Vengeful Bonds #2

1. Deke

Deke watched as Ollie exchanged nervous glances with his friends. “What’s an enigma?” he repeated.

Loch nodded to Ollie, who gave Deke a wary look that made his skin feel too tight. “I think we need a pack meeting.”

Heat prickled at Deke’s skin and he instantly started to sweat. Had he done something wrong? Why were they all looking at him like that? Was it because of what his alpha had done to Ollie? Was it because they’d claimed each other? Were they going to kick him out of the pack or something?

He stood frozen as they all walked towards him. No, not towards him but the doorway, which he was blocking. He stepped aside. Loch was the first to approach. He hooked an arm around Deke’s shoulders, pulling him against him as they left the library towards the kitchen. Deke had no choice but to walk with him. His steps made an awkward cadence as he walked a bit at an angle.

Loch glanced down at him, then ruffled his hair like he was soothing him, like the other alpha was Deke’s big brother or something. “Don’t panic, kid. Nothing is wrong. We just don’t want to have to tell you and then turn around and tell the others. You’re not in trouble. I promise.”

Deke didn’t say anything, but a wave of relief swept through him so fast he almost felt light-headed. He wasn’t usually one for affection—outside of what he showed to Ollie—but he sagged against Loch, settling his head on his shoulder, inhaling his comforting scent as he let him guide them to the living room. As they walked, he absently noted Loch’s scent was a little different. Stronger, maybe?

Loch really was a good alpha. He was just always so reasonable. His ability to instantly soothe the others was something that couldn’t be taught. Everyone had their strengths within the pack—except maybe Deke—and Loch’s was that he knew when to lead and when to fall back and he allowed others to voice their opinions and even take the lead when necessary. He was a natural born leader.

In the living room, they found Seth and Fen pulling their clothes back on, both looking flushed, cheeks glowing. They looked so fucking pretty it made Deke’s alpha perk up and take notice. Deke blamed it on his post-rut hormones still pumping through his system. He’d always thought they were cool, but he’d never looked at them as anything more than friends. Now, he had to bite his lip to ignore the heavy scent of two omegas having just gotten off together.

San seemed to take pity on the others, stepping over a sleeping wolf to open the garden doors to let the room air out. With his mission accomplished, he crossed to one of the arm chairs, sitting with his knees to his chest, flushing when he saw Binnie. San tracked him as he crossed the room to sit on the floor at his feet.

That was new.

San didn’t show any overt signs of wanting Binnie that close, but Deke knew him better than anyone. He saw the way San’s eyes softened when he looked at Binnie, watched as his toes inched closer, his fingers spasming on the armrests like he was fighting the urge to card his fingers through the other alpha’s hair.

Deke really liked Binnie. Like Loch, he was a good guy. Reliable. Handsome. Sweet and funny and…blunt. He always said exactly what was on his mind. San needed that. He was terrible when it came to subtlety. He misread everyone’s intentions all the time. San directed everything inward and always thought everyone thought the worst of him. He had so much self-loathing that, sometimes, it radiated off him in waves until others felt like they were choking on it. They were good for each other.

Loch tugged Fenny to his feet, guiding him to the far corner of the wraparound sofa, pulling him across his lap, scenting him the moment he settled. That was when Deke noticed the claiming bite. His gaze jerked to Seth and Saint. Seth’s bite was also very clear. He was relieved to see San and Binnie had held out. They still seemed like they had some things to resolve.

Saint took the opposite corner of the couch. Seth wasted no time crawling to him and plopping down on his lap, reclining his back to Saint’s chest, legs separated by Saint’s knees. The alpha’s hands immediately slipped under his shirt to cover the omega’s flat belly.

Deke looked away. It seemed too intimate a gesture for public consumption. Which was a stupid thought to have in a pack, but they weren’t a pack yet. Not officially. And once they became one, Deke still wasn’t sure he’d feel like he belonged. He never really felt like he belonged anywhere.

He startled as Ollie took his hand, threading their fingers together and walking to the middle of the couch, careful to miss the damp spot. Deke felt like someone raked his nerves over a shredder as the rest of the group watched them closely. Ollie patted the spot beside him and Deke sat, sitting so close they touched from shoulder to thigh.

“So—” Deke started, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat before trying again. “What’s happening? Why call a pack meeting?”

“You called a pack meeting?” Fen asked, looking at Loch.

Loch seemed to lose himself gazing at Fen for a full thirty seconds before the omega touched his hand. “Hey.”

