Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
“?Tres bandejas paisa?” the woman at the counter asks.
“Si, con bastante chicharrón, y quatro empanadas, unos pan de bonos, y dos arepas de choclo.”
“Es solamente usted.”
I glare at her. I come in here often enough, and I know they’ve never seen me with anyone, but, damn, does she need to call me out like that? I exhale sharply, knowing what will happen after I tell her why I need so much food.
“Es por mi Omega y manada.”
It’s for my Omega and pack.
It feels weird to say out loud that I have a pack when I haven’t even met the other Alpha, and who knows if anything will come of the Beta, but it feels good, too.
Of course, she begins to coo and fawn over me like a proud tia, fluttering around and adding more pastries and breads to my bag than the four of us could eat in a week.
Twenty minutes later, with my arms full of bags of delicious food, I use the toe of my sneaker to “knock” on Crystal’s door.
As it opens and she fills the frame, my heart actually skips a beat. She’s wearing tight black jeans that hug her thighs and a slinky black top that hangs off one of her shoulders. Her hair looks like she touched up the dye today, the purple and blue vibrant, the pink at her roots crisp, and she’s got a small amount of makeup on her eyes. It’s just enough to give her a slight feline look.
I am a lucky Alpha, indeed.
“Come in!” she says warmly, taking a step back. “Wow, do you think you got enough food?”
I snort out a laugh as I lay the bags on top of her table. “I made the mistake of telling the woman at the restaurant that I had an Omega and a pack now. After seeing me eating there alone for five years, I suppose she got a little excited about the development.”
It sounds pathetic when I say it out loud, but that’s the reality.
I’ve been alone for a very long time.
Not everyone is willing to put up with a partner who sometimes can’t get out of bed because of their pain level. It can feel like I don’t care about someone enough to push through it.
It’s hard to understand if it’s not something you’ve lived.
“I hope you don’t mind that I gave you an earlier arrival time,” Crystal says softly behind me. I turn around to find her close enough to get a whiff of her sweet and spicy peppermint scent. As I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close, she rests her cheek on my chest and speaks against my shirt. “It’s only because I wanted to make sure you were okay with it one more time.”
Stroking my hand down the back of her head, marveling at how soft the wavy strands are, I feel at peace. She was always meant to be in my arms.
“Of course I’m okay with it. I’ve got a pack. I thought I was destined to be a lone Alpha, driven mad one day by my need for an Omega. This has all happened quite fast, but it’s exciting nonetheless.”
“And the Beta?” Her voice is small and tentative. “It’s new with him. We haven’t even gone on a date, officially, but before that could happen, I needed you and Maverick, that’s the other Alpha’s name, I don’t know if I told you that, to meet him.” She talks fast when she’s nervous, I’m learning.
But she doesn’t have anything to be nervous about with me.
Before I can tell her that, a loud knock rattles the door. I wince at the sound. Crystal pulls away and smiles tightly.
“I guess it’s time to meet the contestant behind door number one.”
When she throws open the door, she barely breathes before she’s swept up into the arms of a tall and slim Alpha with shaggy brown hair. “There she is!” he crows, spinning her in a circle. “Is this your place? It’s so nice. When am I moving in?”
She laughs and pats his arm. “Set me down, Maverick.”
When he does, I get a good look at him. He’s wearing baggy, tattered jeans and a tight white shirt under an open plaid one.
The Alpha looks familiar, but I can’t place where I’ve seen him before. As he turns to face me, no doubt about to demand an introduction, I feel a yanking in my chest that I’ve never felt before. It’s demanding I look at him, and when we make eye contact, the room nearly spins.
If deja vu were a person, it would be this man. Every bit of him feels familiar, and I find myself taking several steps towards him.
“Hey there. You must be my packmate,” he says, sticking out his hand. “I’m Maverick.”
“Emmanuel, but you can call me Manny if you want to.” When I clasp his hand, he pulls me into a bro hug, patting me on the back.
“Cool, cool, cool. This is so rad. I didn’t know I would ever find a pack.”
I step out of his arms and cross my arms in front of me. I feel exposed for some reason. “Me neither. But I couldn’t think of a better Omega to form a pack around, could you?”
“Hell no, dude, Crystal is the best.”
The Omega in question had stepped back to allow us to meet one another, but she moves to stand between us now. “Are we friends now? We feeling good? It’s not weird? I worried it would be weird.”
“Nah, he’s mine just like you are. I mean, not just like, because … well, because I don’t want to fuck him.”
My eyes widen, and I choke on my spit. “Right back at you?”
He continues as if he didn’t hear me. “But he’s pack. It feels right. I couldn’t be happier, bunny.” Maverick pulls Crystal to his chest, ignoring her feeble protests before planting a sloppy kiss on her lips.
“Bunny?” she says when he finally lets her pull away.
“Yeah, that didn’t work. Felt weird on my tongue.” He tickles her sides, and she snorts out a laugh.
