Chapter 11
ELEVEN
It’s physically painful to keep walking away from the nest. My chest aches with every step, and my feet threaten to disobey me and run back to my Omegas.
I should be with them in there. They shouldn’t be alone. Not right now. Not after everything they’ve been through. They need an Alpha.
I have never felt less worthy of my designation than I do right now. Walking away from them feels like a cardinal sin.
I knew from the moment Sebastian said that he scent matched with them I was going to be in trouble. I always knew that having an Omega would bring a lot of my deeply buried fears to light. After what happened to Will, I knew my heart couldn’t take worrying about an Omega the way I inevitably would.
And now I have not one Omega at risk of the monsters that hide in plain sight within Lunarcrest City, but two.
Two who have already been through more trauma than anyone deserves.
Athena looks like every wet dream I had as a boy, but thinking about that makes me feel gross since that should be the last thing on my mind right now.
I can’t help it, though. It’s hard to ignore the way her waist tucks in, the soft, curved line of her stomach, the vivid green of her eyes.
She’s like a statue or a painting, pure feminine beauty.
I want to run my fingers across every inch of her, memorizing the sounds she makes as I do.
I want to bury my face between those thighs and feast before falling asleep on them.
She’s stunning, and I know the others agree. In our wildest dreams, we never would have expected to have an Omega like Athena Valentine.
And then there is Atlas Cassidy.
My friend.
My coworker.
Tall, fit, handsome Atlas, with his dark hair and prominent nose. His muscular hands, his plush lips.
His massive co-
I can’t let my mind go there. It was one night.
Atlas is my dirty little secret.
But how can a secret stay buried in this situation?
I feel unmoored, like I am about to float off into the abyss if I don’t find something to anchor myself to.
Our last interaction comes swimming to the forefront of my mind.
“Here y’all go, one abomination.”
Atlas bucks and swears, his dark hair flopping around haphazardly as I toss him to the cold floor.
“Abomination?” Kieran sneers.
I wrinkle my nose and spit on the floor of the abandoned factory.
“S’what I said. God didn’t intend for no men to be Omegas.
They’re erasing women and undermining everything an Omega is supposed to be.
It’s disgusting. And the Alphas that’ll get them pregnant and let them pass on their corruption ain’t much better. ”
Every word that leaves my mouth makes my skin crawl. I fucking hate doing this. Of course, I don’t believe what I’m saying. My brother is an Omega. But I know the type of person who trafficks male Omegas and the ways they justify it to themselves.
It isn’t the first time I’ve had to slip into this persona, and I know it won’t be the last in my line of business. I’m going to hate it every single time, but this time it feels like a betrayal.
Atlas spits the gag from his mouth, and the look in his eyes could take a weaker man to his knees. He whines convincingly, and I wish I could applaud him for how believable it is. I’m surprised he’s got it down so well after only a few days of practicing with Will.
“We’ve always been here! Male Omegas aren’t a new development. Only recently has society decided that we’re broken or dirty.”
That fucker Kieran kicks him hard in the ribs, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from charging at him.
I can’t blow this. It may be the only way to save the Omegas they’re harboring while getting Puck and Crystal out at the same time.
“Shut the fuck up, Omega. While I may disagree with your handler, it’s only because, in my opinion, all Omegas are nothing more than warm holes and cute faces.
To be seen and not heard.” He crouches in front of the disguised Beta and sneers.
“You’re pretty enough. My buyers are going to love you. ”
And then I watch him get dragged away, and I have to pray that everything else goes to plan and Puck keeps him safe.
I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself for handing Atlas over if he can’t.
“Wyatt,” Charles snaps. “Are you even listening to me?”
I blink out of my memory and try to focus on the man standing before me. When did he get here? It takes a couple of seconds before the dark-haired Alpha comes into focus.
“Honestly? Nope. Didn’t even know you were there.” I scratch my head and slump against the wall. “What’s up?”
“The nest delivery is here, and I want to make sure it’s right before we take it to them.” He spins on his heel and stalks back into the foyer, all business as he snags an armload of shopping bags. “Get the rest,” he calls over his shoulder.
He’s real on edge because of this whole two Omega thing. We weren’t prepared for one Omega, much less two, and with one being a male, that’s gotta be throwing Charles for a loop. I doubt there was ever a universe where Charles pictured himself having a male Omega.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Harvey says, entering from the kitchen with a beer in his hand.
