Page 56 of Ruffled Feathers

“Strat! I’m so sorry we aren’t there, but you’re never going to guess what happened!” Lance was muttering something in the background, which I didn’t think was a good sign. “That guy from the show? He walked out and got in the back of an SUV, and you’llnever guesswho else was in it… Anthony Smalls.”

I frowned. That was surprising. “Okay…” I said suspiciously. “And where are you now?”

Deep down, I already knew. If I’d learned anything about Otillie-James, it was that she was impulsive as hell, and I doubted Lance would be able to temper that impulsiveness much. He would give in.

“We’re trailing their car?—”

“Otillie!” I interrupted, and she hushed me. That damn Omega who’d crawled her way under my skinhushedme.

“Stop being a worrywart, Strat. I have Lance with me. He can kill a man with a spork and a rubber band.” She said something to our Beta, but it was muffled, like she’d covered the microphone of the phone. “Not that he’ll need to do anything like that. We are just surveilling them. I want to see where they go.”

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. This girl was going to give me gray hairs. “Need I remind you that the last time you surveilled anything, you ended upin a holding cell?”

Otillie-James just laughed at me, and I was beginning to see why she made Truett so stressed. Honestly, though, this was something I loved about her. I wouldn’t change her for the world.

Sighing, I stepped back inside the foyer of the courthouse. “Okay, but only looking. Donotdo anything rash. Lance, do notlether do anything rash. Observe, then we’ll go from there. And you better call me as soon as you’re on your way back. I’ll be at the office. You two owe me lunch.”

She promised and hung up the phone, and I tried not to worry. Lance wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He might have no care for himself, but he would protect her with his dying breath.

Not for the first time, I impulsively wished we were bonded, so that I could feel her emotions down a soul-deep connection between us. So that I would always know she was okay.

Wherever they’d gone, they didn’t arrive home until late in the afternoon. By then, I was going insane. I’d left work early, unable to concentrate, and headed back to the Packhouse. My energy definitely wasn’t helping the two Alphas in the house either, and it was only the message from Otillie-James saying they were on their way home that stopped Sonny and Truett from jumping in the car and going to retrieve her from wherever the hell she was.

I should’ve been soothing them, or they should’ve been soothing me, but Otillie-James was our core. It was wild how much she’d come to mean to me in this last month.

I sat by the dog on the porch, Akio watching the setting sun right along with me. I buried my hands in his fur, and he leaned against my legs as we watched a car come down the drive. Recognizing Otillie-James’s Fiat, I breathed a sigh of relief.Thank fuck.

Sonny was out the door first, but Truett was close behind him, and they bounded down the steps. They were at the passenger door before the car had even rolled to a stop. Sonny pulled the door open, and Truett had her out of the car and into his arms before the ignition was off.

“OJ, you can’t fucking do this anymore! Do you know how much you stressed out our Omega?” Truett indicated where I sat on the front porch, and I frowned. He’d been stressed too.

Guilt washed over her face, but then I took in her posture, her eyes.

She’d found something.

I was down the steps immediately, tugging her from their arms and into mine. “What happened?”

She shook her head and burst into tears. Her wracking sobs were like bullets to my chest. I held her closer, lifting her into my arms, and walking into the house. Lance would debrief the guys. He would find the words that seemed to be escaping Otillie.

I sat gently down on the couch, just holding her to me as she cried. I rubbed her back and murmured reassuring things that were probably nonsense.

Eventually, she stopped crying, just rubbing her face over my chest and clothes. She was marking me. Did she even know what she was doing?

My heart swelled, and I marked her back. I rubbed my face over her hair, stroking her scent gland at the back of her neck. I touched every part of her I could, my Omega becoming more and more frenzied with each touch, until I was almost tearing at her clothes. Sonny appeared in front of us, his hands gripping Otillie-James, like he was trying to take her from me.

No. No one can take her from me.

I growled at him, and he squatted down until we were face-to-face. “Easy, Omega. I’m just going to clean her up and giveyou a moment to calm. It’s okay. She’s safe with me.” His voice was soft, soothing. Almost a purr.

It took every one of my higher reasoning skills to talk myself into loosening my hold on her. With one last kiss across her lips, I let her go. I watched him carry her toward the bathroom, her arms around his neck, and his huge body dwarfing hers.

Truett slid into the seat beside me. He gripped my thigh, his thumb rubbing in circles on my skin, until it was all I could focus on. Once my heartbeat had calmed, he leaned over and kissed me. “It’s okay, Strat. She’s fine, safe. I need you to come back to me, because we need to talk about what they found.”

He handed me Otillie-James’s phone. There were pictures on the screen: dogs in cages, battered and scarred, cats that looked half dead. Other animals that I couldn’t discern from the pictures, but I would bet there were at least a few roosters.

I flicked through more and more pictures, and I understood why Otillie-James was so distressed. Some of these were awful. If I hadn’t seen the worst humanity had to offer on a daily business, I would’ve been distressed too.

Swallowing down the last of my Omega hysteria, I looked past Truett to Lance. His face was shut down almost completely, his gaze running over my face. Whatever had happened today had hurt him too. Probably her turmoil. An Omega’s distress was a powerful thing.

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