Chapter Three

            “It couldn’t have just disappeared,” I snapped, running my fingers through my hair for the millionth time as I paced back and forth. The Alphas watched me cautiously. They didn’t seem to understand how big of an issue this was. 

            “Maybe some animals carried it off?” Anders thought allowed.

            I whirled on him. “Really? A fifty-pound pack?” 

            He shrugged. 

            “Maybe we need to just look again,” he suggested. 

            We had looked several times already. It was gone. Another sweep wasn’t going to suddenly yield different results. 

            I sighed, lacing my fingers together over my forehead while staring up at the sky through the trees. 

            “It’s gone,” I finally said, defeated. 

            “We can just make some more tools, it will be primitive, but it’s not hard as long as it gets the job done. And I don’t mind sharing my supplies–” Anders started, but I cut him off. 

            “You don’t get it. My pack had my suppressants in it.”

            Both Alphas stared at me wide-eyed. 

            “Yeah,” I snapped. They were finally starting to understand what a shit show this was. 

            Anders sighed. “We still have ours, so you don’t have to worry about us losing control.”

            I shook my head. Endure a heat alone? It would be torture. 

            “How long until your next heat?” 

            I blinked in surprise, looking at Leo. This was probably the first time he’d ever spoken to me directly. 

            “A week probably,” I told them. 

            The tension grew until the sounds of nature became too deafening to deal with. 

            “Let’s just find a water source, before we lose more daylight,” I murmured, heading off in the direction we came. 

            I heard the faint steps following behind me and quiet murmurs of conversation, but I didn’t bother trying to figure out what they were saying. I wasn’t interested, too worried about the weeks ahead. 

            Going through a heat was never easy. The lack of control alone was something that always put a bad taste in my mouth. But if I was ever in a situation where I didn’t have access to suppressants, I at least had a partner to help me through it. The clinics made sure of that. But here? What was I going to do? Ask Anders or Leo? I couldn’t do that. 

            Fuck. This is bullshit.

            The walk back seemed to take even longer. Maybe it was, considering we had to search for a water source. Thankfully, we found one only a twenty-minute walk from the cabin. Lugging the water back and forth would be a pain in the ass, but for once, I was happy the Alphas were taking care of it. 

            While they made their rounds, filling up the tank out back, I worked on shoveling out some dirt and collecting the clay underneath. It was nightfall when they finished and I had collected quite a bit of clay. Though I was completely covered in dirt. After munching on some of the dried food rations that Leo had shared with me, I peeled off my clothes and headed for the shower. 

            It was cold. Like colder than I had anticipated, but nothing I couldn’t handle. The ice baths after a particularly grueling day of training were worse than this. And if I was honest, it was a cool balm against my body aches. 

            I was lathering myself up with some borrowed soap when the door of the shower opened. I twisted around sharply, expecting to see Leo slinking his way inside because the oaf had never heard of personal space, but was greeted instead by Anders. 

            His eyes practically glowed in the dim lighting as he watched me from the darkness of the shadows.

            “You couldn’t wait?” I growled. 

            “It would be best to preserve as much water as possible.”

            He had a point, but I didn’t see Leo in here. Why not make it a party? Besides, there was something in Anders’s gaze that made that explanation a poor one. 

            “Well?” I taunted, before giving him my back and continuing to wash. I could feel him watching me, but I ignored him as much as I was able. Kind of hard to do, but I managed to pretend. Still, I was aware, grossly aware of every move he made, every breath he took. 

            When he shifted closer, not quite under the spray, I didn’t even flinch. Not even when his breath skated across my shoulders as he leaned over to grab the soap from me. With a blatant challenge in my gaze, I turned and stepped under the spray, eyes never leaving him, watching him with the same intensity as he did me.

            Tension was high and I couldn’t even really say why. Anders and I, we never talked much. He was one of the Alphas in my squadron, that was it. We were civil, but that’s where our interest in each other ended. I hadn’t even perceived him as someone to watch out for. Could I have been wrong? 

            With careful, precise movements, Anders washed himself. The water slid right off his short black hair, just recently buzzed in the typical Force fashion. It reminded me how Leo always toed the line with his own hair, keeping it buzzed on the sides while the top showed just a hint of those tight brown coils. 

            Why am I thinking about Leo?

            Shaking my head as if to shake the image of him from my mind, I focused back on the male in front of me. The one who made it no secret that being this close did things to him. 

            But he never touched me. Never crowded me. Never crossed the line. Just showered and left. I stood there, under the spray, wondering how the hell I was supposed to survive a month with them.

            Just as I finished, turned the water off, and slipped out of the shower stall into the darkness, I noticed a figure standing in the shadows, leaning against the wall of the cabin.

            If I hadn’t caught his scent or recognized his frame, I might have been surprised. 

            “Showers all yours,” I said, making a move past Leo. 

            He grabbed my arm, practically slamming me against the cabin, crowding in my face until I all could see was the black of pupils that had blown wide. 

            “What the fuck Leo?” I growled, trying to push away from him. “I don’t have time for your macho Alpha bullshit.”

            He was having none of it, shoving into me with even more aggression. The tip of his nose skimmed my jaw. A low grumble vibrated his chest. 

            What the hell was wrong with him?

            He was acting like he was…

            “Leo…when’s the last time you took your suppressants?” 

            Leo grunted at first, but then in a husky whisper against my ear, he uttered a simple “Morning.”

            “This morning?” I clarified.

            He gave a small nod, before licking a stripe along my jaw. A breath of relief washed over me as my shoulders sagged. Thank goodness because that would have been a shitshow and a half if he went into rut. 

            Still, it didn’t explain his behavior. He never acted like this before. At least, never to this extent. He was behaving like he was following his baser instincts. 

            “Okay, well now that I smell like you, can you please let go of me?” 

