Building a Pack is Ruff, Part 1 (The Pack Pets Omegaverse #2)

18. Teddy

Chapter 18

W e pull into the parking lot and get out, Sam and I flanking Kelly as she bounces around looking at everything. Sam grabs a cart as we walk inside and pass the bathroom section. I mostly need bedding at this point. I’m not opposed to new soft towels too—the ones in Sam’s downstairs bathroom were like drying off with sandpaper—but right now I need bedding and nesting supplies.

We get approached by several salespeople, who all try to talk to Kelly and ask what she’s looking for. After the fifth time of her trying to explain that it’s my nest, I just tell her we want something soft in dark jewel tones or black, preferably in a Minky fabric or an Egyptian cotton. That way she doesn’t have to keep trying to convince them that I’m the omega, and they stop walking off in a huff. I really don’t like this fucking store.

We eventually find our way back to bedding, and there’s a huge machine that claims it’s for stuffing your own pillows. I admit my curiosity is piqued as I look around at their shell options. Unfortunately, while almost everything is a soft fabric, the colors are all pale pastels and variations on white. I really like the textures, but I can’t handle a nest in pastels. I could buy a box of dye…but then I would have to take them home, unstuff them, dye them, and then re-stuff them, and that just seems like a lot of work. I stand there contemplating my options, and don’t even notice that Kelly's gone until she returns with an employee.

I hear a whispered mumble of, “I hate this fucking machine.” The pimply faced beta boy stares between Sam and me, and my rumbly growl slips out.

Before I can say that I don’t want to use their machine, and ask if these colors are their only options, Kelly pipes in. “Sorry, the manager said that there was a kiosk near the machine that had more color and texture options that we could order with however much fill we want. But I can’t seem to find it. Can you please help me?” The kid looks at Kelly like he’s about to swallow his tongue, giving her a once-over and smoothing down his employee vest, his eyes lingering too long on her unmarked neck.

We need to take care of that asap.

“I’m sorry Miss Omega”—his voice cracks at the end like he’s trying to make it sound deeper than it actually is—“it’s just over here on this other side, if you want to see if there’s anything you like. I’ll be happy to get an order sent in and have it shipped wherever you want.”

Kelly’s eyes flip up to mine and I nod to her. But her mouth drops open when she gets around to the actual catalog. It’s huge and filled with fabric swatches. She tries to pick it up to bring it over to me, but her arms tremble and strain with the effort. I scoop it up and put it back on the display stand so that I can look over her shoulder.

Wrapping my arms around her, I lean down to press my face against the side of hers as she flips through the book, stopping to read different fabric descriptions and so I can feel samples. We make it through the first few pages before we’re interrupted by a burly beta security guard. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to step away from the omega or provide proof of pack.”

Sam’s low growl is a menace, making the security guard tense and reach for his belt. Kelly bursts out in almost hysterical sounding giggles and I just give up, pulling out my omega center ID and passing it over to the guard before turning back to Kelly. “Yeah, Kelly, step away from the omega unless you have proof of pack.” She's a better sport about it than Sam, and gives me a big hug before going to stand by him while the guard stares fixedly at my ID, his eyes flicking rapidly between me and the small, laminated card.

Fuck my life.

After much longer than it should take, and some discussion on his phone, the guard gingerly passes me back my ID. “Sorry, Mr. Darnell, we have store policy in place to protect unmarked omegas.” I sigh again, continuing to flip through the sample book. At least I had time to pick out a few options while he was running my identification. Now that my inner omega is interested in buying nesting stuff, I know I’ll obsess over it until I get something sorted out. I pull out my cell and take a few pictures of item numbers I want as well as make note about what fill percentage I want for each option.

Kelly disappeared again while I was perusing the options but pops up behind me like a fucking meerkat right as I close the catalog. Her cart's stuffed with sheets and blankets with the materials and colors I talked to her about earlier. “Hey, sorry, I figured we wanted to leave soon. So I grabbed what you mentioned earlier, but we can put back anything you don’t like. I wasn’t trying to take your choice away. I just didn’t figure you’d want to be here after all the crap.”

I pull her into a hug, murmuring thanks against the top of her hair and looking around for the beta who called security on me so I can place my order…and of course the little ass wipe disappeared.