Loch blinked, then shook his head as if to clear it. “Technically, Ollie did,” Loch said. “But I sanctioned it. Ollie has something to say and I think it will be easier if we just get it out of the way all at once with the whole pack here.”

“Are we a pack now?” Seth asked, tone curious. “Like, officially? Will we be like…filing papers and biting each other?”

Loch looked at each of them then said, “Let’s put a pin in that until the end of the meeting.”

Deke’s stomach plummeted to his shoes despite Loch’s reassurance just moments ago. Something was really off and he couldn’t shake the feeling it had everything to do with him. Had he done something wrong? Other than ravish his mate and turn him into a crime scene? Deke flushed. He was so restless he had to fight the urge to take off running. Was this what Seth’s ADHD felt like all the time? How did he not peel his own skin off?

“Does this have anything to do with us leaving for a few days and all of you having clearly decided to claim each other?” San asked, letting his legs drop from the chair to fall on either side of Binnie’s broad shoulders. “Thanks for letting us know by the way.”

Deke noted the way Binnie’s hands curled around San’s calves and how San allowed it without complaint.

That was new.

“No?” Loch said, like he was uncertain.

“But also, kind of,” Ollie said beside him, his voice low and soothing like he was trying not to spook any of them.

San rolled his eyes. “Well, thanks ever so much for clearing that up.”

Deke released his hand to wipe his sweaty palms on his jeans.

“Does this have to do with the enigma?” Deke asked, wishing he could ignore the way Ollie shivered beside him at the question.

“What’s an enigma?” Seth asked, looking from Saint to Loch, then back again.

“That’s what I asked,” Deke said, hating how sulky he sounded.

“Before we get to that, let’s talk about some…other things,” Loch said vaguely.

“Other things?” Fenny asked, his tone impatient. “Like what?”

Loch began to rub the base of Fen’s neck, fingers brushing over his scabbed over mating bite repeatedly until Fen’s gaze grew hazy and he seemed almost sedated.

“Like how I’m apparently a dominant alpha now,” Loch said.

Fen’s eyes went wide, but it was San who asked, “What? How? That’s…not possible.” He looked at the other alphas in the room. “Right?”

Loch gave the other alpha a sympathetic look. “A week ago, I would have sworn it wasn’t possible. But there’s no denying my scent has changed. And my…behavior,” he said. “I’m sure anyone who’s seen Fen shirtless has seen the damage my alpha did when I lost control.”

Fen blushed, but his fingers rose to trace Loch’s mating mark, earning a low rumble from their alpha.

“How would that… How could that even happen?” Deke asked, his instincts sending off a thousand alarm bells in his head. He didn’t like where this was going.

“Not just Loch,” Ollie said softly. “My scent has changed, too.”

“But…you’re a beta,” Seth said. “So, are you not—I don’t even know—you? What does that mean?”

“Can someone just please speak plainly?” Deke snapped, his chest tight like he might start crying. He hated feeling like a stupid kid in a room full of adults even if he was acting like one.

“Okay,” Loch said. “I’ll let Ollie take this one. It’s his story to tell anyway.”

Why is it his story to tell?

Ollie sighed, and Deke got a heavy dose of his mate’s anxiety as it thrummed through their claiming bite. He took Deke’s hand once more, threading their fingers together and holding tight, like he thought he might pull free again. His palm was clammy against Deke’s overheated skin. If someone didn’t tell him what the fuck was happening soon, he was going to lose it.

“I first noticed it during your rut,” Ollie started.

“Noticed what?” Fen asked.

Ollie flicked a look at Deke then back to Fen. “I was…having a hard time…” Ollie flushed scarlet, dropping his gaze to the floor. “Controlling myself. I was fully aware of what I was doing, but my instincts were going haywire. I wasn’t at all myself. I was acting very much like an omega. A dominant omega.”

“But, you’re beta-o,” San said. “Right? Maybe it was just those instincts surfacing? That’s a thing, right? You still have all the parts of an omega. Maybe it was just some kind of hormone thing?”

“That’s not a thing. I shouldn’t have any massive hormone shifts. That’s what makes me a beta in the first place. If it was just my instincts, I’d at least be willing to consider that as an answer. But…it was my body, too. There were some…notable changes,” he hedged.

Images of their time together flashed through Deke’s brain. The lube on the bedside table that seemed to constantly refill itself. Ollie begging him to breed him. Begging him to claim him. Deke’s alpha calling Ollie omega.

He tugged at his collar, feeling his shirt dampen under his arms and sticking to his lower back from perspiration. What was Ollie trying to say?

“I didn’t think much of it at first, but then my scent…turned, became stronger, tinged with a different…taste? Like Loch’s,” Ollie said, angling his body so he could look at Deke.

