Chapter Fifteen – Noelle #2
“Yeah, they’re on track to get here this afternoon, but last I checked we’re going to be hit with another storm today, so they might run a little late.
Depending on how fast the snow falls, sometimes there are road closures up here.
” As she says it, she doesn’t sound worried in the slightest for her parents.
Since this is the first holiday I’ve spent with them, I wouldn’t know, but maybe this sort of thing happens often.
I watch as she finishes with her last nail, her left pinky finger, while I work on filing mine. “Do they, uh, know I’m here?”
“Yeah, of course I told them you were coming.” The way she says it, so quickly, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, stuns me a bit, you know, considering she hid that fact from her brothers.
“Okay, let me ask it this way: do they know their sons asked me to be their omega?”
Miranda rolls her eyes. “God, you had to say it like that? Yuck.” She makes a gagging face, then she grins at me.
“Kidding. Mostly. And to answer your question, no, I don’t think the meatheads told them yet.
They probably want to do it in person. Knowing our mom, she’s going to freak—in a good way.
Here’s a word of advice: be prepared for a long, hard hug.
Mom might be an omega, but she has a wicked hug. ”
Oh, I know all about her mom’s so-called wicked hug.
She loves giving physical affection, like most omegas do.
Since my parents are betas, I didn’t really get that at home—only at their house.
I didn’t mind the hard, lingering hugs. They always made me feel wanted, loved.
Miranda’s mom is already like my second mom, and I imagine that bond will only grow stronger once she finds out I’m her sons’ omega.
I’ve been a part of their family for years, really, but now it’s official. Now it’s real.
“I love your mom’s hugs,” I say, knowing it sounds cheesy as hell.
She blows on her nails to speed up the drying. “You still waiting to tell your parents?”
“Yeah. There’s no use telling them now. They’ll only freak out. Maybe even try to drive all the way up here. I might wait until we’re back, when the four of us can sit down with them and tell them.”
“They’ll know the moment you guys walk through the front door.
” Miranda’s nose wrinkles. “You smell like them, you know.” I open my mouth to apologize, but she waves me off and says, “It’s fine.
I knew you would start to smell like them sooner or later.
I’m a big girl, I can handle it. Besides, as a beta, I’m not as in-tune to the world of scents as you and the meatheads are, thank God for that. ”
Betas are the most numerous in society, and out of all of us, I suppose they’re the most normal of the bunch. They’re not slaves to their instincts like we are, not riddled with dominance and growls like alphas. They simply exist. Some days I’m jealous of them, truth be told.
I don’t think I’ll be jealous anymore, though. There’s no reason for me to wish to be someone else, no reason at all for me to dream about a different designation, not when I have three amazing mates who will fill the rest of my life with so much love.
Miranda checks her nails to make sure they’re dry, and when she finds they are, she takes my right hand and helps me finish the filing. Guess I’m too slow for her.
Felix and Nico come join us, the former of which carries a few board games, which he sets down on the small table in front of the couch, near Miranda’s mess of nail polish.
“Ooh,” Nico says, sitting close to me. “Do mine next.”
I giggle. “You want your sister to paint your nails?”
Felix gives Nico a playful slap on the back of the head and answers for his twin, “Ignore him. Once you move in with us, you’ll learn to ignore more than half the things he says. Sometimes he talks just to hear himself.”
Nico shoots him a dirty look. “Hey, I have a sexy voice. I’m sexy and I know it.” His eyes squint. “Someone should write a song about that.”
Miranda totally ignores her brothers and asks, “How do you want me to do your nails? Alternate fingers? Or one hand red, one hand green? Or just your ring finger in the opposite color? Give me your vision, and I will make it come to life!” The way she says that last part, so dramatically, makes me giggle.
“Whatever you want to do,” I tell her, not really caring either way.
I’ve never been good with nails or makeup or even hair—out of the norm for an omega, I know.
Most of us like to preen and make ourselves look pretty.
Thankfully Miranda’s good at all that, to the point where she hopes to open her own salon someday.
As Miranda does my nails, the guys pick out which game we’re going to play first: Monopoly, only it’s a branded version with cats.
Matteo comes around, the large alpha grabbing a pillow off the couch and tossing it to the floor, where he sits. His dark blond hair appears even darker now that it’s wet; the alpha clearly just got out of the shower, and might I say, he looks damn fine.
