5. Elliott #2
“Yeah, although the winter was a lot. I’ve never seen that much snow. I can’t wait until our house is finished.”
I finished mixing everything together and added some lavender oil.
“That’ll be soon, right?”
Jackson nodded. “Carter says maybe a couple of weeks.”
I let him pour the soap mixture into the molds, and then I carefully set them in the refrigerator.
When we came out of the work shed, Joel, the ops alpha assigned to me that day, was sitting on the bench under a nearby tree, waiting.
“Have you fed the goats yet?” Jackson asked me.
“Yeah, first thing. I think the goats missed me while I was laid up and the others were doing my chores for me. Why? Do you want to see them?”
“No, only if you hadn’t fed them yet. Let’s just take a walk.”
“Ben’s worried about you,” Jackson said after a minute of walking. “But when I asked, he wouldn’t tell me why.”
I appreciated that Ben still hadn’t blabbed about my plan to turn myself in.
Jackson paused at the fence. Guy, a sorrel American Quarter horse, ambled over when he saw us, and Jackson petted his muzzle. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m good. Nobody needs to worry about me.”
Jackson looked at me. His eyes were so pretty in the sun—a medium gray shade I’d never seen on anyone before.
“Good. I want you to be okay.” He paused a moment, and Guy nuzzled his arm, wanting more petting. “I don’t know the particulars, of course, but I know you’ve been through some stuff. I just want to say, you can talk to me if you need to. I’m a good listener.”
I looked away, uncomfortable with the feelings welling up inside me. Not just the intrusive memories, but the knowledge that, by leaving, I would in a sense be betraying my friendship with Jackson and the others, who had always been good to me. But wasn’t the greater good of omegas more important?
“Thank you,” I said in a low voice. “I just…don’t like talking about it.”
“Okay. I respect that.” Jackson turned back to the horse and stroked his muzzle some more.
After a few minutes, we started off again. The day was cloudless, and, with the sun beating down on us, hot for the first week of June.
We passed our building where Camp and Zeke were outside throwing a baseball back and forth to Dawson, whose bright red hair looked like fire in the bright sun. I chuckled, remembering how excited he’d been when he met Trey and saw that he was also a redhead.
A little farther on, Ren, Riku, and a couple of the ops alphas were helping to move some dead wood to a pile. They’d all taken off their shirts, and I noticed something.
“All the ops alphas have same tattoo on their upper backs.”
“It looks like a stylized A and O. For alpha and omega. I wonder why a B for beta isn’t on there, too?” Jackson asked.
“Because we are alphas giving our lives to protect omegas,” someone said from behind us, startling me so badly, I jumped and ran into Jackson, who steadied me with his hands on my arms.
It was Joel, the alpha ops guy assigned to me. I’d forgotten all about him.
“That’s cool,” Jackson said. “So, you have one, too?”
“Yep.” Joel took another step toward us, and I tensed.
Joel stopped. “I heard you guys talking and thought I’d answer the question. Sorry to bother you.”
“It was no bother. Thanks for telling us,” Jackson said.
“Jackon!” Carter’s voice carried across the field, and I felt Jackson’s arm twitch underneath my hand. I had never heard Carter use that tone of voice before. It made me break out in a sweat.
Joel took a few steps back, his hands loose at his side.
When Carter reached us, and I saw the enraged look in his eyes, my knees turned to jelly and I stumbled. In a quick move, Joel rushed forward and caught me before I fell to the ground, which freaked me out so badly, I yelped and scrambled away from him, breathing unsteadily, my hand on my heart.
“C-Carter,” Jackson said uncertainly.
Putting himself in front of me and Jackson, Carter turned on Joel.
“I know you’re just doing your job but…Back. Up.”
Obediently, Joel took a few steps backward.
“Don’t ever get that close to my pregnant omega again,” Carter said, his voice rumbling like a growl.
“And if you’d done your research, you’d know that Elliott isn’t comfortable being close to alphas.
” Turning to me and Jackson, he said, “Come with me,” and took each of us by the hand, leading us toward the ranch.
He didn’t say anything or drop our hands until we reached the stairs of the back deck. I looked over my shoulder and saw Joel had followed and stopped several yards away. Poor guy. He really hadn’t meant any harm.
“He was only explaining their tattoos to us,” Jackson said to his mate, no longer appearing tense or even particularly bothered by Carter’s behavior.
“He was too close. I almost had a heart attack when I saw my pregnant mate standing within feet of an unmated alpha!”
“They know I’m mated, Carter. It’s not like they can scent my allure or anything. You always make sure I smell of you, anyway.” He blushed.
Carter’s eyes lit up. “Obviously, not enough!”
“Carter, calm down. You’re scaring Ellioitt,” Jackson said, looking at me.
Carter had obviously forgotten I was there in the last couple of minutes.
“I’m sorry, Elliott,” he said.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, then gasped when Carter suddenly picked Jackson up and started for the driveway. “Tell Trey we had to leave and to call Bertram when he wants to be picked up,” Carter called to me over his shoulder.
“Carter, put me down! What are you doing? Where are we going?” Jackson tried to extract himself from his mate’s arms without success.
“Are you okay?” Joel called to me from a respectable distance, and I jumped again like a scared rabbit.
“Fine,” I called back, my voice shaking. It had all been too much. Heart beating triple-time, I took off running up the stairs to the deck and burst into the kitchen like the hounds of hell were at my heels.
“What’s wrong?” Solomon asked, turning to look at me from where he and Gail sat at the kitchen table.
I leaned my back against the door that I’d just slammed and closed my eyes a moment to take a deep breath and let it out.
When I opened them, I caught sight of Jet standing in the doorway to the kitchen from the hall.
“What happened?” he asked in an alpha tone that made me shake even harder.
I heard a chair scrape, and suddenly Solomon was beside me. Putting his arm around me, he led me to the table and sat me in a chair.
Jet’s gaze moved to the back-door window, where Joel stood on the deck. Before I could form a reply, Jet strode out the door, slamming it behind him.
“Elliott? Are you alright?” Gail asked, going to the refrigerator and returning with a glass of water. “Here, drink this. Your face is as white as a sheet.”
Out on the deck, I could hear Jet shouting at Joel about being unprofessional. After today, that guy was never going to want to be assigned to me again.
I drank the water and set the glass down.
“Did Joel do something that made you uncomfortable?” Gail asked, looking concerned.
“Not on purpose. I was freaked out because Carter got mad that Jackson was talking to Joel. When he got angry, I was startled and almost fell, then Joel caught me and I freaked out even more. Carter carried Jackson to the car, and then Joel asked if I was o-okay, and it startled me again…” Man, I was a loser.
“ I-I was overwhelmed, that’s all. It’s not J-Joel’s fault. ”
“Okay, okay. Don’t worry, Joel will explain everything to Jet. Elliott, it sounds like you’re struggling. Why have you been skipping your therapy sessions?”
“I didn’t think I needed to go so often,” I said in a small voice.
“Talking things out will help you.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. I just hated talking about my issues.
“Then make sure you come see me in the morning, okay?” She smiled.
I liked Gail and knew she could help me, but I still hated talking about myself and my issues.
“Okay. I will,” I promised her.