“Did any of them tell you?” He whispers, buried against my hair as he turns us back for home, plodding along with Melody’s rolling walk. Shaking my head, I hold him tighter. I don’t want to shatter this moment, but I think… I think he needs to tell me this.
“Would you believe it was a total freak accident? I was taking Bella out,” Bella’s my favorite horse of his, she's got the most beautiful golden palomino coat and looks like a Barbie horse. “Repairing the fences out along the edge down near the Center. It’s so damn stupid, really. She tripped. Wasn’t watching her feet, and I was too busy trying to text the guys to let them know about a wolf I’d seen close to the activity center… Went ass over head and landed in the broken barbed wire fence. Got tangled up, and Bella spooked at it when I hauled myself up. Bolted and dragged me, still attached to the wire. The wire went taut, and I hit the dirt. Don’t remember much until I opened my eyes and Lucas was there, panicked, trying to put me back together.” His entire body shudders, but it feels like he’s let a weight go, lighteragainst me, before he continues, “Nearly died, I’d been out there a while, bleeding out. My leg was… When the tension caught in the wire, it practically sawed it off. I was out with one of those fancy smart watches with the GPS, but nobody thought to check it until Bell went crashing back into the barn back home. Now I’m a leg lighter.”
It's meant to be a joke, I think, but it falls flat. I haven’t seen the mass of scars on his leg yet, but he's rolling up the khaki pantshe’s wearing, passed all the fancy mechanical bits, up to where it cups the stump of his thigh, just above his knee. It’s… Difficult to look at. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, gulping as I twist to get a better look. Pink and angry, the scars look like slashes against the paler skin here, running up all the way to his hip, branching out. Gods, the terror he must have felt, the pain, even now. Cupping his jaw, I pull him to my mouth, the salt of both our tears shared between us as I pour all the promises in the world into this kiss, and purr some more.
Clay
My daddy was a grade-a asshole and thought crying was for‘sissies’as he’d said. Mama Moore was the opposite, and would tell me how manly it was to show my emotions and wear my heart on my sleeve. I know who I’m channeling as I watch the love of my life and my Omega sitting on the back of a horse and wandering off on the trails together. My eyes are stinging, my cheeks are soaked, and I honestly cannot fathom how, after a year of me beggin’ and pleadin’ and promisin’ that this woman has just got him straight back up there like nothing happened.Y’know what?I don’t give a flying pig's nipple. I just care that Teddy’s back in his happy place again. Taking my phone out, I zoom in enough to catch a photo of the two of them sharing a sweet kiss before sending it off in the pack group chat. There are heart emojis flying all over my screen in seconds, and a single reply from Atlas saying:
‘That’s our girl.’
My plan’s falling into place for this, and tomorrow, after she’s been woken up by one of us—girl can sleep for America, I’ve never met someone who naps so much—me and Atty are gonna take her nest shopping to work for a couple of hours, see if she wants to just have some easy fun… And I have some ropes with her name on them, too.
??
It’s early when my alarm rings through me, gritting my teeth as my hand slaps for my phone. Teddy cried himself to sleep last night about how much he doesn’t want her to go, and I think this is the fastest I’ve ever fallen for someone, except the man in front of me. It’s only been just over two weeks, and she’s wriggling her way into all of us with that sassy little mouth and her goddamn thoughtfulness, even though she still isn’t quite a hundred percent about us lot yet. The octopus next to me in bed detaches, and my jaw drops as I wonder what kinda pod person he’s been replaced with.
“You forgot how much trouble I have prying you off most days?” I joke, leaning in to kiss him awake. His unimpressed grumble makes me snort, but he’s not mad, not really.
“Yeah, yeah. I know you’ve got a date with Skye today, haven’t you? Go treat her good, do something exciting, then tell me all about it when you get back.”
“Yessir,” Saluting him, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, pull on some sweats and a shirt, and go find our girl, “Gonna treat her to some nest shopping before we go.”
At that, he sits up a little, eyes brightening, “I’ll get the other two, I’m not missing that for the entire world.”
