Page 25 of Shattered Trinket
“Wait! But how are you going to find him now? You do want to find him, right? You said he got away, but he probably doesn’t even know you’re safe now!”
Ripley pouts, genuinely upset that I might not find him, and I clear my throat awkwardly, shifting around on the bed as I bite my lip.
“Uh, well. He actually already found me,” I mutter, my cheeks flushing.
“Fucking excuse me? When? Where?How?!”
“I don’t know. He just… found me. Like a week after I got out of the hospital, he was… here. Outside. He hadn’t meant for me to see him, but I smelled him on the breeze. I… thought I was going crazy until he showed himself to me. I didn’t ask how, I was just glad he did,” I mumble, picking at my thumbnail.
“I… Shit. That’s kind of romantic, in a stalkerish way.”
She snorts when I hit her with the yeti, and I can’t help but grin at her when she falls back onto the bed, cackling. I lay down beside her, both of us looking up at the constellations River painted on the ceiling and getting lost in our thoughts. Which is when I remember her brother and Zeke, the entire reason for me calling her to begin with. How their scents made me feel after only getting the smallest hit of them both. The ease I’d felt in their presence. How my belly fluttered and my mouth had watered. The way my senses seemed to zero in and lock them down so I wouldn’t forget…
My eyes widen as I sit up so fast I give myself a head rush.
“Ripley… I think… I think your brother and his pack are also my scent matches,” I croak out, staring at the wall in a daze.
“Well, fuck me. This night just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn’t it?”
Nine
Cozette
I fidget in my seat across from Micah, checking the clock on the wall and noting our time is almost up. Our sessions seem to go by in a blink now that I’ve purged some of those earlier memories, and the more I get off my chest, the easier it gets. As usual, Micah let me start the session, always wanting me to decide what we discuss for the day. Today I told him a little more about my time with Victor, but mostly, I talked about my parents. I still haven’t found the nerve to get out what happened to them.
Their deaths still feel so… raw and surreal to me most days.
Just more that Victor stole from me for my disobedience.
They say forgiveness is good for the soul, but how do you forgive someone that’s taken so much from you? Physically and mentally?
He might be gone, but he stained my soul with his rot, infected my psyche with every touch given or word spoken, and poisoned my spirit with every violent punishment. I’m fighting every day to cleanse the contamination, to wash away the taint with every therapy session, but some days I can’t help but fear nothing I do will ever be enough to truly wash away the decay he left behind. I can’t imagine there ever being a day that I wake up and don’t hope Victor Travis’ soul is receiving all the treatment he gave to me and many others tenfold. That I don’t wish he’s suffering for eternity wherever his blackened spirit is now.
“How about we end today’s session on a good note? Don’t think I haven’t noticed the significant difference between the woman sitting across from me today and the one I met a few months ago. How have things been since moving in with the Jacobs?” Micah asks, pulling me from my dismal thoughts.
I can’t help the tentative smile I give him, not only for changing the subject to something much more palatable, but because I feel a semblance of peace and happiness when I think of my new family.
“It’s been great, honestly. Some days I struggle, but Ripley’s parents are wonderful. Patient. I’ve gained a new family in a way, and I’m grateful to them. Did I tell you Damien built me a nest? I’ve never had one before,” I confess, my voice almost a whisper when I admit that.
“Damien is one of Ripley’s dads?” I nod and he smiles, those dimples I find so alluring popping out. “That’s wonderful. Do you like it?”
“I do. I’ve been hiding in there when I feel too…exposed, I guess. It’s peaceful in there, feels more secure because it’s not as open. If that makes sense. I mean, it’s still empty, but Ripley and Valley are taking me to the nesting store today to pick out what I want so I can really make it my own. Is it weird that I’m excited about pillows and blankets and… whatever else goes in a nest?” I ask, cheeks heating as I huff out a laugh under my breath.
“Not at all. I haven’t met an omega yet that isn’t obsessed with pillows and blankets,” he teases, that grin of his making my belly flutter. “I know to most betas—and even some alphas—a nest seems inconsequential. Most of what we’re taught about nests in school is tied in with heats, but that’s not even their main purpose. Your nest is your safe space, somewhere you can just be alone should you want to. Blankets, pillows, and even stuffed animals are comforting for omegas, and everyone is different as far as what they want in their nest. It makes sense that heats are generally ridden out in a nest because omegas crave security even more during that time, and what’s more secure than your nest? The space you perfected with everything that makes you comfortable, while knowing nobody will enter that space without your permission? I’m sure one day, when you’re ready, you’ll invite your own alphas into your nest.”
Talk about me one day inviting alphas into my nest does something funny to me when, instead of terrible thoughts, my mind immediately conjures an image of Jeremiah, Ridge, Zeke, and even… Micah in a fully done up nest of my creation.
My eyes widen and I cover my face in embarrassment when a hint of my perfume seeps out into the room, giving my thoughts away with the errant scent of sugary lemon. Micah clears his throat as I hear him shift in his seat, likely feeling uneasy with my sudden hormone surge that has no business here!
“Oh my gods,” I groan behind my hands, mortified.
Who perfumes during a therapy session?! No, scratch that! Who perfumes while imagining their therapist in theirnestduring a therapy session?!
Apparently, that would be me.
All of a sudden, after barely perfuming since Victor whisked me away to his house of horrors, I have alphas popping into my life and turning things upside down as the suppressed hormones rage inside of me as they try to battle their way out. It’s like my body and hormones have decided everything without letting my brain know until it’s too late, practically saying ‘these are ours, so now we do the things’. I’ve probably made Micah uncomfortable now, made things awkward. I’ll have to find a new therapist, or better yet, move far away to an isolated island as I relive this horrifying event for eternity…
“Cozy, uncover your face. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s natural and you, um, you know… it’s good. The thought of alphas in your nest at some point didn’t incite fear, so you should look at that as progress,” Micah says, his voice sounding slightly strained to my ears before he clears his throat again and coughs out a laugh, stopping my wayward thoughts in their tracks.