Chapter 2: Jericho
The omega was afraid, that much was for sure. Not that I could blame him - he didn’t give me the details, but I already knew he’d escaped from Scarlet Ridge pack and then immediately got stuck in one of my traps. Still, I hoped he would warm up after the initial shock passed.
He was a cute guy. Ruffled dark hair, dark intelligent eyes and a sharp expression. He always on edge, always looked suspicious. I guessed that was his way of keeping himself safe in Scarlet Ridge pack. I’d never been there personally, and I never wanted to, but I’d heard enough bad shit about it from my friend Charlie, who had escaped from that pack months earlier. Mason must have been through a similarly awful experience.
“So…” I began as we entered town. “Scarlet Ridge, huh?”
Mason shot me a glare. “What about it?”
“You escaped, right? How’d you do it?” I asked, hoping that wasn’t too forward.
He shrugged and looked away. “It was just pure luck. This weird guy I’d never met came up to me in the middle of the night and said he could unlock my collar and let me free.”
“Your collar?” I asked.
He paused and looked around the street. People were milling around, going to coffee shops and taking pictures of themselves.
“I guess you don’t have them here,” Mason mumbled. “In Scarlet Ridge, every omega had to wear a collar that electrified us if we set foot off the territory.”
Shock ran through me. “What? That’s crazy!”
“It’s life in Scarlet Ridge,” he muttered. “Our top alpha went nuts after he lost an omega a few months ago. One that escaped to this very pack.”
My eyes widened as realization hit me. “You must mean Charlie,” I murmured. “He’s the only omega I can think of that fits that bill.”
“You know him?” Mason asked. An impressed expression crossed his face.
“Not only do I know him, but he’s a good friend of mine,” I said with a grin. “I should take you to meet him and his mate some time.”
Mason made a noncommittal noise. “Maybe.”
We continued to my house, which was in a small suburb behind the main streets where all the shops were. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Mason as he looked around. His eyes flickered with awe, even though he didn’t say anything. I’d heard Charlie often remark how different Indigo Mountain pack was from Scarlet Ridge - I supposed Mason was going through the same thoughts right now.
We came up to my front steps. It wasn’t a huge house - a cozy townhouse on the corner of the street in front of a ravine, just big enough to raise a family. Not that having a family was even on my mind right now. It’d be nice in the future, but right now, I was content with my life. Besides, I didn’t even have any omegas in my life to raise kids with.
Except Mason. But there was no way I was starting a family with him.
“This is the place,” I said, holding the door open for him.
“You didn’t unlock the door,” Mason said suspiciously, eyeing the keyhole. “Don’t you lock your door?”
I blinked. “No. Course not.”
We stared at each other for a moment like we were speaking two different languages.
“Why?” Mason asked bluntly.
“Don’t need to. In this pack, we’re all a family. It’s like stealing from a brother or sister. No one’s gonna break in and steal anything.” I bared a toothy grin. “And if they do, we just find them and smack some sense into them.”
Mason stared at me like I was the biggest idiot alive. “Okay,” he said simply, then entered the house. I followed him in and let the door close behind me.
“It’s not much, but it’s home,” I said, gesturing down the front hall. It lead to the kitchen, where large windows let in golden sunlight. Mason walked onto the tiled floor and stared around.
“Not much? Really?” he said sarcastically. “You should have seen the dump I lived in.”
I raised a brow and smirked. “You lived in a dump? Like with garbage?”
He glared at me as if to sayno, asshole. “It was a government assigned apartment. These windows are like, three times the size of the ones I had. And look at all this actual space you have. You’re not cramped like sardines in a tin can.”
