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I take off my navy blazer and wrap it around the young Omega. Her violet eyes round as I tuck it around her shoulders, making sure every bit of her bare forearms are covered. Her form is so slight that it fits like an oversized bathrobe, dwarfing her body. “Now, baby, I don’t want you getting cold,” I say once she’s bundled up nice and tight. She nods slowly, her expression dazed. She barely blinks her lids over those brilliant violet eyes, and once again, I’m worried she’s in shock from all of the commotion.
Whitten better hurry up with that citation, or we’re going to have another problem on our hands. I don’t want to have to take her to the hospital. Just the thought of an unbonded Omega, releasing such strong pheromones, in an enclosed medical building with a thousand other people, half of them Alphas… It would become a warzone.
“You know,” says Dunmore, his voice much kinder than his cohort’s, albeit a bit awkward. “You really need to bond with her as soon as possible. Anything could have happened to her alone. If we hadn’t been out here on a separate call, who knows who she would have run into.”
“I know, sir,” I say with a solemn nod. “I plan to get her bonded into the Pack as soon as we can. I just want it to be special, you know?” Dunmore’s face reddens, and he steps back as if I’m going to give him cooties from being too sentimental.
“You do that,” he says gruffly, looking relieved when Whitten comes back with the necessary paperwork.
“Your name?” Whitten asks me, pen at the ready.
“Miles Knight,” I say clearly. “That’s Knight with a K.” Whitten rolls his eyes, but he scrawls out my name in a lazy hand. I provide my home address, my birthday, and anything else he needs to hand over the fine like an overeager doctor with a prescription pad.
“And your Omega?” he asks, leering at the girl but addressing the question to me. “What’s her name?”
“Riley North,” she pipes up before I can come up with a pseudonym for her. “That’s North with an N.”
Whitten pauses his ticket writing, glaring at her. “Cheeky little thing, aren’t you? Is that why you ran from us? You’ve got a problem with authority?” Even as annoyed as he sounds, his pupils haven’t gone fully back to their correct size. He’s still dangerous, even after being challenged by a stronger Alpha such as myself.
I take a threatening step forward, ready to protect her, but she stills me with a calming look. “No,” she says, bowing her head demurely. “Not at all. I ran because… well if you caught me without Miles, then I knew he’d get in trouble. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have wandered out of the shop.”
Quick little thing. A sense of pride and something close to hope grows in my chest and I can’t help a little smirk. She’s going along with my charade.
She bites her lip and looks up at Whitten through hooded lids, looking every bit the repentant Omega. “Guess I messed that up, didn’t I? He still ended up in trouble because of me. I’m so sorry, Miles. I really am.”
Whitten seems taken aback by her coy act, and I’m impressed as hell at her cleverness. “Fine,” he says, scribbling some additional items on the citation before ripping off the top blue copy and handing it to me. “Have you claimed her formally?”
“Uh, no,” I stammer. “It’s still a newer arrangement.”
He grunts. “Well, I’ll be entering your claim in the system, and that fine needs to be paid within two weeks. Get that girl bonded, or you’ll end up in this same situation. You know how these young Omegas get.”
“Absolutely,” I say with the biggest shit-eating grin I can muster. “Nothing but trouble sometimes.” He huffs out a sound of agreement and turns back to his car, with Dunmore trudging along behind him. I watch him carefully, not relaxing a single muscle until he’s inside his patrol car and pulling away from the scene.
Once we’re alone, the girl and I both let out sighs of relief in tandem. I glance down at the girl–no, Riley, her name is Riley, my sweet, sweet, Riley. “Do you have a Pack I need to return you to?” I hold my breath for her reply but I can already guess the answer. She shakes her head anyway and I feel my tensed muscles relax. “Family then?”
She shakes her head again, her jaw tightening.
“Well, then, welcome to the Woods Pack.”
As soon as I say the words, I feel the connection between us grow, heavy and tangible, so thick I can taste it. It isn’t a true bond, not yet. That takes a special connection and the bite to end all bites. But either way, she’s a part of me now, and I’m a part of her, even if it’s the very beginning of a connection. It could snap like a twig or grow into something as strong as an oak. It’s all up to her at this point. And the rest of the pack.
I feel my stomach drop at the thought, but what other option is there? I can’t leave her here on the street and I’ve basically just taken legal responsibility for her.
I silence the part of my brain demanding to know what the fuck I was thinking, letting instinct win out over logic just this once.
I want to bury my face in her neck, to lick and nip at her skin, to pull her shirt over her head and worship those perky breasts that are just begging for attention. But I don’t do that. I hold back the beast inside me, the beast that wants to claim her as my own for my brothers and me, like a wolf bringing back prey to his Pack. My Pack. I look at her and ask the question that needs to be asked first, “Riley? What do you want?”
FIVE
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R I L E Y
“Riley? What do you want?”
Miles’ question bounces around in my head, the inquiry so unfamiliar to me. When was the last time anyone asked me whatIwanted? When was the last time I was allowed to choose my own fate?
My mood drops, though, as I work through the ramifications of the question. It isn’t in my hands, not really, no matter how polite the Alpha sounds. Everything has changed for me in a matter of moments, and my muddled brain can’t catch up with the reality that has taken over. For years, every action I’ve taken has kept me from having to bond with an Alpha or belonging to a Pack. Now, my dealer, and one of my only friends, has been dragged off to jail, and this Alpha had to stake a false claim on me just to stop me getting arrested. In the end, what I want doesn’t matter at all.
