Page 27 of Talk About… Dramay
“We are more than ready to have you back here in Rockwood Valley, Ori. Come home, little bird. We’re waiting.”
“Love you, Dad. Tell everyone I love them and I’ll see them soon.”
“Love you too, Little Bird. See you soon.”
As the call ended and I sat back in my car, the anticipation hit me hard. All I wanted to do was pack quickly and get the hell out of the city I never truly felt at home in.
I’d let this distance take over for far too long. I’d needed the space and my parents all respected that. Now, I couldn’t do it any longer.
Roman deserved to know them, too. He knew we were close, but it’s something far different to experience it in person.
Everything in me was excited, but the worry over Cameron was simmering under the surface and refusing to be ignored.
He was the unknown, the one thing I didn’t know how to let go completely. Would this bring closure? I had my doubts, but regardless, I’d made my mind up, and I refused to let his rejection rule my life anymore than I already had.
Cameron
The loud knocking on my door jolted me out of a dead sleep, the noise pulsing in my brain and sending a fresh wave of pain through it.
I’d spent far too many mornings like this lately and the self-deprecation was growing stronger every single day.
“If I ignore you, will you go away?”
I knew whoever knocked like that, refusing to let me ignore it, was either my best friend, Tucker, or my brothers, Maverick and Nash.
“No,” Tucker growled. “I’m done with this, get your ass up and shower. You have ten minutes before I break this fucking door down.”
Any other alpha talking to me that way would be knocked flat. Tucker was the exception. We may not be pack, but we’d had each other’s backs from the beginning.
He also never held back on me and I needed that sometimes. Someone impartial, that wasn’t my family.
Groaning, I forced myself out of bed and stumbled to the door. The light was like daggers straight to my eyeballs and I turned away quickly as they pushed in.
“What the actual fuck, dude?” Tucker asked, glancing around in pure horror. Okay… so maybe my place had gotten out of hand.
Along with my life.
“Is this an intervention?” I asked, my voice scratchy and rough from sleep and too much booze. “Can I at least shower and have coffee first.”
“Go. You have ten minutes before I’m calling Maverick and Nash,” Tucker warned. His face was cast in a scowl as he looked around.
As I stumbled into the bathroom and slammed the door, I already knew he was going to be on a rampage cleaning up. If there was anything Tucker couldn’t stand, it was a mess. It made him anxious and with the state of my apartment right now… it was awful.
After Nash and his best friends built a packhouse on his portion of the property. I couldn’t bring myself to do the same so I took over our formerly shared apartment.
Why build a packhouse without an omega? I’d fucked that up over thirteen years ago.
“Fuck,” I cursed, the old memories had been worse than ever lately. My alpha rebelling and making me feel unhinged and out of control.
Unless I drowned it in hard liquor.
The sharp ache in my knuckles had me cursing again. I didn’t even register hitting the shower tiles but the small streak of blood couldn’t be argued with.
“I swear to god I’ll kick your ass, Cameron Whitaker!” Tucker bellowed through the door. “I’m calling them.”
I guess he was all too aware of what I’d just done and was over it all. Who could blame him? His best friend was a fucking loser these days. I barely recognized myself.
By the time I got out of the shower and had wrapped my bleeding knuckles, my brothers and best friend were waiting for me. Somehow they’d speed cleaned the apartment and threw open every window possible, but their faces were somber.