Page 87 of Retribution

“Nope,” I grin. This feels so easy with him.

“Does the person running this auction have any kind of protection?” Lucas asks. “She must if no one has shut her down, right?”

“Rock Dresmond and his pack was her protector, but someone killed them. Ophelia no longer has anyone to keep her safe, since they were her rabid dogs,” I explain. “She used to give women and men to the pack while she was entertaining Rock to keep them busy. The screams were so loud, I could hear them no matter where I was.”

Shuddering, I force myself to take a breath.

“Ophelia has no issues throwing people in front of her to protect herself, and I doubt that she’s made it known that she’swithout a benefactor,” I say. “Ignorance is her bliss. It disgusts me the way she farms out omegas when she is one. She has her own little pharmacy of horrors.”

“She’s experimenting on her omegas?” Lucas asks, his brows knitting together.

“Oh yeah,” I say with a nod. “From pills to make men hard and feral, to injections for heats that also cause memory loss. It’s why it feels as if I blinked and years went by. There are bits and pieces, but it’s hard to pull it all together. My dreams are the closest I get, but they’re warped.”

“It’s very dangerous to experiment without safety protocols,” Lucas snarls angrily.

It used to feel as if they were mad at me when any of them were angry. After weeks together, I’m able to see that they aren’t. The heat of burned scents still isn’t appealing, but it does help to know that they’re upset with a situation and not me.

“No. I don’t know if there’s any lasting effect to anything Ophelia and her handlers have done to me,” I sigh, my fingers playing with Leila’s soft hair.

This is a much nicer grounding technique than my usual methods.

“Darlin’,” Lucas groans. “Now I want to have tests run to see. Not because you’re some type of experiment, but I’m worried now.”

“I’m not used to that yet.”

“Used to what?” he asks, twisting onto his side so he can gaze at me.

“Used to someone worrying about me. I don’t typically talk about myself at all if I’m being honest,” I shrug. “I do the job I’m hired to do and then go back to whatever place I’m using until I have to go to the next. Everything is transitional and transactional.”

“I bet that’s another reason you wanted a place of your own,” he surmises. At my widened eyes, he smiles. “Am I right?”

“I hadn’t really thought about that before, but you are. There’s not much that I need to do here since the landlord takes such great care of this house. I changed out some of his locks, though. They weren’t very sturdy,” I confess.

“You may want to check the trees around the area,” he says. “I think you may have picked up a stalker.”

“I should have hit Grant harder,” I complain as Lucas’ eyes sparkle with mischief.

“He’s going to kill me for telling his secrets,” Lucas says. “Ugh, or worse. He may make me spar with him.”

“You complain an awful lot for an alpha with such a gorgeous body,” I say.

“You like what you see?” he asks, taking my hand to run it down his hard muscles. He never put his sweatshirt back on, and I’m going to enjoy the view.

“You know I do,” I rasp. “It’s why I kept you naked so often at the warehouse.”

“I fucking knew it,” he says, grinning. “So, can I schedule an appointment with a doctor please?”

“I don’t like doctors,” I say, my nose wrinkling. My other hand curves over Leila’s back, ensuring that she’s not going to slide down my chest.

“Did you think you were going by yourself?” he asks. “Oh, darlin’. You’re going to have to beat your pack off with a fucking stick. They’ll all want to hold your hand or a baby.”

“Why do I keep forgetting about that?”

“Eh, it’s probably our fault,” he says, suspiciously serious. “We clearly haven’t shown you how much we love you. I’ll try harder since I’m a competitive fucker.”

My shoulders shake as I silently laugh, not wanting to scare the baby again.

“I honestly don’t know what to do with you all,” I say, my voice cracking.