CHAPTER 2 JARED
I toss and turn in bed. The sheets itch, and everything inside me is twisting into knots. I can feel this damn thing creeping closer. I don't know exactly when it'll hit because I can't afford to see my doctor and have him calculate the date. If I showed up there, maybe I'd draw their attention.
I've spent the last two months almost entirely locked inside Alex's small house, staying off my phone and avoiding anything that could leave a trace of me online.
If Alex didn't take Tommy out for walks and to the playground, my poor son would've been living like a prisoner through no fault of his own.
It's early morning, and I've been writhing in bed for over an hour. A warm patch of dampness spreads across the sheet between my legs. No, no, no! Damn it.
My eyes drift toward Tommy's crib.
I can't do this with a child in the room, so I drag myself out of bed.
On my way to the door, I grab my pendant and slip it over my neck. I always wear it. It's my ritual. Mark never knew where I'd gotten it. I told him it was a family heirloom.
I look around the hallway, listening intently.
Looks like Alex's already gone, phew!
He teaches at the college and he often has classes at inhumanly early hours. Maybe that's for the best.
In the bathroom, I wrap my fingers around my cock and close my eyes.
It helps speed things along when I imagine fantastical scenes completely detached from my actual life, like something out of movies about wizards, elves, and ancient gods.
I never visualize ordinary people; they’re always fairytale-like characters, and I’m enjoying their unreal world, one I have complete control over.
This time, I imagine myself drowning, and just as I’m sinking, the arms of a green, aquatic merman wrap around me, carrying me back to shore, and there… he’s claiming his reward.
My hormones are already running so high, and my body is so starved for release that… a dozen heated strokes later, I spill, aiming the warm stream into the toilet.
Goddamn it. The intensity of my orgasm makes me suspicious. Could my heat be just around the corner?
It couldn't have picked a worse time.
Yeah, I knew it was coming, but the fact that I came so quickly suggests that things are getting dangerous.
Frowning, I leave the bathroom and head upstairs to the small spare room, where I've set up my yoga mat. Lately, for lack of a good gym, I've been doing a mix of Power Yoga and Pilates. I’ve also managed to sneak in a few kettlebells, dumbbells, and resistance bands, but this is still pretty basic stuff, and I’d love to train the way I used to, with more professional equipment.
I work out every day to keep my body in top shape and be ready for a photoshoot at any time.
Not that I've had one in months, considering I've been hiding out here, but I haven't let myself slack off.
If anything, I've been training even harder, trying to burn off all that pent-up energy and keep my stress under control.
I start with a series of push-ups mixed with squats, but after a while, my body begins to protest. It seems to have something else on its mind. My thoughts drift into a pink haze, and random sexual images start flooding my head, which only frustrates me more.
It’s a fucking preheat, that’s obvious.
What am I supposed to do now?
How is Alex going to handle this? Will he take care of Tommy while I'm curled up in my room for days, riding an inflatable dildo?
Taking a deep breath, trying to push it all away, I walk over to the window and stare into the distance, lost in a fog of distracting thoughts.
The tall hedge separating the row of small houses where Alex lives from the neighboring luxury apartment complex catches my attention, its dark green foliage oddly soothing.
The longer I stand there, shooing the erotic reveries away, the more they're replaced by nagging worries, weighing on me with stress.
My past keeps trying to force its way back into my mind, dragging me toward fear and panic. Dark faces try to emerge from forgotten corners of my memory, and I fight to push them back down.
Damn, I’ll go crazy if I keep tormenting myself with the dreadful thought that they’ll come looking for me. Stop it, Jared!
My muddled mind searches for something to latch onto, and my gaze drifts down to the peace lily sitting on the windowsill.
The leaves have turned yellowish.
Alex must've overwatered it, and the roots are sick.
I gently brush one leaf with my fingertip and bite my lip.
Hmmm, what could I do for you, little green fellow? I rarely do this. That strange, unsettling feeling stirs inside me again; hiding deep, there's a force, or maybe only a dormant bud, something I've carried within me like a bizarre secret.
I let it awaken.
It comes reluctantly because I almost never practice it. The cool, tingling energy flows from my heart toward the plant. And little by little, the leaves regain their color, straighten, and lift.
