Page 13 of Omega Forged (Hartlock Omegas #2)

Lloyd

“Can you see anything?” I thumbed my fingers down the bullet journal Tully left.

Walden grunted, turning the car down a street we’d already searched, twice.

It was dark and empty, unchanged since the thirty minutes since we’d been here.

My thoughts drifted back to Tully, and my body ached with bittersweet pain.

She’d been in front of me for a moment, and now she was gone.

We’d shared something transcendent. More than two bodies finding pleasure.

We weaved our souls together in the space of a phone call.

Tully.

The way she spoke her true name burned into my memory. Now I knew what her face looked like and the truth about who she was.

“We have to find her.”

Dark clouds crowded the sky, and outside our car, the wind whistled. Tully hadn’t been wearing a heavy enough jacket.

“You see anything?” Walden muttered, and the leather seat squeaked as he strangled the steering wheel.

“Nothing. Did you call your sisters?” Ajax asked. “They have connections that might help.”

“I sent a text. I doubt it made sense at all, though. I was distracted.”

Walden’s younger sisters ran Three Stars PR and Pan kept them quite busy in the past when he was deep in his struggle with sobriety. Now we were hoping they had any news about Tully Hartlock and why she was spotted, carrying what looked like her entire life, in plastic bags.

“I don’t understand. I thought Tully Hartlock was a rich recluse who never showed her face in public.” Ajax clicked his tongue.

Walden’s shoulders rose. “But somehow Lloyd knows who she is, but not who she is .”

I rubbed the back of my neck to remove his burning stare.

What was Tully Hartlock doing on Only Omegas?

If I was part of the most famous pack in Starhaven, she was the most famous omega.

Something was wrong, and the way her face drained of color as she ran from us only made me more rabid to find her.

“We’re all entitled to our secrets.”

“Like your cupboard full of noodles?” Ajax joked, and Walden’s lips twitched in a faint smile.

Heat flooded my cheeks. What did they know about my stockpile? My mind grappled with an excuse. Walden’s eucalyptus scent usually calmed me, but now it suffocated. I darted Walden a quick look, cheeks burning at his soft, unspoken understanding. Shame clawed its way down the inside of my stomach.

“What noodles?” I whispered with a sharp edge.

“I saw the boxes a while ago, when you asked me to grab your suit for dry cleaning,” Ajax explained.

I swiped my hand down my face. Tried to smooth out my panicked expression. It didn’t work, and Walden narrowed his gaze at me. My insides squirmed like he could sift through my skin into the dark confines of my hidden scars.

A car rushed past us and its wheels squealed as it braked. It was a welcome distraction.

I didn’t want to talk about the noodles or how I knew Tully. Walden wouldn’t ever understand. I needed to steer the conversation somewhere else, well away from topics that made my chest ache. If we could just see her again and I could assuage the rising panic that there was something wrong.

“It’s nothing.”

“Fine,” Walden growled. “Tell me about Tully.”

Walden ground his teeth. My scent turned sharp, more chemical.

I stared out the window, refusing to confirm or deny.

Agonizing heaviness drove me deeper into the chair, my limbs like weights.

It rained earlier, and the sparse street lights reflected on the puddles on the ground. Was Tully soaked to the bone?

Her name was so sweet on my tongue.

We’d jerked off together.

On paper, it sounded crass, and nobody would understand, especially not Walden.

What we shared changed the fiber of my being.

I bathed in her desperate breaths. Time ground to a halt when Tully asked me to find pleasure with her.

At the peak of my orgasm, with her cries echoing in my ear, we were one.

I existed with Tully in a brief, all-encompassing moment.

I know Tully felt it too, the emotion behind the action. She’d reached out to me . Until her true name fell off her lips and shattered everything. As soon as her voice trembled, I knew it was over.

The moment she ended the call, I fought the animalistic urge to claw through the screen and find her.

“Baylark Pack doesn’t need any more bad press and I don’t like surprises.”

“Tully means more to me than reputation. Is that why you’re searching for her? Because it might help your mayoral campaign?” The sharpness of my reply left me torn inside.

Walden flicked me a frown before taking a turn down another thin street.

“Lloyd, I have a long history with Tully Hartlock. Our families were inseparable until she presented as an omega. I mean, her parents were always strict, and she was a nervous kid. Nobody could have expected the HLA—” Walden shot me a look as my tongue dried.

