Hayden pushes away from the door and comes in front of me. “I noticed it too, but I figured it was because she and West were just having sex.”
“Have you taken your suppressants today?” Kole frowns, his nose twitching as well. “Not that you do not smell amazing, but it could be indicative of—”
“My heat,” I groan, palming my face. “No, the suppressants were in the duffels with all our clothes. They must still be back at the car wreck.”
“Shit,” Hayden curses. “Do you think Adela could get us some more?”
“I’ve never had a heat before, so I don’t know exactly how they work, but from what I understand, if you take them after your symptoms have already started, it’ll make it less intense but it won’t stop it altogether.” I bite my lip, then dig through the clothing bag for clean underwear. “We can try, though.”
“I’ll go to the house and see if she can help,” Hayden says, running a hand through his hair.
I nod. “Do you want me to come with you?”
He shakes his head, giving me a weak smile. “It’s okay, Fireball. You deserve some rest.”
forty
Hayden
This place is crazy.
And I’m saying that as someone who grew up with a live-in house cleaner and a nanny that referred to me as “Master Hayden.”
The main house is easily twice the size of any of the other homes in the neighborhood, and the fact that there’s an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a tennis court to my left and a full gazebo and garden to my right makes me feel like I’m at a country club, not a home.
That fact only adds to my uneasiness as I leave the guest house and walk across the cobblestone path that leads to the back of the main home. I can’t shake the eerie as fuck feelingthat I’m being watched somehow.
The setting sun casts the yard in shadow, and I can’t help but think of all the spaces someone could hide if they wanted to catch me off guard. The back of my neck prickles with awareness, and I turn my head quickly, scanning the wall that surrounds the property.
There’s trees and bushes, but nothing that makes me think there’s someone actually watching us.
I’m probably just off. Maybe it’s the fact that I just watched my omega put a knife through my piece of shit dad’s brain, or maybe it’s the fact that I don’t feel guilty about it.
When I watched the blade embed itself in my sperm donor’s cold, heartless eye…when I saw the life leave it and the flames consume him, all I felt was…relief. I probably should feel bad. But once the fire engulfed his body, the same euphoria that always comes when I watch something go up in flames took over, and it was like I was in a trance. Able to witness firsthand my freedom from the man who always made me feel like I wasn’t good enough. Like nothing I did mattered.
He’s gone.
He can’t send me back to Thornfield, he can’t try to make me marry some random woman I’ve never met.
I’m free.
Well, free from my dad. There’s still the whole matter of escaping crazy cultists who think that betas are superior and alphas and omegas should be removed from society. I couldn’t believe all the bullshit he was spewing when he had Jo strapped to that table. How had I never seen it before? I suppose I had only ever seen a different version of the same mask he wore with the rest of the country.
When I reach the back of the main house, there’s a few different doors to choose from. They all look the exact same though, so how the hell do I know which one to go through? Deciding that picking the door closest to the middle of the house is probably the best option,I approach it with more confidence than I feel. I frown down at the doorknob. Is it…unlocked? What am I going to do if it isn’t? Maybe I’ll just try the rest of the doors, and if that fails…I’ll send out a smoke signal or something.
My fears are unfounded though, because the knob turns easily, and I crack it open, stepping inside a small sitting room.
Whoops. Guess I came in the wrong door.
“Hello?” I call out, taking another step. There’s a fireplace, two arm chairs, and a couch, all in the same gods-awful floral fabric that I can tell is scratchy as hell.
There’s a door to the right, as well as straight ahead. I know I need to just pick one and commit, but before I can, I hear footsteps and a hushed voice coming from just outside the door ahead of me. It's cracked open, and without thinking, I tiptoe over to it, hiding behind the door.
A female voice speaks quietly, but I don’t think it’s Adela. “...Yes. Five of them total. Three alphas, one beta, and a red-headed omega…” The voice goes quieter again, and I find myself leaning closer to the door, wondering what the hell is going on.
“Hayden?” The sound of Adela’s voice from behind me has me jumping. When I turn, she’s staring at me in confusion. “What are you doing?” Her hand rests on her belly as she stands in the doorway that I ignored only seconds before, and she looks even more tired than she did back at Thornfield.
“Hey,” I say quietly, taking a few hurried steps away from the door so whoever is talking outside the door doesn’t hear me. “I was just looking for you. We lost Jo’s heat suppressants when those assholes crashed into us. Is there any way we can get a hold of more?”
