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Throwing her pillow on the bed, she grabbed another, fluffing with more exuberance than necessary, trying to dislodge the discomfort caused by lying to herself. Okay,fine, she was nosy and wanted to know what was going on. But also… Cal declared his unambiguous intent to find her and, even with what little she knew of him, he wasn’t someone who made commitments and didn’t see them through. So, if he hadn’t been at dinner and hadn’t come to find her, that meant something delayed him, or something had happened. Not to mention, the purpose of patrol was to patrol, so their absence could very well signal danger for the entire settlement. In which case, maybe there would need to be some leadership response, and Della might be needed to help organize the Omegas and pups.
That settled it. In two steps, Della ditched the pillow and crammed her feet into shoes. Grabbing her wrap from the hook beside the door, she was ready to go in under twenty seconds.
“I’m going to go check in with Colt and see if they’ve returned,” she said to Rue as she opened the door. A blast of night air hit her in the face, and she pulled her wrap tighter. “It’ll be easier for you to sleep if I’m not here making noise.”
“Okay…” Rue said in a voice already clogged with sleep. “Good night.”
“Sleep well.” Ignoring the puzzlement on the Omega’s face, Della breached the threshold and charged into the deep, dark night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Della
Summer solstice approached, gradually lengthening the days, yet the nights remained black-hole black. It was just so. Goddamn.Dark.
Nighttime always reeked of barely concealed malice. A city girl born and bred, she’d never adjusted to feeling comfortable once the sun sunk below the horizon. In the turbulent years following TheEnd, when deplorables banded together to steal from, rape, and terrorize those weaker than them, her fear only intensified. She’d endured more than one nighttime ambush as she’d sought some remedial sense of safety for herself and others like her. Maybe the Alphas and Omegas tolerated the night better with their improved vision, but Della never stopped wishing for floodlights to illuminate her path. In truth, this uneasiness kept her inside her cabin as much as her antisocial tendencies did.
Ducking her head against the reticence, she hurried along the cracked pavement walkway toward the stables. Once upon a time, no doubt as a let’s-be-rustic-but-not-get-ourselves-sued-when-grandma-falls-down-and-breaks-a-hip safety measure, track lights lined the footpaths between the family lodgings and the main buildings. Those lights had long since gone out.
Twenty years prior, Hunter had staked out the area as the site of a new community. He’d somehow known about the abandoned wilderness resort and predicted that its remoteness in the British Colombian wilderness might’ve spared it the worst of the destruction. His hunch turned out to be correct, and on one of his many trips to gather building supplies for the rehabilitation, he’d invited Della to join in the efforts.
At the time, she’d been living in a fishing village not far from Old Tacoma. They’d met a few times over the years and established an easy kinship via their shared, but unspoken, history of having lived before TheEnd. Compared to the years she’d spent running from violence and evading the worst elements of the human race, the fishing village wasn’t a bad life, but Hunter’s invitation proved to be irresistible. He’d promised a place where Alphas protected those weaker than themselves, one where Beta and Omega women would be free from brutal claimings and forced matings. After decades of watchfulness, paranoia, and too many close calls to even count, the allure of being able to live without constantly looking over her shoulder made up her mind in an instant.
In the early days, that safety came with the price tag of rehabbing the dilapidated campgrounds. Della had tackled the main office building and excavated the bureaucratic remains of the once-posh resort. Yellowing invoices, decaying activities schedules, and stained inventories all crammed together in dusty, aluminum filing cabinets. Among the paperwork, she’d uncovered glossy marketing pamphlets that showcased the camp in its full glory. Originally built as an escape from the constraints of modern life, it was one of those retreats where the more you paid, the less you got. The restroom and showers were communal, and the cabins sported electricity but little else in the way of amenities. As the pamphlet expounded, guests hiked the surrounding trails, fished in the well-stocked lake, and roasted free-range, organic hotdogs and vegan marshmallows around the central firepit. A pantomime of survival sold at a premium price. The kind of place Rakesh would’ve loved and she would’ve hated. Vacations, according to her younger self, were best spent on a yacht with a colorful drink in hand, not off the grid checking her socks for ticks.