When he continued, his voice was rougher, like he picked his words out between land mines.

“The last time I saw her was two years ago, at her parents' funeral. I’ll never forget the look on her face. Surrounded by a crowd of people and so fucking alone. When I got the chance to talk to her, I offered my help, and do you know what she did? This wisp of an eighteen-year-old tore strips off me for even attending. I honored her wishes and thought, like everyone else, she decided to live a private life. She had the fortune to disappear, right?”

“Not to add another complication, but remember Fenella and her stolen scent? I could be wrong, but I swear it was Tully’s,” Ajax added.

Tully said she was saving for a new place to live. Adding scent stealing to the mix made it sinister. Sweat prickled down my spine. What mess was Tully Hartlock tangled in?

“I don’t remember her scent, if I’m honest. What stayed with me from our last interaction is smaller.

Her bottom lip wobbled when she told me to leave the funeral.

I always wondered if I’d stayed a moment longer, then she might have taken the comfort I offered.

It’s not ambition that has me in this car, Lloyd. It’s guilt.”

Walden’s phone rang before I could reply, and it came through the car speakers.

“Y-you want Tully Hartlock?” Sybil, Walden’s sister, tripped over her words.

A jolt zipped down my spine. Want was too tame.

“Sybil, you’ve got info?”

“Even better, I’ve got a location. Walden, you better get there soon. She’s being hounded by paparazzi.”

My ribs tightened to the point of pain. Walden plugged in the address and whipped the car around so fast the tires screamed. She was in an alleyway, one accessible only by foot down a dead-end street. Where had she been running to?

“What’s the plan?” Ajax asked as Walden drove too fast.

Walden didn’t answer, and I couldn’t speak.

Knots twisted my stomach as we spilled out of the haphazardly parked car.

It only took three strides to get to where Tully crouched in the alley, with two men towering over her.

Her hoodie swallowed her and I couldn’t see her expression, but the hunched shoulders told me enough.

I plucked at Walden’s sleeve, recognizing the determined set of his brow.

“She might not want our help,” I said.

“I’m not walking away from her this time.”

I twisted my hands together as we got closer. She’d blocked me. She didn’t want me. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my chest as we neared Tully. Ajax blocked the entrance, tossing a curious look backward.

“There you are, darling. I told you not to carry everything yourself.” Walden bumped the man with the camera, and it fell out of his hands onto the ground. The back snapped open and the memory card tumbled out. I crushed it under my heel with a fake gasp.

Tully’s head whipped to us. Her pupils dilated and shimmered with glossy, withheld tears.

I sucked in a deep breath and her scent filled my lungs.

The richness of ripe figs surrounded me, bursting with mouthwatering sweetness and a hint of the earthy soil.

Drizzled over was luscious, rich honey, like afternoon sunshine.

I wanted to taste it on my tongue. It sent my insides roaring. But it was all wrong, sharp with fear.

Walden and I shared a look.

“Hey, you ruined my camera.” The paparazzi huffed a breath before he realized who he was talking to. “Oh, Baylark Pack.”

Walden clapped his hand on the man’s shoulder and pulled a card from his pocket.

“So sorry about that accident, buddy. Call my office and we’ll get a refund or a replacement. Whatever you need.”

Tully kneeled on the ground, her bags surrounding her like a makeshift shield. Another of the plastic bags had broken, this one filled with lingerie, now spread over the ground. A flush roared up my neck and I pulled off my jacket to toss over the intimate clothing.

“Yeah, well, we’re kind of in the middle of an interview.” The other man gritted his teeth, looking like he wanted to say more, but decided against it.

Tully was cornered prey right now, and her pupils ate up her eyes.

“Tully is much too tired, aren’t you?” Walden pressed.

Tully was too busy pulling the spilled belongings into her bags until they bulged.

Fig and honey, sharp and burnt, seared my nostrils and my hands curled into fists at her distress. The scent was luscious and addled my thoughts. Tully staggered to her feet, bowing under the burden of the bags.

“Tully?” I whispered.

Her gaze flickered to Walden and me, and all the color drained from her face. Her wide eyes were so unique, my throat tightened. Crystal blue, almost white. Tully’s arms trembled, and the bags she held crashed onto the footpath again. I dropped to help her, prying them from her trembling fingers.

Walden clicked his tongue. “Tully received some distressing news. I appreciate your kindness at this time.”