Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
Otillie-James
E xhaustion pulled at my eyelids, dragging them down. It felt like almost too much effort to lift them again. It had been hard work, but we’d managed to build temporary housing for all sixty-odd animals.
Truett had gone into the city to get an insane amount of dog beds, cat igloos, rodent hides, and anything else I could think of. Sonny had gone to get fencing and food from the tractor supply store. We were a well-oiled machine, and it would have been amazing, if it hadn’t been so fucking sad.
Rex and Anakie were here now, casting me worried looks, and I didn’t know how much to tell them. I didn’t think they’d out us to the cops, but I also didn’t want to have to put them in the position where they’d have to lie to the authorities.
Some of the animals had been too far gone, even for me. There were animals who were angry and in pain from broken bones that hadn’t healed properly, and who were so brutalized that they snapped at any human contact.
It had been so hard to watch those ones be humanely put to sleep, their short lives knowing nothing but anger and pain, but prolonging their fear would have been selfish of me. Anakie said as much as she rubbed my back, and I knew she was right. Didn’t make it hurt any less.
Of the twenty-seven dogs we’d rescued, four had to be put down. Seven would need intensive work to make them adoptable. The rest were just scared and sad, and abundant food and water cheered them up in a way that made me cry, yet again.
The cats were much the same, though I found that if I housed some of them together, they found comfort in each other. Only two had injuries too severe for rehabilitation. Lance had dug a burial hole in the woods behind the house for those poor souls. I’d cried as we buried them all and hoped their next life was filled with peace.
That just left the roosters, who were happy roaming around the farm itself. With plenty of space and food, there hadn’t even been that many fights.
The monkey was a fucking trip, though. A little capuchin, I had no freaking idea what to do with a monkey, so Rex and Anakie were going to take that one home with them to be sent to a primate rescue over in Virginia.
Everything was settled, but the work still to be done was astronomical. First, I had to get through today. Anakie and I finished splitting the rabbits and guinea pigs into boy enclosures and girl enclosures, so we didn’t end up with significantly more rodents.
“Are you okay, Otillie?”
I shook my head. No, I definitely wasn’t okay. “Nope.”
“Where did these all come from? I swear on my Pack, I won’t tell a soul.”
I looked at my longtime friend. I believed her. “Watch the news tonight. But don’t ask how I ended up with the animals. Just know that I did.”
Shaking her head, she scratched a rabbit behind its floppy ears before putting it in the appropriate pen. “Okay, Omega of Mystery. Just know we’re here if you need anything. You’ve never rescued on this scale before, and it’s hard work. Give it a few days, but you might need to try and get a few of these fostered out. There’s no shame in needing help; I know you know that.” Her voice was stern, but I nodded. I knew my limitations, and we were nearly at capacity.
Finally, after we’d done health checks on all the animals, Rex and Anakie left, with a monkey in tow. A freaking monkey. That shit was wild.
Akio nudged at my legs, and I reached down to pat his head. “This is a lot, hey buddy? I’m going to need your help over the next few weeks.” I stretched and yawned, and then Lance was there, wrapping his arms around my ribs, breathing me in like I was the only thing keeping him going.
“Are you mad at me, Angel?” he whispered against my hair.
I was shaking my head before he’d even finished. “No. Rescuing sixty animals without the infrastructure to house them is like the front page of the Otillie-James Baler playbook. I’m almost proud,” I teased. Turning in his arms, I tilted my head back to kiss him, a tingling kiss that I felt to my toes. “You did the right thing. I’m a little pissed you didn’t tell me you were planning to do it—and kind of worried that something might go wrong, and you’ll be in trouble—but I can’t be mad that you saved all these lives.”
He didn’t make excuses, or give me false platitudes, and that’s what I loved about Lance. My Lancelot. My White Knight. He didn’t treat me with kid gloves just because I was a woman, or an Omega, or younger than him.
Gripping his hand, I dragged him back toward the house. “I’m about to fall asleep. You need a shower and then we all need to climb into my nest and sleep. I need you all with me tonight.”
“All day,” he corrected. He was right. It was like midday. I’d been awake way too long.
