Walking through the place is like walking in an alternate reality. Though it’s the size of a mansion, it is, for all intents and purposes, a wooden cabin. It might have all the amenities peoplewith money have come to expect and want, but it’s rustic and has a type of old-world charm to it.
Not a place I’d want to stay forever, but maybe I could treat this as a little vacation of sorts, until my heat starts. My twenty-first birthday is in roughly two weeks. Plenty of time to get settled in and ready.
We go to the grand staircase, where Asher leads me up to the second floor. The right side of the hall is open over the railing, and you’re able to overlook the living room, which has giant ceilings and equally large windows on the far wall, which let in a ridiculous amount of light.
The last room down the hall is the heat room. The walls and door are thicker, I imagine soundproof. There’s a huge bed situated in the center of the room, along with an attached bathroom that looks as though it has a gigantic tub in it.
All meant for activities with multiple people. I try not to think too much about Asher’s parents getting down and dirty here.
“If you don’t want to stay here, you can take the room next door,” Asher is busy saying as he watches me study the room.
I set my bags down at the foot of the bed before I turn toward the alpha and say, “No, here is fine. Might as well start nesting early, right?” I mean it as a joke, but I don’t think it comes across as one, nor do I think Asher takes it jokingly, either.
“Whatever you want.” He enters the room and places the few bags he brought next to mine. My clothes, the other bathroom incidentals I bought at the store. You’d be surprised what you needed for a three-to-four week stint somewhere that wasn’t your house. “I’ll grab the other bags from the car if you want to start unpacking.”
I don’t know what makes me do it, but my hand shoots out, and I grab him by the arm, stopping him. His green gaze is expectant when he looks down at me, and I’m momentarily struck by just how handsome he is.
He grew up into a fine-looking alpha, that’s for sure. Maybe… maybe if things wouldn’t have happened as they had, we wouldn’t be strangers right now. Maybe we’d be together.
But that’s a thought I shouldn’t have, and I push it far away as I tell him, “In case I don’t ever say it again, thank you for this, Asher. Thank you for taking a chance and helping me.”
His mouth tugs into a smile, but it’s a sad smile that makes my chest tight. All he says is “It’s no problem, Jess,” but I can tell there’s something more he wants to say. Maybe he’s thinking about what he did all those years ago, too. Maybe he’s wondering what life would be like if my parents had never gotten into that accident.
We stare at each other a bit longer before I let my hand slide off his arm, though neither of us say another word. The air around us is suddenly so heavy, stifling, like it’s hard to completely fill my lungs.
When I take my hand off him, I step back and look away. It’s only when I hear Asher’s footsteps trailing out of the room that I lift my gaze and watch him go.
For some reason, I feel the same way I felt at the Omega Garden when I watched that über alpha walk away from me. It’s not a good feeling, like ice in my veins, an intense pressure surrounding my heart.
Oh, boy. This isn’t going to be as easy as I thought, huh?
Chapter Five – Asher
The moment we stepped into the cabin, I knew something was off. It didn’t really hit me, however, not until I left Jess in the heat room. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but as I walked down the stairs, I decided to take a detour to the kitchen, and in that kitchen I found…
Food.
Yeah, I found food.
That means someone has been here. That strange thing in the air? It’s the faint scent of another person. That person isn’t here right now, but they could come back at any moment. The oddest thing is, no one is supposed to be here.
And there’s only one person who’d be here without telling anyone else.
Crap. This might make things difficult. Or awkward. Or both. Only time would tell.
I leave the kitchen and head to the garage, grabbing my first round of bags for the kitchen. Food of all kinds, snacks, easy-to-make meals that don’t require a ton of time. Jess wanted to stock up, and I wanted her to have everything she could possibly need; it’s why I helped pay for some of it.
Plus, I’ll be staying here too, to make sure she’s all right.
I leave the bags on the island in the kitchen and go for another round—and what would you know, it’s when I’m loading myself up a second time that another vehicle pulls into the garage, a vehicle I am keenly familiar with.
My older brother, Mason, gets out of his sleek and shiny black car and stares at me over the roof of it. Like me, he keeps his yellow hair short. Unlike me, he has a bit more color to his eyes; they’re more of a hazel color than a straight-up green. Afew years older than, along with two or three inches taller, he’s the basic definition of an über alpha.
Big. Muscular without effort. Comes off as mean more often than not.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” my brother, Mason, huffs.
“I could ask you the same question,” I throw back.
