Page 30 of Flight of the Omega

XIII

Jack was just finishing upthe morning rounds, leading Saffron back to her pen, when he saw Burr come trotting up the path from the fields. He frowned, then went back to reining Saffron in. Wasn’t really any of his business where Burr had been or what he was doing. If he asked or called him on it, he’d be told as much. He was in enough trouble as it was; the storm cloud of JP hung over him.

A little while later, though, he watched JP drift up out of the woods, on almost the exact same trajectory.Thatwas strange, he thought, worthy of comment even.

JP stumbled along, almost tripping with every step he took. His gaze was down, but it was like he wasn’t seeing the ground he was traversing. Jack finished tying Blue, who he’d taken for exercise after Saffron, then trotted across the pen.

He saw bruising below JP’s jawline, blood on his lips. Jack paused, then darted closer. “JP,” he called.

No response. “Hey! JP!”

He reached over the fence and grabbed the omega by the wrist. He wished he was more surprised when JP screamed bloody murder and threw him off, stumbling back.

“Oh hell,” Jack muttered, then hopped the fence.

“Stay away from me!” JP screeched, stumbling back. He tripped and fell into the ditch on the other side of the path. “Get away from me! Don’t touch me!”

“Birdie,” Jack said, trying his best to be soothing, “Cerulean. It’s me, Jack. It’s—”

“I know who you are!” JP yelled, then slashed his nails over Jack’s face before scrambling off on his hands and knees. He stopped just a couple of feet away, covering his face with his hands.

Jack ignored the sting of the scratch marks over his cheeks, the bridge of his nose. “Cerulean,” he tried, knowing JP wasn’t in his right mind.

JP shook his head and pulled away from his touch, slumping down in the mud.

Jack glanced around, then grabbed JP by the shoulders and pushed him up. “The hell’s gotten into you?”

JP snarled at him, then shoved him away again. “I’m sick of you alphas!” he spat. “All of you! Just—just leave me alone!”

He stomped off, leaving Jack in the mud, confused.

The rest of the day, Jack thought about the whole thing—Burr coming out of the woods, up the path, and then JP, drifting along like a little ghost. How angry he’d been. Broken. Sick and scared, and …

Jack didn’t even know what else. He wished there was something he could do or say to make it better.

He knew he hadn’t been … nice to JP lately. But Burr was breathing down his neck, and Jack was afraid for his job. He didn’t know why Burr would be so interested in who the boss’s kid was diddling. Even Old Man Crane had no real business in JP’s bedroom, so what did it matter to either of them? But he didn’t think it was safe for either of them to know. It felt … wrong. Dangerous. Worse than that thundercloud hanging over his head.

He was worried too, about what Dr. Vogel had said about JP being broody. He didn’t think that was true—they were both hybrids, and as far as Jack knew, that made them both incapable of having babies. Still, he wanted to discourage JP from acting like they were mates. They weren’t. JP was the boss’s son, and Mr. Crane or Burr could decide to can him if they wanted to, and it seemed like they both had designs on JP. So JP acting like Jack was his mate was a problem.

And it was a problem for the girls too. Blue had been aggressive, and Saffron had been standoffish since his affair with JP. That would never do, especially not when he needed Saffron to run the Plate in a few days. Training had been a disaster, and Jack wasn’t sure what to do, how to fix it.

It was no better today, because Jack was distracted, distraught.

He caught Burr with JP pressed up against the barn wall just before sundown. JP looked like he was pleading—for what, Jack didn’t know.

Well, that about figured. Burr would can Jack the second he had evidence that Jack had slept with JP, because Burr wanted JP all to himself. That was probably what he was so sore about—he’d been hoping to be invited to the omega’s nest.

JP looked worse for wear in the morning. Jack caught a glimpse of him in the mess during breakfast; the angelic was sitting beside his father, who was laughing and smoking and guzzling coffee, while JP just sat there with his hands in his lap, his gaze hollow and his complexion ashen. He didn’t eat or drink anything; he seemed like a statue, like he’d been totally petrified.

“You ever seen anything like that in an omega?” Jack asked Dr. Vogel when she stopped by later, to check on Blue and update Saffron’s shots.

She thought about it for a moment, then said, “Happens sometimes when they’re forced. It’s why I don’t recommend it anymore; it’s too distressing for the omega. It’s especially bad for the breeders—sometimes, the dams abandon the nests or even roll the eggs off cliffs.”

Jack frowned. “What can I do about it?”

“Separate the two of them immediately,” Amanda said. “Put the omega back with their flock.”

“What if he ain’t got a flock?”