“Is there such a thing as a dominant beta?” Fen asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”

Ollie looked at Saint, eyes pleading. Deke guessed that was Ollie’s way of tagging him into the bout because Saint asked the others, “Have you heard of an enigma?”

This wasn’t a surprise to Binnie, Saint, or Ollie. They must have gotten further along in their kitchen discussion than Deke had thought.

The others—Fen, Seth, and San—seemed as clueless as him, exchanging confused looks before hesitantly shaking their heads. Deke wracked his brain, trying to remember a time when he’d even heard another person use the word outside of an SAT test.

Saint sighed, shifting Seth in his lap, then said, “Out in the desert, the indigenous people out there speak about a special alpha, one only born every hundred years or so.”

“Special alpha?” San parroted, frowning. “Special how?”

Saint shrugged. “They say he’s the alpha of alphas. The apex predator so to speak. This alpha has the ability to…control…other alphas.”

“Control? Isn’t that just a pack alpha?” Deke asked. “Don’t you have the ability to control us?”

Loch shook his head. “As an alpha, I could use my ‘alpha’ voice to force Fen and Seth and…any other omega to do as I command. As a dominant alpha, that power grows tenfold. But that’s not what I meant when I said control. Maybe control isn’t the right word.”

Any other omega …like who?

“Change,” Ollie said. “This enigma can change others’ secondary genders. Turn them.”

“Turn them into what?” Fen asked, looking lost.

Ollie swallowed audibly but wouldn’t meet any of their gazes. “They can turn them into whatever they want. Dominant to recessive. Recessive to dominant. Alpha to beta. Omega to alpha. Beta to omega.”

Beta to omega. No way.

“That’s not possible,” Deke said. “That sounds like an urban legend or something.”

Saint shrugged, his voice calm and just as distant as usual. “That’s what I always thought, too. Until your rut happened. Now, two weeks later, we have a dominant alpha and a brand new omega.”

Ollie’s head snapped up. “Saint.”

Nobody could miss the warning in the way Ollie said his name. But Saint gave him a look. “What? Are we not going to tell him?”

“Tell me what? What new omega?” Deke asked, frowning. He very much felt like he was missing something. Something obvious. The others were giving him a look somewhere between pity and fear. “What’s that mean?” he asked, letting his frustration leach into his voice.

Fen, Seth, and Ollie cowered, whimpering.

Deke was certain his heart stopped for a whole ten seconds as the pieces began to fall into place like Tetris tiles.

“Ollie,” Loch said. “We think Ollie is an omega.”

“That’s insane,” Deke said, feeling like he was swimming on the outer edges of a whirlpool, about to be sucked under. “I would know if my own mate was an…omega.”

The words were barely out of his mouth before he realized the truth in his own words. He did know. The answer hit him like a sledgehammer. The lack of lube, the begging, the breeding, the name-calling.

Deke had a hard time dragging in breaths. Was this what a panic attack felt like? Was he having a heart attack? Was he just being dramatic? Wasn’t this a perfect time to be dramatic?

He snapped his gaze to his mate. “Did…Did I do that to you?” he asked, voice shaking. “Did I really change your secondary gender? Really? That’s what you’re saying, right? That it was me? My fault? That I caused this whole mess?”

Iron filled his mouth, his heartbeat dangerously high, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he fought to keep breathing. His mouth was so dry. He wished he had a gallon of water, either to drink or to drown himself.

“Baby, calm down,” Ollie said sweetly. “It’s going to be fine.”

Deke shot to his feet, staring down at Ollie’s perfectly placid face, fighting the calming pheromones he and the other two omegas were pumping into the room.

Other two omegas? Holy fuck.

“Fine?” he squeaked. “How is this fine?” He swung around, looking at each of them. “Why are you all so calm about this? Why aren’t you saying anything? This can’t be real. This can’t be. I’m dreaming. Or hallucinating. Or…dead. There’s no universe where this is possible. I’m a makeup artist…” he finished, bewildered.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Ollie said, running a soothing hand up and down Deke’s forearm.

Deke scoffed, his tone exasperated. “The only explanation that makes sense to you is that I’m some kind of mythological creature who’s turned his mate into an omega and his alpha into a dominant? That’s the reasonable explanation?”

“We don’t know anything for sure,” Ollie said, taking his hand and attempting to pull him back down. “We could be way off base.”

Everyone in that room—even Deke—knew his mate was placating him. He could feel Ollie’s worry through their bite. He could feel how stressed he was making him, but it was like he was no longer in control of his own body, and not like when his alpha took control but like…nobody was in control. His brain was a runaway train about to jump the fucking track and take out a bus full of nuns.

