Page 25 of Ruffled Feathers

I’d stayed here too long, and now leaving would be like a festering wound. Still, I couldn’t make myself go. Yesterday, I’d packed up all my stuff, and Akio, and moved on. Ten hours later, I’d found myself right back in her kitchen, waiting for her to wake up before work.

I rested my head against the cool, stacked stone of the patio pillar, and tried to talk some sense into myself. She wasn’t for me.

The French doors opened, making me stiffen. I willed myself to relax, to not turn around, to not assess the threat. Some of those instincts were so ingrained into me now, through training and trauma, that it was like fire ants crawling on my skin to keep my back to a possible threat.

But Akio wasn’t worried, and my senses told me that it was Otillie-James’s stepbrother. These logical assessments meant nothing, though. I still wanted to reach for the knife in my boot.

He edged around me, coming into my peripheral vision more than an arm’s length away.Smart Alpha.

He was holding a bowl and a can of Coke. “Dinner. Tillie said you wouldn’t come and take it yourself, that it had to be explicitly offered. And I didn’t know if you imbibe or not, but there’s beer in the fridge, if you’d prefer.”

He thrust the bowl at me, and I met his eyes. I couldn’t get a read on this Alpha. He seemed to genuinely care, but I’d met a lot of Alphas in my time. Most of them were arrogant and high-handed, especially around Betas and Unshown. But not this guy. He might only care because Otillie-James cared, but it was more than hehadto do.

So I took the bowl and the Coke. “Thank you.”

Sitting down on the short retaining wall that ran around the edge of the paving, he looked over at me. “I’m sure Tillie has already said this, but you’re welcome to help yourself to any of the food or amenities here. We wouldn’t be good Southern hosts if it wasn’t implied that my house is your house.”

I sat down on the wall too, facing back over the expansive lawn. “She has strongly suggested that I should help myself many times. I just don’t want her to feel like I’m taking advantage.”

He didn’t deny I was taking advantage. She’d literally fished me out from underneath a bridge; nothing I offered her in exchange would trump putting a roof over my head. “I’ll add my offer to hers, then. Make yourself at home for as long as you’re here, and I’m here too.”

There was a subtle warning there, or maybe not so subtle. Maybe it was more like a sledgehammer to the temple.

“I would never hurt her,” I defended quietly, and he gave me an empathetic expression.

Shrugging, he turned back toward the lawn too. “I believe you. But I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes the man is not in control of the monster. If anyone knows that, it’s an Alpha.” His jaw flexed. “You don’t have to tell me about all the skeletons in your closet. Truett looked into you enough that I know that those skeletons probably carry heavy ghosts.”

He didn’t seem apologetic that they’d done a background check on me, and I didn’t blame him. I would’ve done the same thing.

He continued. “I’m sure Otillie-James has told you that if you ever need to talk, she’ll listen. But some things, you can’t talk about to a person like Tillie. She’s sweet and good, and lives in a world where confronting a bunch of hoodlums for kittens doesn’t end up with your throat slit. So, I’m adding my offer there too. If you want to talk, I’m here. If you want to talk to a professional, I’ll pay. Someone better than the overworked VA shrinks, anyway.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want your money, either.”

Edison huffed a laugh. “She once told me that she pitied me, that my money was a burden she wouldn’t want to shoulder. I didn’t understand at the time; I thought she was just being a stubborn teenager. But now, I get it. At best, people might be using me for access to my inheritance. At worst, any offers might look like I’m trying to buy a person. I promise, none of this comes with strings attached.”

He didn’t understand, and I found myself wanting someone to comprehend just how fucked up I was. “I was in the Special Forces. I saw… things. I was the only member of my company who made it back, except Akio.”

That was all I’d say about the horror of my service, but it was enough, I think. He didn’t say anything else, didn’t probe formore, just continued to watch the setting sun beside me. There was no pity on his face, and that was a relief. Me and this rich boy were about as far apart as we could be, but in this moment of quiet solidarity, it was nice to share the burden.

“I owe her. I owe her more than she can ever know,” I told him quietly. “She saved me in a moment when I was so hopeless…” I couldn’t go on. Not then, and not now.

“She says you saved her too. I know you did. Which means we all owe you in return. A world without Otillie-James is a world that’s darker than before. So let’s call it even.” He stood, brushing the dust from the back of his jeans. “I’ll leave you to eat, but tomorrow, come and have dinner with the rest of us, okay? She’d enjoy it, and so would we.”

I wasn’t sure what took over my tongue—maybe the demon of hope—but I stopped him. “Otillie-James… is she yours?” She’d only said he was her stepbrother, but the way they watched her, their possessiveness—it was a little more than familial, at least in my opinion.

He narrowed his eyes, and I wondered if he was about to revoke his dinner invitation. “I’d defend her with my very last breath,” he replied, and it was my turn to give him a hard stare.

“That’s not what I asked. Is she a part of your Pack, or is she just your little sister?” She was Unshown, but it was obvious that didn’t mean he cared any less.

“She’s mine,” he growled, the Alpha really coming out to play now.

My spine straightened, ready for a fight, and Akio weaved closer to me. “Does she know that? Or are you going to just string her along and chase away all her other chances at happiness?” I had no right to say these things. No right to bite the hand that was literally feeding me. But I owed Otillie-James the hard questions.

He met my eyes and stared me down, until I was forced to look away. He was dominant, that was for sure. I could hold my own against weaker Alphas, but Edison, and his Packmate Truett, weren’t weak in any way.

Letting the dominance loosen, he slumped back down beside me. “She’s my stepsister. And an Unshown. She’d be ridiculed in my world. Sneered at by people we’ve known for years. I can’t do that to her.” Shaking his head, he sighed heavily. “Truett would lose clients, and maybe his chance at a partnership. The Chalmers business holdings would take a hit at the scandal, and people would lose their jobs. Can I put them both through that, just because I have an inappropriate crush?”

Otillie-James was right; his money was a burden. “You’d protect her from that.” It wasn’t a question. I barely knew this Alpha, but I knew how he felt about her. “Isn’t she worth it?”

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