Chapter 32
Thirty-Two
Lance
I met Tillie’s eyes across the yard, and our new bond pulsed with warm feelings. Desire. Affection. Amusement, which was fitting, since I was currently trying to take photos of the kittens, now that they were old enough to go off to forever homes.
Trying to get a bunch of kittens to sit still long enough to have their photo taken was an impossible task. It should be one of the entrance exams into the police force or something—can you herd cats into cute positions without them attacking each other, or you, or the camera, or a random bug, or even your giant, scary dog?
If the answer is yes, then congrats, here’s a badge.
We had to name them all for their photos, because studies showed that named kittens had a better chance of getting adopted than unnamed ones. However, naming six kittens was difficult.
Unfortunately for them, we’d been eating Italian food when we’d decided on their monikers, so I was currently attempting to photograph Linguine. Carbonara was trying to climb from the basket they were waiting in, but he wasn’t the brightest, so I had at least a few more seconds before he absconded. I snapped a bunch of pictures of Linguine, looking up just in time to see Pancetta take off across the lawn.
“Akio, fetch,” I instructed the dog. “Gentle.”
I didn’t even need to tell him to be gentle, because he loved these damn kittens. He picked Pancetta up gently, though he seemed to grab the whole kitten in his mouth. Some of the more boisterous kittens were already getting a little slobbery. He dropped Pancetta back at my feet, the kitten’s fur now looking a little crazy with all the dog drool.
Scooping up the outraged kitten, I raised an eyebrow at him. “You brought that on yourself, you little escape artist.” I brushed down his fur and stuck him in another, more decorative basket that was being used to photograph them. As I snapped pictures, I knew that Otillie-James was now behind me by the strength of her bond and the way her scent washed over me. Pointing the camera up at her, I took a quick picture of her smiling down at me, her face shadowed by the sun that was like a halo behind her.
She grabbed Carbonara, who’d finally made it out of the basket, and snuggled him close to her chest. “Are you guys being naughty for Lance?”
I took another quick picture. God, she’s beautiful. I was so fucking lucky.
She sat down beside me, the kitten still in her arms. “You’re doing a great job,” she praised me softly, which was a lie, but I appreciated it all the same. Most of the pictures were just a blur of fur, because they were incredibly quick for creatures with two-inch legs.
She gently put Carbonara back in the basket and snuggled into my side. I put my arms around her shoulders, holding her close. I didn’t need to ask her if she was happy; I could feel it down the bond.
I hadn’t bonded with the Alphas yet. There’d be plenty of time for that, and we’d decided it might be less overwhelming if I did one bond at a time. I didn’t argue, because having someone else in your head, in your chest, was wild. It wasn’t like we could talk through ESP, or anything like that. It was just that I could tell how she felt at all times, unless she actively tried to block it. When Truett had knotted her after claiming her, I’d thought I might pass out from the pleasure that came down the bond.
But it also meant I could feel her simmering worry about that fucker Anthony Smalls, and all those animals that had been at the warehouse. That whole situation was stressing her out, and I hated that. It was an oozing wound on our happiness.
Which was why I planned to do something risky and stupid. Because if I knew one thing about Otillie-James in the short time we’d been together, it was that she wouldn’t be able to ignore the suffering of those animals for long, and that was when she usually came up with crazy schemes, like rescuing fighting cocks in backwater garages.
Better I carry out the crazy schemes instead.
Strat had talked to some detectives he knew, but he’d said that the warehouse’s title wasn’t under the rescue foundation’s name, or even any personal name we could trace back to Anthony Smalls or his Pack. It was an umbrella company, under a second umbrella company, which told me everything I needed to know about their setup. It was sophisticated, and I wondered what else they were running through there.
I’d reached out to some friends, so we could go and have a slightly closer look. I had pictures of Anthony Smalls there already. If it came down to it, maybe they could find a way to prosecute the Smalls Pack, without all those animals dying while we waited for due process.
Otillie was eyeing me. “What are you up to?”
Wiping my thoughts clear, I looked at her. Man, that was going to take some getting used to. Distraction time. “I think I should meet your parents. I bonded with you, and I still haven’t met your dad.”
Of all the distractions, why did I have to open my big mouth and mention that one? I mean, it was true, but I was nervous as fuck. What if they thought I wasn’t worthy of their daughter? I wasn’t, but it was too late for that now. Would they think I was trying to ingratiate myself into their Pack for the money?
Otillie’s fingers wrapped around mine. “Stop it. They’ll love you. I’ll invite them around for dinner this week. We’ll do it here, on our own turf.” She climbed over my lap, her lips brushing mine. “They’ll love you, because I love you, Lance Alcott.”
I was helpless to resist kissing her back. I kissed her and kissed her until Akio whined, and we drew apart in time to see all the kittens making a break for it across the lawn. Laughing, she climbed off me and chased them down, her sundress fluttering around her thighs.
I hadn’t ever thought I was capable of feeling this way; my heart had long ago turned hard and rotten in my chest. But she was out here, proving me wrong yet again.
“I love you too, Otille-James Baler,” I called after her, and she looked over her shoulder and smiled at me.