Kelly kisses my cheek, and passes me the cart to go through and see what I might want to keep or leave at the customer service desk for re-shelving. She did a great job actually, almost everything here is stuff I would have chosen myself. I might have gone with a few different colors, more deep burgundy and less dark forest green, but she still did an amazing job, and I don’t even know if those options were available. She even picked up mattress protectors and a flyer to order blackout blinds. I look around to tell her how impressed I am, but she’s disappeared again. This time with my phone.

Sam's still with me but staring over the shelves towards the front of the store. “Yeah, she went to customer service to get your pillows ordered. You wanna go meet her so we can grab some lunch?”

Fuck, how does she keep her mind this organized? I can barely function with one thing at a time most days and she did all my shopping while I was feeling up a bunch of pillow samples?

I grab the handle of the cart—much to Sam’s annoyance—and we quickly walk to the front to meet up with our beta. There are a couple of alphas standing over by the door that haven’t taken their eyes off her since I spotted her across the shelves. They look like shifty fuckers in need of a beat-down after the trouble we’ve had here. I walk up to Kelly and wrap my arms around her, glaring at them both until they shuffle their feet and walk off.

Kelly cuts through my aggressive haze. “Hey, Teddy, I’m glad you’re here. Your notes didn’t say how many of each one of these you needed, and I was about to come ask.” She turns back to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and nuzzling against my chest, causing my purr to start up involuntarily. I feel her hands on my ass when she slides my phone back into my pocket. “Sorry I stole it, I just wanted to make things easier for you.”

“Miss Darnell, if you can just give us your shipping address and sign here, we can get all this finished up.” The weaselly beta from earlier turns around, his jaw drops as his eyes flick between me and Sam.

Kelly’s high, clear laugh is muffled against my chest. “Not Darnell…Actually Sam, I don’t know what our pack name is…what is your last name?” The kid fidgets, shifting from one foot to the other as I step forward and fill out the number of each kind of pillow on the paperwork laying on the counter.

Sam takes Kelly’s hand, his thumb rubbing across the back of her fingers. “My last name's McKinnley, but we don’t need two Pack McKinnleys in town. So I’m open to suggestions. If Teddy wants to use his name, since he’s not from around here, we can do that.” I smile over at him, torn on the idea. The plan with Steven and Garret was always to take my last name for the pack. Their family is pretty well known, and we didn’t want to automatically be lumped in with them.

Sensing my hesitation, Kelly reples, “Ok, so I guess it’ll be Miss Parker then, at least for now.” She hugs me again as I finish filling out paperwork and scan the QR code to do a quick search on different colors for the sheets and blankets she picked out. I add another few of those to the order in different dark shades, just for some variety.

Sam steps in, passing a smiling Kelly off to me as he fills out the shipping information. The beta rings up our purchases including what’s in the basket and I see Sam visibly swallow. He’s doing mental calculations in his head before I step forward and hand over my debit card.

“Now hold on, I’m supposed to buy the nesting materials for you. You’re my omega.” Sam actually looks upset that I’m paying for my own stuff. Kelly’s smile drops at the pain in his voice and she looks between us.

I forget that pack dynamics are new to her. “Sam, I have my own money. I’ll explain later, but for now, just let me do this. You’re already feeding us and giving us a place to live. I need to help out, ok?”

Sam looks back and forth between the two of us, his ears are red. “But how am I supposed to prove that I can be a good alpha if I can’t take care of you?”

Kelly and I move simultaneously, both of our arms wrapping around him. I growl at the beta behind the counter who’s still staring at us, and he finishes ringing me up, quickly handing me the receipt, which I stuff in my pocket. Sam swallows again before turning sad eyes to me and then burying his face in Kelly’s hair.

Pushing the cart with one hand, I lead them both out to the truck and fold down the tailgate. Shoving Sam to sit beside me, Kelly takes his other side and we both lean in against him, offering what comfort we can.

I don’t want to talk about this—it always makes me feel gross—but I might as well get it out of the way. “As you guys know, everybody thought I was going to be an alpha, yes?” Sam nods but doesn’t look at me. Kelly's watching us both, she looks like she’s trying to figure out which one needs a hug more. My fingers trace along the edge of my leather cuffs—it’s a nervous reaction, but I can’t help it. Both their eyes seem drawn to the movement as I keep talking.

