6. Quint

six

Quint

Three years and two weeks ago

S ilver

West said I was the most beautiful person he's ever seen. Then he held my hand. That's all. He held my hand. I think I love him.

Present Day

I follow discreetly. Drop her off? Is West kidding? She climbs out of the car and waves while he drives away. I scoff at her naivety. To think that we would really just let her go, after all these years. I curse as I watch her thread into the crowd of people, hurrying towards some unknown destination.

I slide out of my car and start hurrying through the crowd after her. All the while, she slips further away. Where is she going? She cuts through an alley and turns right at the end. I have to jog so I don't lose her. The place stinks all to high hell, and my anger spikes and continues to fester inside me.

She knows this area well. That insight makes me want to set the place on fire. Why? It's an awful part of town. Why did she ask to be dropped off here? Does she really have no money? A tiny slither of unease has me turning the next corner faster. My heart pounds when I don't spot her, but just when I think she's gone, I glimpse her out of the corner of my eye, disappearing into a park.

Oh, hell no! She will not sleep with the homeless people in that park. The reputation it has for violence is second to none. How could you be so stupid?

I race to catch up to her. I don't even care about being seen now. The traffic light turns red, but I keep running, ignoring the screeches of tyres and curses thrown in my direction. The only thing that matters is catching that vanishing omega before we lose her forever.

Once I'm in the park, I catch a whiff of her scent and follow it. My shoes pound the hard-packed dirt as I run. Following a trail made by hundreds of homeless humans as they migrate in and out of the parklands, I run until I catch sight of her.

I take just seconds to catch up, and I grab her upper arm, ignoring the fear and surprise, and whip her into me. I'm not gentle. Fuck being gentle. I'm too mad at her carelessness. Her suicidal idiocy. If she wants to throw her life away, she can do it with us!

"What are you doing here, Davies?"

She winces. "I was going to find somewhere warm to sleep, Vore."

I growl at her, showing my teeth and temper. "Why are you here? Why are you here and not with Onyx? Why are you here and not with us? Why are you here and not with a pack?" With each question, I get louder until I'm shouting at her, furious with both of us. "Are we so bad that you'd rather sleep here in this park than in our guest room?"

Her eyes skip to the side, red staining her cheeks. "You were there when I fucked everything up. I feel confident you can put story A with story B and come up with the answer. And I'm fairly certain that your pack would rather me be here than there."

"Onyx forgives you!" I shout at her. "All she wants is her sister."

"Maybe I don't forgive myself!" She shouts back at me. "Maybe my life is one disaster after another, and I've given up. Maybe I exist to die?"

I haul her close to me until our chests are touching. My rage is incandescent.

"Why did you leave?" I growl out so low it almost needs subtitles.

She tries to pull her arm away. "You hate me. Ian hates me. Ross and West pity me. I'm not staying where I'm not wanted."

"You are wanted. You're so badly wanted I could fuck you, knot you, and bond you right now," I hiss in pure, white, blinding fury.

My words shock both of us. Her eyes go wide, that blue deepening into sapphires. Her pouty bottom lip hangs open, and her tongue dips out to lick it.

I almost groan. Why did I say that? It doesn't matter why, it's true.

"You can't stay here," I say resolutely.

"I can."

"If you stay, I stay. I'm not losing you again."

She huffs. "Why have you suddenly taken such a damn interest in me? We've been good for three years. What's changed?"

I grab her wrist, pull her sleeve up, and show her Ian's bond. "That's changed. Maybe I want an omega. Maybe I want my omega to be you. Come home and let's talk about this."

She grunts. "This is crazy. It's insane."

"I don't care. I thought I didn't have a hope, there was nothing left, but this…this bond on your arm, this is my second chance, and I don't care who you are or what happened in the past, I want a chance for a future."

She stares up at me with strangely old eyes. Her face is expressionless. I have no idea what she's thinking or feeling. She's just blank.

"You want to wipe the slate clean and start again? With me?" She asks, her voice devoid of emotion.

"Yes. I want that."

"Not because of who I am, but because I'm here with this?"

"Yes."

She looks away. "You have no idea what I've done to survive, Quint. What I am. You don't care? All you want is a chance with an omega. It doesn't matter who? Ian really fucked you over, Quinton. You deserve better than someone like me."

"Maybe, or maybe not. Maybe you're still the omega that our pack chose," I snap back.

She flinches, her expression turning vulnerable and unsure. "You can't say things like that."

"Why? Because it might be true? We saw you, and we chose you, long before we met our scent match, and forgive me if I'm wrong, but you liked us. For a few days there, you were happy, and something happened…something changed. What was it?"

The fear is not what I expect from her. She shuts her expression down quickly, but the stench is thick in the air.

"What happened at the Omega Meet, Silver?"

She shakes her head, backing away from me, as far as her arm will stretch. I refuse to let her go.

"Did someone hurt you, someone threaten you?"

She hisses when I say threaten. My instincts sharpen.

"Someone threatened you?"

"Yes, and no. They didn't remember me, but they were there. I needed to be safe. I needed to be somewhere they couldn't get me."

"We could have protected you-"

"With what? You didn't tell anyone about your wealth. You looked like a poor pack who was picked for charity. Of course, I liked you. You four were the first fun, decent people I'd met in a long time. I didn't need to pretend around you."

"Then why?"

"Because I couldn't go back to being that person," she throws out. "It was so hard to pretend all the time, to hide from Onyx. I was so tired, and I couldn't sleep, and I didn't trust the food. I just wanted to be safe."

"And you thought Pack Treyfield could give that to you?"

"Yes," she says in a tiny voice. "I thought if I could get their attention, they could keep me safe."

"Did you like them? Want them?" My voice is harsh, ripped from me in rage as I contemplate murdering Pack Treyfield.

"No. Treyfield scares me. Grayson is…" she wrinkles her nose. "And Silas is arrogant."

"Silver," I whisper through my relief. That hot coal of jealousy I've carried all this time finally turns cold. "Come home with me."

"You don't know what you're inviting into your home, Quint," she whispers mournfully.

I tow her back into my arms and hug her slender figure to my chest. "Trust us to take care of you this time."

She's hesitant. She doesn't trust me. This feeling slithers up inside me and threatens to strangle me. I want to make her feel safe. I want to see her smile like she did in those days when we first met her. Her fear, I want it gone.

She gives me the smallest dip of her chin, and I sweep her up into my arms and carry her back the way we came.

West, the damnable bastard, is waiting for us at the edge of the park. He smirks when he sees me and drops his sunglasses so he can see over the rims.

"Quint, you are not as hard as you pretend to be."

I ignore him and secure her in the backseat before stepping back and closing the door.

"I'm going to get my car. Go for a drive or something for an hour. I've got someone I need to speak with."

My twin's eyes twinkle up at me, and he gives me a salute. "No problem."

I stand on the edge of the street long after they're gone trying to figure out what that feeling is inside me.

It's only when I get behind the wheel of my car that I realise it's hope.