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With a harshly expelled breath, Jake shoved his chair away from the table. The clattering scrape cracked through the room like thunder. Every eye turned to him, shooting his blood pressure up into the thousands. Being enclosed with so many people was tough, and all those eyes on him at once made him want to crawl under a table, but he'd had enough of this dithering.
"I understand the risks involved, but the thing is" — his throat tightened till his words came out like a harsh scrape — "after TheEnd, I spent years confined against my will, forced to do things I didn't want to do, live ways I didn't want to live. Iknowwhat it's like to be controlled, and yet I let those" — he pointed in the vague direction of River Bend — "fucking prickshaul my mate out of here like she was nothing more than a sack of potatoes." All over the mess hall, eyebrows shot up at his display of vehemence. But he was well past caring. Jake blew out an aggravated breath. "So, yeah, I fucked up, and that's my burden to bear. But I'm going to get her," Jake said quietly, "or die trying regardless of what happens here. The question in front of you all is, knowing what you do now, are you going to make the same mistake I did or not."
A loud throat clearing came from the back of the room, and Jake looked, surprised to see Riddick standing, the always-present grin absent from his smug face.
"Jake's right, he fucked up," he said simply. "But this is about Pack. One way or another, Zorah's a part of our Pack, and we let her down by not standing up for her when they took her away. And we let Jake down when he didn't feel like he could count on his brothers to back him up on this." He planted his hands on his hips. "If we don't fix this, we let ourselves down, and I don't even know how we call ourselves a Pack anymore."
Around the room, Alpha heads bowed in embarrassment. Jake regretted every nasty word or thought he'd ever had toward his one-time rival. The Alpha might be smarmy and over-confident, but he argued for Zorah that night in the mess hall, and he did so again now. For those reasons, whatever happened, Jake would be grateful forever.
"I know I haven't been here long," Jake said, drawing the Pack's attention back to himself, "but this Pack has not only opened its doors to people who've made mistakes, flawed people like me, but it also fought for them and gave them second chances. This Pack takes care of each other and cares about Omegas, and not as things or possessions. What I'm asking is for you to really consider what one Omega's freedom is worth. Not for me, but for Zorah."
"This is bigger than one Omega's freedom," Xavi said carefully after a tense beat of silence. "The trade issues —"
"Oh fuck the trade issues," Riddick spat, having none of it. "Are we so weak that we're beholden to those soft excuses for Alphas? For fucking nails, Xavi? For socks, Logan? For buttons? Screw them and screw their trade. Morris Hill is a stronger Pack by a whole hell of a lot, and we ought to start acting like it."
A choir of enthusiastic Alpha support echoed up from every corner of the room. Jake met Riddick's eyes, gratitude cramming his throat. He dipped his chin in acknowledgment of Riddick's support, and Riddick gave him a curt nod in return.
"Can't believe I'm about to say this" — on Jake's left, Colt ambled to his feet — "but I agree with Riddick. If the trade falls apart, I volunteer to go find some new connections. I'll ride up and down this side of the Cascades. Or beyond. Whatever's needed."
Jake shot him a speaking glance of appreciation. Colt gave him a lopsided smirk and a firm clap on the back.
Hunter raised his hand to stop the low-level mutterings. "I want to be clear about one thing. Winter will be tight, but we're going to be okay. There's more of us now, and while that means more mouths to feed, it also means more brains to solve problems. We'll need everyone's help going forward, but we'll figure it out. Together. As a Pack." He looked around the room. "Do we need to take a vote, or are we agreed?"
Hunter rested a supportive palm on Jake's shoulder, and Jake breathed out a long sigh as a chorus of "agreed" filled the room. Hunter flashed him a wry, self-satisfied smirk, as if the bastard knew how this was going to go all along. Jake glanced around, making eye contact here and there with all these people who knit the fabric of this community.
"Thank you," he said thickly. "I don't take any of this for granted." Jake's head pounded, and his stomach housed a solid lump of lead, but for the first time, his impatience began to coalesce into an actual plan. "So, who wants to help me get my mate?"
CHAPTER 39
Zorah
Someday, all this sneaking will be behind me. Just a funny story to tell my kids.Holding her breath, Zorah pulled the door shut behind her and stepped into the dark night.But that day is not today.
