“Fuck off,” Easton snaps as his hand disappears into his front pocket, and the other guy steps back, shaking his head.
“Always such a dick. I was just being friendly.”
Easton doesn’t respond, just stares the other guy down. He takes the hint and walks away, and I exhale.
“Come on, we need to hurry. Not everyone here will be as intimidated by my aggression. My reputation won’t stop an Alpha close to his rut from attacking,” Easton growls in a way that makes my heart falter.
“What’s going on?” I whimper, following closely after him. Easton spins around, and I bump into his chest.
“I’ll explain once we’re in my car, okay? For now, let's just get out of here before someone catches us. Alright?”
I nod.
“Great, now let's go!” This time he grabs my arm and tugs me along with him. He’s not rough, just firm, and I follow along behind him easily. Right now, I don’t have much of a choice.
When we push through a random door at the end of another hall, the crisp night air hits me like a balm. My ability to escape increases greatly if I’m outside.
“My truck is just ahead. Come here.” He doesn’t give me the chance to respond, as he scoops me up in his arms and carries me to a black truck.
The windows are all heavily tinted. It’s shiny and massive.
He opens the driver side door and helps me inside, looking around behind him before he climbs in with me. I scoot over, pressing myself against the other door. Easton doesn’t comment on it, though.
With one last look around, he starts the truck and drives. I look at every fucking detail, taking in everything I can, but I don’t see much before Easton reaches across the seats, presses his big palm to my head, and shoves me down into the foot well of the car.
“Can’t have anyone seeing me leaving with you,” he explains with a lopsided smirk.
“You can move your hand. I’ll stay down until it’s safe,” I grumble. His touch is too familiar, and it’s fucking with me. I want him to get his arm away from me.
“I know. I just like touching you.”
I glare daggers at him. “Now is not the time to flirt, Easton. I get that maybe this isn’t an abnormal sort of situation in your very clearly chaotic life, but this is a little fucking insane for me.” My annoyed tone doesn’t convey just how fucking off balance I feel.
“I know. I’m not trying to make a joke out of this, I just know that… I shut down. When things are too…much. I’m trying to avoid sending you into shock.” Easton winces, his brownie scent flooding the space between us, attempting to soothe me.
“You’re an unusual Omega,” I murmur, and Easton snorts a loud laugh.
“Necessity,” he’s still laughing, shaking his head, but there’s pain in his tone. I don’t resist my instinct to reach for him, as I grab his hand and tug it back over to me.
I do trust him, even though he’s been lying to me since we met.
“Why risk your own life for me? If that scary Alpha is your uncle, and Jimmy is your cousin, why not just… I don’t even know. What am I missing?”
“You can sit up now,” he says as he checks the rearview mirror. I keep my eyes on him as I move. He looks stressed as hell. When I’m seated, and after he makes sure I buckle in, heglances at me. “Because it’s you. No fucking way was anyone going to touch you. Sure as fuck not Jimmy, or my uncle. Because I know first hand what happens to Omegas in those concrete walls. Because you’re my friend, and I care about you.”
Easton hisses, ready to pull off the road when I undo my seat belt. But I scoot over and buckle into the middle seat so I can be closer to him. He settles, looking marginally less shifty when I wrap my hands around his bicep and nuzzle his shoulder.
“You can never go back?”
“That’s a complicated question, my Sparrow. I don’t have an answer for you. Not one I want to fully explain, anyway.”
“Don’t want to? So you have answers, but you don’t want to tell me?”
“I’m not trying to scare you away…” Even though I’ve only known him a short while, I never doubted him.
Maybe that's foolish of me.
But…