Page 32 of Ruffled Feathers

But I also wanted to do this right. Which meant I was going to have a stern word with my Alphaandmy dick about the benefits of delayed gratification.

“Otillie-James Baler, if you’ll let me, I’d like to court you.” The solemnity of the statement was lessened a little by the bulging tent in my pants and the breathlessness of my voice.

Her smile faded a little. “What about Sonny?”

“I’ll talk to him.” And by talk, I meant he’d kick my ass across the Chalmers estate and back again.

She shook her head slightly, like she was mentally going through all the ways that this wouldn’t work. “What if you find an Omega, and she hates me?”

“What if we find an Omega, and he wants you just as much as we do?” We both knew I was talking about Strat Wilmington.

She swallowed hard. “What if I like someone else too?”

I had a feeling she wasn’t talking about Strat. I had a feeling I knew exactly who she was referring to, and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that.

Shaking my head, I gripped both her hands. “We can play the what-if game all day, OJ. The fact is that I would do just about anything, accept just about anything, to have you.”

Because when it came down to it, I’d tried the alternative. I’d tried a life without her, and now that I had the taste of her on my tongue, I knew I’d never be able to live without her again.

Sixteen

Edison

Truett: We need to talk. My place.

There was a mind-blown emoji, which meant this was serious. Truett’s text had been ominous, and the fact that he’d dropped Tillie off and then left almost immediately didn’t bode well. She’d gone straight to her room; I’d heard the shower running, making me worry that she might be crying on the bathroom floor.

If Truett had hurt her feelings, I was going to punch the asshole. We’d never really talked about our feelings for Tillie, but he knew that she was special to me.

She was a taboo subject for us. It would be too easy for our Alphas to be riled if they realized we both wanted her. They’d say fuck it. It wouldn’t matter what our families, society, hell even Tillie would think. The Alphas wanted her, and that’s all that mattered to them.

No, we talked about Tillie, but we never reallytalkedabout her. About the fact that I’d had recurring fantasies about hersince I was eighteen. About the fact she was perfect for us, for our Pack, for everything.

Sighing, I climbed into my car and headed over to Truett’s apartment downtown. It was a nice place, if a little soulless. Close to his work, but not to mine. We’d been waiting on creating a Packhouse together until everything was more settled.

Parking in the guest spot, I caught the elevator up to the penthouse. The place might be soulless, but the view at night was amazing, the lights of the city twinkling beneath us.

“Truett?” I called, heading into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge. I wasn’t sure what had told me that this was going to be a beer conversation; maybe call it natural instinct.

Truett appeared, no longer dressed for dinner, instead in sweats and an old college shirt. I’d known him so long that sometimes I felt I knew him better than I knew myself. And guilt was written all over his face.

“What thefuckdid you do?”

Tillie and Truett had a contentious relationship, but I trusted him with my life. More than that, I trusted him with her life. I didn’t think I was wrong about him, but I was beginning to panic.

“I kissed her.”

Relief whooshed out of me.Okay. That’s okay. Almost inevitable.

“And then I told her that we were both in love with her, and that we wanted her to be Pack.” It came out in one garbled, run-on sentence, so unlike Truett’s normally eloquent speech. At first, I thought I’d misheard him. But his words slowly filtered through my shock.

“Are you fucking insane?!” I shouted, launching myself toward him. “Why would you do that without asking me first? Why would… Justwhy?” My skin felt hot and cold at the same time. Maybe I was having a heart attack.

Fuck.Was that why she’d run straight to her room? Was she disgusted with us now? What kind of man would think about fucking and biting his stepsister?A pervert, that’s who.

Truett was shaking his head, even as I gripped his arms, like I wanted to shake the shit out of him. “You don’t understand, man. She was sitting there, eye-fucking Strat Wilmington all night, and they were flirting and touching, and my Alpha was all riled. Then she was in the car, talking about how we should pursue him, asking about me and you and if we had sex, and how we should find a nice Omega… My Alpha was roaring in my head, and I just snapped and told her everything.”

He dropped his eyes, his Alpha apologizing too. “There’s no excuse, but it just all bubbled up and spewed out. She looked so beautiful. And I kissed her…” He trailed off again, and I sighed, looking at the ceiling and counting my breaths.

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