Page 113 of Beg for It

“Please,” he gives me those big puppy dog eyes and for a moment I ask myself who’s the omega between the two of us.

He’s being surprisingly… good. Like he’s on his best behavior. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re around other people we go to school with, or he’s up to something.

“You won’t be alone,” he continues. “I’ll be with you.” He grins. “Come on. It will be fun.”

“Fine.” I sigh. “You know what, maybe it will be.”

“That's the spirit.” Lee wraps his arm around my shoulder, pulling me towards the other group of people. He introduces me to a few other student council people.

Once everyone is here, they do this big speech, break us up into groups and tell us what we need to do.

“Alright, ready?” Lee asks, looking at his own paper.

“Sure, why not.”

It’s not that I hate the outdoors, I enjoy it, I do.

But going on an evening hike isn’t what I had planned. What's the point? It’s going to get dark in like an hour or so.

We head down one of the trails, my eyes slowly scanning the trees.

Everything on this list is very generic when it comes to scavenger hunts. Feather, leaf, flowers, rocks. But there’s a twist. They can’t just be any, but a specific kind.

The one I think is going to be the hardest is the eagle feather. Like really?

“Baby, you need to cheer the fuck up, because your funk is putting me in a funk.” Lee bumps my shoulder.

“Sorry.” I blow out a breath. “You're right.” I nod. “Alright. Let’s get started.”

Over the next hour, we blow through the list. Lee’s keen eye is amazing. And, oddly enough, the eagle feather is one of the first things we get. Just so happens there’s a nest nearby. Lee climbed the tree and lucked out that there were a few in there.

The thing I’m having the hardest time with is finding wild roses. Not a single one in this damn park. How? They're all over the surrounding area of the school.

“Holy shit!” My eyes widen when I see a field just down the trail. “I think I see some!”

Leaving Lee, I take off down the trail towards the field. A rush of pride fills me when I bend down and grab one of the flowers, adding it to the basket.

Grinning, I stand, eyes finding the sun that's starting to set. “And just in time too.” I murmur to myself, then turn around to go back to Lee.

Only when I look around, I don’t see him.

Maybe he hasn’t caught up yet. He was pretty focused on texting River. The guys got caught up with work, that’s why they weren’t here.

I think they just didn’t want to be. Scavenger hunts don’t seem to be something they would enjoy. Brooks would get pissed off the longer it took to find things. He would have probably cheated and just taken items other people already found.

“Lee?” I call out, a little unease filling me as I walk back in the direction I last saw him. “Henley?”

Panic starts to creep in as I realize I’m alone. Where the fuck is he? Where did he go? He wouldn’t just have left me out here alone would he?

“Lee!” I shout, heading back down the trail we came down. “Lee, this isn’t funny.” Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I pull up his contacts and call him.

Bringing the phone to my ear, I stop walking and look around as it rings. After a few rings, it goes to voicemail.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” I grumble. I’m not familiar with this park, and with the sun going down, I don’t want to go looking for him and get lost.

I think the best thing to do is go back to the meeting point and let them know about Lee and call the guys.

Worry takes over me. What am I even thinking about? I can’t leave Lee out here. What if something happened to him? What if he’s hurt?