Page 82 of Follow Your Instincts

“Did you see him?” She asked immediately.

“Phillips? No. It was that Sergeant Broad asshole. Harcourt called me into her office, and he was there. Told her you’d been called in to testify in Phillips’ hearing. She called me in since she knows you’re staying with us,” he said. “He fucking… sniffed me on the way out to the bullpen. Said some bullshit about ‘hoping my Alphas were keeping you happy.’”

Soren met my eyes, and I read his uneasiness there.

“I fucking hate that creep,” Maggie said. She had crossed her arms tightly, and I could see her fists clenching.

“This is exactly why you shouldn’t go to this hearing,” I said. “Not only are you approaching your first heat, you’ll have to bein a room with Phillips and another man that clearly doesn’t respect you, either.”

“She has to go, Lach,” Soren said. “They’ll drop the case without her testimony.”

I exhaled sharply. Soren drew Maggie into his arms. She didn’t relax right away, but I watched our Beta stroke her back until she slowly wrapped her arms around him. “You’ve got this, baby girl,” he said into her hair. “And we’ll be there for you every step of the way, right?” He glared at me over her head.

“Of course,” I said. “And it’s not that I don’t think you’re capable, I just hate the idea of you being exposed to danger of any kind.”

Maggie peeked out at me from Soren’s arms. “I just want him not to be able to hurt people. If he’s a cop, he’s got a way bigger chance of hurting someone the way he hurt me.”

I nodded. “And that’s why you’re a much better person than I. Of course, we’ll be there to support you.”

Ben had come into the kitchen. He was watching me with a strange look on his face, something that might have been pride. I caught his eye, and our moment earlier flashed in my mind. I flushed bright red and turned back to Maggie to try and hide it.

“What about Greta? Have you found a way to connect her and that Alpha, Paul, to Todd?” Maggie asked. “Especially since we’ll hopefully be getting his ass fired in two days, I’d love to also get him arrested.”

“No luck,” Soren said. “They’re not registered as a pack. Which isn’t illegal if you’re a club owner, but is very illegal if you’re a cop. So if we can prove Phillips is involved with this pack, and get Greta to connect them to the robbery…”

Maggie hummed in frustration. “That’s relying a lot on the testimony of a terrified woman.” She turned and pointed at me. “I am NOT a terrified woman, so don’t even start with me,” she said.

I raised my hands in surrender. “I wasn’t going to say a word.”

“If I can link Paul Henchcliffe and Todd Phillips, it’s a start. Or Greta’s dirtbag cousin, Stephen, and either of them. He’s gotta be involved somehow,” Soren said.

“In other news, I followed up with the NON IT security team,” I said. “There’s been no detectable breach, so the information about Maggie being at that Omega Center had to have been shared by an individual.”

“Fucking great,” Maggie said. “I bet it was Jess, then. Can we look for a connection between her and Todd?”

“Of course,” Soren said, nodding.

“Maybe I should go talk to her, try and get her to admit to something,” Maggie said.

“Absolutely not,” Lucas said, surprising everyone. “Sorry, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to go back there, where Todd’s already hurt you, especially when he’s being backed into a corner by this hearing.”

The worst thing you could do with a feral Alpha is back them into a corner. I nodded approvingly at Lucas.

After a moment, Ben cleared his throat. “So, as much fun as all this detective stuff is… what are we going to do to celebrate Maggie’s recovery?”

“I’m making a stir fry,” Lucas said. “But I don’t think that exactly counts as a celebration.”

Maggie pulled out of Soren’s arms and snuggled up to Lucas. “I think that sounds delicious.”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it, he’s a hunky chef,” Ben said impatiently. “Can we, like, go somewhere after dinner? Go do the dancing equivalent of a light jog?”

“What would you like to do, baby girl?” Soren asked.

Maggie’s face fell slightly. “If it’s okay, I’d like to save the celebration until after this hearing. Hopefully it’ll be in honor of my healing ribsandthat asshole being fired.”

“Of course,” I said and held out my arms to her. She looked surprised for a moment, then came into my embrace. “How about dinner and a movie?”

Maggie’s head was resting in my lap after dinner. We’d put on a fantasy film everyone had seen a thousand times and she was nodding off within the first twenty minutes. I’d bundled her up in a blanket and was playing with her auburn ringlets, winding them around my fingers.

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