Page 14 of Omega Forged (Hartlock Omegas #2)

“And our discretion, right?” The camera-man shook his head, but his lips tipped up. They wandered back down the alleyway and slipped past Ajax. There were a few more people milling with cameras.

“You’re coming home with us, alright?” Walden picked up Tully’s bags.

“I-what?” The omega’s eyes were wide like saucers now and she paused packing up her things. “Am I hallucinating from hypothermia?” The last bit, she muttered more to herself, and a flare of panic blistered me inside.

The breathy, soft lilt of my Tully. I ground my fist into my chest, unable to focus on the revelation. My bottom lip wobbled with surprise and wonder. I felt like I was hallucinating, too.

“This is real, honey girl, please let us get you out of the cold.”

She cradled her wrist, red with the lingering weight of carrying all those bags.

I could drown in the glassy reflection of her eyes.

There were so many things I wanted to say to her, and they bubbled inside me.

I wrapped my arm around Tully, concerned she might faint.

Her cheeks were white like chalk, and her teeth clattered together.

“Walden…” She faltered, gulped, and I couldn’t understand the shame in her glistening gaze.

Tully shivered so hard I worried she’d catch her tongue between her teeth.

Walden whipped his jacket off and draped it over her shoulders.

Tully flinched, her pupils dilating as his cool, minty eucalyptus surrounded her.

My stomach warmed at the sight, the girl I dreamed about in clothes from my packmate.

“I’m freezing.” Her lips moved as if numb, and I tugged her tighter into my embrace.

Her plump lower lip parted as if words banked on her sluggish tongue. But she said nothing. Silence was a heavy, tense shroud over all of us.

“Do you want us to take you home?” Walden shuffled closer to Tully.

Tully flinched, and her scent soured my nostrils. The clamoring voices from the mouth of the alleyway rose.

“I have nowhere to go.” Even the slightest noise would have drowned out Tully’s words.

“Did you want us to take you to the Omega Center?” Walden hovered a hand at her elbow, and I swallowed a protest.

I didn’t want Tully out of my sight.

His words made Tully tremble harder. “I can’t go there,” she whispered.

I ran my hand down her arm. My scent flared wildly right now, so close to the woman of my dreams. But Walden’s eucalyptus still overshadowed my mild sunscreen and salt with his more powerful alpha scent.

Alpha scent.

Tully would know my secret soon, if she hadn’t put it together already. Omega scents were lush and sweet. Alpha scents were powerful and overbearing. Beta scents were softer, mild.

“Help me with the bags,” Walden ordered me, cataloguing Tully’s shivering body like he was committing her to memory.

Like he knew her better than I did. As if she belonged to him.

I’d known Tully was mine before I’d even scented her, but now?

There was no doubt I would do anything to keep her with me.

Tully quivered in the low light of the streetlamps as we carried her bags over to the car.

I picked my way around the damp puddles.

Pride surged inside me at her quiet strength.

But she wasn’t alone, she’d never be alone again.

“Miss Hartlock, Miss Hartlock, are the rumors true?”

“Why are you with Baylark Pack?”

A light drizzle covered all of us in a fine sheen of cold mist as we rushed past.

“Miss Hartlock isn’t answering questions right now.” Ajax tossed them an affable smile and shooed them away. He stayed back to make sure they didn’t follow.

A sharp gust blew down the street and Tully winced, curling close to me unconsciously. I’d take it, even if it was just to find respite from the wind.

“Hop in the car, Tully. You’re coming home with us.” Walden tipped his head with the order.

It was beyond presumptuous, but Tully melted into me and nodded against my chest. Walden was taut with the desire to herd Tully into our waiting car and care for her.

It reeked out of Walden’s pores; the sharp line of his clenched jaw and the worried way his gaze tracked her damp clothes.

Tully’s cheeks dusted with the most beautiful pink.

“I don’t know what to say.” Her clear blue eyes were hazy with worry as she blinked away a line of rapidly forming tears.

“Take all the time you need. You’re safe with us.”

“I-it would only be for one night. Until I organize something else.” She chewed her lip. “I could call Clay.” She whispered under her breath with a shudder.

I met Walden’s eyes over her shoulder. The hunger that flared in his gaze burned my insides. Tully would stay with us, but she wouldn’t be gone within a day. Now she was in my grasp, I didn’t know if I could let her go.

“Clay? Is he a boyfriend?” Walden demanded, and I frowned at the jealousy in his tone.

“N-no, he’s just someone who was kind enough to help me.”

“That’s our job now.” Walden ground his teeth together. “Is this everything you have?”

Tully looked up at the sky, her teeth cutting a groove into her bottom lip. She tossed her hair behind her ears with a frustrated noise.

“I don’t have much.” She winced.

“I need to speak with Ajax and make a few calls. Get in the car and get warm,” Walden said.

Tully stared at him for a beat before she peeled off Walden’s jacket and held it out, but he waved her off.

“Keep it, please.”

Her eyes flashed with grateful relief, but the tremors in her body multiplied. I urged her over to the car with a sweep of my arm. Tully let me bundle her with a soft sigh. I peeled off my sweater and wrapped it around her knees. It was the best I could offer until we got to our house.

