“Skye?” Atlas calls as he jogs through the thick trunks towards us. My eyes dart downwards to see his… Thick trunk also. What thefuck.But he doesn’t even blink as he turns back to the heavy tree line and gives me a flash of the back tattoo spread across his broadness, “Fury, Luc has her, it’s good.”
“Hurry up and take her,” Lucas calls, repositioning himself to my side so he isn’t straddling me anymore, and the long dark lines of him glow in the moonlight like some fallen fae warrior. My heat rears its head a little, but I push it back down again. They’re very pretty men, and that's all I can let myself believe. I can’t let myself get attached to any part of them.
Staring out towards the trees, my whole body quivers, exploding with heat as my Cardinal appears.
If Lucas is a warrior, then Fury is agod.
His tanned skin glitters, black tattoos marking nearly every inch of his bare abdomen and waist, warping him against the dappled light. There’s a dark band of ink around his waist, and it looks like he has…Is that a corset tattooed around his waist?It brackets his slender hips well, but once more I’m drawn down to where silver glimmers. Eyebrows shooting through my hairline, I look up.
“Do all of you get off chasing women through the woods?” I snap, though the anger is offset by the fact that I can't stop staring at their cocks.
Fury gives me an odd look as he drops to a crouch next to me, reaching out with one large hand to cradle my chin. Tilting my head from side to side, he looks me over with pursed lips. “It happens to shifters when they change back. Ignore it. You didn’t grow up with a pack, did you? It’s one of the first things you learn.” Running his palm the width of my back, he scowls at the wounds from Lucas’ claws as well as the bruising from my beatings over the last week. “Did you have to be so rough with her? It’s her first day here.”
The man behind me shrugs, “She’s lucky I didn’t kill her.”
Growling at his pack mate, Fury tugs me up to my feet. With my hand gripped in his like I might blow away at any moment, he pulls me back down the path towards the house. Nodding at Atlas, the other man shifts smoothly, padding towards me.His wolf is nothing like what I imagined, almost mimicking my own. I imagined a big golden wolf for him, nothing like the big gray animal with the black chin and belly, spattering of silvers and whites across the top like he’s been frosted. He’s absolutely beautiful with those big, steely eyes peering at me. Without a thought, I reach out to him, fingers brushing through the fur of his head and ruffling his ears. His fur is much coarser than I expected. I’ve never felt my own, so I’m not sure what I'm expecting, but the thick and almost wiry hairs aren’t it.
Lucas is gone when I turn back around, and Fury shakes his head before walking me through the trees again. Atlas lopes around us, stopping to circle every once in a while or to look behind him, and I take in the scenery of my new home.Home.Can I call it that? Can I really stay and build something for myself?No… As soon as they get me home, I’ll be punished for my escape, and I’ll be reminded exactly why I can’t stay here.
As if he can read my mind, Fury tightens his grip on me, clutching me to his warm side, “Now, little Omega, let's talk.” His voice is a purr, smooth and sinful as we make our way back to the house.
Lucas
I don’t know who this Omega thinks she is, being barely in the house before she's escaping already. She is distracting… and calls to the part of me that knows we are scent-matched mates, but the thoughts of my previous Omegas haunt my waking moments, and I cannot afford to let down another. Skye is — Interesting. I think that’s the best way to describe her. Without a doubt, I knew she would run. She has this nervous, flighty aura of panic closer to a rabbit than a wolf, and it pulls the hunter out of me. Lazing in the branches as I had been, I had heard the calls through the night, my canine pack mates calling out the hunt. Given the silence of the night, I could hear her tearing up the ground as she ran, though it was a much more substantial effort not to grind my jaws straight through her vertebrae when I landed. My cat is well-evolved to hunting that way, and my anger at having an Omega tossed in my way has smudged my usually perfect control, if just for a moment.
Creaking hinges of the lounge door break my thoughts as the little Omega is pushed through and directed to the sofa. Fury is nice enough to throw a blanket down over the leather so her bare ass doesn’t stick to it, though it would have simply been more gentlemanly to let her dress first. Shifters of any kind should be well used to nudity, especially wolves, given their pack requirements. I’ve been home a while by the time their humanlegs carry them through the door, with a pair of sweats and a black shirt on before they arrive. Despite my dislike of having her here—or perhaps because of it—I don’t want her staring at my nudity. It has already become intimately acquainted with her ass, much to her dislike.
