Page 35 of Alpha Brock
“Fuck,” he grumbles, heaving a sigh. He pulls my body in tight to his and drops his head over my shoulder, pressing his forehead against the passenger window and drawing ragged breaths. Still holding me in his arms pinned against the side of his SUV.
This shouldn’t feel as good as it does. I’m not sure I could pick a guy more unavailable than Brock, but the chemistry between us is just off-the-charts. I owe it to myself to see where it goes.
Slowly, he releases his grip on my body, setting me back down. “Come on,” he growls, and as I find my footing, he snakes an arm behind me and presses his palm to my lower back, guiding me to walk with him. My lips feel swollen and bruised from his rough kisses, and I’ll bet my face is still flushed. Once we round the corner of the parking lot, he drops his hand from my back and we continue on to the gate.
And then we walk out to the practice field like nothing happened.
We find our group quickly and I wander closer to the girls to stretch while Brock sticks by the guys. My heart is still beating fast- I wonder if his is, too? I plop down on the ground and stick my legs out on either side to stretch, sneaking a subtle glance in his direction.
I catch him looking at me, too.
This thing between us, it isn’t over. Not by a longshot. No matter how much he tries to resist it, when we’re together, we’re bound to explode.
“Hey, look who’s here,” Jax mumbles, elbowing Theo beside him.
I glance up to see a group of six guys walking through the gate and onto the practice field. They can’t be any older than eighteen- most of them look like they’re still in high school, if not all. The biggest guy is in the middle, and he’s walking with the cocky swagger of an alpha, his head held high. He’s got his hands shoved in the front pocket of his hoodie, leading the rest of them straight toward Brock and the other alphas.
“Who’s that?” I whisper to Quinn, stretching on the ground beside me.
She looks up, scanning the faces of the group of guys, and I see a flash of recognition cross her face. “Oh shit,” she whispers, sitting up straighter. “I don’t know the others, but the big guy in the middle is Chase. He’s Alpha Vaughn’s son.”
I tilt my head questioningly.
“The Alpha of the Norbury pack.”
“Ahhh…” I breathe, the pieces of the puzzle clicking together in my brain. I haven’t met Alpha Vaughn yet, but I’ve heard about him and the fact that he’s got a son who is a senior in high school.
“Can I help you boys?” Gray asks once the group of guys are within earshot, stepping forward.
The practice field is busy and packed with squad members, but suddenly it’s like everyone hushes at once to look on and watch the confrontation between the squad leaders and this group of kids.
“Yeah,” Chase replies, taking a step ahead of his friends. “We’re here to sign up to go to Denver. We want to fight.”
Theo moves to stand beside Gray, folding his arms over his chest. “Does your dad know you’re here?” he asks condescendingly.
I slowly drag my gaze across each of the guys behind Chase, my intuition picking up little tidbits about each of them. The one on the far left is bad news- I’m getting some seriously dark juju from him. One of them toward the middle is actually scared; he’s only here because his friends talked him into it and he didn’t want to look like a wimp. The rest of them are alright, nothing major, but this Chase kid? he’s got some serious damage. I try to focus in, reach for what my intuition is trying to tell me, when I’m smacked with a vision.
Sadness. It’s overwhelming, and I’m picking it up from the little boy sitting on the stairs, peeking out through the railings. I’m in a house I don’t recognize, and somehow I know that the little boy is Chase and the couple that he’s watching argue in the room below are his parents.
“You can’t leave, think of your son!” the man pleads, reaching out for the woman’s arm. She tugs it away, glaring up at the little boy on the stairs. “You can have him!” she hisses. “I told you, I can’t do this. I never wanted this.”
The woman makes a beeline for the front door, and the little boy races down the stairs, chasing after her. Calling for his mama.
The vision fades, the practice field coming back into focus. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to these visions hitting me like this- I can still feel the sadness so deeply, the devastation. The abandonment. My chest feels heavy as I look upon the same boy from my vision, only older. Yet still fragile. He’s arguing back and forth with Theo now, who looks like he’s ready to lay him out at any moment.
“Don’t you guys need all the help you can get? How can you turn us away if we’re willing to fight?” Chase demands.
“You aren’t trained,” Gray says simply. “It’s not safe.”
Chase snorts, rolling his eyes. “I may not be a squad zombie, but I could take any one of you.”
Reid shakes his head, sighing. “You’ve got a pretty big chip on your shoulder, kid.”
“I’m just confident,” Chase says, puffing out his chest.
“You think this is a fucking game?” Brock growls. “This isn’t teenage bullshit, this is real life or death stuff. You shouldn’t be trying to get yourself involved, and if you keep up this reckless behavior you’re only gonna get yourself killed.”
Chase scowls, his gaze dropping.