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While my heart hurts to picture Kennedy stuck in some lonely jail cell, I doubt he’ll be in prison very long. He’s no snitch, not with the network of dangerous people he deals with, either directly or indirectly. If he were to rat out any of his contacts, he’d be dead in a matter of days, shanked to death on a cell’s cement floor. I also doubt he would sell me out, because that wouldn’t get him anywhere, even if we weren’t friends. There is just no point in throwing an Omega under the bus.
Our kind has become so few in number that it would be a waste to lock one of us away forever. We’re a commodity, and rarities are meant to be used and displayed by the rich and powerful. Which, in our world, means the Alphas. We both knew what awaited me if he turned me in. I’d be put in a holding cell until one of the packs who signed up as available to take on any Omega brought into custody came to pick me up and claim me as their own. And those kinds of packs? They weren’t the sort that could get an Omega any other way. Thelastsort any Omega would want to be bound to.
So no, I can’t see Kennedy bringing me up to the cops at all, not even to save his own skin.
Miles stirs in my peripheral vision, and I force myself back into the present. There’s nothing I can do to help Kennedy now or to undo everything that was just done.
“Riley?” Miles repeats, his voice firm but kind. There is no Alpha persuasion in his voice, but I can see how that heady, low tone of his would be hard to resist if there were. “What do you want? What do you really want?”
I ignore his direct question. “Um, thank you for your help,” I tell him quietly. His chest rises and falls, and he has that stunned, drunken sort of look that any Alpha gets when they first come into contact with a new Omega. Every few moments, he shakes his head, as if he also can’t believe everything that just went down. “I should probably head back to my apartment.” I turn in the direction of home to leave, but his hand shoots out, grasping me by the wrist with his long, masculine fingers.
“You know you can’t do that anymore,” he murmurs, sliding his hand down my arm until his fingers entangle with mine. I tremble at his touch, not understanding how something so simple as interlocking hands with another person could feel sogood.I should pull away. I shouldreallypull away, but I can’t seem to make myself.
Miles swallows, brushing the pad of his thumb over the back of my hand. “I’m legally responsible for you now. They will file that citation and register you as part of my Pack, even if you haven’t bonded yet.”
I hear what he’s really saying underneath the logical response.
You’re mine.
“No,” I say, shaking my hand free from his, mourning his touch even though I don’t want it, not really. “I’m fine on my own. I have been for years. I won’t get caught again.”
“Riley, your scent is everywhere, and it’s strong.” He inhales, closing his eyes as if savoring the scent like a fine wine. “If you don’t come with me, then another Alpha is going to find you.”
No doubt one who would behave much worse. He had a point.
“I don’t want to,” I whisper, embarrassed at how it comes out like a child’s whimper.
“I know you don’t,” he says, and before I know it, my hand is in his once more. He presses my palm gently, rubbing his thumb over the sensitive skin. “Are you sure you don’t have a family I can take you to? Someone else who might have a claim on you?”
I could tell him the truth. I could say that yes, both of my Alpha fathers are alive and well, living nearly three hours from here. But then I’d have to tell him that they betrayed me, believing one of their oldest friends over their own daughter. They chose his lies and denials instead of my cries for help.
Miles would help me, I think with surprise.Miles would have believed me when I said that that man was looking at me the wrong way, touching me the wrong way when I first presented as Omega. Miles would have kept me safe.
I don’t know where these rapid-fire thoughts are coming from. I’ve never had anything like them before, suppressant or no suppressant. But at the same time, I know each and every statement is true. Some deep, base instinct I’ve never felt before tells me that Miles will keep me safe. If I let him.
“I could come home with you?” he asks with a disheartened grimace, glancing in the direction I’d been trying to go when I first pulled away. I shake my head fervently at his idea. The apartment is my safe space, and I don’t want anyone in there, not even him. I’d rather abandon it completely than lose its sense of security.
He looks disappointed at my denial, but asks, “You do have a home, right? You’re not homeless, are you?”
I shake my head at that, though I might as well be. I don’t want to take him back to my apartment, but I also can’t leave here alone, not with my pheromones going crazy the way they are. The heat suppressants should’ve been fully kicked in by now and I’m blaming this Alpha’s presence for making them and the scent blocking body wash entirely ineffective.
“Look, Riley…” His voice drifts off, and he rubs at his temple like he has a headache. “I don’t know your story. I don’t know you. And you don’t know me. But you need help, and I can give it to you. I promise you that no one in my Pack will hurt you. No one in my Pack will even touch you or speak to you if I tell them that’s the way it needs to be. I’ll talk to them and make them do whatever you need, but you should come back with me. An Omega can’t live alone, it isn’t sa–”
My head whips toward him, and I bare my teeth at him in electrified anger. He steps back, hands up in surrender, eyes rounded at my burst of fury. “Sorry, sorry. An Omegashouldn’tlive alone. You clearly can, and have, and it’s probably important to you, but it’s not plausible anymore. You need to be protected and I can offer that.”
He winces, hesitating before he continues. “I also need to point out that since I’ve taken legal responsibility for you, if anything should happen to you, or if you were to be caught again,Iwould be the one liable.”
My throat closes up and I push back the urge to angry cry, balling my hands to fists.
“I didn’t want any of this to happen,” I say, raising my hand to silence him when he tries to protest. “I don’t want to go with you.”
“Why?” he asks, reaching forward and tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear, making me recoil and shiver at the same time. “What are you running from? Why won’t you let me help you?”
Because in the end, I’m running from myself,I think, my lip trembling.In the end, you’ll be running from me too.
“It doesn’t matter,” I mutter, not necessarily directing the morose words toward him. “For now, I’ll go back with you to your Pack house.” His eyes light up with excitement, and I hold up a hand to interrupt him. “But this is temporary. That’s all it can be. I need to get enough suppressants into my system to counteract my heat and get my scent under control and then…”
I trail off, wanting to say that I’ll go home, but I can’t do that anymore, can I?
