Page 71 of Where There's Smoke
“Melody! Are you okay?” he asked, taking a step toward me but thinking better of it when he looked at the guys.
Out of my two brothers, Chord was easily my favorite. He had always been kind to me and didn't take any of our parents’behavior seriously. When I had expressed an interest in wanting to help animals, he hadn't belittled the idea like the others. In fact, he had said it was cool.
Hearing that from mybrother had meant everything to me at the time.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, lurching forward and embracing him. He lived on the East Coast, the opposite end of the country, so it was a shock seeing him. The faint smell of coconut hit my nose, and I was surprised to realize that my brother had a scent. It was definitely beta, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
“You haven't been answering your phone. Mom and Dad are freaking out,” he explained, taking a step back and looking at me. A frown crossed his face, and for a moment, he looked deep in thought, like he was trying to comprehend something. “You… Melody, are you anomega?”
The way he asked it made it sound like he didn't believe it, even though he was the one asking the question. Not that I could blame him for being at a loss.
“Yeah, there's been a few developments around here recently,” I admitted, my eyes dropping to the floor as I considered how much of an understatement that was. “Please don't tell our parents. I don’t need the third degree from them.”
He raised his hands in surrender as he shook his head. “I wouldn't dream of it. I just wanted to be able to tell them that I'd seen you, and you're alive and well. Hopefully, they’ll stop pestering us both for a while.”
“They really convinced you to travel all the way out here just so they could keep an eye on me?” I shook my head back at him, embarrassment and guilt leaking into my mind. They’d always asked way too much of us. They were such helicopters. Our parents couldn’t let anything go.
Chord nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. “You know what they're like.”
“I do. That's why I moved across the country to get away from them. Ugh,” I sighed. The tension had backed off some, the shock of Chord’s arrival lessening. But I could still feel the guys on edge behind me.Cue breaking more of the tension. “Have they convinced you to go to law school or med school yet? Or, better yet, both?”
Chord snorted, rolling his eyes. “Despite their best efforts, no. Though, you can imagine how, once they realized how much money I was making in software development, their tone quickly changed.”
“Ahh, our parents. Materialistic until the end.”
“They still talk about how they want you to come homeconstantly.” Chord laughed at my grimace. “Yeah, it doesn't matter how many times I explain to them that they behave like overbearing assholes with us, it just doesn't seem to make it through the years of self-imposed victimhood mentality they’re sporting. Weowethem for even having us. Reed is still in law school, though, so he is the favorite, of course.”
“I wouldn't expect anything less.” I laughed, knowing that Reed probably loved it that way. He’d always been a suck-up with our folks.
“I have got some news for you, though… Lilia is pregnant.” His smile was dazzlingly wide as he admitted that.
“Chord! My my god, congratulations!” I squealed, pulling him into a bear hug. My brother had been with his fiancée for over a year, and the couple seemed a perfect match.
“We're going to have to come out and visit before the baby arrives,” he said.
“You better! Or I'll have to come visit you.”
Chord embraced me again. “I’m really happy to see you, Melly. I nearly had a heart attack when I went to your rescue andsaw it had burned down. I asked around, and that's how I found out you were staying here.”
“Are you in town long?” I asked, ignoring the fact that Elliot’s stare was burning a hole in the back of my head. I knew they wanted their introductions, but how the hell was I supposed to explain this to Chord?
“I fly back to New York tomorrow, so I'm only in town for tonight.”
“Do you want to get some dinner? You're paying.” I smirked at my brother, who simply laughed and nodded. He was gainfully employed, after all, whereas I ran a small animal rescue, which was currently being rebuilt.
“Name the place, I’ll meet you there. Though, you do need to explain to me why you're staying at a firehouse…and who these three alphas are, who look like they want to murder me right now…”
A bubble of laughter escaped my chest, heat rising in my cheeks. “These are three of the firefighters who rescued me,” I explained.
“We’re dating,” Elliot said, crossing his arms, his expression stern.
For a moment, I simply gaped at him. Of all the guys I thought would declare that we were “sort of” dating, my last guess would have been Elliot. But jealousy and unease billowed off him as he glared at my brother. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Elliot was going to rush up to the guy and snap at him like a wild dog.
“You are?” Chord asked, raising his eyebrows at me before glancing over the, no doubt, impressive array of alphas crowding in behind me.
“All right, all right. Everyone to their corners.” I smacked my brother’s arm, gesturing toward the door as I pulled Chord along. “Let’s go chat over pizza.”
“No wonder you’ve had no time to deal with our parents’ crap!” Chord exclaimed as he gobbled down his fourth slice of pizza. We were sitting in a small Italian restaurant not far from the firehouse, and I had just finished telling him everything that happened, from the rescue burning down to finding out that I was an omega.
