Unfortunately, Barry was making that real fucking hard right now.
‘They don’t really want you here. You scare them. Even that pretty omega would turn away from you if she really knew all of the pain and suffering you’ve caused,’Barry whispered venomously.‘You’re better off just disappearing forever.’
I clenched my fists so hard that the handful of crackers in my palm became dust, much to the chagrin of the pigeons at my feet.
“Stop,” my words slipped through gritted teeth.
A soft feminine voice came from the door of the coop, making me jump. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
I whirled around to find Juneau standing just outside of the door looking apologetic. There was a worry in her cornflower blue eyes that I reminded myself would disappear if she really knew who I was.
Shehadsnuck up on me. A feat that not even the most stealthy of enemies had been able to do before. I told myself that I was just distracted as I hurried over to the door to open it.
“Why aren’t you inside?” My question came out gruffer than I’d intended it to be. I cursed myself inwardly as Juneau flinched away from me, suddenly looking unsure of herself.
Guilt soured in my gut. I was about to sigh and tell her to go back inside when she seemed to steel herself, her jaw setting stubbornly as she answered me. “I was wondering why you were avoiding me.”
I frowned. “I haven’t been avoiding you.”
Well, I hadn’t been avoiding herspecifically, but she didn’t need to know that.
I watched her expression shift to one of irritation and I was suddenly filled with the desire to push a little more to see what she really looked like when I pissed her off. I’d seen her glare at Rex when he was being an idiot, and heaven help me if that didn’t make my dick hard.
“You are. Every time I walk into a room with you in it you suddenly need to be somewhere else. Do I make you that uncomfortable?” I could hear a tinge of hurt in her voice.
Juneau didn’t make me uncomfortable, in fact it was the opposite. What had started with initial curiosity had twisted into a bit of an obsession on my part. Prior to the attack, I’d followed her around so that I could catalog every new bit of information that I could learn about the mysterious omega.
I’d even snuck into her room a couple of times and peeked into her cardboard nest to watch her sleep. Definitely not something I could share without getting an earful from Doc.
My obsession had only grown from there, but I couldn’t bring myself to stay close to her. So I’d taken to stealing items of her clothing. I had a t-shirt, two pairs of sweatpants, and a tank top squirreled away in my bedroom. Did stealing her clothing make me a fucking creep? Most definitely. But the few hours of sleep that I had gotten over the past few days had been thanks to the sugary lemon smell that still clung to the fabric.
I wished I could wrap one of the long golden curls of her hair around my cock and jerk myself off with the silken strands until I exploded into oblivion before pushing my knot so deep inside of her that I wasn’t sure where I ended and she began.
That visual would have to stay in my mind forever, though. I couldn’t do any of that. I couldn’t taint someone like her.
So I avoided her and the rest of my pack, hiding out with my pigeons and trying in vain not to think about the Titans circling us like we were fucking prey.
“I, ah…” I couldn’t seem to formulate my scattered thoughts, half-wishing she would just give up and walk away. “Do you want to help me feed the pigeons?” I finally asked, feeling like the biggest idiot.
Juneau seemed taken aback, the anger that had been stewing behind her eyes melting away as she blinked at me with confusion.
“I want an answer,” she said with only half of the hostility from before.
“Well, we can talk and feed pigeons at the same time,” I assured her, my spiraling thoughts finally seeming to quiet now that I had a task to complete. I stepped out of the way so that she could join me in the coop.
It was larger than most coops, but it was still a bit of a squeeze that brought Juneau right up underneath my chin. The lemon pound cake scent that I’d been huffing off of her clothing over the past few days had nothing on straight from the source.
I inhaled deeply, wanting to press my nose into the crown of her hair and seek out the spots of her skin where the smell was the most potent. I just barely kept myself from reaching out to touch her, and instead, pulled a bag of feed out from my other apron pocket.
“I already gave them their treats and rewatered them, but you can fill their food trays with about half of this and spread the rest on the ground,” I instructed, holding the bag out for her to take.
I watched her for a moment as she moved to do as I asked, the pigeons surrounding her like she was their new deity as she filled their feed bowls.
I only really needed to check the eggs and then I was done for the evening, but I found myself getting distracted by a mottled black and white pigeon that had taken up residence on the top of Juneau’s foot.
“You should give her a scratch behind her head. Hedy Lamar is basically a cat,” I told her as I moved to finish my own tasks.
Juneau leaned down and gave the pigeon a few strokes and was rewarded with a coo from Hedy who, now that she’d gotten what she wanted, hopped off and proceeded to wiggle her way into the group of pigeons eating from the tray.
