Chapter 17 - Bridget
Living with Maggie’s pack was almost bad enough to make me go back to the Omega Center, even with some shadowy figure threatening me.
It wasn’t anyone’s fault. But an unbonded Omega living with a bonded pack went against everything in our biology. A visit for dinner? Fine. But by the third day of my stay with the Murray pack, I was beyond ready to leave.
Maggie was struggling, too. When it was just the two of us, she was the friend I knew and loved.
But if any of her bonded mates were in the room with us, I could see the tension in every line of her body.
She would start pacing, then stand between me and her packmates as if protecting them from a threat.
Her scent changed, too, becoming sour and oppressive.
I hated stressing her out. But whenever I told her I would leave, she denied anything was wrong.
“It’s fine, Bridge,” she would say breezily. “You’re no trouble at all. And we want to make sure you’re safe.”
Her point was undermined slightly on the third night of my stay, after she convinced Nathan to endanger his life, when I accidentally walked too closely to Lachlan after dinner.
She bared her teeth in a snarl at me, and her guttural warning growl took everyone by surprise.
Lucas, her most levelheaded packmate, grabbed her around the waist before she could lunge at me.
I cringed away, making myself small by instinct.
“Fuck, I’m so sorry.” She covered her mouth with her hand. Lucas started purring, his arms still locked around her. “I didn’t mean to. I don’t know why this is happening.” She sounded almost as distraught as I felt.
“No, I’m sorry,” I said and darted to the stairwell. “I’ll just… be up here.”
I was staying in one of the guest rooms on the second floor.
Maggie and her pack slept in the main suite on the third floor.
I threw myself facedown on the bed. The situation was clearly untenable, but I had no idea where else to go.
Lachlan worked in cybersecurity, and he didn’t know if it was safe for me to go to another Omega Center.
I’d almost asked Nathan if I could stay with him, but that felt incredibly presumptuous.
Not to mention dangerous. Not to mention I didn’t trust myself to be in a room alone with Nathan feeling this vulnerable.
Maggie knocked on my door ten minutes later. “Can we talk?”
I rolled over. “Sure,” I said, trying to sound normal.
Maggie looked ashamed, and my heart broke. I patted the bed next to me, and she lay down, facing me like we’d done so often at the Omega Center before she found her pack.
“I know you didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just the Omega biology that sees me as a threat,” I said, preempting her inevitable apology. “I need to find a new place to stay.”
“No. You’re safest here.”
“Am I?” I asked with a wry smile. “Because it seemed like you were going to attack me.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “I would never attack you, dummy. I love you.”
I thought she was underestimating the intensity of Omega instincts, but I decided not to press the issue.
“Hopefully your Nathan will find something quickly,” she said, propping herself up on her elbow.
I rolled onto my back. “Quit it. He’s not my anything.”
Maggie waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “He seemed awfully eager to help.”
“That’s because he’s a decent person and you took advantage of his stupid sense of honor.”
“Whatever. I think I know an interested Alpha when I see one. Or, hear one, I guess. He’s obviously into you,” Maggie replied with an infuriating sense of superiority.
I considered telling her about the crazy moment at the gala when I’d wanted to lick the skin of his throat. If anyone would understand, it would be another Omega. “He’s made it pretty clear that we are just colleagues.”
“I am sorry,” Maggie said, poking me in the stomach until I looked at her. “The last thing I want to do is make you feel unwelcome.”
“It’s really okay,” I said with conviction. “I’ll just stay away from the guys as much as possible.”
“We’re gonna find out what’s going on. I promise,” Maggie said.
I let her give me a hug before she went upstairs.
It took me a long time to fall asleep. I’d been picturing the man’s face, reconstructing it in my mind.
There was something familiar about him. Or maybe that was just my mind playing tricks.
Flashbacks of my fathers were also haunting me, things I’d suppressed and didn’t want to face.
But that night it was Nathan who kept me awake.
I woke to the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs. My heart jolted into my throat, and I sat up, clutching the covers around me.
The door burst open. Maggie was still in her pajamas, her hair as wild as the expression in her eyes. “Oh my god, you’re okay,” she said, sagging against the doorframe in relief.
I let my breath go in a long exhale, trying to calm my pulse. The light around the curtains was dim; it was either very early or very late. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Maggie’s face turned grim. “I found this slipped under the front door,” she said, passing me a piece of paper.
It was innocuous at first glance. It almost looked blank. But then I saw one sentence scrawled in the middle of the page. “Are you keeping your promises, Bridget?”
My skin crawled as I detected the faint scent of blood.
“There was also a… a dead animal on the front porch. A pig,” Maggie said with disgust. “It scared the shit out of us.”
My stomach lurched in horror. “A dead pig?” I swung my legs free of the covers and tried to get out of bed, but Maggie put a hand on my shoulder.
“You don’t want to see it. Trust me.”
“Oh god. They know you’re cops.”
“Seems like it.” Maggie sank on the bed next to me.
“Call Nathan and warn him. Tell him not to go through with whatever plan you’ve come up with.”
“There’s no indication he’s in any danger,” she said. “But you might be.”
I looked down at my hands and twisted my fingers together. I felt like a trapped animal, like the door had slammed shut on my life without me even realizing.
“Lachlan is going to set you up in a safe house. He has some connections in private security,” Maggie said, and I heard her voice as if it was coming from a different plane of existence. I was in a state of panic so advanced it felt like I was vibrating.
But I couldn’t go to a safe house with a bunch of strangers. I’d lose my mind. What if I had a flashback? What if I had a panic attack? I could feel one coming on just thinking about it.
But then, suddenly, a solution struck me. Private security. It was insane, but living with strangers was worse.
Also, there was a small, secret part of me that was thrilled to have an excuse to get closer to the two men I still couldn’t stop thinking about.
I cut off Maggie’s explanation of where I was going to be staying and asked, “Could you bring me my phone?”