Page 5 of These Bonds that Unite Us
I’ve always slightly envied his ability to be so sure of himself. So fearless in speaking up for himself. Something I’ve never found easy.
“I am,” I admit. We’ve only been back in Tennessee for a day, most of which I’ve spent at Momma Corinne’s house watching her try to bring some life back into her son’s eyes. “Things are… rough.”
“Life on tour wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, huh?” He sits down on the empty chair beside me. He’s a few inches taller than I am so his feet jut out over the edge of the small lake I’d chosen to fish in this afternoon. Not that it seems to bother him.
“The tour was great. A little crazy at times but nothing we couldn’t handle.” I hand him a spare pole I borrowed from Nexus’ parent’s house and sit the box of bait between us. We won’t be catching anything record-worthy here, but it will be relaxing to get lost in the process.
“So if the tour wasn’t shit, what happened?” Jack threads his bait around the hook before carefully casting his line out in the opposite direction as mine. His dark green eyes turn to me, an understanding written there that makes my heart stutter. “Cause let’s be honest Colt, you wouldn’t be back in Dickson if you weren’t runnin’ from somethin’.”
My nose scrunches hearing him call me by my birth name. He’s one of the only people who still use it, something I’d forgotten until now. Colton Ellis has been buried beneath the mask I wear as Callisto Graves for a long time now.
“We met our omega,” I admit. My eyes stay trained on the pond’s surface where my line bobs in the water. “Then everything fell apart and now we’re all barely hanging on.”
“Well shit, that certainly doesn’t sound like the fairytale you dreamed up when we were kids.” His line snags on something inthe water and he quiets while he untangles it and reels it in so he can recast. “Did she leave you or somethin’?”
“No. Nothing like that.” I tell him everything. Finally venting all of my built-up frustration.
I’m tired of surrounding myself with men who adamantly refuse to accept their feelings and allow us all to start to heal. How can Nebula not see the reality of Omen’s identity? She may have been born Sarah Montgomery, that doesn’t mean she’s chosen to live her life following in her vile family’s footsteps. Her photography for the DAU is clear evidence of her active support of pro-pack and pro-designation efforts. It’s been clear from the moment we met her that our girl is a Powell through and through.
Jack whistles when I finish my rant. “That’s one fucked up situation ya’ll have found yourself in.”
“It gets worse.” I swear his eyes get even wider, almost comically so. “Her safe house was compromised and now we don’t know what’s happened to her.”
“Like you don’t know if she escaped or if they caught her?”
“Or if she’s dead,” I whisper.
“Fuck, Colt. I mean you’d know wouldn’t ya? If she was dead you’d be able to feel it in that connection ya’ll have.”
I stare at my little brother, suddenly feeling like an idiot. We’ve been so lost in our fear and worry we never stopped to consider our Fated connection with her wouldn’t work at all if she was gone.
He gives me a shit-eating grin. “And you always say you’re smarter than me.”
“I am smarter than you Mr. All-C’s.”
He laughs and shrugs, unbothered by my teasing. He is a smart kid, but he never put his all into school because he knew what he wanted to do from a young age. Being a firefighter was his childhood aspiration, and he quickly made his dream areality after graduating high school. His career suits him, as it’s something he genuinely loves doing.
“I’m proud of you, Jackson. I hope you know that.”
“I know. I’m proud of us too. We’ve both made it good, haven’t we?” He smiles lazily, leaning back in his seat and tilting his ball cap to block his eyes.
Everything feels a little lighter sitting here beneath the early August sun with my brother at my side. For at least a little while, I don’t feel like a letdown.
The sun is descending below the horizon when Jackson calls it a night and heads out. I stay at the lake a while longer, watching the last rays of light disappear and letting myself feel everything I’ve kept buried for the past few weeks. My anger and fear. The worry for Omen and my pack.
Most shockingly of all, love. I never admitted the depth of my feelings for Omen out loud, but I should have. She should know she’s carrying a piece of my heart with her.
I’m going to tell her. She deserves my admission, even if our actions have cut her so deeply we’ll never truly be able to atone for them. Taking the pen I slipped into my tackle box, I use the ink to pour all of my feelings onto my skin.
With each letter, I focus on the sunshine scent of Omen’s skin. The soft feel of her lips pressed against mine. Her eyes lit up with laughter. I will my words to reach her and soothe even the most minuscule piece of the hurt our absence has caused her.
‘When you are ready
For the wounds I caused to heal
I’ll speak the words I left unspoken
Forever bound to your orbit
