30. Garret
Chapter 30
A ll I want to do is finish this damned soup. I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing. I tried to go look for Sam earlier, but he disappeared and hasn’t come back yet. When I went into the living room Teddy had Steve pinned to the couch, rocking against him and biting his neck and jaw. I could hear my brother moaning, and that was more than I needed.
All the nope.
I didn’t need to see that.
I didn’t need to hear my brother cry out, “Fuck, Bear, I missed you so much!”
I definitely didn’t need to hear the grunting that followed.
Now I don’t need to leave the kitchen again, I can just stay in here, stirring this fucking pot of overcooked soup until someone comes and tells me it’s done. Yup, just me and the dog. I can’t even remember his name. In my defense it’s been a busy day, but at least he’s not bad company, seeing as he’s just lying on his back next to the pantry. Every time I look his way, his tail starts wagging and I hear the thump , thump , thump of it against the door.
Fuck me, I hope that’s his tail and not my brother.
The solids in the soup have very nearly liquified with heat and my constant stirring, so I turn the heat to low to keep everything warm and rifle through the fridge for soda or something to drink. There are a few bottles of microbrews and a half dozen cans of soda. No one is coming to tell me no, so I grab a can and lean against the counter. I’m very curious where Kelly and Sam are, but mostly Kelly. But I would also like to know what the fuck else I need to do with this fucking soup. Once I finish the can and locate the recycling bin, the silence becomes obvious.
In truth, I don’t want to look back in the living room. Are they still there? Did they move to Teddy’s room? Are they still wearing clothes? Because I do not need to see that. And where the actual hell is Sam? This is his goddamned soup.
Fuck my life.
Fine, fine, whatever.
Creeping towards the living room, I move as silently as I can. Steve and Teddy are both still on the couch, but it almost looks like they’re asleep. One of those assholes better know the proper way to clean the upholstery, I don’t think Sam’s gonna be real hospitable if his omega fucked my brother on the couch, or even just left stains from all the bump and grind. Taking a deep breath, I let out a sigh and pass through the room.
Kelly’s light lilac scent is heavy in the hallway, and it draws me in. Is that where Sam is? The low murmur of voices draws me to the right, and I knock lightly on a door. Sam yanks it open glaring daggers at me. He smells like Kelly, a lot like Kelly. His face also looks like a glazed donut, so it’s not hard to figure out what they’ve been up to. I don’t mean to be petty, I really don’t but shit. “Well, while everyone else was having fun, your soup liquidated.”
I reach out and push the door open enough to see Kelly, and nod in greeting. “You can deal with it, I’m going out to get a fucking change of clothes so I can get some sleep. Maybe the goddamned hotel will have space in the morning.” Spinning on my heel I march to the front door, and that big ass dog comes bouncing out of the kitchen to follow me outside. “Don’t think you wanna go out there, buddy, it’s cold as fuck.” I reach down to rub his floppy ears with one hand before swinging the door open. He just looks between me and the open door before nope-ing out back to the kitchen.
The freezing air that blows inside causes my brother to jerk and sit up from his position half under Teddy. I take no small bit of satisfaction in his startled look before I walk out and close the door quietly behind me.
I can’t believe I finally found my person, my fated one, and I went from being a third wheel with Steve and Teddy to a fifth wheel here.
I fucking hate my life sometimes.
Steve
G arret is super pissed, and I hate that for him. I hate that my brother is so upset, but he just doesn’t understand. Teddy is mine, this missing piece of my soul. I didn’t even realize it until I saw him again, scented his omega. I’ve loved Teddy for as long as I can remember. I don’t even really remember anything before him, he’s just always been a part of my life. It wasn’t until we got older that I realized I loved him differently than I did anyone else. Everything just feels right with him. Now I have a good guess as to why.
Though considering how he teased me and treated me earlier, I wonder if fate fucked up our designations and I was the one who should have been an omega. Fuck, the way he held me down and plundered my mouth. I just wanted to melt against him, let him have all my control, let him do whatever he wanted as long as he stayed with me.
The sound of footsteps brings my head around. Sam and Kelly are coming out of the hallway, she turns to go up the stairs, while he goes into the kitchen, muttering darkly about soup. That, at least, explains some of Garret’s attitude. He wanted the beta, Kelly, and he doesn’t do guys. Well, tough shit, it’s their house and her choice if she doesn’t want him. Nothing against her, but she’s a beta, they don’t feel the same pull that alphas and omegas do anyway. Besides, whether she comes with us, or we stay here, it’ll be because my teddy bear wants her and she wants him back. But who wouldn’t want him? He’s aggressive and dominant, and smells so fucking good it makes my dick hurt.
Rolling as best I can to let him get some rest, I slide out from under him on the couch, and he settles in. There’s an embarrassing wet spot on my jeans but fuck it, I’m pretty sure they already walked through the room earlier when Teddy was hellbent on ravishing me. While I’m not exactly an exhibitionist, I just can’t find it in me to care. My omega got big while we were separated, not quite as tall as us, but he has broader shoulders. I roll him backwards into my vacated spot on the couch so he can be more comfortable. Once Garret gets back in, I’ll go grab my bag so I can get changed. For now, there should be a bathroom around here somewhere that I can start getting cleaned up in.
I walk down the hallway that they came out of earlier when the scent hits me. Ok…so, yeah, that would explain it better. The scent of Kelly is nearly overwhelming. Sam’s is here too, but mostly I’m getting a hard shot of lust and possession from it. Garret’s scent is barely noticeable, and he smells upset—sad almost to the point of devastation.
