Page 34 of The Knotty Omega

“Shit,” I mutter, stepping in front of her. “Let me take a look around first, sweetheart. Whoever did this could still be here.” Her hands fist the back of my shirt for a moment before she lets go and nods.

“Okay,” she says so quietly I almost don’t hear her.

Stepping inside the apartment, I immediately pull out my phone and call Titus. “Simon. Did she get dropped off okay?"

“I’m still here,” my throat is dry as I swallow, “we have a problem. Someone broke in while she was gone. The place is trashed.”

“Fuck! Oliver, turn this car around! Drop me a pin, Simon. We’ll be there soon.” I do as he asks, sending him a pin to our location and the apartment number on Cady’s door.

Someone has ripped apart her couch cushions, knocked all her books from her shelves and tore the pages out of them. Her TV is smashed, her coffee table is turned over, and a gaming console lays in pieces on the floor.

“Oh my god,” Cady’s voice chokes out behind me, and I whirl to see her eyes flood with tears as she takes in the wreckage of her home.

“Sweetheart, I told you to stay outside,” I say into her hair after putting my arms around her in a protective embrace. Her vanilla and orange blossom scent is sour, causing a purr to rumble out of my chest. “Shhh, it’s okay sweetheart,” I murmur as she sobs into my shirt. “Titus will figure out who did this.”

“This is my whole life,” she cries, her hands fisting in my shirt. “It’s all I have, and someone ruined it!”

Footsteps sound in the doorway and I look up to see the rest of my pack standing in the doorway with wide eyes.

“Oh, fuck,” Ollie mutters, his eyes jumping from the ruined TV to the torn up couch.

“Maledizione!” Mattie spits when he looks over everyone’s heads. “Titus, what do we do?” Titus is marching through the apartment, assessing the damage and looking in all of the rooms.

“We haven’t made it further than this room, I have no idea what the damage is in the rest of the place.” I tell them, looking down at Cady who is still clinging to me.

“Have you called the police yet?” He asks, turning towards Cady and me.

“No,” I shake my head while Cady sniffles.

He quickly takes out his phone and calls 911 to report a break in. While we wait for the police to arrive, we walk Cady through the rest of the apartment. “Do you notice anything missing?” Archie asks as she goes through her bedroom. Not her nest. We were swiftly corrected when we called it that. The bastards who broke in completely destroyed this place as well, ripping open her mattress with a kitchen knife they left on the floor and destroying her clothes as well. It’s obvious this wasn’t some kind of robbery. Whoever broke in reallyhatesCady.

Two police officers show up, and one starts asking Cady routine questions while the other one takes pictures of the wreckage. “Uhhh, guys?” Ollie’s voice sounds from the other room. “You might want to come see this.”

Cady races out of the room before anyone can stop her, and we find her in the bathroom, staring at her mirror.

“Pack wrecking bitch” has been written on her mirror in what looks like lipstick.

“Ma’am?” The police officer, who had just been questioning her, a beta, speaks up from the entryway of the bathroom. We’re all stuffed in here, seeing as the bathroom isn’t very large, but none of us want to be too far from Cady. The officers eyes widen as he takes in the message on the mirror. “Have you…um…is it possible that this is another…woman? Getting…revenge?”

Titus growls at the insinuation, and Cady reaches to put a hand on his chest. “No,” she shakes her head. “I just met this pack today, and they’re my scent match. There’s no other woman, right guys?”

We all shake our heads vehemently, and the thought of being with someone who’s not Cady makes me sick.

“Do you have any idea as to what this message could be about then?” He asks, poising his pen to take notes on the pad he’s holding.

“My job…” she trails off, biting her lip. “I’m the author of the Knotty Omega advice column.”

“Oh!” The beta’s eyes light up. “My wife loves that column!”

“I’m glad.” she gives a small smile, her eyes still red from crying earlier. “Nobody is supposed to know who I am, but the only thing I can think of is someone found out after their omega left them and they’re taking it out on me.”

“Or it’s that pack from last night!” Titus growls.

Cady shakes her head. “No. They didn’t even know my name. There’s no way they found out who I am, and where I live.”

“What’s this packs name? Just to be sure.” The police officer asks, tapping his pen against the notepad.

“I don’t know,” Cady shakes her head. “I met them through the OMS.”

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