I already addedshoppingandlisten to holiday songsto my mental FWTTDBID list.
“Starsfalls is ramping up for the Winterfalls Festival,” Orion says. “The main event is the street fair in a few weeks, but some things are already open. The town square has food trucks, a skating rink, and the giant Yule tree. If you go outside of town, there are horse-drawn sleigh rides, holiday light displays, and skiing or tubing on the hills.”
“There’s ice skating?” I ask excitedly.
Orion smiles. “There’s ice skating. We could go once we’re done here.”
“Yes!” I say without thinking.
I hurry through the last of my food, but after a few minutes of vigorous eating, I remember what I meant to tell them.
“Um, I can find the skating rink by myself. You don’t have to come with me,” I say.
“I’d like to go too. I haven’t done much skating this year,” Charm says, and the others agree.
I don’t understand. I thought they’d go see their omega. IfIhad a pack and hadn’t seen them for weeks, they better be running off that mountain to get to me.
I shake my head to banish that image. I’m not sure where it came from. I’ve never really thought about what it would be like to have my own pack, and I don’t know why I’m considering it now.
“Isn’t there something else you need to do? Someone you need to see?” I hint.
“No, nothing pressing. We’ll restock a few things while we’re in town, but we don’t have to do that today,” Orion says.
I frown before I can stop myself.
“If you want some time to yourself though, we can let you go. I know you’ve been stuck with us for the past few weeks. I’ll leave you the keys for the truck, and you’re free to do whatever you want as long as you’re back before our next shift,” he says.
Orion gathers his coat like he’s making to leave, and the others follow suit after a moment (all except for Cato, but I know how much he hates to wear layers. He won’t put his coat on until just before he steps outside).
“No, it’s not that! I just thought…” I trail off.
They pause, gloves and scarves in hand.
“Ithoughtyou’dbespendingtimewithyouromega,” I blurt out.
“You—what?” Orion says.
I huff. I don’t know why he’s making me repeat myself.
“I enjoy hanging out with you, but…I thought you’d spend the break with—with your omega,” I say.
No one says anything for a long minute, and I worry I overstepped a boundary. Orion did just get onto Cato for that.
Finally, Orion says, “We don’t have an omega. Our pack is just the five of us.”
I glance at the others, and they look just as confused as I feel.
“Oh. But.Oh.”
My stomach drops. I thought—their files said they were aPack, in italics. That denotes a pack is closed to new members, which usually happens after they find their mate(s) and consider their pack complete.
I’m stupid.
I shouldn’t have jumped right to that conclusion. Not all packs feel the need for a mate, omega or not. There are any number of reasons they could have chosen to close their pack, and regardless, it’s none of my businesses.
Of course they wouldn’t ignore their mate if they had one. I never heard them talking on the phone with them, or talkingaboutthem, or, fuck, rescuers’ partners are allowed to live at the station. Those should have been glaring signs that I am, in fact, an idiot.
Iassumedthey had an omega because of that one little word. I’m no better than the people who assume things about me based on my designation.