Well…Fuck. I try a few doors, but there’s no bathroom down this hall. Lots of rooms with plastic sheeting on the walls, and stacks of drywall and insulation scattered around. There has to be one downstairs, logic says that houses are built with a guest bathroom. Heading back towards the living room I let my eyes roam, front door, then doorway to dining room that leads to the kitchen, fireplace, other doorway to the kitchen and through that, a backdoor. Turning in the opposite direction, I see stairs and three more doors. Here’s hoping.
The first door I try leads to a closet…The whole thing smells like Sam, and a quick scan doesn’t seem like anything would fit Kelly. Teddy could wear his stuff, but nothing in here smells like him, and the random jumble of work boots on the floor are nothing he would wear, unless his fashion sense has changed drastically. It could have, but once again, the scent is wrong.
I close that door and try the next one. Bingo! It totally smells like Kelly in here. Well, she’s just going to have to share, because I’m not sitting through dinner with come cooling in my damned jeans. It's my own fault, really, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. That being said, it really is uncomfortable. So, I pop my fly and peel down the sticky mess, wiping as much as I can up with toilet paper. I don’t see any washrags, and honestly it would be creepy to use someone else's stuff for this.
Having done the best I can with the resources available, I pull my jeans back up and try to situate myself as much as possible. My shirt doesn’t come down far enough to completely hide the spot, but they all knew what was going on, or at least strongly suspected. Teddy was pumping out omega pheromones like a freight train, it would have been hard to miss. I leave the bathroom and Garret is back inside. He’s standing over Teddy’s sleeping form on the couch, shaking his head. He looks depressed, but my snarly possessive growl rips free anyway, snapping his head up to meet my eyes.
“Bathroom?” is his only reply, and I can just nod, feeling too off kilter to do more. He inclines his own head in reply and stalks past me through the open door. I can tell when Kelly’s scent hits him by the groan that comes out. Fuck me, what a shitshow this is turning out to be. Stepping over to the couch, I run my fingers through Teddy’s hair. It’s gotten longer, but it’s beautiful like this. The piercings are new too, obviously. It’s been so many years.
Fuck, I just want to carry him into that bedroom I saw earlier and snuggle him all night long. But he might be hungry, so I need to make sure he’s fed first. The alpha part of me that I mostly ignore is riding me hard to take care of him, and make sure he has everything he needs. Which is going to be difficult trapped in someone else's house in a snowstorm. But I’ll do what I can.
Walking into the kitchen the scent of food hits hard, finally making its way past the omega pheromones I’ve been huffing. Sam and Kelly stand at the counter. She must have come back down while I was getting cleaned up earlier. Sam is scowling down at a long pan full of bacon that looks like it’s been cooked to within an inch of its life—like he can magically make it un-blacken through sheer force of will. Kelly has her hand up, rubbing small circles on his back as he mutters, “Could have at least taken the bacon out, I could smell it burning as soon as I walked in...Would have been impossible to miss.”
The situation becomes more clear; they left Garret alone to cook dinner while they had fun. And then he found them afterwards. So, maybe his tantrum isn’t as unwarranted as I thought. But still. “It’s your own fault, you know.” Two pairs of eyes swing towards me. “Garret can’t cook to save his life, you’re lucky he didn’t burn your house down.” We always keep at least two fire extinguishers in the kitchen at our apartment, just in case. The man is accident prone as well as scatterbrained in the kitchen. I don’t care, I could live off takeout and frozen burritos—much to my family’s disgust—but they should be aware of the danger.
Speak of the devil. Garret walks in, his hair’s damp, and it looks like he took a fast shower and put on clean clothes. Sam scowls at him, but his only other reaction is to drop the pan of burned bacon on the countertop. Garret either doesn’t give a shit, or wants to be an asshole, because he goes over, grabs a blackened slice and pops it in his mouth. “Oh, extra crunchy, awesome. This day sucked ass and swallowed, so I am gonna go crash. Other than the probably come stained couch.” He looks pointedly at me. “Do you have someplace else I can sleep? You mentioned Teddy’s room, but I don’t want to put him out. Also I have no idea where it is.”
Oh, yeah, he’s still pissed. He grabs another slice of bacon and Sam glares harder at it, tracking the movement from the pan to Garret’s mouth, his upper lip curling in a suppressed snarl as Garret continues talking. “Shit man, just give me some private space away from everyone having sex, and I’m golden. I don’t even care if there’s a bed, I can fucking sleep on the floor if it’s not putting someone else out.” Sam looks taken aback for a second, cool calculation in his eyes.
“There’s one finished room upstairs that we’ve been sharing, then Teddy stores his stuff downstairs in the spare room. Kelly is keeping her stuff in the other downstairs bedroom, but it’s not really fit to sleep in without windows, especially right now.” He looks over at her, and she just nods, so he continues. “Fuck, ok, there’s the couch, but Teddy’s commandeered that for now. I have some theater chairs that recline in the basement if you want to try those.”
Garret nods and looks around. To my great surprise Kelly steps forward, which earns my brother another glare from Sam. “Come on, I’ll show you where it is, unless you’d rather sleep on the floor. I picked out the next most finished room to store my stuff. It doesn’t have a bed and is probably super cold right now, but if you want the floor, you can have it.” She takes Garret’s hand, and he follows behind her like a lovestruck fool.
Shit.