“How would we know?” he heard Fen ask, his voice seeming a thousand miles away.

“A DNA test is the only way to know with a hundred percent certainty,” Binnie said, his tone grim enough to let Deke know the other alphas were definitely taking it seriously.

“No,” Ollie snapped, the venom in his voice startling the others, Deke included. “We’ve already ruled that out as a possibility.”

“What? Why?” San asked. “Don’t you want to know?”

Ollie turned away to stare at the garden, ignoring San’s perfectly logical question.

“We have…concerns,” Loch finally said when he realized Ollie wouldn’t.

“Concerns?” Fen echoed. “Like what? What could be more important than knowing the truth?”

Ollie whipped his head around, locking eyes with Fen. “What do you think will happen to me, to Loch, to Deke, if the government finds out that someone in our pack has the ability to alter someone’s secondary gender?”

“Why would they care?” Seth asked, shaking his head. “I don’t get it.”

Deke didn’t get it either. If Ollie was this adamant about it, there was obviously something more to it, something that felt just out of reach like an itch he couldn’t scratch.

“Why are fundamentalists like Binnie’s father working so hard to turn back the clock on omega rights?” Ollie prompted out of nowhere. “What’s their main objective?”

“Turning omegas into house slaves?” Fen spit bitterly.

“No,” Binnie corrected. “Turning them into breeders. They need more babies because our workforce is dwindling. They’re running out of people to do the necessary jobs.”

“That,” Ollie said, pointing to Binnie. “And what do you think they’ll do with someone like Deke when they realize he can alter anyone’s gender and turn them into an omega? A breedable omega.”

Deke was going to throw up.

Breedable omega.

Breedable omega.

Breedable omega.

Breedable omega.

The words beat against his brain like a bird trapped in a glass house. This was crazy.

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

Every one of his brothers had presented by fifteen. Early by medical standards. Wouldn’t one of them be this mythical enigma if one existed? Deke was a late presentation and, so far, the worst alpha ever. He didn’t feel like an alpha in any way, shape, or form when his actual douchebag alpha wasn’t calling the shots.

He was the baby of eight. There was no planet where he was the chosen one. That wasn’t how this shit worked. Wasn’t it supposed to be like the seventh son of the seventh son or someone born when a once-in-a-lifetime comet blazed across the sky? Crazy shit like that?

He wasn’t even fully convinced he was supposed to be a regular alpha much less one that could control other alphas.

San gasped, hands flying to his mouth dramatically as he jerked forward in his chair, his crotch hitting the back of Binnie’s head, startling him. Everyone looked at him like he was insane, but he was only looking at Ollie. No, Ollie’s stomach. “Oh, my God. Are you pregnant?”

“Pregnant?” Deke yelped, snapping his gaze to glare at Ollie’s stomach. “No. That can’t be true. It can’t be.”

Breedable omega.

No.

No fucking way.

There was no way that Deke’s stoic, reliable beta was now somehow his omega. His whole body flushed, leaving his limbs tingling. His omega who he’d spent days and days and days knotting again and again, filling him up each time.

Deke’s knees gave out, sending him crashing down beside Ollie.

Pregnant. Baby. Babies? There could be more than one in there. Oh…holy fuck. Holy fuck. Holy fuck.

“I’m barely old enough to drink,” he whispered, tears welling in his eyes before he rapidly blinked them away. Get it together. Some alpha he was.

It couldn’t be true, his brain supplied again.

Some super alpha wouldn’t be crying over knocking up their mate. They would be strutting around, thumping their chest, flexing on the other alphas…right? This was surreal. It felt like the world’s worst dream.

“We don’t know anything yet,” Ollie said, shooting a murderous look at San. “This is all speculation. If I am…you know…then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

They all sat in silence as Deke stared at Ollie’s perfectly flat stomach. Was there a baby in there? Their baby? His stomach somersaulted at the thought. A tiny baby that looked like Ollie. What had he looked like as a baby? Deke couldn’t picture it.

“A baby,” Seth whispered suddenly, unable to hold back a smile.

Saint rubbed Seth’s belly.

“It would be pretty cool to have a roly-poly chunky little baby in the house,” Fen said, his excitement palpable. He looked between Ollie and Deke. “He’d be so beautiful.”

“A pack baby would be pretty cool,” Binnie said, tilting his head back until he could make eye contact with San, who bit back a smile, then nodded.

Fen looked at Loch. “So…what’s the plan?”