Chapter Three
Jay had been out in the woods for two days. Byron was up to his eyes in contracts, and traveling to and from the hotel for meetings. He kept expecting to meet the young wolf each time he returned. Jay was nowhere to be seen but food was disappearing at regular intervals.
He did that sometimes, when things became too much for him; his dreams, the people. He always came back but sometimes Byron went to look for him. Not tonight, though. It was already dark, and he had no doubt Jay was sleeping somewhere safe in the woods.
Sometime in the early hours, he heard his door creak open, then silence.
With a groan, he pulled back the covers.
“Climb in,” he called softly.
A cold body slipped in next to him.
“Jay! You’re half-frozen.”
Jay didn’t answer, curling up in the bed beside him. At the best of times, he was a shifter of few words.
When the Omega didn’t move, Byron did instead, sliding closer across the sheets and taking Jay into his arms.
The Omega’s cold nose nuzzled against his neck.
“Bad dream?” he asked.
He thought Jay wasn’t going to answer, but the Omega nodded his head.
“I’m glad you came to me.”
Jay shivered against him.
“Hold on, I think we could do with another blanket.”
Jay made a sound of protest as Byron climbed out of the bed, going to the chest of drawers and pulling out the blanket he knew Jay favored. It was a heavy, soft, fleecy material that was like being enveloped in warmth. He lay it over Jay, climbing under it himself and wrapping it around them both. Jay hummed against him as the heat built.
“I was back in my forest.”
The quiet words were unexpected and Byron went still, afraid if he moved it would break the spell.
“There were wolves chasing me and they caught me in a net.” Which, as far as Byron could work out, was what had actually happened to Jay when the traffickers picked him up.
“Then they threw me in the river and I was all tangled up in the net and I couldn’t break free and I kept sinking and it was so dark.”
Jay lapsed into silence and Byron could see his eyes were open, staring at nothing.
“It was just a dream,” he said, laying a comforting hand across Jay’s cheek.
“Some of it happened,” Jay said with insistence, his eyes meeting Byrons. Byron stroked his thumb across Jay’s skin.
“It did, long ago now. You’re with me, here, and you’re safe.”
“Because you’re my Alpha?”
And that was a fact Jay sought constant reassurance around. He hadn’t yet gone into heat and nothing Byron could say completely eased his fears of being left alone again.
“Because I’m your Alpha.”
That settled him for a few minutes, Jay laying his head down and closing his eyes. Just when Byron thought he had fallen back asleep, Jay spoke again.
“What’s tomorrow?”
“Business breakfast meeting, business lunch, afternoon meeting at the hotel.” A full day. He’d be lucky to get home before dark.
“Can I come?” Jay often opted not to, unsuited for hanging around with nothing to keep him occupied.
“Of course you can, but are you sure you want to? It’s going to be long and boring.”
Boring was one of Jay’s most hated words.
“I’ll come. I’ll sit quietly,” Jay promised.
And that ratcheted Byron’s concern up a notch. It must have been a bad dream to have Jay making those kinds of promises.
“No need. Odin will be there, and you and he can play pool or go swimming.”
He winced the second the words were out, Jay going tense in his arms. Usually, his Omega loved swimming, but the nightmare had really spooked him.
“There was a man.” Jay’s words were a whisper.
“A man?”
“Standing by the water, looking down at me as I sank.”
This was new.
“One of the traffickers? Mike or Brett?”
Jay shook his head.
“From before.”
“From before they took you? Someone you met in the forest.”
Jay shook his head again, harder this time.
“Before.”
“From before the forest. Back when you lived with other people?”
Jay had been eight when he’d been abandoned, that much Byron knew. But he rarely spoke of the time before that. Byron suspected he didn’t remember much of it.
“He watched.”
“Watched? Watched you?”
Jay nodded.
“Why?”
Jay buried his head in the crook of Byron’s neck and didn’t answer, his body trembling.
“Shh, I’ve got you, you’re safe,” Byron said, repeating the soft words over and over until Jay stopped shaking and lay still against him. He wasn’t asleep, Byron could feel the tension within him. Rubbing circles across Jay’s back, he started telling an old Pack story, one he’d told Jay many times, knowing its familiarity would be comforting. There were no dark shadows in this story, only a wolf with fur as white as snow.
Jay seemed in brighter spirits the next morning, waking early, before Byron, and cooking breakfast for him. As they sat at the table, Byron got the sense there was something the Omega wanted to talk about. More about what he was saying last night, perhaps?
Jay picked the most awkward moment to begin, just after Byron had eaten a large forkful of scrambled egg.
"What will I do, once we're mated?"
Byron chewed and swallowed, before trying to get a sense of what Jay was actually asking.
"What do you mean?"
"When we're Alpha and Omega, we'll be a partnership. Work together. But what will I actually do? What if I don't know how to do anything?"
"You know how to do plenty of things."
"But not business things. Not important things. I won't be a very good mate for you."
Byron set down his fork. Jay was looking out the window, avoiding his gaze.
"I don't want a mate who does business things. They are not what's important to me. Those nights we spend together on the couch, ours runs in the woods, when you cook me breakfast. That's what important to me. Anyone can do business stuff for me. Only you can make me feel the way I feel. You make even the darkest day a bit brighter."
His words pulled Jay's eyes back to his.
"Is that love?"
"That's love. I love you more than anyone else in the world."
Jay tapped his chest above his heart. "I love you, too. Right here."
"Well, I'm very glad." He picked up his fork and resumed eating. "Are there things you'd like to learn? It doesn't have to be business things."
He could see Jay was mulling that over, the Omega stirring his eggs with his fork.
"I want to learn things Odin knows."
That was a broad statement. Odin knew a little about everything.
"Anything in particular?"
"How to keep you safe."
Not quite the answer Byron expected, yet he should have. Jay had been protective of him almost from the moment they'd met.
"You want to learn security?"
That was technically Odin's job, personal security for Byron when he needed it. It helped that they had long been friends. Odin's presence never felt like an intrusion.
Jay nodded, waiting for his reaction.
"I think that's a really great idea. I'll talk to Odin about it. I know he's been teaching you bits and pieces but maybe we can make it more formal."
A smile spread across Jay's face but it faded quickly. Was his nightmare still weighing on his mind or was there something else? Whatever it was, Jay would come out with it in his own time.
"Come on, let's wash up and get dressed. We can share a shower if you like."
That brought the smile back, as Jay bounded to his feet.
"But no kissing or we'll never get out of the house in time for my meeting."
Jay groaned then grabbed his hand, dragging him laughing from the room.