Page 15 of Ruffled Feathers

I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t sure I shouldn’t mention it to her brother. She had put herself in such a dangerous situation, and I was fairly sure she didn’t have any regrets about it.

She’d been down off the freeway, by herself, after hearing a report of a dumped mother cat and kittens, or so she’d told me later. What she’d found instead was a group of local teens trying to drown them. Instead of deeming it unsafe, Otillie-James had thrown herself into the group and attacked them. There’d been six of them, who’d probably never seen any kind of discipline, like the rules of society didn’t apply to them. They’d decided that Otillie-James would be better sport than the kittens.

I shuddered, though I kept it locked down, as the what-ifs rolled through my mind once more. What if I hadn’t been nearby? If they’d been a little older, had been Alphas instead of still undesignated? If I didn’t have the experience I had? If I hadn’t had Akio with me?

All the possibilities of those what-ifs made me shudder. The bright, pure light that was Otillie-James would have been snuffed forever, for no reason, other than that humans were cruel and preyed on those they considered weak. As it was, by the time I’d stumbled upon them, her shirt had been ripped, and someone had pulled a knife.

Sucking in a deep breath, I gently chastised her. “You risked your own safety. You have to promise not to do that again. Call for backup or something.”

She chewed her lip. “If I’d waited for backup, the kittens would be dead.”

“If I hadn’t been there,youwould be dead, or wish you were.” There was nothing gentle about that—it was a harsh, ugly reality. Even though I’d been there, it still hadn’t been a sure thing. Six on one wasn’t easy, despite what the movies would tell you. I was a Beta, albeit a well-trained one. It would’ve only taken one or two with an Alpha designation to shift the tide of that fight. People also didn’t tend to wait until their turn; they’d rush with fists and weapons, trying to swarm you until you were under boots, being crushed one kick at a time.

Luckily, they’d been young and inexperienced, and Akio was a well-trained dog of war. It had evened the odds.

Otillie-James was silent as she threaded my hair between her fingers and snipped at the ends. I reached up and gripped her wrist, stilling her hands. “Better the kittens than you. Wait for someone else. Call me—I’ll drop everything and come straight away. Never alone again, okay?”

I could feel the quick beat of her pulse beneath my fingers. She met my eyes in the mirror, and I tried to make my expression as authoritative as my Beta designation would allow. I couldn’t bark her into submission like an Alpha. She needed to promise me this of her own volition. The idea of a world without this girl caused an ache in the place my heart should be.

Finally, she nodded. “Okay, I promise.”

Something settled in my chest. I might not always be around, but while I was, she would be safe.

Seven

Truett

“Idon’t know, Truett. Where did you say you got this name?”

I cleared my throat. “It came up as a person of interest in a case that I’m working on.” Which wasn’t a lie. It had come up in OJ’s case.

“Definitely military, but his file is locked down tight. Was discharged six months ago, though no fixed address, according to his VA records. He was pretty severely injured by an IED, and has more metal in his body than the Terminator. No records between the time he enlisted in the Marines to the time he was discharged. A ghost in the wind, basically.”

My buddy Tim over at the VA had done a search on the name Lance Alcott for me, and I wasn’t really surprised by those results. There was an underlying feeling of danger around OJ’s new housemate, and it had set all my senses tingling, despite his designation.

“Tim, you sure this is our guy? How old is he?”

“Caucasian, aged thirty, six foot three. Sound about right?”

My jaw tensing, I made an affirmative noise. Who the fuck did OJ have living with her? “Yeah, that’s him. Anything in his file that suggests he might be mentally unstable?”

Tim laughed. “We’re all a little unstable, Truett. But whatever he saw, they gave him a service dog to help, so yeah, I’d say he has a good dose of PTSD.” He paused. “Actually, the service dog is a retired MWD. That’s a military working dog.”

Yeah, that sounded like the antsy German Shepherd who’d eyed me like he wanted to rip my arm off at the front door.

“Thanks, Tim. I appreciate the help, man. We should have drinks sometime this month.” We made a little more small talk before I hung up, slumping back into my office chair.

Corporal Lance Alcott from Wisconsin. What was he doing here in South Carolina, and what was he doing in my best friend’s childhood home, befriending his stepsister?

I went back to looking at the police report from OJ’s arrest. As Frankie Gunnar had told me over the phone—when he’d giddily informed me he’d taken her to lockup—she’d been caught fleeing the crime scene with a half-dead chicken under her sweatshirt. Frankie had said that if it had just been him, he would’ve let her go. But his partner was a hardass and followed the rulebook like it was his religion, so Frankie had been forced to take her in.

The investigation around the cockfighting was rushed and hasty, and if I was representing one of the ringleaders who’d been caught in the bust, it would be easy enough to pick it to pieces. However, I was fairly sure that OJ would skin me alive if, while getting her charges thrown out, I got everyone else’s thrown out with them.

I had to find a way to extract OJ, and somehow use her to solidify the remaining charges. I needed to convince the DA’s office that it would be more hassle than it was worth to pursue baseless charges.

Which meant talking to Strat Wilmington.Pompous asshole.There was something about his good old boy, affable nature that always pissed me off. It wasn’t because he was an Omega, either.I was totally okay with Omegas in the workforce. Respected it. Citrine was like a mother to me, and she would beat my ass with a Manolo if I ever suggested that Omegas shouldn’t get higher education and a chance at their dream careers, just because of their designation.

Stretching, I rolled to my feet with a yawn. OJ wasn’t the only one who’d been up all night. But despite my tiredness, when I lay down on my bed in my penthouse apartment, the only place I wanted to be was back at the Chalmers estate with Sonny and OJ. I wanted to be wherever her chaos was.

---