My heart stopped at that moment, and when it restarted, it beat only for her.
I’d been attending my VA group therapy sessions pretty regularly since I’d been discharged. Sometimes, back at the beginning, they’d been the only thing that had kept me going. Kept me from sinking completely into the darkness. I’d made friends—well, acquaintances, at least—and I knew back then that my death would hurt their own recovery processes.
I’d already let enough of my brothers down.
As I walked into the church hall we used for meetings, Rio was already there, standing beside the coffee machine. He was the guy I was the closest to at these things, because his experience had been a lot like mine. Different branches of the military, but the same spec-ops training. Same tragic outcome. His whole team had been taken by the enemy, and he was the only one who’d survived the torture until he’d been extracted.
I was physically fucked, but Rio was mentally scarred in ways I couldn’t even understand. How he was still walking around was amazing, and it probably had more than a little to do with Max, his Beta Packmate. Max was also fucked up, but neither of them wanted to do anything that would cause the other to spiral. It was a delicate balance that eventually had to tip, and then they’d both be gone. They needed an Omega, and I felt kind of bad hoarding two, but fuck it. They were mine .
Besides, there wasn’t a realm of reality in which Rio and Max could take care of an Omega yet. If my darkness sat heavy in my bond with Otillie-James, then Rio and Max’s would drown an Omega in their pain. They needed to heal a lot more first.
Walking over, I shook Rio’s hand, and he reached down to ruffle Akio’s fur behind his ears. “How are things?”
I felt the smile on my face, and as much as I tried to wipe it away, I couldn’t. Instead, I pulled my shirt down and showed him Otillie-James’s claim on my pec.
His eyebrows rose so high, they almost touched his hairline. “The Omega you’ve been living with bonded you? I thought you didn’t want that. Didn’t want your pain to affect her.”
I hadn’t been wrong, but I had underestimated the sheer amount of love that Otillie gave me. It chased away the darkness, and when it couldn’t disappear anymore, she held the broken parts of me close to her heart and soothed them.
I shrugged at Rio. “She didn’t give me much of a choice.”
“She claimed you against your will?” Rio’s frown was a dark and ominous thing. Everyone wanted an Omega, but consent was still key.
Shaking my head, I instantly defended the woman who was everything to me. “It wasn’t against my will. Fuck, I wanted her to bond me more than anything. But I guess she knew I would never get past my own demons, so she barged past them herself.”
“So you’re happy?” he asked, his eyes still narrowed, like he was convinced I was being body-snatched or coerced or something.
“Happier than I’ve been in a long time.” Or maybe ever. Someone loved me. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had loved me. But that wasn’t the kind of thing you said to another guy at a meeting for people with war-induced PTSD.
He ran his tongue over his teeth. “Good. That’s good.”
Deciding a subject change was the right idea, I asked, “Where’s Max?” I needed them both here, so I could pitch some illegal activities to them as a team.
Rio lifted his chin at the door, just as Max bustled in. Where Rio was hardened to the point that there was no way you could look at him and think that he was anything but a killer, Max looked like he’d just stepped out of the computer lab and had forgotten his retainer on the school bus. He was in his late twenties, but somehow, he looked sixteen. Like he’d never even seen boobs, let alone bloodshed.
But you’d be wrong. He was a highly qualified naval intelligence officer. He was a fucking spy. Well, a retired spy. He came to these things for Rio, but I sensed he got just as much out of it as his Packmate.
He cooed at Akio as my service dog wandered toward him, wagging his tail like mad at the tall Beta. “How is the most handsome boy here today?”
“I’m fine,” I joked. Rolling his eyes, he straightened and fist-bumped me. Dorky, but kinda endearing.
“Now that you aren’t pretending to be a yeti, you might almost have a chance against Rio, but Akio has you both beat, sorry.”
More people trickled in, and it looked like it was going to be a busy night. I cleared my throat. “I’m glad I caught you both. I was wondering if you might, uh, like to do a little mission with me. Nothing dangerous”— I hope —“and you’d be getting a lot of good karma. And I can probably pay you.”
Rio narrowed his eyes. “What kind of mission?”
Max raised an eyebrow. “The illegal kind?” he asked in a quiet voice that couldn’t be heard outside the three of us.
“Of course it is, or he wouldn’t be asking us,” Rio muttered with a snort.
I pulled out my phone, showed them the photos, and told them the whole situation. We might be all bathed in blood and suffering, but I knew these guys had joined the military because they wanted to do what was right. And you couldn’t look at the miserable faces on those animals and not know that what we’d be doing was right, even if it was a legal gray area.
In the end, I knew I had them. But Rio gave me a hard look. “I want to meet her.”
I frowned. “Who?”
“Your Omega.”
The Beta who lived inside me growled at the Alpha in front of me, making Max chuckle and Akio come to stand in front of my feet. Swallowing down the instant jealousy, I tried to reason with the instincts that wanted to keep Otillie-James locked away and safe forever. I knew these guys; I trusted them.
So I beat back my more primal denial and nodded. “Come around tomorrow for a cookout. I’ll introduce you.”
Max laughed at me, then he frowned. “Wait, what Omega?”