Page 9
Chapter 9
Thorne
I pace the floor of our house, my phone clutched in my hand as I check the time. “Where the hell is he?”
Miller lounges on the couch, his dark blond hair messy and tension stiffens his shoulders. “He’ll be fine, Thorne. He always is.”
Finally, the door clicks open and Zane strolls in like he hadn’t been missing in action for nearly a day. My blood boils.
“Where were you?” I stalk toward him, jabbing my finger into his chest. “Two firemen died in that hotel blaze. Two! And you couldn’t answer your damn phone?”
“Back off.” He swats my hand away.
“No, I won’t back off. You can’t keep doing this to us. I’m going to have a heart attack worrying about you.”
“Then don’t worry.”
I sigh. “Join the company. Please.”
“That’s your dream, not mine.”
“I don’t dream, for fuck’s sake, Zane. I hope and pray every day that you come home.”
His jaw clenches. “Stop being so selfish.”
“Selfish? I’m trying to keep you alive!”
Miller steps between us. “Hey, both of you need to cool it. You are brothers. You love each other - that’s why you fight like this.”
“Stay out of it,” we snap in unison.
“Zane,” Miller continues anyway, “you need to consider how your choices affect others.”
I run my hands through my hair. “I can’t lose you, little brother. Not like mom and dad.”
“I wasn’t firefighting. While you two were getting your rocks off at Club Midnight, I was helping my omega give birth.”
The room goes dead silent.
“ Your what ?” Miller’s mouth hangs open.
“ My omega . I found her.” A smile breaks across Zane’s face. “She’s perfect. And she just had a baby.”
I grip the back of the couch for support. “You found your scent match?”
“Our scent match. Strawberries, lime, and tequila.” He nods. “Just like ours.”
Miller and I exchange shocked looks. We’ve all carried the same scent since presenting. It’s what drew us together. And now Zane claims he’s found an omega who matches?
“She’s real,” Zane insists. “And she needs me.”
“What do you mean ‘your omega ’?” I pace the room, my alpha instincts flaring. “She must have a pack, an alpha.”
“She doesn’t.” Zane’s eyes shine with something I haven’t seen since before his accident. “She went to an omega wellness center during her heat. That’s where she got pregnant.”
Miller leans forward. “And the father?”
“Unknown.” Zane’s smile grows wider. “She doesn’t know who he is, so I put my name on the hospital forms. She’s mine now. And so is the baby.”
“She sounds independent,” Miller muses.
That’s all we need. An omega who thinks for herself and got pregnant illegally.
Zane’s laughter breaks through my thoughts. “Independent? No. She’s lonely. And she stupidly thinks she isn’t good enough for an alpha. She wanted a baby so badly she lied to the center and told them she was on birth control.”
“She told you all this?” Miller’s eyebrows shoot up.
“She had no choice. She needed my help.”
Something twists in my gut. “What does she look like?”
Zane whirls on me, jabbing a finger in my direction. “Stop right there. She’s beautiful and funny. And she is everything you don’t want. But I do.”
“Does she think she’s yours?” I can’t keep the edge from my voice.
Zane shrugs, but his eyes gleam. “Not yet. But she will.”
A harsh laugh escapes me. “You idiot. She used you. She needed an alpha to keep her baby, and you fell for it.”
“Shut up.” Zane’s fists clench at his sides. “You don’t know her.”
“And you do? After what, a day—two?”
“At least I’m capable of feeling something for an omega. You’ll end up alone because no one will ever be perfect enough for the great Thorne Stone.”
The words hit like a punch to the gut. “You’re wrong. I found her once.”
“Bullshit.” Zane steps closer, his face twisted with anger. “If you had, you’d never have let her go.”
My shoulders slump as the fight drains out of me. “I searched for her.”
Miller pushes off the couch. “You never told us this before.”
“Because I felt like a fool.” I run a hand down my face. “I’ve never run after anyone before.”
“You’re not talking about Maya?” Miller asks.
The question hangs in the air. I can’t tell them about the omega with platinum blonde hair and pale green eyes. The one I thought was Maya. The one I can’t admit how close I came to making her mine.
And her scent was the same as the omega I smelled years ago.
I fucking should have claimed her, and then she would have been there when I woke up.
“What does she look like?” I ask instead. “This omega who you think is yours?”
“Red hair, beautiful green eyes.” Zane’s voice softens. “She’s taller than most omegas.”
I walk to the bar. “I need a drink.”
The sun glimmers on the water, casting a golden path across the waves. I stroll along the beach, my thoughts drifting like the tide. Rosie, my golden Labrador, darts ahead, her tail wagging furiously as she chases a seagull. The salty breeze brushes against my face, but it can’t clear the cloud lingering in my mind.
I reach down to scoop up a handful of sand and let it slip through my fingers. What the hell am I doing?
