Chapter 11
Eleven
Rio
W hat a shitshow. Lance was going to murder me, but honestly, I didn’t even care. Because Llew was back, right there in front of me, a clarity in his eyes that I hadn’t seen since the day I’d deployed overseas.
There was still darkness in their depths, an edge of mania that sat just below the surface, but for the first time, this man who stared down at the Omega in his lap with empathy and compassion was the same one I’d created a Pack with over a decade ago. Whatever bonding with an Omega had done, it had healed something inside him.
And for that alone, I would lay down my life for Paloma.
I explained about Lance, about the mission we’d carried out to rescue a bunch of animals and instead found an Omega. About Paloma’s cult. I kept waiting for Llew to lose it, for his Alpha to take over and start destroying things in a rage he couldn’t contain, and my body stayed prepared to grab Paloma and protect her.
The feral rage never came. Oh, Llew was angry all right, but it was the anger of a man in control. The anger of any reasonable human being, who knew that the woman in his arms had been abused for so long and had come terrifyingly close to ending up trafficked for sex, or god knows what. That only a random Omega with a love of animals had led to us saving the one in front of us.
Finally, silence fell across the room as we all tried to make sense of everything that had happened. It was well past midnight, and Paloma had fallen asleep once more. I wanted to take her from Llew, not because I was worried, but because I wanted to feel her soft body draping over my own.
Shaking the thought from my head, I looked at the other Omega in the room. August yawned, his soft scent swirling around us. Max had always laughed that I had a crush on the VA therapist, and he was probably right. But more than that, I respected August. He was good at his job, and I knew that I had many VA buddies this side of the Pearly Gates because he was so good. He was both strong and soft at the same time, and incredibly smart. What was not desirable about that?
It could never go any further, however. August was a professional, and now…
I looked at Paloma. Now, our Pack already had an Omega, and it was common knowledge that Omegas were territorial at best. They couldn’t share a Pack, their space, with other Omegas. At least, not normally—there were a few exceptions, like Lance’s Pack. Paloma had known barely nothing about her Omega, but her instincts wouldn’t let her stay in the same house as Lance’s Omegas.
Regret swelled in my chest, warring with the happiness that we had Paloma. She was Llew’s fated mate. That was an almost unheard-of anomaly these days. We should be content.
I stood and stretched. “I’ll drive you home, August.”
He waved a hand. “I can drive myself home, Rio.” I raised a single eyebrow, and he sighed. “You aren’t going to let it go, are you?”
I mean, he was an unbonded Omega who lived on the bad side of town, and it was the middle of the night. “Not unless you want to stay here tonight?”
August’s eyes flicked to Paloma and Llew, then back to me. “I shouldn’t. I have to be at work for an early appointment tomorrow.” Standing, he stretched, and a sliver of his golden stomach peeked out. Lust hit me in the chest, but I pushed it down. It was inappropriate, at the very least.
Pulling my boots on, I waited by the door as August gave Max a quick hug, then shook Llew’s hand once more. Paloma was sound asleep, and he just gazed down at her sleeping face, her bottom lip caught softly between her teeth. He didn’t wake her, though.
Finally, we stepped out the front door, and I walked with him down the front steps to the driveway. His car had seen better days. Hell, it had probably seen better decades.
August chuckled as he stood beside it. “If you could see your face right now.” He held up the keys. “Do you want to drive, or are you good with being the passenger princess?”
I growled at him, making him laugh harder. I grabbed the keys off him and held open his door. “One of us has driven in a warzone, Omega. I’ll drive; you be the passenger princess.”
He gave me a cocky smirk, and I felt like I’d just done exactly what he wanted me to, but I didn’t have it in me to care. He folded himself easily into the car, looking up at me with a smile that promised mischief. “Yeah, but one of us has driven this shitbox all the way to California, though I’ll let you drive if it makes you feel better.” He was teasing me, but I was still relieved. Being in control of things helped keep my demons at bay, and August was an expert on my demons. I’d definitely played right into his hand.
The car took two turnovers to fire, and I slid my eyes to August. He just shrugged. “This is going to blow your mind, but the VA doesn’t have a lot of money to pay its therapists. This old girl still gets me where I need to go.”
Barely, I thought, but didn’t say anything else as I pulled away from the house. We were quiet for a moment until I got on the freeway, and I wasn’t happy with how shaky this hunk of metal felt as soon as you went over fifty miles per hour.
Finally, I cleared my throat. “I can’t thank you enough for coming out today. I know it kind of went sideways there, but we’re kind of out of our element with Paloma. There’s so much trauma there that I feel like I’m walking along a goat track with landmines either side. We don’t want to inadvertently cause her more damage.”
August nodded softly. “Anytime. I mean it. I would like to come and visit her more often, perhaps help her get acclimatized to the world she now lives in.” He let out a sigh, the sound loud enough to be heard over the loud whistle of his car engine.
How did this thing even run? I wondered if he’d let me take it to my mechanic to get it looked at.
He continued. “Can you imagine living life thinking that the rest of civilization had perished in an apocalypse, only to discover it wasn’t true?”
I shook my head, because the very idea made me both disbelieving and full of rage. “If I ever get my hands on her supposed ‘Leader,’ I’m going to tear his head from his body. He abused her. Did you see that brand? That is the least of the physical markings on her body, let alone the emotional scars. He kept them locked away, convinced her she was worthless.”