“I can’t believe it’s really you,” I blurted out.

Everything about her mesmerized me. The subtle shift as Tully snuggled underneath the clothing.

My pulse hammered. Her hand snapped out and wrapped around mine.

In the small confines of the car, her scent was dizzying.

It spiked, like figs pried open and gorged on, the remains rotting in the sun.

The curve of her neck called to me, needing me to run my nose down the unmarred skin.

If I wasn’t sitting, my knees would have buckled.

Tully was here, and she reached for me.

“My head is spinning right now. I c-can’t think.” She shifted a little closer as her body sought mine.

I squeezed our joined hands, leaning forward. Walden paced outside the car, uncaring of the light rain. He and Ajax kept tossing us hungry, impatient looks, but I knew they wouldn’t come until they destroyed every bit of evidence of Tully from the paparazzi that remained.

“I’ll do whatever you need to help you feel safe. I-I meant what I said over the phone. My feelings might seem crazy, but they’re real.”

It was scarier in person to crack my ribcage into wings and offer her my beating heart.

Scary, but impossible to pretend. I thanked the gods for leading me to this moment.

If Tully rejected me, I could be her friend.

It might require some heart stomping, head smacking, and gut rearranging.

But I would do anything for her. I wanted to tell Tully exactly that, but how can you spill your soul without sounding like a complete lunatic?

Tully’s lower lip caught between her teeth, and she nodded slightly, as if comforting herself.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you’re being sincere,”she whispered. “There is something between us I can’t rationalize. But how we met was so unconventional and it’s hard to believe. My heart, my body, they want to trust you. But…” her nostrils flared, and her eyebrows rose.

But I’d already lied to her.

My stomach dropped, but I added my other hand to our joined ones and squeezed tight, hoping it was an anchor.

There was no point denying it, any Designated with a nose could scent my deception.

My heart knew the tenuous link between us wouldn’t survive if I didn’t practice radical honesty.

I sucked in a rattling breath. Now it was my turn for my scent to turn sharp.

“Yes, I’m not an alpha.” I shifted uncomfortably under her shuttered gaze.

“You’re also part of Baylark Pack.” She added it like an insult.

She tried to tug her hands free, and I rushed to explain.

“I’m a beta.” I closed my eyes to avoid her judgment.

“There is so much going on in my life that I don’t know how to even explain.

I’m the only beta in a pack of three alphas and it’s hard not to feel invisible.

The history of the Baylark name surprised me.

I didn’t realize it would mean being scrutinized all the time, and it made me insecure.

When I made my profile, it was a stupid decision I regret.

I’m sorry for lying. I’ll promise right now, I won’t ever lie to you again. ”

The seat shifted as a soft warmth curled into my side. My eyes flew open in surprise, looking down at Tully, slack-jawed. She offered me a lopsided, tired smile.

“Fenella returned home from a date after borrowing my jacket. She threw it in my face. Grape bubblegum, hazelnut. They’re the scents of your packmates, right?

I couldn’t stop smelling it. Couldn’t stop from touching myself.

I was so wound up when I called you. I didn’t know the sunscreen and sea salt scent were you, but somehow, you came to my mind.

I was prepared to never speak to you again.

But now you’re here. I might be cynical, but if the gods want me by your side, I’m going to listen. ”

“Tully.” My lungs stung as I sucked in a breath.

“For now,” she added, a warning.

Her hushed admission sharpened my pleasure. My perspective of that incredible night changed and my whole body flushed with heat. She’d been thinking of me? Of my pack? I didn’t deserve such blessings, but I would take them.

I reached into the front and grabbed her bullet journal, careful to keep her close.

“I collected this when you ran. Talk to me, are you in trouble?”

It was obvious she was, but I wanted to know what had driven her to lug what appeared to be her entire life out into the brisk winter. Tully clasped it to her chest with a wet sob and sank into me again, her fingers seeking mine.

“My roommate kicked me out.”

“Were you heading to a hotel? I don’t know any close to here safe for omegas.”

Tully shook her head, and I waited, hoping she might tell me the truth.

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. There were a thousand questions banked in the raw column.

Tully was safe with me. I would give her the space she needed to recharge.

I flicked a look at Walden and Ajax outside.

When they joined us, they might not be as understanding.

That was something I could give her as a beta, shelter from overbearing alphas.

“My pack… they are…” I started, but she shushed me.

I trailed off, half-drunk on the delicious scent that wound around me.

Her eyelashes fluttered to her cheek and her weight folded against me.

I wanted to warn her we were dysfunctional and the dynamics between us weren’t as pretty as the Baylark name suggested.

I gave our entwined hands a little squeeze.

It would keep.

Right now, Tully needed a safe place to sleep, and we could certainly offer her that.

“You’ll take care of me, won’t you?” she murmured, and I sagged against the seat.

She might insist on being cynical, but she put her trust in me so easily, even after lying about my Designation. I would guard that trust with everything I had and never give her another reason to doubt me.

“Always, honey girl. I’m your man.”

Her soft, warm laugh dripped through my skin and replaced my blood.