Wild at Heart
Chapter 24

I could sit and ponder what the Hell Kendrick meant by his mysterious words, or I could do something productive with my first night in the East pack while my mate was held up getting drunk with their Alpha. All the Omegas stayed in the pack house, just like our own pack house. But the East had a far more even diversities between males and females. I could count the number of female Omegas on one hand in my pack, while this pack had even odds. Which meant that Octavia would be spending the night here.

I took my chances of roaming the halls by myself to replace her. I had no idea how safe I truly was in this place. To be completely honest, I had no idea how safe I was with Octavia. But I had to take my chances. I followed the hallway until I caught her scent, which wasn’t hard to do. I knew she was here only moments ago, so following the scent only needed to lead me to which room she was actually in. I raised my hand to knock at the door I could smell her behind, but before I could knock, she pulled the door wide open like she knew I was standing there.

“Octavia.” I breathed.

“You found me.” She responded.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to be looking.” She smiled at me and pulled the door open wider to invite me in. To say I was hesitant would be an understatement. I raised my brow at her and she chuckled.

“What are you worried about, Emma?” She asked.

“Honestly?” I had a gut feeling that this whole pack wasn’t as friendly as they seemed. “I don’t know.” But that didn’t mean I knew what caused my uneasy feeling.

“Then get in here.” This time I took her invitation and slid past her body to enter her dark room. Red bulbs were in her lamps that gave a red hue to her dark walls. There were plants all over the place: on the nightstand, the floors, even hanging on the ceiling. It was like a little greenhouse. “I share a room with my sister.” She said. “She has a green thumb.” She motioned to the bed. “Have a seat.” I sat down and I watched her as she slid to the ground across from me, her legs crossed as she rested her hands on her knees.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about, Octavia?” I finally broke the silence as it became awkward.

“I wanted to open your mind.”

“Meaning?”

“These herbs do a lot more than heal physical wounds.” Her eyes darted to my chest where that arrowhead left a permanent cross in my skin. “They heal wounds of the mind as well.”

“What wounds in my mind do you think I need to heal?”

“Derek.” I held my breath at the sound of his name and the awkward silence creeped up on us again. This time, it was her turn to break it. “Just because he’s gone in this world doesn’t mean his soul doesn’t still exist in another.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Mixing some herbs together can sometimes produce hallucinations or visions of the dead.” I stared at Octavia like she had two heads and she noticed, which only made her laugh. “I’m serious, Emma.”

“You want me to take a few different herbs in your room so that I get so high off them that I see my dead friend?” I almost laughed at the words myself.

“Basically, yes. But it’s so much more than that, Emma.” She crawled towards me and took my hands in hers. “You saw what our herbs can do, so why are you so skeletal?”

“I wasn’t given much of a choice the last time I took them.”

“But they still healed you.” I fell silent, because I lost this argument. I didn’t know why or how the herbs worked the way they did that resulted in me being able to sit in front of Octavia right now, but they obviously saved my life.

“If I took these herbs, what would they do?” I asked her. She instantly smiled and sat back.

“Your body would be here, but your mind would be in another dimension. Where it takes you, is up to you.” I nodded. I was hesitant to jump in and take some herbs just because she told me to. I needed to think about this logically.

“Not tonight.” I said. “Nick will be looking for me.”

“I understand.” She stood up and held her hand out to me. I took it and she pulled me to my feet. “Tomorrow night.” She said. “My father has some kind of party planned. Nick and he will be distracted enough that he won’t even notice you slipping away with me for a few hours.” Something about this seemed fishy... Hell, everything about this seemed fishy. But I found myself agreeing with her so I could get the hell out of there and go replace Nick.

It didn’t take me long to replace Nick at all. He was still sitting in Reginald’s office. When I opened the door, the two were laughing like college roommates having a reunion. Nick turned to me when I walked in and shut the door behind me.

“Emma, you’re back.” He said as he wiped a tear from his eye and tried to stifle his laughter.

“Yeah,” I said. “Looks like I missed all the fun.”

“We were just finishing up.” Reginald shook the empty bottle towards me.

“Yeah, I’m ready for bed if you are.” Nick took my hand in his own and I could tell he was feeling a little more than tipsy.

“Yes, I’m ready.” I said as I took his hand. He stood and we exchanged our goodbyes to Reginald before exiting the office. It was a good thing I remembered where our room was, because Nick was in no shape to be leading us to our courters. I pushed the door open and had to practically throw Nick on the bed. He skooched himself back until his head hit the pillow and he just smiled at me with a stupid grin. “What?” I asked him.

“My beautiful little wolf.” He muttered. I couldn’t help but smile at him, but I wasn’t amused. I needed my mate in a clear mind to discuss what just happened with Octavia, but instead Reginald got him drunk.

“I had an interesting conversation with your new friend’s daughter.” I pulled Nick’s shoelaces from his boot until it came undone. I did the same with the other and then pulled his giant foot until the boot came free. I tossed both boots aside and crawled into bed with him.

“Did you?” He asked, but I knew he had absolutely no interest in the conversation.

“I did.” I opened the button on his pants and wiggled them off his hips so I could pull them the rest of the way down. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow when you’re feeling better.”

“I feel fine.” I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Oh, I know you feel more than fine now, but I’d rather talk about it tomorrow.”

“As you wish.” He closed his eyes and I knew I was losing him. I crawled back into the bed beside him and pulled the blankets over the both of us.

“Goodnight, love.” I kissed his forehead, but he was passed out. I guess I was in charge of our safety tonight.