Page 40 of Feral Alphas

“Yeah. Okay.” I guess I’m lucky enough to have one scent I can relate to. I idly flip the next page and withdraw my hands, when a sudden whine rips through me and I press my face back to the glass. There on the page floats a scent that shocks straight through my brain and makes my mouth water. It’s like the spiced apple tea I tried yesterday at lunch time, but stronger, and super calming. The day’s fatigue drops away.

“Oh?” Leslie comes back from the door. “Did you find another?” She grins as she sees I’m already writing that number down. “Congratulations. How do you feel?”

I doodle on the side of my list. “Like I want to hold him and fall asleep like that.”

She nods and when I pass her the pen she jots down another code.

“What do those mean?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that until you’ve finished the test.”

I swig from my water bottle as I look back at the book. I’ve been here most of the day and my belly rumbles with hunger, but there’s only one third left. “Can I keep going?”

She laughs and lifts her eyes to the ceiling in an exasperated way. “You sure are keen, aren’t you? Let’s have something to eat and then we’ll come back. I don’t want you fainting along the way.”

That sounds like a good plan. The sooner I finish this, the sooner they’ll get Colt back here, and then I can ask him what happened to the feral alphas. And tell him about the other omegas. I’m not the only one who deserves a second chance at life.

And I can’t help wondering who the other scent belongs to, the one that smells like spiced apple.

Chapter sixteen

Colt

Someone whistles as I walk into the office, rubbing at my tired eyes. Suddenly everyone is calling out at once.

“Look, it’s the omega hero!”

“Finally popped that intervention card, hey, Colt?”

Another agent hoots, “Look who was balls deep while we cleaned up the criminals!”

Heat burns up my neck. Omega interventions are rare so I filled out the online report for it last night, but I didn’t think word would travel this fast. Their cheers also feel out of place when I consider all the shit that Rose has gone through. Still, I know they mean well.

I glare at Felina as I set the Americano I bought down on her desk and leave my hand on it. “If you tattled, I’m taking this back.”

She holds one arm up at right angles and slaps her chest with the other. “I swear I didn’t say a word. But half the force saw you carrying her out of the tunnels, and we all smelt her.”

One of the other agents pounds me on the back. “Relax, pal. Someone checked the permit updates and saw your submission. You handled it like a champ. Is the lady okay?”

I rest my hip against Felina’s desk. “I think so. They gave her a sedative after she calmed down.” I hate the idea of Rose wakingup without me to explain everything, but that’s the process for intervention officers. She’s out of my reach now, like the tiny wisp of steam vanishing in the air above my coffee cup. But she should be able to get on with healing.

Liam Andrews leans against the door near the photocopier. “Was she good?”

I point my rude finger at him around my coffee cup. “Talk like that again and I’ll submit a complaint about you next.”

He holds both hands up mock surrender, but his smirk stays the same. Arrogant prick.

Minstrom knocks on the whiteboard at the head of the room as he breezes in. “Great job everyone. We broke that ring in half. Two hundred and four arrests, dozens of saved alphas,” he pauses, “and one rescued omega.”

We clap and whistle, allowing ourselves a moment to appreciate the hard work paying off. Minstrom holds up one hand to quiet us, grinning. “And now starts the hard work of cataloguing and getting them all behind bars for a long, long time.”

We groan as he slams us with the reality of the huge post-bust clean up.

He waves for quiet. “We’ll do the official debrief at fifteen hundred, but I need two teams for special assignments. First is getting a statement from the abused omega.” He scans the room until he sees me, and a smile tilts his lips. “She’s been well taken care of, but we need her official statement.”

I stick my hand straight up. Any reason to go back and see Rose resonates with me.

Minstrom shakes his head. “Sorry, Colt, you’re a bit close to this case.” He nods his head as he takes in the other raised hands, and myheart falls as he selects Liam. I’d pick any alpha in this room over that smooth operator.

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