Misinterpreting my frown, Jules rushed on to reassure me.
“Really, Chuck,” he said quickly, “you‘ve done much more than I had any right to ask for. Please don’t put yourself out, okay? I don’t want to be a burden.”
A burden? I managed to wipe the frown off my face, but the acid ball in my gut doubled in size. Granted, I would never want any of the Omegas under my care to feel like aburden,but Jules wasn’t under my care. Not legally, anyway. And I was damned sure that what I wanted Jules to feel was cared for and appreciated.
Loved.
And mine.
Well, crap. Had I really gone and fallen for him after years of convincing myself that I was just fine on my own?
“Chuck?” Jules sounded worried. “Areyouokay?”
Realizing I was standing and staring at him, I shook my head. “Yeah, sorry. I just got caught in my head for a minute.” Sitting on the bed beside him, I drew him close and held him. “You are absolutely not a burden. I want you to be comfortable here with me.”
Jules snuggled into me. “I am. Maybe I can use your laptop for a little Amazon binging later?” he suggested. “Then I can order some clothes and a few other things?”
“Absolutely,” I agreed immediately, forcing my internal crisis to the back of my mind for the moment. “What about your apartment? Do we need to arrange for the rent to be paid or anything?”
“Ug.” Jules pulled a face, making me laugh. “It’s on autopay through my bank but it’s not due for a couple of weeks.”
“You don’t like your place?” I asked, curious. “Or is it the thought of spending the money? We can help with expenses.”
“Not the money,” Jules sighed, dropping his head to my chest dramatically. “It’s a shithole, but it’s all Julie and I were able to find when we were looking.” He snorted. “Long boring story involving a crappy breakup left me desperately seeking housing, so I ended up with a roommate in a crappy furnished apartment.”
“When was that?”
Jules winced. “Five years ago.”
I felt my brow inching up. “Why haven’t you moved, then?”
Another dramatic sigh. “Because I couldn’t decide where to go,” he finally said. “I didn’t want to stay in Pennsylvania, but every time I tried to figure out where to go next, I found myself kind of blah about the options.”
“Texas is nice,” I said softly, brushing a kiss over his cheek. “You might like it here.”
Jules gave a sharp laugh. “Middle school music teachers just aren’t as in demand as you may have heard.”
“I don’t know about that,” I teased him, pressing another, longer kiss to his lips before pulling back. “I definitely want one.”
Jules laughed, shaking his head. “Maybe I need to look into local music teacher rescues,” he joked. “See if anyone is looking for a pet.” Standing up, he dropped the robe to the ground and left me staring appreciatively at his toned, naked form. “In the meantime, I think my more immediate crisis is my empty stomach.”
I leaned forward to kiss the soft flesh of his tummy and passed him the clothes I’d set on the bed. “You get dressed and then we’ll see what we can do about that.”
Julian
The Omega Destiny, International compound washuge.
I mean, Chuck had given me bits and pieces of information during our conversations while I was recovering, but nothing he had told me had prepared me for the sheer size of the campus. Chuck’s hand pressed lightly at the small of my back, guiding me through the labyrinth of interconnected halls until the gentle roar of dozens of active conversations began to fill the air around me.
“How many people are here?” I asked when Chuck came to a stop before a large set of double doors that were dulling the noise.
“Right now? I don’t know,” Chuck said with an amused chuckle. “We currently have forty-seven enrolled Omegas and a staff of nineteen full and part-time teachers and other caregivers plus their families. That said, we also allow our students’ family members to visit for meals and a few of our Omegas are actively being courted, so there may even be a few significant others here.”
He pulled the door open, apparently oblivious to the fact the entire room fell silent and nearly every eye was trained on us as he guided me through. “And I forgot the security force,” Chuck acknowledged. “So that’s another thirty members of the Böxenwolf Brigade. All in all, I’d say we are pretty close to a hundred beings, give or take.”
“Wow,” I murmured. “Why are they all staring at us?”
“Because we’re nosey,” announced a cheerful voice from a table we were passing by. “And we’ve all heard about you but almost no one has actually seen you!”
