Page 61 of Shattered Trinket

My phone rings as I’m climbing out of the shower, and when I look, a smile pulls at my lips when I see it’s my girl calling. I quickly wrap a towel around my hips and answer before it can go to voicemail, not wanting to miss her call.

“This is a treat, Dove. You don’t usually call me first. Ready for me to come sneak back into your nest already?” I murmur into the speaker with a grin, memories of our night together flooding my mind.

“Well, nice to know you already know where we live, young man,” a woman says, the laughter in her voice clear.

I freeze when I hear the voice on the other line, not recognizing it but knowing it’s not Cozette’s. With a slight clearing of my throat, I take a seat on the edge of my bed, feeling the familiar tension in my neck and instinctively rubbing it. As soon as I realize who this must be, my eyes immediately close, overwhelmed by a surge of concern.

“What’s wrong? Where’s Cozette?”

“Calm down. She’s right here, but she can’t talk right now. Well, not coherently anyway. I’m calling because she asked.”

“Is she okay?” I whisper, my voice thick.

“She’s fine, but she needs you. She keeps asking for you,” Valley murmurs softly, and I can imagine her looking at my omega with a tender look on her face.

Without hesitation, I spring to my feet, urgency coursing through my veins. Hearing her say that my omega needs me lights a fire under my ass, the details of why unimportant. In a rush, I grab my sweatpants and a t-shirt and hurriedly put them on, letting Valley know that I’ll be there soon. Before I can hang up, her voice stops me, and her next words only serve to baffle me.

“Might be a good idea to bring some of your worn clothes if you have any… and any blankets and pillows that are on your bed,” she mutters, hanging up before I can respond.

Standing there, my brows shoot up in bewilderment. With a quick shake to clear my mind, I gather up some of my clothes from the last few days. Then I strip the sheets and comforter off my bed before locking everything up and throwing it all in my truck.

My palms sweat as I ring the doorbell of the Jacobs’ home, my arms loaded down with everything I brought with me. When the door swings open, a sprite of an omega answers the door with a small smile just as I hear another vehicle pull down the driveway. I want to turn around and see who just pulled up, but the woman in front of me speaks, grabbing my attention.

“You must be Jeremiah.”

I watch as her brows raise, and in that moment, an unsettling feeling of doubt washes over me, something I haven’t felt in years. Valley’s daughter looks a lot like her, and looking at her now has guilt swimming in my gut at what I almost did. Especially with how open and welcoming she’s been with Cozette.

“Yes ma’am,” I finally choke out, clearing my throat.

Her features soften almost immediately as she stares up at me. She surprises me when she reaches out and pats my arm, giving it a soft squeeze.

“I’m Valley. It’s nice to finally meet you. Come on, follow me. You too, Micah,” she calls out, craning her neck to look behind me as footsteps reach my ears.

As I turn around, my heart skips a beat and my body jolts with a sudden shock when I notice the man approaching from behind, his questioning eyes locked onto me. Not only am I puzzled, but my confusion intensifies as I realize that his arms are just as weighed down as mine, carrying identical items. I can’t help but give him a suspicious glare.

He looks away from me when he gets closer, smiling over at Valley once she’s in his line of sight.

“How is she?” he asks, and my shoulders tense.

“She’s… you know. Just come on. I don’t like that she’s up there alone right now and she’s been asking for you both.”

Valley turns around and heads back inside, leaving both me and the unfamiliar alpha to follow behind her. After a fewawkward seconds of us trying to figure out who should go first, he steps back and waves me to go ahead. Anxiously, I step in and follow behind Valley, fighting the urge driving me to rush past her and up to Cozette’s room so I can find out what the hell is going on.

When we make it upstairs to Cozy’s room, Valley knocks on the door before pushing it open and stepping back. Nothing could prepare me for what I walk into, and when I glance back at her with wide eyes, I notice she hasn’t followed us inside.

“Good luck, boys.”

She laughs, then shuts the door, and when I turn back around, all I see is a mass of wild red hair before my omega collides with my stomach, frantically clawing at the bags in my hands. My lips part as everything I’m holding falls to the floor, and she scrambles down there, grabbing everything up and bringing every item up to her nose before jumping up with her arms full and running into her closet. I watch, bewildered as she does this several times until she’s moved every item I brought with me into her nest, never once uttering a word to me. Although I do catch her mumbling to herself a few times.

When she comes back out and attacks the man at my side, making him chuckle as she rips the bags from his hands and dives in, I blink. She pulls item after item out of his bags, sniffing them wildly until she has an armful once more before disappearing back in the closet.

“What the fuck is happening?” I mutter out, more to myself than anything, not expecting a response.

“She’s nesting.”

I turn slowly to look at the alpha beside me, unsure of how to feel about him being in here with my girl. He smiles at me, holding his hand out, and I must stare at him like he’s got the plague because he quickly drops his hand and laughs awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Ah, I’m Micah. I take it you’re Jeremiah, the alpha that took care of her when she was with Victor.”

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