Huffing as she hits the cushions, she pulls the blanket tight and snuggles into it, everything an Omega should be doing when they’re uncomfortable, and the provider in me is aching to give her more, to carry the whole haul of blankets down from our rooms upstairs, knowing that it would comfort her far more to nest whilst we speak. Fury settles next to her, splaying himself out in a way that bares him completely, and I see her eyes flicker fearfully to his piercings, the balls of the thick barbells glimmering in the firelight from the hearth. She looks away, then back, then away, her mouth opening and shutting like a gaping fish, with an expression lodged somewhere between horror and awe. Presumably, she has never seen such things before, although you would figure she’d have enough manners not to stare at our resident pincushion. Clearing my throat, she meets my eyes, then darts away quickly with a furious sheen of red overtaking her cheeks.Cute.
Atlas and Clay stroll through the door after, chatting animatedly, the big wolf as naked as a baby as well, whilst Clay carries through some sort of food tray and sets it on the mahogany table. Theo follows, and I jump to grab the jugs of lemonade he carries whilst he hobbles to the armchair, waving me off dismissively.
“There’s some more in the kitchen, grab those, will you?” I’m out the door before he finishes, collecting plates—sixof them—and bringing more trays of food through. Theodore has outdone himself again, and I hadn’t even realized there had been food in the crock-pots slow cooking all day before we left for the auction. Well-prepared seems like an understatement for describing ourBeta, and I’m always appreciative of his ability to wrangle us and keep us well kept and fed.
Fury takes over once the food is all out, packing plates as the others chat and handing some cutlery to the Omega, who frowns. “Where’s mine?” Her voice is soft and husky, almost a whisper, and my temper rises to greet her instantly.
“Not good enough for you,princesa?” I snap, scooping some lasagna onto my plate with a slice of garlic bread. I’m ashamed at my outburst, my Alpha berates me for how I’m speaking to her, but I can’t seem to help it, “Sorry, we don’t serve it on silver—“
“Enough,” Fury’s bark stops me in my tracks, forcing me to silence despite how much my Alpha rises in return. It’s the second time today he’s had to use it… And once more, the guilt eats at me. I am hurting my pack, but I’m doing it to protect them from hurting even more later.
“No… I…” Skye is even quieter now, and the shocking distress that bites at me is no surprise. Clay scoops some different food onto the plate for Theo, carefully avoiding looking between us and letting Theo lean on his shoulder as they eat. “Can I put some clothes on? Can you, please?”
Snorting loudly, Fury pulls one of the soft pillows across his lap, resting the hot plate on the top. Atlas doesn’t even budge, his fluffy mohawk tipping as he tilts his head in question like a giant puppy.
“We’re shifters, Firecracker. Nudity comes with that.” Our Cardinal rolls his head to his shoulder, keeping her gaze as if to reassure her. Not that he can see much with the blanket over her, “Is there a reason you’re so against seeing your mates naked? And what’s wrong with the food?”
“Uhhh… Nothing. There’s nothing wrong with the food, just—“
“Just?” I interrupt, earning another withering look from Fury. At this rate, I will lose my shifting privileges.
“Start from the top, were you not raised in a pack?”
“No,” She shakes her head, eyes turning distant and misty, “I told you guys at the auction that I was sold there by my dad?” A few of us nod. “My grandma was the last wolf in my family, my mom’s mom. She died when I was young, before I shifted for the first time. I always remember she had this big pack, and she used to show me pictures of her and all four of my grandaddies. I used to go to her house during the week when mom and dad were working, this big old ranch house with land, sort of like here, I guess, and she had this big tractor tire tied up to a tree to make it a swing…” Her eyes are more than misty now, tears shining along her lashes, and her lips turned up in a nervous smile. Then it all implodes at once, her shoulders drop, and the smile vanishes as her eyes flutter shut, “Dad’s an Alpha, mom was an Omega. He refuses to buy into the whole pack thing, thinks it is a joke, and that‘no Alpha wants to share their Omega really.’”Her voice deepens, and her chest pushes out as she obviously imitates the man, “Omegas need to know what’s good for them, and that is one Alpha who knows what they need.”
We’re all silenced.Muted.Atlas’ jaw hangs open, his fork clattering to the plate with a mumbled curse. He and I grew up in big packs, the rest with various configurations of family; it’s almost unheard of to be raised by a single Alpha/Omega pair unless there’s been losses in the pack already.
“So hi, I’m Skye, I’m a wolf who has no idea what that means except for inappropriate howling, extreme heats, and I would really rather not stick around to be used, so if I could leave, that would be great!”
I don’t think she could have shocked us anymore had she pulled out a lute and played the chicken dance naked.