With a harsh breath of the bitterly cold pre-dawn air, she steeled herself against all the regret and indecision that circled through her mind on a never-ending loop. It was well past time for wavering; she'd made her decision, and it was time to go. Hoisting her pack higher on her back, she kept to the dewy grass rather than the paved sidewalks. It was still too early for River Bend to be fully rousing, but if someone heard her footsteps and came to investigate, her whole plan would unravel. A trading caravan had departed yesterday, and after some generous bribes shoved into his palms, Zorah convinced the Beta man in charge to let her tag along. If her Pack came looking, he'd promised to hide her in one of the covered wagons. The caravan planned to follow the river west all the way to OT and agreed to wait for her to catch up later this morning. She'd take a canoe and meet them several miles down the river. Not a terribly sophisticated plan, but it was what she could piece together in a short amount of time.
Life in OT was an unknown, and as an Omega, she'd always be vulnerable, but she would put the word out she was trying to get to Morris Hill and wait. The Morris Hill Pack regularly made trips to the outpost; someone would eventually come, and she'd demand they take her back. No one got to tell her where her home was, not anymore. Jake or no Jake, she'd felt more at home in Morris Hill than she ever had in River Bend.
At the mention of her Alpha, the bond gave a strangely pleased wiggle. It had grown more active in the last week, bumping and flashing with an odd, hopeful cadence Zorah didn't understand. At times, she could nearly feel him on the other side of it, thrumming with expectancy, as if he knew something she didn't, something that was about to happen. At other times, she could swear a message came through, a simple wash of reassurance.Just hold on, it whispered.
Hold on? She wanted to shout back at it. Hold on to what? All she had was herself and this cobbled-together plan, but the quietly buzzing bond spurred her on nonetheless. For the first time in weeks, it was a sign. A sign that she needed to dosomething, and leaving seemed her best option. The chance of it all coming together was scant indeed. So many things could go wrong, and the thought of being hauled back to her village to stand, shame-faced, in front of everyone, for running away,again? She couldn't bear it. Honestly, she'd drown herself in the river first.
Harder to do that now that she knew how to swim.
No one here knew that, though. That fact laid the groundwork for the idea: take a boat, float down river, disappear into the Beta caravan, set the canoe free on the water, and never be seen again. If they ever discovered the missing canoe, they'd assume she'd drowned and never come looking. At least, she hoped.
Regret that she hadn't been able to say goodbye to Nana hung on her shoulders. Nana was no dummy, though, she'd figure it out and might be a little proud. If there was a way to take Nana with her, she would; but she couldn't think about that. Maybe someday she'd return and get her, if Nana lived that long... A shiver snaked down her spine at the thought of returning with only a grave marker left in Nana's stead, but Zorah packed it away; she was getting ahead of herself. First and foremost, she needed to get herself out of here.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. First off, with the nonstop rain, her boots sank into the mud up to her ankles. Every step became a laborious battle against the suction that seemed intent on keeping her exactly where she was. A quick trip inland to find a dry spot to leave her knapsack while she got the canoe ready turned into an extended squishing endeavor, which she'd have to repeat once it was time to load up.
Second, the canoe was heavier than she remembered. Tipped over to keep the rain out, she didn't need to bail water from the inside, but it was still long, heavy, and unwieldy. Oh, and also stuck in the mud. On her first heave, the oars clattered out, making such a racket her heart stopped in her chest. Fearing the worst, she squatted near the canoe's sidewall, trying to tuck herself out of sight if anyone looked in the direction of the noise. But in doing so, she managed to drag the entire bottom half of her skirt into the soggy mud.
Time simultaneously dragged and flew, and by the time she got herself and her knapsack in the water, the sky had paled to a dingy blue. Voices from the village reached her ears as she took the first few swipes with the oars, and she didn't dare to survey the shore. That would be too much tempting fate. Instead, she pulled in the oars, removed her muddy shoes, and lay flat in the canoe. The current was slow, but it would carry her until she could sit up and row without being spotted.
On her back in the cold, drifting canoe, Zorah watched dawn break and spread across the sky.
I'm doing it. I'm really doing it.
Freedom waited behind a series of obstacles and worries. Would the Beta caravan wait for her as they promised? Or would they take the bribe and leave without her? She'd promised them the other half of payment on arrival in OT, but they could always change their mind.
