way to keep it going smoothly.
“Growing up privileged is nice. I didn’t want for anything.
But the lifestyle, the way of being an heir was just bloody awful.
My parents had expectations for me, ways they wanted me to behave and act.
It didn’t help that they were complete arseholes about it.
Every day felt like waking up in a prison… until I met my pack, of course.
“Our estate was private and pretty far away from the place in Bristol where my pack lived. I met them by chance one day, when my mother took me to the local community center to sign off on a donation they made. They were all goofing around. Just a bunch of kids with nothing to do on a summer’s day, but it all led us to the same place.
We were inseparable from that moment on.
“My parents hated them, but we were pack. I knew it in my bones, knew that it would click in once we all designated. But we were teenage boys, and we were rowdy, and my father was volatile. He tried everything to wrangle me back into my cage, but I rebelled against him at every turn. They were worried about what this meant for their legacy, how I could handle the responsibility of it if I didn’t act the part, but I had no intention of doing so.
I just had to wait until it was time to leave, and at the first opportunity, I did. ”
“And that’s why Florence is now the heir to your family’s estate.”
I nod. “That’s my only regret, is leaving Flo with all the responsibility.
She now has those same expectations on her shoulders, which is why I’m extra protective of her.
We still talk all the time, so I know what she goes through at home with our parents.
I also know it’s probably worse because she’s dealing with the aftermath of my actions.
As much as I’m glad to have the life I do, I know it comes from making this selfish decision, one that she now has to live with the consequences of. ”
“Wow,” Josie says as she looks blankly at the ground.
“Yeah, I know. It’s a lot. I should have told you about it sooner, but—”
“No, that’s not why I’m surprised,” she says, cutting me off. “The way you just described your childhood… it feels eerily similar to mine.”
That has me arching a brow. “What? How?”
“My father is a congressman,” she starts, which has me turning my body further. My heart starts to beat wildly in my chest at her statement, curiosity bleeding within the divots.
“He and my mother only ever cared about his political career. We were in the public eye. They’re conservative. My whole life, they were trying to paint a specific picture of our family so things matched up with their belief structures, which are shit by the way.”
I nod, imagining just how traditional they must be if my own example is anything to go by.
“I had nannies who only ever called me Miss Rosewood because my mother told them to stop getting close to me. She fired anyone I had a close relationship with until one day, they all stopped trying. She wanted me to be this pretty doll that she could dress up; one that was quiet, respectable, and never had an opinion of her own. It was suffocating.”
“I’m so sorry, Josie,” I tell her. I move to hold her hand; she gives it an appreciative squeeze and smiles softly.
“I wanted to be the daughter they wanted. I tried so hard for so long to be that person, but it was so futile. I was miserable. Playing piano and getting good grades never gave me the parents I wanted. They were still nasty, still unattentive. And still, I wanted to please them more than anything.”
“What changed?” I ask.
She gives me a look, and I already know what she’s going to say. “I met Cleo. She was always herself. She was abrasive, but caring. Strong-willed, but kind.”
“We started a band because I knew it would push Cleo to go after what she wanted. She loved to sing, but she was afraid. She was distrusting of the world, and I wanted to push her any way I could to pursue her dream. And somewhere along the way, that dream became my own.”
“You fell in love with the music,” I guessed, smiling. I was the same. At first, it was a fun way to pass the time with my pack, but then we became more serious about it. We felt the most alive while performing, and it morphed into something greater. Something that could go the distance.
“Yes and no. At first, the music was still hard for me because of my years of forced piano. But guitar was different; it was electrifying. My uncle gave me my first guitar in his will, and my mother hated it. She hated the reminder of my uncle. She hated Cleo. She hated everything that wasn’t prim and proper in the way she wanted.
Rock music, tattoos. I guess you could say I started loving it because it gave me the freedom I wanted so badly.
” She flashes me a devious smile, one that makes my heart skip a beat.
“The more I veered away from the commands of my parents, the less they expected of me. It was addictive. But I won’t lie and say that it hasn’t made me wish my parents would change.
I think a little part of me will always wish for them to be the parents I deserved, but I’ve accepted that it won’t ever happen. ”
She’s right. Our childhoods were the same.
We both experienced the rough burden of our parents’ expectations, so much so that we acted out until they were relieved from us.
Something about that makes me feel closer to her.
Here we are, sitting as close as we can get, and yet this connection feels like we’re under each other’s skin.
The sensation is absolutely remarkable to my alpha, like we’re two souls finally forging our bond after lifetimes apart.
“Who knew we were so alike?” I ask rhetorically, cracking a laugh so I don’t cry, but she sees the emotion anyway. Her smile is gentle, her eyes a little wet. She puts her hand on my cheek.
“I think we did,” she replies. “Deep down.”
Her eyes stray to my lips and they suddenly feel dry under her gaze. She stares with hungry intention, the involuntary focus causing me to breathe deeper so I don’t lose all the air in my lungs.
I don’t have any reason to be scared anymore.
This person is meant for me, meant for my pack, and she has shown it in more ways than one.
Nothing can ruin this, not her friend that hates me or our controlling labels or even the public when they decide we’ve committed the ultimate sin of betrayal.
Not our influential parents, or our own fears and concerns.
None of it matters, because she is here, looking at me like I’ve hung the moon and stars.
And for her, I’d take them all down and put them back up again if she asked.
Josie pulls her eyes up to mine once more, her mouth parted, chest heaving. She carries every emotion, her heart plain to see on her sleeve; I can see the rush of soul as clearly as I can feel my own. She wants this, she wants me, and that’s enough to eradicate any doubt from before.
She furrows her brows, apparently seeing me just as candidly, seeing every thought and feeling even without a bond. Her eyes flash as I lean forward and kiss her for the first time.