“It’s still gorgeous down here, cold though,” I say, brushing his hair off his face.
“Yeah, it’s on the ridge. I reckon in twenty minutes we’ll be battering down the hatches. I double checked at the gas station, and there’s blizzard warnings in place.”
Okay, I’ve never dealt with snowstorms but something about blizzards and warnings has me stressing out. “I’ll go get the others, you go in and talk to King.”
“He’s not going to thump me for blowing on his girl, is he?”
“Well,” I grimace. “I want to say no but…” I tease. Although I’m not a hundred percent sure King won’t punch him either. The both of us go our separate ways. After a quick snog on the stairs just in case.
Following the front path around the worn track to the back I get another glimpse of the lake and the incredible view. It is stunning. Each step I take seems to make the view get better too.
Once I’m at the back of the house, I look away from the water and see the owners have made good life decisions, installing a hot tub on one corner of the large outdoor patio. Snowstorm or not I am getting in that and watching the moon rise while we’re here, hopefully naked with someone or everyone.
Tyson and Steel are locked in silence, both of them staring over the water.
“Hey,” I call out. Tyson swings around to face me while Steel keeps watch in the other direction. “Maverick’s back. We’ve apparently got some bad weather coming through pretty soon.”
Tyson walks towards me and I all but inhale everything about him; he really is such a good-looking person. I’d stop and chat too, but my attention jumps to Steel when I see his shoulders slump. Instead of stopping to talk with Tyson, I reach out for his hand as a small hello as I pass.
“Am I risking life if I talk to him?” I ask quietly.
“No. He’s got a lot going on, but Steel is a good person. He might have forgotten that, but that’s on me.”
“Okay. Then you better go help Maverick cause he’s in the house alone with King.”
Tyson’s eyes flare wide, but it’s mostly in good humour. He lets my hand go and jogs up to the house leaving me wondering what the hell I’m trying to achieve in offering Steel who I have never met some sort of comfort.
I walk heavier than a model during her first viewing. The classes at Unity taught me how to approach a distressed Alpha so I don’t spook him. I can’t even imagine how Steel must feel even only knowing part of the story, a part of me hurts and the need to comfort him is instinctual.
Stopping behind him, there’s no way he wouldn’t know I’m here but the pause I take isn’t about giving him time it’s because I need a minute. Before I face him to get my bubbling anxiety and swirling emotions under control.
Despite being complete strangers I feel his emotions as if they were my own. Part of that is being a good person and empathetic to his suffering but the other side is he too is my scent-compatible Alpha.
I take another deep exhale before I start to speak. “Steel, I honestly had no idea who Tyson was when I met him. And the same with Maverick. I’m sorry if my actions hurt you but it wasn’t my intention. I’m not that sort of person.”
He scoffs, and it’s an ugly noise but it suits today’s events.
It defies logic how the five of us ended up here at the same time, the same place; it’s either a complete stitch up or its proof of serendipity and fate.
“I’m not staying,” he snaps. His voice is harsh like a bark, and it echoes over the eerie stillness of the lake. While his words tell me he’s going, his butterscotch scent fills the gap in our conversation telling me loud and clearly the opposite of what he’s saying.
I’m sure it would be as confusing to him as it is to me, it seriously sucks ass having two opposing forces live inside you sometimes. They are generally in equilibrium but sometimes the more primal side overrides the logical side.
Like now, the heady rush of his damn near sublime scent creeps past my defences confirming how right nature got our connection. I breathe through my mouth and start hoping like hell the suppressors do their thing. It’s lucky Heidi gave me a batch of Verdune’s new suppressors, the cheap ones would be completely ineffectual against the draw I feel to Steel.
“Not sure it’s an option anymore,” I say once I have a firmer grip on myself. I keep trying to avert my gaze away from him, but the pull he has on me is magnetic and I stop fighting against trying not to look at him. He’s actually taller than Tyson, a bit bulkier but now I know they’re brothers it’s pretty obvious.
And when he drops his head again, a switch flips in my head and without being able to stop myself I curl around his back like a snuggly blanket trying to infuse him with my warmth and compassion. It’s ridiculously dangerous the way I hug him from behind, the Omega Mothers would be distraught if they saw me now, but either they never properly taught us, or I don’t ever remember them explaining the drag an Omega feels towards her Alpha.
“I’m sorry. I don’t ever want to come between what you have with them.” The words come from a different place since I’m responding to him on an Omega/Alpha level.
“We’re good,” he mumbles, one hand patting my arm like we’re strangers. And we are. Scent compatible strangers.
It’s hard letting him go and there’s a part of me that actually aches, but his discomfort is impossible to ignore. And then I’m fighting another futile battle as I try to stop his scent imprinting on me.
I get another confirmation of how creepy that whole Jacob, Renesmee thing was after this being the fourth time it’s happened, but I also get another reminder of how instinctual and involuntary the process is. For me at least. Whatever happens next is up to Steel.
Chapter
