I watched as the betas and Zarbius descended into loud obnoxious behavior. Which shouldn’t have been possible, since alcohol didn’t affect shifters ordinarily. But I’d noticed early on in the evening that the ‘beer’ did seem to be having an effect on them, which was why I was taking it slow.
Zarbius noticed me frowning at the betas, chucked his head towards the half-full bottle clutched in his hand.
“Home brew,” he said, confidentially, bringing his head uncomfortably close to mine, the stench of rotten teeth and alcohol making my nose prickle. “Special ingredients,” he added, giving me a conspiratorial wink.
I nodded and smiled back at him. “Powerful stuff.”
“Sure is,” he guffawed, lifting his bottle to his lips. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and a stream of liquid cascaded from his lips. “Fucker,” he glared at the offending bottle.
Finally, Zarbius lurched up from the table.
“C’mon,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Let’s go get ourselves some omega ass.”
Swallowing the bile that rose in my throat at his disgusting comment, I rose to accompany him. Zarbius swayed on his feet as he turned and pointed at the betas. “Boys, give us ten minutes, then you can take your pick.”
I looked over the group. They disgusted me, but if I was honest, I didn’t think the omegas had anything much to worry about this evening. They’d had much too much of their spruced-up beer to be able to get it up tonight.
Zarbius was a different matter. He’d drunk as much as the others but with his alpha constitution he was handling it a lot better. As soon as we got outside in the fresh air, he shook off his dazed look.
“Right,” his chest expanded and his gaze sharpened as his head came up. “Let’s go get some ass.”
He strode off towards the omega-house, not waiting to see if I followed or not, and I hurried to catch up. As we approached the omega’s building, the chatter of soft voices drifted gently through the night. A warm yellow light fell from the window half-covered by a tattered gauze curtain. Zarbius walked right in without knocking. A hush fell across the room. The omegas froze in a range of positions, as though suddenly turned to stone. Eight of them were gathered around a board game on the floor,one of them with their hand motionless above a plastic token, four huddled in a corner, three others were on the lounge, phones still in their hands, and one was sitting at the table with a book. Sixteen pairs of soft brown eyes watched us with expressions varying from fearful to resigned.
Nobody moved.
Zarbius pointed to me and growled, “This is Agelius. He’s my new second-in-command. Be respectful!” he glowered at the silent omegas. Eyes shifted to me, then back to him again. A few heads dropped, shoulders shrunk in on themselves. I heard someone swallow hard.
Zarbius surveyed them, then strode forward pointing at a female omega who was sitting next to the board game, eyes wide, trembling softly,
“You!” he said, indicating she should go outside and wait for him. She got up and shuffled out, sending a tearful glance to her companions.
Zarbius waved his arm over the remaining assembled omegas.
“Take your pick,” he said magnanimously, as if he owned them all.
I looked them over. None of them would do, not at all. And yet… I could scent the familiar notes of orange and smokey butterscotch somewhere… just maybe not in this room.
“How many omegas did you say you have?” I asked the Alpha.
“About twenty, give or take,” he said.
“Well, if I’m going to choose one that I’m going to stick with, I want to have a look at them all first. There’s only fifteen here, sixteen counting the one outside.”
Zarbius shrugged and I had the impression the omegas were all the same to him. “Whatever. The others will be around the house somewhere. Try two or three if you like.”
“Mmm, I might do that,” I replied, noncommittally. There was an uneasy shuffling around the room.
“Well, I’m outta here. You don’t need me to help you decide. When you’ve got one you’ve settled on, tell me who and I’ll tell the rest of the pack they’re off limits. Or you can try one every night until you find one you like.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t quite fathom it. “I like variety myself.”
Zarbius strode out of the house, leaving me there with a lot of anxious-looking omegas.
I didn’t say anything to reassure them, though I would have liked to. But with shifters’ exceptional hearing, I couldn’t risk Zarbius overhearing anything that might incriminate me.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
There was more shuffling, and averted eyes, but nobody answered. I dropped my voice to my growly alpha tone and pointed at one of them.
“Show me where they are!” I demanded.