The irony was not lost on her.
Stepping off the pavement, she beelined toward the stable as the well-trod dirt muffled her steps. If and when the patrol returned, the stables would be their first destination. As she tracked alongside the corral, the horse blankets swayed on the line. Their undulations needled her, as if their gentle waving singsonged,you can lie to yourself, butwesaw you flirting with him.
A streak of chagrin slowed her determined feet. What was she even doing out here? Honestly, they were probably already back, and the errand would be for nothing. No. Resuming her pace, she blinked the hesitation away. Checking on the patrol didn’t mean anything. She was simply looking out for the settlement, that’s all. Once she ensured everything was fine, she’d return home. No fuss, no muss.
Deep Alpha voices spilled from the barn. Lamps were fully lit inside, making it easy to slip through the propped-open door. Yet as soon as she stepped inside, the Alpha conversation ceased and four pairs of eyes swung expectantly in her direction. As anticipated, Colt was one of them, giving her a look of bemused curiosity.
She addressed him directly. “I heard the north patrol was still out. Is everything okay?”
“We’re talking it over now.” He angled his chin toward the group, which included Sloan, Lars, and a new Alpha she hadn’t yet met. Although, of the four of them, the look from the unknown Alpha gave her the disconcerting impressionheknewher. She ignored it and refocused on Colt, taking a few steps farther inside, leaving the creepy night to keep its own company for a while.
“Could something have happened with the horses?” Lars asked, dismissing her and resuming their conversation.
“I already said,” Sloan said with an added edge to his always-edgy voice, “I checked them both over, and they were in fine shape before they left.”
Della gave him a scrutinizing once-over.Hotheaded mini-tyrantCal had called him. Now that she compared the remarkably astute assessment to the Alpha himself, a giggle birthed in her chest. Sidling out of the way, she passed a palm over her mouth to hide her curling lips. Alphas were a sensitive bunch.
Colt slapped a friendly hand on Sloan’s shoulder. “We believe you, we’re going over the possibilities before we send out a search—”
Colt cocked his head. The Alphas stilled, their faces taking on dreamy far-away looks as they listened for something their superior hearing alone could discern. The only sounds Della could pick out were the snuffling and shuffling of the horses in their stalls and the faint drip of water somewhere in the barn.
After a moment, Colt’s shoulders slumped, and the rest of the Alpha’s postures visibly relaxed. “They’re coming now. Quarter mile away,” he said to Della by way of an explanation.
Relief trickled over her for one comforting instant before awkwardness replaced the tension her shoulders released. Her toes itched in her boots, her body’s reminder that she planned to leave as soon as she ensured everything was fine. If she didn’t go now, what would she do whenhestrode through those doors?
Rewrapping herself tighter, she bounced her chin in a series of nods. “Oh, that’s good. No cause for concern in that case.” Fresh worry streaked Colt’s face, and Della took a step forward. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“There’s some blood...” Colt admitted, “not much...” He exchanged a significant look with Lars as Della reviewed all the myriad reasons for this development. None of them particularly good, the conclusion rooted her to the spot.
“Yeah,” Lars added, a wry tilt to his lips. “Some blood, the animals are sweating, and... no one’s particularlyhappy.”
Tense minutes passed. The Alphas scuffed their boots on the ground and dug hands in pockets, awaiting the arrival of the errant patrol with patience. All except for the Alpha unknown to her, who slinked closer to the stable doors as if he wanted to be the first to intercept the pair. His dark eyes snagged on Della’s in the process and held them, an inscrutable message hidden in their depths. He didn’t exude nefarious intent, yet the deliberate positioning and extended eye contact suggested that whatever he feared would walk through the door had something to do with himandher.