I know I can’t compare my relationship with her to Maverick’s. It’s not a competition. We’ve all got to develop at our own pace. But should I have kissed her when I arrived? It’s not that I didn’t want to. I want to. But I don’t know the rules.
Are there rules?
Maybe I’m overthinking things.
Honestly, I never expected to have an Omega, much less have to get to know them while acclimating to a packmate, so I know this whole process will be a little clunky. I’ll need to roll with the punches.
“I’m serious about finding you the perfect pet name, my precious,” Maverick is saying.
“Oh, no, not my precious,” she groans. “No way.”
“Fine,” he whines on an exhale. “Back to the drawing board. Anyways. When am I moving in?”
She drops her mouth open, no doubt to deny, based on the look on her face, when a knock on the door sounds off again. Her body tenses.
“That the Beta?” Maverick says, swinging his head to look at the door.
“Yeah, I’m not expecting anyone else.” Her voice quivers with nerves, making me long to protect her.
I move towards the door. “I’ll get it, introduce myself first,” I say.
But when I open the door, I discover introductions aren’t needed.
“Hiccup?” I say incredulously. “You look just like Alan, wow.”
His mouth falls open. “Emmanuel? What are you… Oh shit.” He ruffles his red hair, reminding me so much of that four-year-old boy who followed Alan and me around the neighborhood. “This is awkward.”
“You’re the Beta Crystal is interested in?” It’s hard to see Gage as anything other than that little kid, almost a little brother, even if I haven’t seen him or Alan in years.
Alan moved out at the age of nineteen, leaving Lunarcrest to attend a small college in a nearby state. Gage was five. I stayed because my parents were still here, and Lunarcrest University is a great school.
Which means I was still in the neighborhood when Gage’s mom died. She was a single mom, which was why I kept babysitting Gage when I could, even through college.
But she got involved in some shady dealings and didn’t come home one day.
Alan came back to see Gage through his grief, but wouldn’t bring Gage home with him. He must have been around ten at this time. Alan said he couldn’t care for a kid and left Gage to be put in foster care.
I haven’t seen him since.
“Uh, yeah, I guess I am,” he says timidly. Though he’s fully grown and covered in beautiful tattoos, he’s still got the same sheepish grin as the kid I remember. “Let’s go in, yeah?”
I step back, letting him pass by me before shutting the door and turning the lock out of habit. He’s giving Crystal a gentle hug when Maverick yelps in surprise.
“Tattoo artist!” He says, then rips off his shirt, pointing at his chest. “Look how well it’s healing!”
Crystal takes a step back, staring at the tattoo of a tarnished crown wrapped in overgrown flowers that covers Maverick’s right pec. “A.. a crown?”
“An abandoned crown, technically,” the other Alpha hums. “One that’s been left behind.”
Gage looks at Maverick, then Crystal, and then bursts into loud, hysterical laughter. “Fucking, of course! Of course! One of your Alphas is my brother’s best friend, and the other is Manic-fucking-Mav, who I just happened to tattoo a few days ago.” He leans over, propping himself up on his knees. “This is wild. Are there cameras? Feels like a prank show.”
“Nah, man, I don’t do prank shows. I’m like, way above them,” Maverick says dismissively.
“Wait. Okay, wait. Start over,” she says in confusion, stepping away from all of us. “You did Maverick’s tattoo?”
“I sure did. Manic Mav sat like a champ for a couple of hours.”
That’s when I realize where I know Maverick from. He was on some cheesy reality TV show about Lunarcrest City as a club DJ.
“Manic Mav?” I wrinkle my nose at the name. “Why did you choose that moniker?”
“Because I’m a DJ, and I have bipolar disorder,” Maverick says with a shrug. “It seemed to fit.”
Crystal’s face flares with heat as she hums, “I should probably tell you I’ve watched the show, huh?”
His face lights up with joy. “You have? Did you like it?”
“You’re very talented.” She kisses him on the tip of his nose, and he preens.
“That’s not how you guys met?” Gage asks.
“Nope. I was at Prism and -”
“Can I tell that story after dinner?” Crystal winces. Maverick takes her hand and kisses the tips of her fingers, seemingly nonplussed about being interrupted.
“But yeah,” Gage continues after a beat. “I tattooed Maverick, and Emmanuel used to babysit me when I was a kid.”
“I was friends with his brother before he moved away.”
“Before he abandoned me, you mean,” Gage mutters. “At least you stuck around while you could.”
“Hiccup, Alan wasn’t trying to hurt you,” I whisper, stepping towards him.
“I don’t want to talk about that. And don’t call me Hiccup. I’m not five years old anymore.”
An awkward silence spreads between the four of us at Gage’s admonishment. Eventually, it’s broken by Maverick.
“Well, something smells really fucking good, so if we’re not gonna talk, we may as well use our mouths for something else, yeah?”