For a moment, I wondered if I’d gone too far in my vehemence. August just stared out the windscreen, lost in his own thoughts. Eventually, he turned back to me. “Let me know if you need an alibi. I have no sympathy for people who abuse Omegas.”
I’d forgotten that August worked with people who’d seen the worst of humanity from both sides of the political lines. Scary Alphas didn’t faze him. In another world, he would have been a great addition to the Pack.
Smirking, I watched the road. “Good to know.”
August opened and closed his mouth a few times, like he was trying to find the words for what he wanted to say next, which was odd for the normally self-assured therapist. “You should also know that I think she’s only a few weeks from her heat. And if I had to guess, I’d say she’s been on heat suppressants for a while. She should have had her first heat years ago, but she seems completely unaware of anything to do with her Omega nature. She’s been here for a few days now, and before that, in whatever hellhole you found her in, so I would bet my medical license that she didn’t even know what she was taking before. She wouldn’t even think to ask for them now.”
I clenched my back teeth. “Should I find her a supply elsewhere?” Suppressants weren’t exactly legal; Paloma wouldn’t be able to walk into a doctor’s clinic and request them. But I could find someone, if August thought that was what was best for her. I needed another Omega’s opinion on this, because I didn’t know shit about Omega biology and the effects of delaying a heat.
“You should ask her, of course,” August said simply.
I pulled at the collar of my shirt at just the idea of that conversation. Was it hot in here? “Maybe you should have the birds and the bees talk with Paloma. It would be better coming from you.” Or maybe even Otillie-James. Lance would bring her around if I asked.
“Alpha soldiers never cease to amuse me. You just told me you drove a vehicle through a warzone, but the idea of talking to an Omega about her heat sends you into a tailspin?” He chuckled softly, a sound that soothed my frayed nerves. “She’s unaware of the world, Rio, but she isn’t stupid. Explain it to her in layman’s terms; she might surprise you.” I opened my mouth to argue again, and he raised a hand. “But if you think she’d be more receptive to hearing the facts from another Omega, I’m happy to address it with her.”
Relief coursed through me. Not that I didn’t think I—well, probably Max—could’ve had that conversation with Paloma, but we all had a vested interest in how her heat would progress. August was an impartial expert on the matter.
We were silent again, both lost in our own thoughts, until he directed me through the scummy part of town to his apartment. It stood tall and dark beneath a broken streetlight, and I felt my molars grinding. “This is where you live?”
August shrugged as he pointed to a designated carpark out the back of the apartment block. “Yep.”
“Is it safe?” I was on edge, the shadows in the parking lot making me feel jumpy. “Stay.” I nearly barked, just pulling back from commanding him. Fuck, that was bad, but I hated that he was about to walk across an area with bad lighting and too many hiding places. I walked to his car door, watching the shadows for threats. Opening it slowly, I looked at his tense face and hung my head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to compel you to stay. Old habits.”
August stared up at me, his eyes seeing far too much. Finally, he gave me a short nod and stood. “I understand. But if you try to bark at me, I’ll stab you in the kidney.”
A laugh burst out of me, ricocheting around the empty area and bouncing off the darkened buildings. “Fair. Let me walk you to your door. Please?”
Shaking his head softly, he grabbed his briefcase from the footwell and followed me to the security door. He scanned a keycard, the door popping open. “I’m really quite safe from here,” he told me softly. “The area is sketchy, but the other tenants in this building are good people.”
I chewed my lip, trying to work out how I could insist on seeing him to his door without sounding like a creep.
He shook his head. “But please, walk me to my door.”
I gave him a guilty, lopsided grin as he muttered about Alphas, and followed him up the stairs. There was an elevator, but it had a giant Out of Order sign on it. Given how it was curling at the edges, the sign had been there a while. There was also graffiti throughout the stairwell, and despite August’s reassuring words, I didn’t like that he lived here alone. At least, I thought he was alone.
“Do you have a Pack, August? I just realized I don’t know very much about you. Is someone going to want to break my nose for walking you up?”
If he said yes, maybe I’d break that Alpha’s nose first for not taking proper care of his Omega. Who let their Omega walk into some other Pack’s home without accompanying them? And who let their Omega walk through a dark parking lot alone, or didn’t check on them once if they were late home?
We went up another flight of steps, and I tried not to stare at his ass. “Nope, no Pack,” he told me. “I’m committed to my work, and it doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things.”
Things like love and Packs.
“Married to the job. Apparently, it’s not just limited to us grunts,” I said lightly.
One more flight of stairs, then August scanned his way through another security door, moving quickly down the hall. Okay, so the security was all right, but it was still far too easy for someone to follow him through these slow-closing doors. Too easy for someone to take him in the stairwell and hurt him. I hated it.
He stopped outside a plain door with the number thirty-seven on it. “Well, this is me. Thank you for seeing me home.”
“It’s the least we could do. Thank you for having our backs tonight. We owe you one.”
August shook his head. “You don’t owe me anything. I’ll see you soon, Rio.” Then he was in his apartment, the door closed softly behind him, while I stood there and stared at it like an idiot.
Why did it feel like I should have kissed him?
Shaking my head, I left back down the stairs and out into the darkness. I’d walk a bit before I got a rideshare home. I needed to clear my head, obviously, and if I got lucky and someone tried to jump me, maybe I could get rid of a bit of pent-up energy too.