Page 13 of Wild Omegas (Wild Skies Ranch Omegaverse #1)

Josie

A rhythmic shaking wakes me. My dreams interpret it as an earthquake. I jolt up, sweating and shaking from the nightmare as I take in the living room. Everything is exactly how we left it when sleep finally took us all.

And it is all of us. My three alphas. My new pack.

The fire burnt out overnight but ambient heat remains, especially now with the sun rising for the day.

The shaking continues—no, vibrating. It’s a phone going off.

I look around trying to spot the offending device before it wakes my alphas only to discover it’s my phone that’s going off. Shit. I scramble toward it as quickly and gracefully as I can. Luke stirs first, then Brooks and Carson, but I manage to silence the call.

“Well hello,” Brooks comments.

I wonder what he means and then realize I’m now just standing above our nest completely naked. I’d probably toss him a warm smile if I wasn’t looking at a string of ten missed calls.

Ten missed calls. All three minutes apart.

My stomach lodges itself in my throat. An icy array of spiderwebs trail down my spine to my legs, freezing me in place. Damien. It has to be. But how in the hell did he find my brand-new phone number?

He has people everywhere.

Which means he might have people watching the ranch. It wouldn’t be that big a leap to think I’d come here if he found the ranch connection. I barely know this man and it seems like he’s everywhere all the time around me. Like he knows everything about me so intimately.

The fire catching his safe house was a complete accident. Damien has to know that. But he doesn’t care.

All he sees is an omega who burnt down his property right along with her own, and because of that, I should suffer.

Well, I am suffering. Because last night was probably the best night of my life—surely of the last several years—and now I wake up to this .

“Is everything okay?” Brooks asks.

I affix as genuine a smile as I can manage and look up to him. “Yes, just a friend back in the city dealing with something.” I start making my way toward the kitchen so I can keep freaking out in private. “I’m going to handle it really quick. You guys stay, please.”

I grab an errant blanket and wrap it quickly around myself before making a quick exit into the kitchen. It’s not until I’m at the far end, standing before a window over-looking Wild Skies Ranch, that I have the strength to look at the string of phone calls again.

Three minutes apart. Ten missed calls.

There’s no way that’s a telemarketer. But I still can’t figure out how the hell Damien already found my new phone number unless…

Unless what? He paid off the phone company? I even changed companies, though.

He is everywhere.

Everywhere the morning after we decided to become a pack. What do I even do now?

Brooks has law enforcement connections but I’m not sure if that’d help or not. But it might be a solution. It’d also mean letting them all in on the full extent of my past.

All of it. Even the darkest parts I speak about to no one.

Pressure builds in my chest and throat until I’m convinced something will explode. I can’t breathe. I know I can’t run forever, but I was really hoping to make it longer than a few months.

I need to move. Need to put this frenetic energy into something . So I do what I’ve always done: get lost in cooking and baking.

I set about making breakfast for us all. Muffins, eggs, bacon, and fruit. I have it nearly all set out before my pack is summoned by the aroma of bacon.

“That smells divine,” Carson comments as he sits at the table.

Luke fetches a pot of coffee for us all to share. “You didn’t have to make breakfast.”

I smile and give a little shrug. “I did, though. Cooking and baking, it’s my love language.”

Luke pours us each a cup of coffee that we then go about fixing up our individual plates. As the alphas dig in, my phone goes off again. Several staccato vibrations.

I glance quickly at the screen. Texts from an unknown number.

Pick up, Josie.

Josie, I know you’re there.

Pick up the phone little omega.

It is Damien.

My breath catches and I stare, mouth agape, because what the hell else am I supposed to do? The frenetic energy returns, focusing in my feet, telling me to run and hide.

But where is far enough? The West Coast? Another continent?

“Josie?” Luke asks.

I yank my gaze up to meet his, and a hard crease forms in his brow. “Everything’s fine.” But I say it far too quickly for anyone to believe.

For whatever reason, Luke lets it be.

We eat breakfast in easy conversation about what has to be done around the ranch today. Every now and then, the alphas look at me or my phone, but I keep my lips sealed.

They know I had to get a new number because I was being bothered, but not why.

They know I ran out to Wild Skies Ranch, but not why.

They know a lot of vague little details. But are they ready for the full dark story? Am I ready to tell it?

I catch Brooks’s gaze aimed at the coffee cup in my hands and the burn scars on those fingers. I let go of the mug and place my hand on my thighs under the table.

No. I’m not ready to tell these alphas I wanted off this mortal coil.

So I won’t. Not yet.

My phone vibrates again with a new message. You can’t run from me forever.

I power down the phone and toss it aside as I rise to clean up from breakfast. My pack refuses to let me clean the dishes alone, so I let them help. Which is just as well because my mind is a whir of thoughts and fear.

One day soon I need to tell Wild Skies Pack everything that’s happened. But not today.