4. Gray

4

GRAY

A nsel answers on the third ring.

"Gray! You are just the man I wanted to talk to."

That's not the reaction I was expecting.

"Why? Is everything okay?"

"Of course. I was just talking with Lewis, and we've decided to get BBPS shirts for everyone! We just need someone to design the logo. I was thinking it would be nice for Chris to design it, but Lu is also a great artist, so?—"

"Ansel, Revv is missing."

"Wait, what? Revv, as in your mate Revv? Are you saying he left you and Chris?"

Technically speaking, that could be true, but the way he sucked my dick this morning suggests otherwise.

"No, he's nesting."

"Have you checked your bedroom? Because he's likely in there with a bunch of random shit that he's going to be irrationally protective of for the next two weeks."

"Yes, yes. I know how nesting works. Revv left with his luggage this morning, and we don't know where he is."

"As in, he's chosen to nest somewhere else?"

"Yes."

"Ummm, are you sure he hasn't left you?"

This conversation is getting me nowhere. "I was just wondering if anyone in the BBPS Squad had heard from him. Would you mind calling everyone and seeing if he contacted them?"

"Okay, I'm on it. Is there anything else I can do? You sound freaked out, Gray."

"I am kind of freaked out. I should have paid closer attention to him. The doctor said he could lay his egg anytime in the next week and a half, and we don't know where he is."

"Fair enough. I'll contact everyone, and we'll start looking for him, okay?"

"Thanks."

After I get done talking to Ansel, I call Anchor in case he decided he wanted to build his nest in the dungeon of a kink club. I wouldn't put it past him. He isn't there. Then I call Mario, who hasn't seen him either.

Chris finally gets off the phone. "Revv talked to his moms this morning."

"Really? Do they know where he is?"

He shakes his head. "He asked them for money. Said he wanted to buy a plane ticket with it, but he needed the money right away, and the transfer would have taken a full business day, so he told them to forget about it."

I can't decide if this is a good thing or not. On one hand, we know he tried to buy a plane ticket. At least we have some information about what happened to him. But if he managed to buy said plane ticket, he could be anywhere in the world right now.

"The most logical place he'd go is Rixton," Chris says.

My phone rings. Ansel's smiling face pops up on the screen.

"Hey. Did you find him?" I ask.

"No, but Kade has something he wants to tell you." There's shuffling on the other end, and a loud, "Okay, okay! I get it. I didn't know he was nesting!" Before I finally hear Kade say, "Hi."

"Hey, do you know where Revv is?"

"Sort of. He called me this morning because he needed money. He said it was urgent. There was something he needed to do before he laid his egg."

In the background, Ansel says, "And you didn't think he was nesting?"

"You should have heard him. He was desperate. I had to help him. So I paid for a rush transfer of five thousand dollars to his bank account."

"But Chris checked their bank account. There weren't any changes today."

Chris closes his eyes and sighs. "He has a personal account he used before we met. I forgot about it."

"Did Revv tell you where he was going?" I ask.

"Ummm, no. But he did ask if the airlines would allow him to take a hundred pounds of rocks with him on an international flight."

An international flight? He left the country?

I cover the phone speaker and ask, "Where would Revv go on an international flight with a hundred pounds of rocks?"

Chris initially looks as confused as I am, then he leans against the counter in a dazed sort of shock. "No, he wouldn't."

"He wouldn't what?"

"If he has a hundred pounds of rocks, that probably means he's collecting them for his nest. And that means…"

Suddenly, I realize what Chris is saying. I glance down at his pebble, which is now attached to the new pebble necklace Axe welded for me. "He's gone to New Zealand, hasn't he?"

Chris shakes his head. "I don't know. He said he didn't want a pebble, remember? He thought they represented monogamy."

He did, but that was before he saw what Chris's pebble means to me.

"Thanks, Kade. I have to go, but this was really helpful."

"Good luck," he says.

I end the call. Chris is still lost in thought. I walk up to him and slide my arms around his body.

"Maybe it's okay to admit the loss of your pebbles affects us," I say carefully.

"I know it affects us. But he told me it was fine, that I could be enough without the pebble."

"You are enough," I assure him.

"But if he's gone halfway across the world for some goddamn rocks…" Chris's voice breaks with emotion.

"Maybe he just needs to mourn them."

Chris pulls away from me. "What do you mean?"

"What your alpha father took from you was a big loss, Chris. Maybe Revv needs to mourn that loss. It doesn't mean you aren't enough. It just means something important was taken from you, and that affects him because he loves you." Surely Revv has noticed the way Chris and I both touch his pebble when we make love and how it's deepened our connection.

It's natural for him to wish he had one too.

Chris hugs me hard. "I buried those pebbles over twenty years ago. He'll never find them. What if it affects his nest? I had no idea he wanted a pebble so badly. If only he'd told me how he felt." Chris buries his nose in my neck, and his shoulders shake with silent sobs. I think this is something he's needed to deal with for a long time. His pebbles are gone. Forever.

That's not a loss that can be simply swept under the rug. It has to be felt and dealt with, or it's always going to hurt.

When he finally stops crying, he releases me and wipes the tears away. "Revv is alone and nesting in New Zealand. We have to get to him as soon as possible."

"Okay. Let's figure out how quickly we can get plane tickets. At least the New Zealand government has experience with nesting penguin shifters, right?"

He nods. "There are plenty of laws in New Zealand that protect nesting fairy penguin shifters. The locals basically know to leave them alone and simply keep track of all the things they've stolen so they can get them back later. There was a fairy penguin shifter who collected over a hundred traffic signs, and a police officer was assigned to follow behind him and replace the signs as needed. They made a movie about it."

That's adorable. Collecting rocks is pretty cute too. Especially considering Chris's past with his pebbles.

"If you think about it, we got off pretty easy with rocks. Revv could have collected anything, right?"

Chris chuckles. "Oh, just you wait. He hasn't started burrowing yet." Chris pulls out his phone and starts searching for plane tickets. "We really need to get to New Zealand."