            He seemed to blink at that, confusion in his expression as he frowned and backed away. It was as if he was waking from some sort of dream, the way his eyes flooded with clarity. Slowly, he raised his hands and backed away, forehead still crinkled in confusion.

            “Sorry,” he mumbled quietly, before stumbling off and into the darkness. It wasn’t in the direction of the front door. For half a second I was worried where he might be going in this darkness, but then it hit me that he’s a grown man and he can take care of himself. So I didn’t offer him another glance and instead made my way back inside the cabin. 

            Anders was sitting at the makeshift dining table whittling away at some wooden tools. I padded over to the long shirt one of them had left out for me to borrow while my own dried. I had to wash it after all that digging. 

            After tugging it on, I went to the table where Anders sat, pulling out my own knife that I thankfully had tucked in my jacket and not my pack, before helping him carve out some utensils. 

            They were crude at best, but they got the job done. 

            “We’ll have to set the traps tomorrow. We don’t have much of the rations left,” I commented, making work of a spoon. It was definitely not my best work. 

            “Leo’s doing it now,” Anders said softly. 

            “In the dark?” I scoffed. That didn’t seem the least bit smart. 

            Anders shrugged. “He moves better in the night than any of us ever could.”

            “Still. Why not just wait until tomorrow when it’s daylight?” 

            Ander’s thick dark brow rose before a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, hiding a secret I wasn’t privy to. 

            “What?” I prodded. 

            “Oh, nothing. Just that he was very eager to do it. He seemed adamant about making sure a certain someone didn’t starve.” 

            I rolled my eyes, placed the spoon down and picked up another little log, and started to carve. “That’s incredibly dramatic. It’s been what? All of two days? We still have rations. I’d hardly starve.”

            Frustrated, I accidentally chopped off too much and there wasn’t enough wood to make the prongs. Abandoning the stick, I picked up another and started working on a fresh one. 

            “I’m not his fucking Omega. I don’t get why he acts like that.”

            Anders chuckled. “You may not be his Omega but you are an Omega and an Alpha can’t help the need to provide and protect. It’s instinct.”

            “Yeah, I got that. But he doesn’t have to be so insufferable about it. You don’t do that.”

            Even as I said it, my mind immediately raced back to the shower earlier, and the way he looked at me. Might not be entirely true there. 

            “Are you so sure?” Anders challenged, then fixed that impossibly intense stare on me.

            No…I certainly wasn’t.

            Anders looked back down at his handiwork, a smile back in place. “Leo’s just honest. I’m better at containing my urges, simply because I know you don’t like that sort of thing. But make no mistake, the desire is there.” 

            Forgetting the spoon I worked on, I studied him. I hadn’t realized he paid that much attention, to me at least. 

            “Sorry, but I’m not your typical Omega,” I grunted, continuing on the new and improved fork. 

            “Oh that I definitely know,” Anders laughed.

            Choosing not to be offended by his tone, I continued working on a few more utensils before tackling hallowing out a bowl. 

            “Why did you choose to stay in the Force?” I asked, making conversation. While we all were forced to enlist for two years, this specific training was dedicated to those who planned to stay. 

            “Believe it or not, some of us actually like the work. Sure, protecting Betas doesn’t feed the same instincts the way it does when protecting an Omega, but it does give me a rush, if even on a smaller scale. Why give that up? Especially when pretty much the only other option is being a clinic knothead.” 

            He had a point. Respectable jobs were hard to come by. Not because we weren’t allowed to have them, but because they were all taken up. When an Alpha or Omega got one, they held on to it for dear life. Couldn’t blame them.

            It was this or be a Breeder for me. I mean, things could still change once my year was up, but it was unlikely. 

            We worked in silence for a little bit, only the crackling fire and sound of our knives against the wood disturbed the quiet nature. 

            I was finishing up my second bowl when Anders spoke again, not looking up from his own work. 

            “Being in the Force, does it take away from being with your Alpha?” 

            I couldn’t tell if the question was a probing one. Did he honestly think I had an Alpha already, or was he simply trying to put feelers out for himself?

            I had never been one that pursued, so this was foreign territory. And Anders gave nothing away, his face void of any indicators of interest. 

            “I don’t have an Alpha,” I answered honestly, felt as though that was the best way to navigate this. 

            Anders head shot up, brows scrunched as he stared at me confused. The response was so sudden, I mirrored his confusion. 

            “What?” I asked.

            Anders tilted his head as if to get a better look at me, “You don’t have an Alpha?” 

            I nodded slowly. It wasn’t that uncommon. Besides, they’d clearly seen my neck clear of any mating bite, so why was he so surprised?

            “No and I don’t recall telling anyone I did.”

            Anders fell silent for a moment, eyes glazed as he clearly thought hard about something. I watched him warily, both of us completely abandoning our task. 

            “This is a problem,” he finally rushed out. 

            I frowned. 

            “Why?”

            Anders gave me an exasperated look. “They assigned an unmated Omega with two unmated Alphas.” 

            “So? There are plenty of other mixed Alpha and Omega teams doing this training,” I pointed out. Why is he freaking out? This was common.

            “Mated Alphas and Omegas. They only mix the teams if one or the other are mated to eliminate any chances of…mistakes.”

            I frowned. “Why would anyone assume I was mated? I mean, you’ve both seen my neck several times.”

            “Not every mating gland is located in the neck.”

            I stared at him. 

            The shower…
            “That’s why you followed me into the shower. To see if I had a mating bite.”

            Anders shrugged. “I underestimated how dark it would be.” 

            I glared at him. “You could have just asked.”

            Anders sighed, “Perhaps that would have been quicker.”

            “Well now what? It’s too late to contact the Force.”

            Anders shook his head. “No, first, we tell Leo.”