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

41. Sam

Chapter 41

W hy do I feel like I’m adopting puppies? Two of them; one who skitters across the floor pissing everywhere, that nips and growls every time I try to get close. And the other who just wants to lick everyone, trying desperately to get attention. Fuck my life.

Steve helps me finish loading the dishwasher and cleaning up the mess from breakfast, dutifully collecting all the condiments he took out to try to prove that he knows Teddy better and storing them away in the fridge and pantry. The kid seems like he wants to apologize and try to get back in Teddy’s good graces. But he’s acting more like a teenager with a first crush than a grown alpha, and I briefly wonder again about their upbringing and what kinda family they had that would deny them a life with an omega they were already involved with. Ok, Steve was involved with, Garret vehemently denies any attraction to men and has become obsessed with Kelly. Once again, as long as that’s what she wants, and she’s happy, that’s all I care about.

Once everything is cleaned and put away, we retire to the living room. Kelly is already on the couch, sandwiched between Garret and Jake, but she looks up at me excitedly. “How can I help with the nest today? Are we gonna get more work done? When can we paint it? Oh, I can help Teddy pick out paint colors! Do you think he’d be ok with that?” Her questions are rapid fire, and I smile at how excited she is over making a nest for our omega.

Garret and Steve are staring back and forth between the two of us, and soon Garret pipes up. “What’s she talking about Sam?” It’s strange that they’ve been here less than twenty-four hours and I’m already contemplating their joining the pack, but shit. The pack's only been together for four days, so what the hell?

I look around, realizing I’m going to either need to build or buy some new furniture. The single couch and coffee table were fine when it was just me and Jake. Even with Teddy and Kelly it would have been doable. But with three alphas, a giant omega, a beta, and an overgrown lap-dog, we need more places to sit.

Maybe I could bring up the chairs from the basement.

No, what if they wanna watch a movie?

Shit. It’s ok.

I take a seat on the stairs and Steve sits by my feet...weird. “Anybody seen Teddy, in case he wants to be in on this conversation too?”

The door opens down the hall and Teddy walks in. His hair is damp, and he smells like soap. “Sorry Sam, just needed a few minutes.”

I drag him over to me and pull him in for a hug before he can object. He looks around the room for a minute, then goes over and stares at Jake until the dog relents and hops down onto the floor, surrendering his seat next to Kelly. Teddy sits down, and she leans into him, offering her own hug.

Another downside to being pack alpha, I guess, I get to do the talking. “Been here less than a day and already kicked off my own couch. Damn boy, you do move fast.” My attempts at cutting the tension meet with massive failure as Garret pales slightly and stands up, shuffling away from the couch. Kelly looks exasperated for a moment, like she wants to say something, but then gives up and snuggles harder into Teddy.

“Christ, kid, I was tryin’ to lighten the mood, sit y’er ass down.” I wonder briefly again at these two’s upbringing as Garret shuffles back to the couch, not meeting my eyes.

“As you boys may or may not know, I met Kelly and Teddy this last weekend at a bonding ceremony...” Garret’s already heard part of this story, but I don’t know how new it’ll be to Steve. Relating the first few days with my pack, up to and including meeting them yesterday, takes longer than anticipated, and by the time I’m done, Kelly has curled up into Teddy’s lap, both of them snoring lightly. Jake took her spot on the couch and is leaning against them both, leaving Garret out in the cold again.

Taking in the twins—Garret stopped me to clarify their relationship when I got to the part about them running into Kelly at the store yesterday—I suggest we take a break before we hear their side of things. And I want Teddy to be awake for this. If Steve’s gonna try to get himself out of trouble, he needs to be able to come forward and explain to Teddy exactly what happened, and why it took him so long to come back for him.

Besides, I need to get back to work on the nest and, once I smooth out the joint compound, talk to Teddy about wall texture and paint. And windows, have to get the damned windows in before I can paint in this cold.

Stepping into the nest, I can understand why Teddy was so upset. The room doesn’t look like much now, but once I’m finished, it’ll be exactly what he wants. I pull out a bucket of drywall mud and start skimming the room. The sooner I can finish this place, the happier and more relaxed my omega will be. Plus, I can’t deny that Kelly’s excitement earlier was adorable. I feel like such a shit for not already having had this done before he came into my life. But there was no way to know.

H ours have passed before I finally leave the room. My back aches, my shoulders are stiff, and I think my arms want to fall off from spreading mud around the room all day. Big fucking room—nests usually are—but I’m getting too old for this shit.

Looking over at the grandfather clock, it’s clear I missed lunch, and should have already started on dinner. What the hell are they up to that they let me disappear for this long? I wander through the downstairs, but nobody seems to be here. Opening the front door, all three automobiles seem to be in the same spots. Jake doesn’t come running when the door opens either, which is strange.

I trudge upstairs. Maybe they’re all in bed, without me. But no, the bed and bedrooms are all empty as well. Starting to feel concerned, I plod back down the stairs, gripping tightly to the railing because my legs feel like they’re about to unhinge, both from exhaustion and worry. I nearly fall and crash to the bottom when I hear a loud screech coming from the basement. Kelly’s voice raises high enough to carry to the living room. “No, stop. Don’t you dare!”