“Well, I’ve always been…big. When I turned eight, I had already known Steven and Garret for years. Everybody knew we were going to be a pack. Gramps…Er...My Pop’s Pop…Murphy’s dad said he wasn’t going to let his family look like paupers in front of the Carson Pack.” I pause so they can take that in. The Carson pack are rich, like stupid rich. My parents were well enough off, upper middle class to be sure, but not like that. I only met Vee and Garret because two of my dads work for theirs. We met when I was a toddler at some sort of social event that I was too young to even remember. After that we stuck together like glue.

I clear my throat. “Anyway, Gramps started an account for me. He put a few thousand in to start and added to it each month. Instead of birthdays or Christmas, I just got money put into it. He said it was so when I started a pack, I’d be set. We’d be able to use it to pay the fees to the omega center to meet a good omega or put a down payment on a place of our own. It was barely a drop in the bucket compared to what Vee and Garret would contribute, but it was something that would come from me and give me more standing in the pack.”

I swallow again, nausea rolling through my stomach. “At least, that was the plan, until it turns out: Hey, your grandson’s an omega. The old man hit the roof. He demanded the money back. But he had set the account up in my name, with Murphy as my guardian.”

“Gramps couldn’t do shit about it. They got into a huge fight. Murphy argued that all the interest it had accrued in eight years was mine, as well as any holiday gift money that had gone in. He offered to pay Gramps back for the initial investment, but the old man started to yell that he didn’t have a grandson anymore since I wasn’t an alpha. Mom hung up the phone on him before Murphy could say anything else. She told me she didn’t want to hear him, but I think she didn’t want me to feel like the reason Murphy couldn’t talk to his family anymore.”

Staring at the ground, I can’t look at Kelly or Sam. I don’t want them to see me cry. Alphas aren’t supposed to cry.

Not that I’m an alpha anymore…or ever.

I sniff back the tears that try to escape. “So, yeah…I have a nice little nest egg that I use when I need extra stuff. The omega center covers all my school stuff, and the fees for housing and food are pretty much taken care of with grants. But I should take care of this. It’s been growing for nearly twenty years, I might as well use it to help start my pack, right?” Two pairs of arms come around me, holding me close as Sam’s loud rumbly purr feels like it’s shaking the entire truck.

Kelly pipes up. “Ok, so…not your last name either then…is it the same as your gramps?” I nod dumbly at her. “Yeah, he can suck it. Not his name. Well, how about Carpenter…that’s what Sam does, right? Go back to the old way of naming. We can be Pack Carpenter?” She leans over to Sam, giving an exaggerated wink and whispering loudly. “Just be glad you don’t run a septic service.”

His head drops to my shoulder as his body shakes, and I only hear the barest mumble. “Jesus fuck, Sugar, really. That was awful.”

Kelly snuggles back against my side giggling loudly. She finally calms enough to take a deep breath and stand up. “Well, if you wanna be that way…come on Mr. Shitter and Mr. Shitter, let’s get the truck loaded and go get some lunch.”

Her laughter and the shock of hearing her use profanity for the first time knocks me out of any lingering sadness. Sam and I load up the back of the cab with blankets and pillows, tossing the sealed packets of sheets and sheet protectors in the bed of the truck. We can move them up to the cab too when we go in to get food.

Kelly stops me before I can help her back into the cab. Her arms come around my neck, and she stands on her toes to kiss me on the chin. “I’m sorry that so many people suck. But you know you’re ours, right? Sam’s and mine?” I nod at her somber tone. “Ok, well, as long as you know, you’re stuck with us now, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m pretty sure you’d need to scrape him off like a barnacle if you wanted to get rid of him.”

Sam’s voice comes from the driver's seat, through the open door. “She’s not wrong!” I pick Kelly up, my hands going under her butt to hold her close and kiss her the way I’ve wanted to since I woke up this morning. I want to tell her I love her, but I’m still worried about scaring her away since she’s new to being in a pack. But I know it’s true. These two are already so much a part of me that I need them like I need air. I can’t lose them, no matter what.