Leaving him to go wake up Lucas early after being on night shift, I wander up to the Omega suite. The doors open, that's a surprise. Usually she’s in bed til ten, then comes downstairs looking like a feral fox until she’s had her morning coffee. Moaning sounds quietly from within the room, and I press my ear to the door to listen, trying to catch a glimpse through the crack. I want to see if our girl has been imagining us whilst she—Nope, there between her thighs is a fluffy pale mohawk. Atlas has gotten off to an early start, and just as I push the door open, she explodes. Tugging at his hair, she’s panting and staring at me wide-eyed like she’s been caught doing something she shouldn’t.I just cross my arms and lean back against the door frame, smirking.
“Good to see you putting our boy to good use,” I grin, eyes roaming over her sweat-sheened body. Atlas leans back leisurely, slick drunk as he licks his lips and hums.
“Just having some breakfast before I go down and make hers,” He says, sliding from the bed and fist-bumping me on the way by. I can smell her on him, like he’s been out on a binge all night. Jealousy burns in a hot wave through my blood, cock swelling as I look at our Omega, so damn pretty, all mussed from an orgasm and freshly awoken. She gives me the laziest smile.
“His mouth should come with a warning,” She blushes, falling back onto the sheets.
“Just you wait til the rest of us have had a taste of you.” Her eyes are magnetized to my tongue as it pokes out, licking along my lips, “Now go get showered and dressed like a good Omega, we have a busy day ahead.”
Ten minutes later, she’s down at the dining table, taking her place at the opposite side from Fury, who’s been roused early too, looking like he’s dragged himself through a hedge backwards. Lucas is prim and proper as always, scowling with dark circles, poor guy can’t have had more than a few hours, but at least he’s off tonight for his own date with our girl.
Atlas is at the cooker, stacking sausages, eggs, and bacon on plates and handing them out one at a time until we’re all eating, and I can see our girl vibrating with anticipation. She practically inhales her breakfast, then sits back, swinging her legs until Lucas breaks the silence.
“Any more heat spikes?” He asks, his serious voice killing the excitement a little.
“This morning, Atty dealt with it,”Again.I repeat in my head, narrowing my eyes at my packmate. In the two weeks since she had the big spike, she’s backed off, offering affection prettyfreely. Goddess knows I’ve had more cheek and forehead kisses than I’ve had in my life, and the occasional thieved kiss on the lips, but that’s been it. And then Atlas saunters into her room and just sets off another spike and gets to eat her out again. Bastard. I know he won’t rub it in our faces, but I wish he would, so I could plead the case of my jealousy.
“What’s the deal anyway today?” She asks, looking between us all, wiping the last bit of egg yolk from her plate, “I didn’t think you guys got much time off together.”
“We don’t,” Fury says between bites, “I’m working late shift today, got a couple of surgeries in tonight, Luc’s got the night cause he’s back on dayshift tomorrow… Yeah, so we’re gonna have a little pack bonding time before you have some two-on-one with Clay and Atlas.” Wiggling his eyebrows at her, she sighs. Our Cardinal has that effect on people.
Skye is quiet, though, her face downcast as her clean plate suddenly becomes very, very interesting.
“I keep wondering when it’s all going to come crashing down. When one of you is going to push me too far, or finally admit that it is a big joke all along, and that dude from TV will jump out of the bushes screaming that I’ve been punked or whatever that show was.”
Nobody speaks for a long time. Every second we don’t, she’s getting more worked up, wringing her hands, tapping her feet, and I think she’s about to explode when Teddy stands and holds out his hand, “Come on, sweetheart, let’s go.”
We pile into two cars, one with me and Atlas, since we’re going on a date with our girl after, and the others in Lucas’ SUV, figured it would be easier to get about if we didn’t have to drop everyone else off first. Atlas is fidgety on the way there, pressing the window switch, changing the air on his side, and flicking the heated seats on and off. It’s driving me fucking nuts, not to mention how he’s changing the settings that Teddy usually has.
“What’s wrong?” I finally ask after he reaches to turn on the radio and I smack his hand, “You know the rules.”
“Shotgun shuts his pie-hole,” He grumbles, then we both laugh, “Wonder if Skye’ll binge-watch it with us.”
