I couldn’t help but feed her most nights and make sure that she had everything she needed in the tiny little room across from me that they had given her. She reminded me of myself when I was little and, even though I could be a real bitch sometimes, I couldn’t be a bitch to little kids. I just didn’t have it in me.
“Tibby!” Her smile was bright as she hurried up to me, her eyes focused on me as she held her arms out. Her little feet came to an abrupt stop when she realized who was standing behind me, and her blue eyes widened with fear as she stood a few feet away from me.
She looked unsure of what to do next so I closed the space between us and knelt down in front of her, “It’s okay Cherry, these are my friends. They’re coming to help me get some of my things so that I can stay with them for a bit.”
“You’re leaving?” Cue the wobbly voice and tears. Shit.
“Just for a bit. I’ll be back soon—you have my cell number right?”
She nodded with a sniffle.
“Good, then you can call me or text me whenever you need anything. Make sure you go downstairs every day to eat since I won’t be here, okay?”
She nodded again and her lips puckered as she held in the tears that she undoubtedly wanted to shed.
“Okay, good girl,” I pulled her in for a tight hug, inhaling her clean lemon scent and squeezing her tightly to me. I felt guilty for leaving her, but she was infinitely safer without me around.
The little girl whispered in my ear: “Tibby, I like the smell of these alphas better than the one who was in your room earlier.”
All of the blood in my face drained at her words.
“Earlier?” I was almost afraid to ask the question, but I needed to know.
“Uh-huh, there was an alpha in a hood coming out of your room. I watched him through the peephole on my door.”
Suddenly, Theo was standing next to me. He held his hand out to me and growled, “Key.”
I didn’t protest and dug through my purse, finding the keycard and handing it to him wordlessly. He stomped past us and to the door and slid the keycard into the slot, throwing open the door. He took one look inside and let out a belt of curses that would make a sailor blush.
I gently pushed the little girl towards the elevator, “Cherry, why don’t you run off to class.”
“Those are very bad words.” She said as her feet obediently carried her to the elevator.
“Yes those are very bad words, don’t repeat any of those okay?” Aria called as the doors closed behind the little girl.
Standing up, I hurried over to the door. I was torn between letting the alphas and Cobb deal with the nightmare that was sure to be inside. But my stubborn nature needed to see whatever had made Theo curse like that.
Looking inside, I immediately wished that I wasn’t so stubborn.
“What the fuck?” My voice echoed down the hallway as I confronted the mess that was inside.
––––––––
––––––––
––––––––
The room had been ransacked. It was completely and utterly destroyed. The couch, which had probably looked like any dorm apartment couch (pleather and gray), had been disemboweled. Its white stuffing vomited out of the shredded couch cushions and was spread across the living area of the apartment. Drawers had been pulled out in the kitchen, their contents dumped onto the floor. On the floor of the kitchen was a mint green stand mixer that had been cracked open, the wires inside were pulled out and completely sliced through.
But despite the obvious damage everywhere, the worst part of all of this was the pictures of Tibby that were plastered all over the walls and counters of the apartment. They were varying sizes, Tibby in ballet class, Tibby sitting in the coffee shop downstairs, Tibby out to eat with Pack Russo at a fancy restaurant. They were everywhere and I could feel my instincts telling me that I needed to take Tibby and get her the hell out of this place, that it wasn’t safe for her to be here.
I turned to tell her as much, but, as I was quickly learning, Tibby had very different priorities from most omegas that I knew.
“Nooooo!” A scream ripped out of her throat, making us all jump into action to comfort her. But, instead of looking at all of the creepy-ass photos plastered everywhere, she was cradling the mangled mixer in her arms as big fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
“They killed Kenny!” She cried.
“What?” That was from Cobb, who looked as surprised as everyone else in the room as we watched her try to put the wires back into the mixer.