A huff escapes me. I blink, breaking out of the trance.
Wow, it worked.
My hands fall to my sides, and my head spins. That alien feeling returns, but I smother it. I'm not used to doing this. I don't understand this mysterious power. I don't know what I could ever do with it, so most of the time I pretend it doesn't exist.
Suddenly, I hear a car engine in the driveway. I run to the other side of the house to check who it is through the window overlooking it. The person has already gotten out.
What the…
My mouth gapes in shock.
It’s Storm!
He approaches the house and knocks at the door.
Fuck! I wasn't expecting him at all.
For the first two weeks here, I believed he would show up. Every day, I looked out the window, hoping he would bring me good news about my True Mate.
Then, slowly, my hope began to crumble. A month passed, then two, and I started to doubt it would ever happen. In fact, I was preparing myself to reach out to Damien and ask the Omega Red Line Agency for help.
Now I rush down the stairs to open the door for him, my hands trembling and my heart pounding, but suddenly I realize that I stink of preheat, and he’s an alpha after all.
Mated, yes, but I don’t want to make the situation awkward.
Panicking, I rush back into the bathroom and strip out of my clothes, figuring they're already soaked with the scent of my preheat. I change, spray myself generously with pheromone-blocking deodorant, and only then do I run to answer the door.
Storm is already halfway down the path toward the driveway. Apparently, he's given up on me opening the door, so I hurry outside before he can leave.
"Hey! Wait!"
"Oh," Storm says, turning toward me with a wave. "I was starting to think you weren't home."
"I am, I am. Come on in."
My heart is pounding crazy. My blood pressure would probably blow the monitor. If he's here, maybe it means he found something for me.
Storm's massive frame looks completely out of place inside Alex's small house. He has to duck to get through the doorway, then pauses to glance around.
I raise a finger to my lips.
"Tommy's asleep. If you don't mind, let's keep our voices down."
"Of course," Storm murmurs. He looks around a little helplessly before finally walking over to the kitchen table and settling onto one of the stools.
He places a large tablet on the table.
I have no idea what any of this means. I watch what he's doing, but despite my confusion, hope keeps swelling in my chest.
"So, you've probably already given up, haven't you?"
He raises an eyebrow slightly, and I let out a long huff.
"You bet I have. I was already thinking about calling Damien and asking him to help me arrange some kind of safe house for me and Tommy."
Storm clasps his hands and straightens up, before speaking with emphasis.
"Jared, I don't even know if I really have anything to bring you. What's happened over the last couple of months is… hard to explain."
"I'm listening," I say, with a trembling voice. My fingers curl into fists, every muscle in my body pulled tight like a vibrating wire.
Storm studies my face for a moment, then turns on the tablet. I notice a map covering the screen, centered on a large stretch of green.
"You've got Instagram, which turned out to be a good thing.
I was able to use your pictures. I kept looking at them, trying to get a feel for your aura, but I had no idea what to do with it.
I didn't have the slightest clue how I was supposed to search for a True Mate when I'd never even seen the man. "
His finger taps a spot on the map, but not on a city. Just a patch of green.
"I tried using Damien's energy to strengthen my own abilities, hoping it would help, but I still had no idea what I was supposed to do with the excess of it.
Then I found myself staring at the map… drawn back to the same place over and over again, always to this one particular spot.
It seemed more important than anywhere else.
The problem is, it isn't even a settlement.
It's a forest near a small town called Rainbow Springs. "
"I don't understand," I whisper, staring at the sea of green.
"Neither do I," Storm admits reluctantly. The helpless look in his eyes tells me he's done everything he could, and this is all he has left to give me.
"Every time I'd look at your picture and then at the map, I'd end up focusing on this exact spot.
I don't know who lives there. Rainbow Springs is known as a tourist town, and the forests around it are full of upscale vacation cabins for wealthy people.
For a while I thought maybe your fated mate might be staying there, but…
I don't think anyone actually lives there year-round.
It's just a wooded area. I don't have anything else for you, Jared. I'm sorry."
I stare at the patch of map beneath Storm's finger, swallowing against the disappointment rising deep inside me.
"There's… nothing there. How is that possible? You don't have anything else? I'm supposed to just drive there blind?"