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Jake made to shrug him off, but Colt held firm and shoved him into the side of the cabin. The dull impact, while not painful, made rage roar in his ears. He dropped his supplies, fists balled and ready to go to blows if the Second stood in his way.
Fuck Hunter and fuck the Pack. At this point, he didn't care what they did. They could chase him down if they wanted to, but he was done acting like a beaten Beta dog. He and Zorah would start over somewhere new. They'd go to the coast, to the ocean, they'd go wherever she wanted, but they didn't need to be here.
Breaths coming short, legs braced for a fight, Jake looked into Colt's serious face and sized him up. Only to find nothing but sympathy shining in his dark eyes. No malice, no answering aggression, just simple, plaintive concern.
"You walk into River Bend and claim their Omega, they'll beat you to death while she watches," Colt said calmly, jostling his shoulder in emphasis. "What about the promise you made Hunter? You don't give a shit about your friend anymore? And what am I supposed to do? Let you ride out of here? Physically stop you? Go tattle? You're not stupid, Jake. You know you can't do this alone. You won't even make it there without help. Slow down andthink."
The angry haze cleared from Jake's mind. Not much, but enough for Colt's words to filter through his fevered lather and douse him in reality. Love and determination would only get him so far, probably not even all the way to River Bend, if he was truly being honest. Colt was right, if he had any hope of getting his girl back, he needed help; but to get it, he had to face the music and deal with the promise he'd made to save his life.
Jake lowered his chin and fixed Colt with a resolute stare. "I need to talk to Hunt. Right now. And I need you to round up the guys who were there that night. The night I abducted Kess."
***
Hunter and Kess lived in the biggest cabin in the settlement, but six Alpha and two Omega bodies occupied every available square foot. Simon and Matteo lounged against the walls on either side of the door. Cal sat near the hearth with Della perched on his knee while Colt stood on the opposite side with his shoulder propped against the mantle. With the exception of Colt and Della (who refused to be left out of anything that involved her mate), only this small group witnessed Jake's promise to stay away from Omegas under pain of death.
Now, months later, Jake needed to thread the needle on a difficult task: convince Hunter to rescind this vow without losing face in front of his Pack in the process. To do this, Jake needed the group's acquiescence and, hopefully, their help. Or, if not, then they'd bear witness to Hunter fulfilling his promise from that chaotic night. In truth, it could go either way.
Hunter gave nothing away. Sitting in his chair, hands folded, elbows braced on his knees, with Kess at his side, the Alpha of Alphas resembled a tortured medieval king on a primitive wooden throne as Jake told the whole sorry tale of his doomed love affair.
Impatience simmered inside him at a barely contained boil, and he paced the floor in abbreviated steps as he spoke. Nonetheless, it felt good to talk about Zorah. It calmed him to say her name out in the open. Not hidden in the shadows or under cover of night, but to declare, in the unforgiving light of day, that he loved this girl from the top of her head to the tips of her toes and every freckle in between. So much braver and bolder than him, she'd gone after what she wanted, which, astoundingly, was him, no matter how unworthy or undeserving he thought himself to be. He told the story and fell in love with her all over again.
Chin angled to the floor, Hunter peered up and asked, "You really know how to step in it, don't you?"
Jake winced and gave a weak shrug. "YOLO, I guess."
Hunter's mouth dropped open, quickly followed by a deep, raspy laugh that shredded the tension saturating the air. The corner of Jake's lip twitched, appreciating the traces of a younger version of Hunt, one who once smiled and laughed a lot more than he did now. With his story told, Jake forced himself into a chair across from his old friend, daring to hope that this version of Hunter could see past the pact they'd made that crazy night. Besides his need to rescue Zorah from her Pack, Jake didn't want to burden Hunter's life with the act of killing his former best friend.
Hunter wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. "I don't know, man. I feel like I'm on my fourth or fifth life at this point." He gave Kess's knee an affectionate squeeze. "But I think I'm okay with where I landed."
Kess's full lips pursed in a suppressed smirk, and Jake could've sworn he saw the golden glint of their bond shimmer in the air. After what happened in OT, Jake never ventured so much as a side-eye at Kess, let alone to be in a room with her. But, seeing her now, Jake had one more thing to clear up.
"I never apologized to you, Kess." Kess's wary attention slid to his face, followed by a watchful Hunt, who was no longer laughing. In fact, the entire room seemed to hold its collective breath. Jake continued, "I'm very sorry for what happened that night. For taking you, for scaring you and for...hurting you the way I did. I'm not gonna make excuses, but I lost someone special to me, a long time ago, and between the darkness in that alley and general mess of my mind, I thought you were her." He chewed on his lip, gathering his thoughts. "No, that's not quite right. I didn't lose her. She was taken from me, deliberately, on purpose, for no reason other than cruelty and control. And, the night it happened, she screamed and thrashed and fought, just like you did. And in my jumbled-up head, I was back in that moment, thinking we were running from our captors and you were upset by what they'd done to you." A stillness settled on Kess's face, nothing moving except emotion swimming behind her glassy eyes. "So, whatever Hunt and the others decide to do here, I needed to say that. Don't need your forgiveness, not asking for that, just know that I'm sorry for what I did."
Jake couldn't interpret her expression — didn't know her well enough to — so he wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and shut his mouth.
Kess's throat bobbed in a swallow, and she reached for her mate's hand. "Thank you for saying that. I suppose if any good came out of that night, it brought you to our Pack. I doubt we would've found you otherwise, and I'm glad we did."
The poignancy of her words, the "we" and the "our," with the implied collective acceptance, struck a chord deep inside him. Jake wasn't stupid enough to believe everyone in the Pack accepted him, or that they ever would, but sitting in this room, at least for a few minutes, he felt it for the first time in as long as he could remember.
Jake cleared the ball from his throat. "To be honest, ma'am, I doubt there would've been much left to find. I have that to thank you for too." He glanced between Kess and Hunt. "Both of you." Jake flicked his gaze to Colt. "You too. I was a dead man; coming here brought me back to life. Well, and my Zorah had a large part of that too, and I know it may be too little too late, but I gotta go get her. Or at least try."
A soft throat clearing came from the hearth. "That's all very touching," Della said, "but there are larger concerns than you and Zorah at play here. Our relationship with River Bend, for example."
Cal patted Della on the thigh. "You're getting ahead of yourself, darlin'," he said gently. "First, Hunt has to decide if he wants to hold to his original vow as to what he'd do with this one if he ever talked to an Omega again." His mouth twitched in a semblance of a smile. "And I'm guessing he did much more'n talk to her."
Della's head whipped toward Hunter, sending her copper and silver strands flying. "Hunter, you can't be seriously considering..." Her eyes flew to Kess, then Hunter, and finally to Jake, alarm shining through the steady blue.
Matteo shifted his weight against the wall, folding and refolding his arms. "Jake agreed to the terms —"
Simon cut in, tossing Matteo a dark look. "Jake's the only Alpha here whodidn'tspend the entire summer dogging Zorah's heels, and you know it. If he says he tried to stay away from her, I believe him."
Unswayed, Matteo lifted a shoulder. "But the vow —"
"Fuck the vow," Simon said.
"Stop interrupting me," Matteo snarled, low and menacing, and the two exchanged a few heated fuck offs and shut the fuck ups before Simon raised his usually soft-spoken voice.
"That night was crazy," Simon asserted. "We were blackout drunk, Kess was distraught, and Hunter was ready to kill anyone he could get his hands on. He threatened to kill Jake right then and there if he didn't agree." Simon thrust a palm in Jake's direction. "What choice did the guy have?"