“You’ve never played with us before, have you?” Nico asks as Felix sets up the game board. When I shake my head no, a grim, serious look crosses his face. “Let me warn you now, then: some of us are sore losers.”
Miranda laughs at him, and she whispers to me, “If you really want to see a disaster, play any game with the meatheads and our dads. The testosterone in the area will be enough to make your head spin.”
“Ironically, it’s our mom who’s the sorest loser,” Felix states with a shrug. “It’s why, anytime she plays, we have to let her win.”
“What if I’m a sore loser?” I ask. “Will you still let your mom win, or would you let me win?”
“Damn. Forcing us to choose between the woman who gave us life and the girl who has our hearts?” Nico sets a hand above said heart on his chest, rubbing it like it’s bruised at the mere thought of deciding between us.
A moment passes, and then he shoots me a grin.
“Obviously, you. We’re on your team now, Noelle.
” Felix and Matteo nod with him, and Miranda rolls her eyes and huffs and how foolish we all are.
“Except for this game,” Felix says as he shuffles the cards and places them in their rightful spot on the gameboard. “In the harsh world of Monopoly, everyone’s out for themselves. In this game, you either win or you lose.” He says it so seriously, I can’t help but laugh.
Beside me, Miranda moves to my other hand, painting my nails with an expert touch. “You sure you want these meatheads to be your problem from now on? You don’t have any bonding bites, so it’s not too late to change your mind—”
As she says it, all three alphas around whip their heads in our direction, looks of alarm, annoyance, and bewilderment on their faces. Their expressions make me laugh, and I have to tell them, “Don’t worry. Nothing Miranda says will make me change my mind about you three.”
Their looks of relief only last a few seconds, because my friend leans over and whispers, “Are you sure? Because I know all of their most embarrassing moments. Did you know that when he was twelve, Nico—”
Nico laughs loudly, loud enough to drown his sister out.
“Okay, none of that. Hurry up and finish those nails, kind sister, so we can begin the game and move on from this whole conversation. Please.” The way he says kind sister and how his voice begs when he says please makes me wonder just what he did when he was twelve.
Whatever it is, it has to be very embarrassing.
And since he was a twelve-year-old boy, I can only imagine what that something was.
Maybe he’s right and I don’t want to know.
Miranda finishes my nails, and I elect to take my turn last so my nails can fully dry before I have a turn with the dice. Miranda claims turn number one, and she rolls two fours, which means she gets to roll again.
I don’t know that I’ve ever played this game before, but it’s pretty self-explanatory, even with the cat theme.
Felix plays the banker, along with his own piece, so he doles out the money and the property, along with reading the cards in the middle anytime one of us lands on the respective squares on the board.
And, yes, there’s even a kitty jail.
It doesn’t take too many turns to realize the guys really are competitive—but at least they’re competitive against each other and not so much me.
They’re too busy paying attention to each other that they neglect to realize Miranda and I form a coalition, so to speak.
We team up, so when we buy a collection of felines that match on the board, we can co-purchase houses and increase the fees they have to pay when they land on our squares.
It’s quite devious, but that’s what makes it fun. Miranda and I have a good go at them, and it’s only when we own more than half of the entire board that they guys finally start to catch on.
“Wait a minute,” Felix says. “I thought you owned the Siamese square, Miranda?”
“I do,” she proclaims proudly.
“But I thought you owned the exotic?” This question he lobbies to me.
“Yeah, I do,” I admit, barely able to hide my smile.
The alpha finally pieces it together, and he falls back onto the pillow he’s called home this whole time. He glances at Matteo and Nico, the former of which is too busy counting what’s left of his money, while Nico is absolutely clueless. “I think they’ve teamed up against us.”
Miranda shrugs. “If it means we can take you meatheads down…”
“That’s cheating,” Nico cries, pointing at us like we’re witches and he wants us to be burned at the stake. “I cry foul!” His dramatics only earn him a hard look from Matteo and a sigh from Felix. “That’s illegal, isn’t it? They can’t team up.”
“Is teaming up really that different from losing on purpose to let your mom win?” I ask.
That trips Nico up. “Well, uh, yeah. I mean, sort of. One involves a team and the other—”