Stumbling into the house, I could smell that someone was cooking, and my mouth watered. Strat was there in sweats and no shirt, freshly showered, sliding grilled cheese from the frying pan and onto a plate. Lance kissed my temple, then wandered into the downstairs bathroom to shower.
I walked over, kissing Strat’s shoulder. It was the place where I was going to claim him as mine one day. He leaned his head back against mine. “Baby, you must be exhausted. Have some grilled cheese and soup, then I’ll take you to bed.”
Pressing my nose between his shoulder blades, I breathed in his calming champagne scent and sighed with happiness. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
Turning off the stove, he spun in my arms, wrapping his own around my shoulders. “Always. Until the end of time, Otillie-James Baler.” Grabbing me around the waist, he lifted me onto the countertop and stood between my thighs. “Now, eat some grilled cheese so you can go to bed, because you look like you’re about to drop.”
He lifted it to my mouth, and I dutifully took a bite. God, he was so beautiful. He stole my breath, and I didn’t think I wanted him to give it back. I wanted to stay gasping for air until he filled me back up with his lips.
I chewed, my eyes still wandering all over his face. “I love you. You know that, right?” I told him after I swallowed. “You mean so much to me. None of this would have been possible without you.”
He pressed closer between my thighs. “I love you too.” He nuzzled his cheek against mine.
“Be mine?” I breathed. I slid my lips down the long column of his throat. The urge to bite him, to claim him, was strong.
He chuckled. “I already am. I don’t need a claiming bite to promise you that.” I pouted, and he caught my jutting lower lip with his teeth. “Soon, baby. When you aren’t bone tired. Once everything is settled, we’ll make it official, I promise.”
When he lifted me from the countertop, I wrapped my legs around his waist and clung on tight as he carried me upstairs to our nest. And when he laid me down in the blankets, my eyes were closed, and I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.
My phone was blowing up. The rescue world was small, but the reality TV world was huge. When news outlets played clips of Anthony Smalls and the audio recordings of Joseph Powell confessing, it was pretty damning.
We were all sitting around the television, watching cops raid the Smalls Packhouse, the ASPCA removing all the animals from his care, the members of the Smalls Pack being put in the back of police cars. The network that ran his reality show dropped him immediately in a scathing press release, distancing themselves from the scandal, and I felt content.
This was the justice Spartacus deserved.
Former employees were coming out of the woodwork to discuss the unethical processes of the Smalls farm, breaking NDAs everywhere. The downfall of All Creatures Great and Smalls was quick and brutal and just what I wanted.
The message from Anakie only said two words. “Holy. Fuck.” But she didn’t ask any more questions than that. That was what I loved about Anakie.
I’d checked on Paloma earlier, though Max had to hold the phone, because Polly—that’s what she wanted to be called now—hadn’t ever seen a cellphone before. She wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t explode. Max had said that she felt that way about a lot of technology, and whatever cult she’d come from had been extremely secular, but not anti-tech. She’d never seen a television before, but had seen a Keurig. She couldn’t point to where she was from on a map, but could name every country in the world alphabetically, and rank them by their crime rate.
Whatever her cult was, they’d purposefully kept them blind to the world around them and the idea of what normal was supposed to look like. They’d also kept them terrified of the outside world. Max said she spent most of her days in her bedroom with Doodles the dog, and if she had to go anywhere with a crowd, she would have a panic attack. Especially without the veil that covered her shaved head.
Whatever else her elders in that cult had taught her, it was that her hair was only for her Alpha’s enjoyment. Until she was bonded, she had to keep it shaved smooth.
I hoped those bastards got what was coming to them. Lance had told me not to worry about it, that Rio and Max would take care of it. I had a feeling he meant in the most bloody way possible.
I laid back against Truett’s chest and breathed a sigh of relief. It was done. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that someone else wouldn’t pop up in their place, but I’d done something.
“So that’s that.” Sonny said, Strat’s head on his lap as he stroked his hair. “Any other evil empires we need to bring down, or is it just back to normal from now on?”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Have you met me?”
Laughing, Truett leaned down and kissed my temple. “Yep. It was the best day of my life.”