Page 15 of His Unicorn Alpha
I was hoping that doing so would settle the restlessness beneath my skin. I no longer felt uneasy, and my shifter side was appeased to be back in Ollie’s pack, but ever since we had stopped at the fertility clinic, my horse had been stamping its hooves, demanding…something.
I was also hornier than I could ever recall being, and no amount of jerking off in Beck’s guest bathroom shower was helping with that.
Beck had picked up on my anxiousness and suggested that I go for a run. He’d offered to join me, and it would have been cool to run alongside his wolf, but I had ultimately felt like I needed to be alone. Plus, I was weird about getting naked in front ofother shifters in order to shift. I always had been. Ever since I’d realized I hadn’t developed like all the other betas.
In shifted form, as far as I knew, I was anatomically correct. But in human form? I felt…defective.
I knew I wasn’t. I knew there was nothing wrong with me. That the size of my dick had nothing to do with how good I was in bed. But aesthetics were still aesthetics, and I didn’t want to be laughed at or, worse, pitied.
I knew Beck wouldn’t laugh at me, by the way. But I couldn’t be as certain that he wouldn’t pity me.
Not wanting to risk it, I turned his offer down and opted to run by myself.
With the breeze blowing through my nearly peroxide blonde mane, I listened to the leaves in the trees rustling and the birds chirping. I breathed and ran, my hooves thundering across hard packed ground.
It was helping. I was beginning to feel more in control of myself and my emotions than I had in months. My beta still demanded that I should seek Brandt out, but I got the distinct impression that he didn’t want that to happen. Over the week that I had been at Beck’s, the oldest dragon had been noticeably absent from any gatherings or meetings.
I’d spent time getting to know his youngest brother, Eric. I had also been properly introduced to the other alphas, Rex and Brandi, and their respective omega mates, Damon and Lena. I’d met several members of the rest of the pack, too. But any time Beck attempted to introduce me to Brandt, the eldest dragon was nowhere to be found. Coupled with the look on his face when he saw me sitting in the car, I was taking it personally.
He was avoiding me.
I couldn’t work out why. We had never met. Never spoken. I couldn’t imagine Beck or Sandy would have said anythingnegative about me, but I didn’t know what else would have caused his avoidance.
I was still mulling over this when movement from the path connecting the clinic and the main house caught my eye. Eric emerged from the small orchard of apple trees, gesticulating wildly. I couldn’t understand his shouts, but I could tell he was unhappy. Enraged, even. A few steps behind him was a tall, bulky, dark-haired figure.Brandt.
Brandt’s posture made the back of my neck prickle, even in my shifted form. His shoulders were rounded and hunched forward and his head was hanging in defeat. It appeared, to me, that his younger brother was raving at him, and he was taking the tongue-lashing.
My heart thumped and, before I had even processed it, I began racing towards the main house, to the spot in the empty stables where I had left my clothes. I shifted inside the stables and dressed as quickly as I could, not bothering to fix my hair or make sure I was neat and tidy. I didn’t know why, but I needed to find out what was wrong.
I need to make sure he’s okay.
I had no idea where that thought came from, but I felt it deep in my soul.
By the time I burst in through Beck and Ollie’s back door, I knew that Eric and Brandt were already in the house. I could scent them, though it was faint.
“Whoa,” Ollie put his hand to his chest in surprise as I rushed through the kitchen and dining area and into the hallway, almost knocking him over. “Where’s the fire?”
I couldn’t explain why it was so important that I find Brandt, but my shifter side was screaming at me to get to him. Still, I couldn’t be rude to my host in his own home.
“Sorry,” I apologized quickly, scanning the main hallway which led to Sandy’s room, a bathroom, and the room which had been turned into— “The meeting room!” I blurted in an excited rush. It had apparently been soundproofed when Beck and Eric had converted it so they could hold the shifter council meetings there.
“There’s a fire in the meeting room?” Ollie asked, and I frowned.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Never mind. What’s got you so shaken up?”
I scrubbed my palm over my face. “Eric and Brandt went in there, right? With Beck?”
“And Rex, yeah,” Ollie nodded slowly. His eyes narrowed. “Why?”
His confirmation made me feel even more unsettled. Brandt had looked so broken and defeated, and Eric had been shouting and angry…whatever they needed the involvement oftwoalphas for couldn’t be good, could it?
“I just…I just have this…thisfeeling.” I couldn’t describe it. I looked at him pleadingly. “I’ve got to head in there.”
Ollie grimaced. “I’m going to be honest with you, I’veneverseen Eric look more like he wanted to watch the world burn…and I’ve seen him half-shifted after fighting off some of Morstein’s cronies. I think we need to stay out of whatever it is he’s on the warpath about. At least until Beck and Rex have had a chance to talk it out with him.”
I sighed and glanced longingly down the hallway.
