Page 207 of The Alpha's Second Chance Mate

When Cole returned with Langston and Trent a few hours later, I fessed up immediately.

“You didwhat?” Cole yelled.

“Not smart, Avery,” Langston said. “You should have told us you were going to do that.”

“Why?” I shot back. “So you could tell me not to?”

“For starters, yeah,” Langston said as he crossed his arms.

Trent, obviously not wanting to get involved in a fight, slipped farther into the kitchen away from us.

“The last time you talked to him, it nearly wrecked you,” Cole said. “It would be better if you hadn’t. I don’t want you stressing yourself out for no good reason.”

“I’m not a fucking porcelain doll, Cole,” I said. “I realize how upset I was the last time. None of that matters. Ashton has been gone for weeks.Weeks. And all that time, he’s been sitting there terrified and waiting for his mother and father to save him, and we haven’t managed to do anything for him. So I did what I needed to do. Got it?”

Cole looked at me, sorrow filling his eyes. “I’m sorry. We don’t think it was smart for you to do that. Not after what it did to you last time.”

“Cole’s right, Avery,” Langston said. “If you wanted to call him, you should have waited for us to be here. We could have?—”

“Stop,” I snarled, glaring at both of them. “You keep acting like this is about me. It’s not. This is about Ashton. Nothing else matters. I called you—” I pointed at Langston “—because I thought it would help get my son back faster, and yet here we are. Is my son in this house, Langston? Is he?”

Langston lowered his eyes, unable or unwilling to meet my gaze. It should have made me feel ashamed, but instead, a swell of happiness filled me. I was miserable, so why shouldn’t my friends be, too? I didn’t even realize I’d had this much emotion bottled up inside me, but it was ready to explode, like a can of soda being shaken up until it could no longer hold the pressure.

“Not sure if either of you care or not, but Ashton told me that something strange is going on. Something that isn’t as it seems. Maybe he means the doctor working with Kyle, or maybe it’s something else, I don’t know.” I threw a withering glare at Cole. “Kyle is also training him, and trying to get Ashton to call him fuckingDad.”

Cole’s head snapped up, and had I not already been angry, I would have flinched back in fear at the look in his eyes. Rage and shock beyond reason radiated from his face at hearing the words.

“What?” he said, barely managing to choke the words out.

“You heard me,” I said. “I guessnowit’s okay that I called? Now that something has hurt your poor masculine pride?”

The anger vanished from his eyes, the color draining from his face as if I’d slapped him.

“Avery, I didn’t?—”

“I’m going upstairs,” I said.

I stomped up the stairs, leaving the two men in my wake.

Striding into the bedroom, I slammed the door behind me, causing the frame to shudder. It felt good. The explosive sound of the door sent a visceral thrill through me. Was this why men liked banging things, punching walls, and slamming stuff? If so, it was no wonder they enjoyed doing it when they were angry.Catharsis.That’s what it was.

Flopping onto the bed, I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. I should have felt bad about yelling at them, but I didn’t. It felt right, like itneededto be said. I’d been relegated to a fucking damsel in distress. Cole and Langston sending me to hide, keeping me guarded, all while they got to go out and actually do something to bring Ashton home. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t been successful. They were at least able toact.

A knock came at the door a few seconds later. I didn’t have to ask to know who it was.

“Come in, Cole,” I said wearily. I was irritated beyond belief, but I didn’t want to make things worse between us. As furious as I was, he was all I had to hang on to.

He entered, an abashed look on his face. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

He took a seat on the bed beside me. “I’m sorry. Can I tell you my side, though?”

It was all I could do not to bite back with a pissy retort. “Sure. Go ahead.”

“The reason I was upset is because I saw how drained you were the last few times you had to talk to him. We said you wouldn’t talk to him again, right? Do you remember that discussion?”

Bitterly, I did recall it. I thought I knew where this was going, and I was already irritated at myself.

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