Scrambling down the steps, it takes my brain a few seconds to comprehend what I’m seeing. They’ve reconfigured the chairs into a semicircle around the television, and they each have a game controller. A go-kart game is split into four sections on the television, and as I watch a blue turtle shell explodes across the screen, taking out the blonde princess on a pink motorcycle. Kelly throws a look past Teddy like she wants to string Steve up by his ankles and beat him to death.

I settle back onto the stairs, grabbing my chest. It feels like I just ran five miles and my ribs are way too tight, like I can’t get enough air. Kelly finally gets her character back on track, and comes in fourth place, still ahead of every guy in the room. When the tiles flip up on the screen, showing that she’s been winning every race before this. She stands up to glare at Steve again and finally notices me collapsed on the steps.

She scrambles over the back of the chair, landing in an unladylike heap on the floor before popping back up like a deranged Jack-in-the-box. Her smile is huge as she runs over to me. “Sam, Sam! Sorry, we opened some of your games, but did you see! I won, I kicked all their butts!” She is bouncing around in circles and Jake finally makes it over from in front of the chairs too, where I can only guess he’s been asleep. Together they hop around in a circle, her waving her game controller and laughing hysterically, and him barking and wagging his tail so hard that I’m surprised he doesn’t take off like a damned helicopter.

Garret and Teddy are both turned around in their chairs watching intently. Steve looks between our omega and Kelly as she continues to dance victoriously around the room.

Fuck, she’s adorable. When her mad flailing brings her close to me again, I half stand, wrapping my hands around her tiny waist and pulling her against me as I collapse back against the stairs. She lets out a loud, giggling squeal as I nuzzle into her neck and nibble up to her ear. The last few days have been stressful, hell, the last week has been stressful as fuck, but I need this. I need to feel and taste her again, both of them if they’ll let me. I'm already failing because I didn’t even feed them properly today.

Shit, I don’t even know if Teddy ever got breakfast. I am such a shit alpha. First no nest, now no food. I don’t deserve these two, but I want them. Everything passes through my mind in a flash as Kelly wiggles against me, finally settling down and curling tight into my lap. Ugh, I haven’t even cleaned up yet. I’m sure my clothes are filthy. Still, she hangs on when I try to set her down, burrowing her face into my neck, and nipping at me with her teeth.

“Sam, I didn’t get to play with you last night. You teased me yesterday, but then everything went crazy...I need you.” Her tiny puff of breath against my ear warms my chest till it feels like it might burst. Unfortunately, it makes my cock feel like it’s going to burst too, and I can’t stop the groan that bubbles free.

“Kelly, Sugar...I gotta get cleaned up, Honey. You don’t want me touching you with rough, mud-coated hands, right?” I expect her to say no, to hop off my lap and give me some space to go take a shower and change. Instead, she wiggles until she’s straddling my lap, and grinds hard against me.

My head falls back as the breath rushes out of my lungs in a choked gasp. “Sugar, you’re playing with fire here,” is all I get out before her hands pull my face to hers.

“Please, Sam.”

With a muffled moan against her lips, I lift us both off the steps and start up the stairs. My already abused back is screaming at me even though she barely weighs anything.

Not stopping on the first floor, I head from one set of stairs to the next, and straight for our bedroom. My hands are already rough with callouses. I can’t imagine touching her soft skin with anything worse than that, anything that might hurt her. But this way I can get cleaned up and make her feel good at the same time. If the hot water in the shower helps to loosen up my damned back, even better.

Stopping at the bedside to grab one of the alpha size boxes of condoms, I carry her into the bathroom, turning the hot water on all the way. The last time I cleaned her up in here, she was pretty loopy, so I don’t know if she noticed everything. Since I outfitted this room for a pack bedroom, the shower is a huge walk-in number with glass doors and four shower heads, plus one removable one. I plan on using that on her as soon as I get myself cleaned up.

Putting my hands under her ass, I lift her up and away enough that I can set her on the ground. She pouts in response, and I feel like turning her around and bending her over the sink to spank her ass for it. I’m pretty sure she’d enjoy that, but I never want to make her uncomfortable. We’ll have to talk soon in regard to my need for control, and how secure she feels in giving it up. For now, I satisfy myself with watching her face as I peel myself out of my jeans and shirt. It’s a hell of an ego boost to see such a pretty thing go breathless and needy when you get undressed.

She scrambles to peel off her own fleece pants and shirt and I let loose a growl when I see the bandages covering her legs that Garret put on earlier. Shit, I can’t take her into the shower without those getting wet and needing redone. Fuck my life! “Hey, Teddy, you up here?” I call out the bathroom door and our omega comes scrambling in, looking slightly out of breath.

I point at Kelly. “Can you please keep the lovely beta entertained while I get cleaned up? I don’t want her knees to get any more hurt.” Teddy stares, eyes locked on my hard shaft, and I have to snap my fingers a couple of times to get his attention and ask again. He finally nods dumbly and leads a petulant Kelly out of the bathroom as I climb under the hot water. I allow myself a few seconds to soak in the heat on my sore muscles before scrubbing everything as quickly as possible so I can get back to my pack before another alpha or two tries to step in.