TALIUS
I hated administrative tasks. As Pack Alpha they were my responsibility, but my subconscious habitually used any excuse to break away from them, so merely the soft rustle of clothing in the doorway was sufficient to snag my attention away from the documents on the desk in front of me. Johnson stood there, his hand raised ready to knock on the open door, which was now unnecessary.
“Come in,” I told him, with a huff of relief. “You’re just in time for coffee and something sweet.”
Johnson smiled and entered the room, seating himself in the chair across from me. He’d come to give me his weekly status report, but I had a suspicion that he timed his visits for morning tea (or morning coffee) time, in the hope that one of my mates had been baking again. It could have more accurately been called morning treat time.
Irian and Isca, my two omega mates, loved cooking and I was often spoiled with freshly baked cookies still warm from the oven, fresh muffins, and once I even had home-made meringues with a delicious gooey center. The two young men werefrequently to be found together in the kitchen, trying out new recipes and giggling as they stuck their fingers in the cooking bowls, and tasting the uncooked mix from each other’s fingers. Which sometimes led to them doing other not-food-hygiene-safe things in the kitchen. And yes, I did enjoy watching that too.
If the baking got done, one or both of them would deliver to my office a tray of whatever they’d produced along with some steaming hot coffee around mid-morning and mid-afternoon any day I was working in the office. Not that I expected them to. I wasn’t that sort of alpha. But they seemed to enjoy doing it and while the treats were always delicious, the eye-candy was even more so. Sometimes I got to taste both.
I figured I had to be the luckiest alpha around. The Goddess had blessed me with two gorgeous, sexy mates, who filled my days with baked treats, and my nights with other sorts of delights. They had voracious appetites and I worked hard to satisfy them. When I’d told them they didn’t have to cook for me all the time, Irian had smiled slyly and told me they had to make sure I kept my energy up. Then the pair of them had sniggered and run off together.
I shook my head fondly at the memory.
Johnson cleared his throat.
I blinked. Oh, right.
“Let’s start,” I told him, trying to get my thoughts back on track. “Isca will probably be here shortly with our drinks.”
“I saw him on the way in,” Johnson’s teeth were showing, his smile was so wide. “He was just pulling something out of the oven.”
The main house was open to the whole pack, provided they were respectful. Upstairs were the private quarters, where the bedrooms and ensuites were located, but anyone from the pack could enter downstairs if they had a mind to. Johnson would have walked past the kitchen on his way to my office, and Isca would have noted his arrival.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Isca sauntered cheekily into my office carrying a tray of steaming coffees and a plate loaded with pieces of slice, atop which a bunch of cookies wobbled precariously.
“Morning coffee,” he announced brightly, as he settled the tray on the corner of the desk.
“ ‘Morning Isca,” Johnson smiled at the young omega. Isca had joined our pack under terrible circumstances but had quickly found his place here. His gentle nature had greatly endeared him to the other pack members, especially Johnson who I suspected knew more than he let on about Isca’s history. He was so well loved, not one member of the pack had raised an objection when I’d formally mated him despite him already having an alpha mate. I’d had to involve a mage to make it possible, but we’d achieved it and now we were a fully bonded triad.
“Good morning, Johnson.” Isca smiled at the big beta. “I saw you come in so I’ve brought your usual drink, if that’s all right?”
“Perfect, thanks Isca,” Johnson replied. “Looks like you’ve been cooking up a storm in the kitchen again too.”
Isca smirked. “Hundreds-and-thousands cookies and caramel slice.”
I let out a little moan of anticipation - caramel slice was my favorite. The cookies weren’t far behind either.
“Sounds delicious,” commented Johnson, “looks like I timed my visit just right.” He let out a self-conscious chuckle.
“As always,” I mumbled, but I didn’t actually mind. Johnson was my second-in-command on the farm, but he was also my friend. We’d been around each other for years. In a way, he’d been instrumental in Irian and I getting together.
“Where’s Irian today? I didn’t see him when I came in,” asked Johnson.
“Oh, he’s in town doing the shopping,” replied Isca. “I didn’t go because I had some online training to do.”
It was unusual for the two omegas to be apart. It was four months after that dreadful night when Isca had been left for dead in the forest by his cruel mate. Hours later I’d found him, and together with Irian, and the help of a healer, we’d nursed him back to health. Since then, there had been no sighting of anyone from that pack. I was certain if his original mate, the Pack Alpha, had realized he was still alive and in the company of another alpha, that he would have certainly come to claim him. His pride would not have tolerated such a situation, even though he had demonstrated a callous disregard for the young omega. But there’d been no sign at all that the pack was anything but completely gone from the district. There was no way I would have let Zarbius have him back, however. If it ever became necessary, I would fight for Isca. He was mine now – or should I say, ours, since he and Irian also played – and I knew this was where he wanted to be.
We’d kept up patrols of our boundaries, and at first Isca hadn’t left the property for months. We had finally concluded that no-one was coming to challenge for him and that he was safe, and had relaxed a lot of our precautions. The patrols still occurred– that was just common sense – but Isca came and went freely now, although almost always accompanied by Irian. But that was by choice and their preference. We had a perfect triad, the omegas as much in love with each other as I was with them. With the forging of the magical mating bond, Isca had become mine as much as Irian was. My only regret was that I couldn’t eliminate the mating bond imposed on him by his previous alpha. Shifter claims were for life, and even the death of the alpha would not set an omega free, although it was possible for an alpha to renounce the mating. With a mating bond, there was also a high likelihood that the death of the alpha would also lead to the death of his mate. Since our situation was unprecedented, I didn’t know if this would apply to Isca, or if his bond with me would keep him alive if something were to happen to Zarbius.
I tried not to think about that. There was nothing I could do about it, there had been no way to eliminate his prior bond, and I just hoped the strength ofourbond would tether him to the earthly plane should anything befall Zarbius.
These days, Irian and Isca usually did the weekly shopping together. More often than not they would stop for a snack at the local bakery-café, and sometimes I would join them. It was a far cry now from the occasion when I met Isca for the very first time in that same café. That time, he had scarcely dared look at me and was too submissive to call me by my first name, although I had encouraged him to do so.
“Isca’s enrolled for distance education,” I told Johnson. “He’s studying for a degree in Water Management.”
“That should be useful, given the way the seasons have been changing,” observed Johnson, thoughtfully.