Rosie trots back, ball in her mouth, her big brown eyes pleading for me to throw it again. I chuckle softly and lean low to grab the ball from her.
As I throw it down the shore, my phone vibrates in my pocket. The sound pulls me from my thoughts.
“Miller?” I answer as I jog after Rosie.
“Thorne.” His voice is urgent. “The woman I was telling you about—the one with red hair who smelled of strawberries? She’s at the hospital with her baby.”
I stop mid-stride. “And?”
“It can’t be a coincidence,” he says, and I can almost hear him pacing. “I liked her scent and told her to come off scent blockers. She’s had her baby and...” He hesitates before continuing. “I was suspicious at the lack of alphas in her life. Not one of them wanted to stay behind and be with her, and she is still here by herself.”
“They could be busy.”
“I wouldn’t leave my omega at all, never mind if she was pregnant with a pack baby.”
My jaw tightens at his words. “You wouldn’t?”
“Would I fuck! Anyway, she has an appointment with Dr. Landers, and as soon as it’s over, I’m going to grab her notes.”
“Why are you acting weird?” My stomach churns with the possibility that he and Zane are right.
“I’m not being weird. There’s something about her Thorne. I have a sneaking suspicion that she might be the omega Zane helped.”
Rosie brings back the ball, dropping it at my feet, panting happily as if sensing my agitation.
“Talking of Zane. Did you ask where he was going this morning?” I ask.
“He just said he needed fresh air.” Miller’s voice pulls me back.
“All of a sudden he leaves the house for something other than work,” I reply absently, tossing the ball for Rosie again. “When he was a virtual recluse before.”
“Stop worrying about him. He’s twenty-one years old and can do what he wants to.”
I shove my hands into my pockets, feeling the weight of Miller’s words settle over me. “I know,” I mutter, pacing the beach, the waves crashing against the shore, mirroring the turmoil inside me.
“It was a freak accident, Thorne. Wrong place at the wrong time. He came through it.”
“He nearly died,” I snap, frustration bubbling up.
“But he didn’t.” Miller’s tone softens, calming my racing heart just a bit. “Be thankful for what you have. For the life he didn’t lose and stop worrying about the could haves.”
I watch Rosie chase after another seagull, her joy contrasting with my anxiety. “It’s hard to just let go when I see him doing reckless shit all the time.”
Miller exhales heavily into the phone. “Thorne—”
Before he can finish, I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. A happy pack with their omega and twins walking along the beach, an ever-present reminder of our lack of stability.
“Hold on,” Miller whispers urgently, as if something’s caught his attention.
“What?” I stop dead in my tracks.
“Zane’s here.” His voice drops lower, breathless with urgency. “I can see him sitting in his car outside.”
“What the hell is he up to?” My stomach tightens.
“Just sitting there,” Miller says quickly. “He looks...like he is waiting for someone.”
“No fucking way.” My voice rises without my permission. “I want to know why he is there. What is he doing?”
Miller doesn’t answer right away; I can hear him shuffling through the corridor. A door opens, and then I hear the rustle of blinds being pulled.
“Dr. Astor, please take a call on line six, please.” The announcement crackles through the phone. It’s from the hospital speaker, interrupting our conversation.
“I need to go.” Miller’s voice sharpens.
“No! Wait—”
But he disconnects before I can finish my thought, leaving me standing alone with only the sound of crashing waves and an unsettling feeling that gnaws at my gut.
My fingers hover over Zane’s name. I hit the call button. The ringing feels like an eternity.
“Hey,” Zane answers, his voice flat.
“Where are you?” I ask, forcing calmness into my tone. “Work?”
“Yeah,” he says too quickly.
I narrow my eyes, scanning the horizon where the sun gleams. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah. Just doing some overtime.” His words trip over each other, thick with something unspoken.
“You’ve done a lot of overtime the past four days,” I reply, my heart thudding in my chest.
“Fires don’t have a schedule.”
I nod. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”
I hang up and stare at the ocean, its waves crashing against the shore in a rhythm that matches my beating heart.
My gut twists. I know Zane is lying; he’s never been good at it. What I don’t know is why does he feel the need to hide something from me?
Is he meeting her? The omega? Is it the same one Miller is talking about?
Did he take her to the hospital?
What the fuck is going on?
I pace along the water’s edge, grains of sand sticking to my feet as I kick at the shoreline. The ocean breeze whips through my hair, but it can’t clear away this feeling gnawing at me—this tightness in my chest that makes me feel like I’m losing control.
Why would he choose now to go off on his own? Doesn’t he realize we’re supposed to stick together? A family sticks together! The pack comes first!
Zane has always been stubborn—too much like our mother—and it drives me insane. It doesn’t matter if he thinks he can handle things on his own; that fire will always burn deep inside him.
Has he told her?
I glance back at Rosie digging a hole in the sand; she seems oblivious to everything happening around her.
I’m sure Zane is thinking that about me.