Page 3 of The Alpha: Part Three
Then I notice his white-knuckled grip on her dress. He’s in shock. Of course he is. What seven year old wouldn’t be in this situation.
“Hey, Joseph,” I reach out and touch his clammy forehead. “You were so brave. And I know you’re scared. You might even be a little bit sick right now. But we need to get you and Iris down this tree. I can carry you and her dad can carry her, then you can sit with her again when we get down there. How about that?” I look at Cody for help.
“That’s a good idea, Joseph. Let Michael carry you, I know you’re shaky. I’ll climb down after you.”
The smaller boy shakes his head again. “I don’t think I can let her go,” he whispers. “My fingers are too tight.”
Trent comes over and touches Joseph’s cheek. He takes a breath and releases it slowly. “How about I carry you down? I’ll carry both of you. You hang on to me while we climb, okay? I know all about when your fingers are too tight to let go. Let’s do that, okay?”
“Are we in trouble?” Cody asks.
“No, man,” Trent smiles. “Nobody’s in trouble. Let’s climb down before Jasper climbs up. If he climbs up, we might all be in trouble.” Trent can try to make light of that if he wants to, but even I can feel the turbulent worry pulsing from Jasper and he’s still on the ground.
“We cut the rope,” Brandon says. “That’s how we usually get down. It’s safer to go down like that. But we didn’t want that jerk to climb up. So we cut it.”
“I would have cut it too.” Trent nods toward Joseph. “You ready?”
“You won’t drop them, will you?” Cody asks.
“No, Cody. He would never drop them. I’ll start down first and I’ll grab anybody who falls.” That makes no sense, but it’s good enough to reassure him.
“Trent!” Jasper yells.
“Fuck,” Trent mutters and reaches down to pry Joseph away from Cody. He immediately wraps his legs around Trent’s waist and one arm around his torso and shoulders and Trent takes a moment to look down at Iris tucked between them. “You’re okay, baby. Ready to climb down with me?”
Slowly, carefully, we all climb down the tree. When I was a kid, it seemed so much higher. When we hid out in the treehouse, it felt like we were miles and miles above the ground and everybody on it. It takes less than a minute to climb back down now.
The moment Trent’s feet touch the ground, Jasper rushes him. “Hang on, Jasper. Go slow. She’s alright, I promise. But this kid isn’t.”
Jasper steadies himself and starts looking Joseph over. “Are you hurt?” Now that he knows Iris is safe and unharmed, he’s a completely different person. Almost. He’s still putting out intense energy.
“I don’t think so,” Joseph says. “My fingers are still tight.”
Jasper is, without doubt, an omega. It’s easy to forget with all the weird energy and sounds he makes, but he’s absolutely an omega. He starts a soft, rolling purr and puts his hands over Joseph’s. “Can you tell me what happened? How did you end up in the treehouse?”
Joseph starts working through his version of the whole thing while Kaleb and I look over Cody and Brandon. Neither have so much as a scratch, but they’re both badly shaken up. Cody is trembling so much that his teeth are chattering.
I catch Kaleb’s eye. “We need to get them home.” I bend down and lift Cody onto my back, piggy back style. He doesn’t even fight me on it. “Ben, will you run ahead and get their families?”
He nods and takes off back towards the houses. Their parents are probably already worried sick and looking for the boys. He’ll probably run into most of them on his way back.
Kaleb nods puts his hands on Brandon’s shoulders. “Can you walk?”
Brandon’s nose snarls at the suggestion that he might be carried. “Can you?”
Kaleb smiles at him. “Devon is going to love you. Let’s go.”
“What about that guy?” Brandon asks. “We can’t just leave him here.”
Kaleb nods. “No, we can’t.” He pulls out his phone and makes a call. “She’s okay… We’ve got her. But we’ve got a rogue too… Unconscious… There’s a treehouse in the wooded area behind the houses. Can somebody send people to get him? Good… Okay.” He hangs up and furrows his brows at the man on the ground.
Reid reaches into the middle of everything to touch Iris’s hair and closes his eyes for a moment. He opens them and nods at Kaleb. “I’ll stay. Get her back to Talia.”
Kaleb nods and motions towards the houses. “Shall we?”
Somehow, miraculously, there isn’t a panicked crowd of mothers, aunts, and grandmothers gathered in front of our house when we round the corner.
Ben meets us at the door. “Blood in the kitchen. He’s okay, just bloody and exhausted. They’re almost done cleaning it up, I just didn’t want the kids to see it and get scared.”
