Chapter Four
Levi
I could tell Ezra was in trouble, and it was more than just the car accident. He’d been acting like a scared animal, afraid I was going to strike him the entire time I’d been in the cabin.
Some fear was expected. He was alone in a remote cabin with an Alpha he’d never met, but it was different. It was almost as if Ezra expected me to hurt him. He’d been conditioned by someone to expect suffering.
I should have told him that he didn’t need to fear me. Maybe his mind would have been at ease if I’d told him that I wanted nothing to do with him and that I wouldn’t touch a hair on his head. Ezra could have taken solace in the fact that I hadn’t touched another Omega since I’d killed Stephen with a turn of my steering wheel.
Somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to say it, though. It’s like I knew it would be a lie. Something about Ezra had brought my libido back to life. I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Alive.
It wasn’t just that I didn’t want to die, but I wanted to live. The salty taste of the bacon was better than it had been since my family died. My taste buds had come alive. The jam we spread on our toast practically danced on my tongue. I was coming back from the brink.
There was no way I was going to let Ezra see it, though. I was still an Alpha, and falling apart at the feet of an Omega I’d just met wasn’t cool. Besides, I probably would have terrified him if I’d gathered him into my arms and crushed my lips against his the way I wanted to. So, we had to do the one thing I’d become the worst at since moving to the cabin. We had to have a conversation.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said. “Tell me why you’re here. I already know you drove your car off the side of the road, but why in hell were you on this mountain in the first place? What’s your story?”
“I got off the interstate on the wrong exit,” Ezra said.
“I’d say,” I said and then I did something I hadn’t done for a long time. I laughed. It was a raucous belly laugh that felt good. By the time I’d gotten ahold of myself, the laugh had gotten ahold of Ezra too.
“I was trying to get to my grandmother’s house.”
“I thought you said you didn’t have anyone to call.”
Ezra just looked at me. I wasn’t sure how to get him to open up.
“I don’t. I’m...,” he trailed off.
“Escaped from prison? Are you on the lam from the law?”
He just looked at me.
“A disgraced politician hiding from your constituents?”
Ezra continued to stare at me, unblinking.
“A stalker ex?”
That time he winced, and I knew I had my answer. I’d suspected as much. It was a cliché story, really. But it was a cliched story that was sitting on my couch in need.
“I can’t help you if I don’t know what I’m up against,” I said. “Now, whatever trouble you’re in, you brought it to my front door. I think that gives me the right to know.”
“His name is Gavin,” Ezra said. “He was the Alpha I was living with.”
I noticed that Ezra avoided calling Gavin “My Alpha.” For reasons I didn’t quite know yet, that made me feel slightly better.
“What did Gavin do that made it worth risking your life to get away?” I asked, but I already had a pretty good idea.
“It wasn’t just that he was abusive,” Ezra began. “That part was bad enough, but it was worse. I’d wanted to leave for a long time, but yesterday, I had to go.”
“What happened yesterday?” I asked.
“Well, I’d said something to Gavin that set him off. He said I didn’t appreciate him, and that maybe if I went a while without eating, I’d appreciate the lifestyle he provided me with. That was in the morning. Later in the evening, I thought he was busy and I was starving. So I snuck out into the garage to see if there was anything I could eat in the chest freezer Gavin kept out there.
“Gavin and a few other men he’d said were business associates walked into the garage with a man I didn’t recognize. That man was shaking and sweating, and I noticed his hands were tied together. I didn’t want Gavin to see me, so I hid behind one of the cars. The man owed Gavin money. I didn’t know it, but he was a drug dealer. Gavin shot the man. I didn’t mean to, but I made a sound. Gavin found me behind the car and dragged me out into the center of the garage. I didn’t know what was going to happen. He said he had a mess to clean up and that he’d deal with me later.
“Gavin made his housekeeper, Lucretia, watch me while he dealt with the dead body. She took me to the bedroom and stood watch. I was terrified that he was going to kill me when he came home. Gavin was an abusive jerk, but I had no idea he was a cold-blooded killer. I begged Lucretia to let me go, but she was fiercely loyal to Gavin. I told her that if she didn’t let me go, Gavin would probably kill me. She just laughed and said it was more likely he’d make me marry him and keep me in the house for the rest of my life. I thought death was probably better, and that’s when I knew I had to run.
“Lucretia eventually let her guard down enough that I was able to get behind her. I smashed her over the head with a lamp and climbed out the bedroom window. Lucretia’s car was parked in front of the house and the keys were in it. I guess the fact that Gavin never worried about anyone stealing his cars should have been a red flag,” Ezra said. “That’s why I’m here. I got turned around and almost ran out of gas before I slid off the road. I stumbled through the snow until I saw the lights of your cabin. If you weren’t here, I’d be dead.”
Ezra looked like he was about to cry, but I needed time to think. I stood up and started to walk toward the bedroom.
“What do you think I should do?” Ezra called after me.
I had no answer yet, so I retreated into my bathroom and turned on the shower. If I’d stayed in that room, I would have worked myself into a homicidal fury. That son of a bitch Gavin needed to die, but I had to keep my head on straight.
Once I was in the shower, I convinced myself that my obligation to the Omega ended with emailing the county sheriff to come pick him up. Out of the shower, I stood in front of the mirror and squirted shave foam into my hand. At the same time that I was telling myself that I owed Ezra nothing, I shaved my beard off so he wouldn’t be so afraid of me. I knew that my scruffy appearance was unsettling.
When my face was clean-shaven, I combed my hair and put it in a pony tail. I figured it would look less intense that way.
Before I went back into the living room, I dug the laptop out of the bedroom closet and booted it up. It wasn’t as hard as I thought to get it set up and connected to the internet. Paige had made it as easy as possible.
I sent out a quick message to the sheriff station. It was fifty miles away, and we’d just had a bitch of a snowstorm, but I figured it would at least get them headed my way.
After pulling on a pair of sweatpants, I went out into the living room to tell Ezra that he was on his own. He could stay in the cabin until the sheriff came for him, but that was it. It felt wrong, but I was used to that. My whole life was wrong.