“This is new to them, too. We’re all going to have to figure it out together.
It’s not like they went to the Omega Academy or anything and have rigid expectations of what this is supposed to be like.
They’re learning as much as we are right now. ”
Charles mutters something indiscernible before dumping out a few of the shopping bags. He spreads it out, making two piles as he talks. “Okay, the website had a section called ‘Nest Essentials.’ That’s where I started. I’ve got blankets, pillows, fairy lights, candles-”
“Why did you get two of everything? Are we going to split the nest in half?” I pick up a fuzzy, baby pink blanket and then the matching one in blue. “This looks like we’re expecting twin infants, Chuckie.”
Harvey laughs while Charles steams. “Well, what are we supposed to do? Let them have an empty nest? We’ve got nothing for them.
They can’t smell us, so it’s not like they’d want some of our clothing to keep in there.
” He sounds disappointed about that. “I got what I could to hold us over until they’re well enough to go shopping.
We need to make sure they’re comfortable.
If they don’t feel comfortable, their Omegas will be unsettled, which will hinder their recovery. We have to get this right.”
“We’ve been sleeping in cages for weeks. Anything is more comfortable than that. You don’t need to worry about it, Alpha.”
We all turn to see Athena standing in the hallway, her eyes glassy and shoulders slumped. She looks so pretty in my clothes, her soft curves wrapped in a green fabric that is almost the same shade as her eyes.
Charles steps toward her but stops abruptly, as if she’s a wild animal he’s afraid to spook. “I just want to make sure you’re cared for, Omega. I want you to be happy here.”
She shakes her head and walks across the room to pull the pink blanket from my hands, throwing it over her arm before grabbing two ivory pillows.
“I appreciate the thought, truly, I do. I can see that it comes from the right place, and you’re a good Alpha.
But you don’t need to stress yourself out so much.
I’m not an Omega, not really. You don’t have to care for me like one.
” Her eyes grow glassy as she strokes her hand across one of the pillows.
“I know how to take care of an Omega. I hoped to have one in my pack someday. I don’t know how to be one. ”
“Follow your instincts,” Charles tells her, as if it’s that easy to override a lifetime of social conditioning. “They won’t steer you wrong.”
She shrugs, pulling the blanket to her nose and inhaling as if one of our scents would come through.
I don’t know if she even did that consciously.
“I doubt I’ve got much in the way of instincts.
Thanks for the nesting material, though.
It will make the room feel less empty. It’s been me and Atlas for weeks.
Quiet and cold and dark.” She turns around and heads back to the nest, but stops on the room’s threshold.
Barely above a whisper, she says, “I never want it to be like that again.”
We watch her leave, and I fixate on her still-damp hair that falls below her shoulders.
“Was she inviting us into the nest?” Charles asks once she’s gone, sounding almost giddy. “That was an invitation, wasn’t it? I think that was an invitation. That’s a good sign, right?”
“It wasn’t not an invitation,” Harvey replies, staring at the spot Athena disappeared into.
“It’s close enough that I’m not comfortable ignoring it, at least. If it were one, and we don’t show up, she’ll be devastated.
If it wasn’t, we can play it off as telling them goodnight.
” He stares at the spot she disappeared from and cards his fingers through his hair.
“I bet they’re going to have trouble sleeping.
There’s no way they got good rest while they were in there.
You’ve seen the bags under their eyes. Do you think they’ll ever tell us everything that happened there? ”
When we rescued Will, he was nearly comatose for weeks. He barely spoke to anyone, and getting him to eat was a chore. It wasn’t until he went into heat that he “reset,” for lack of a better word. His Omega took over, helping him process the trauma and reconnect with that part of himself.
But I still don’t know the details of what he went through at the hands of the Conglomerate.
I’m not sure if I could stomach them.
“Doubtful,” I respond. The remaining nesting supplies are scattered around the living room, so I load them back into bags and gather them up. “Let’s take them the supplies and see if they want us to stay. Where’s Sebass?”
“Here!” the Alpha in question shouts, stumbling into the living room in plaid pajama pants and a pair of slippers. “I was doing some research on this kind of genetic manipulation.”
“Find anything interesting?” Harvey asks.
He wrinkles his nose. “Yes, and no. Found some worrisome forums on the darknet. Discussions on how to turn Betas into Omegas, and not from Betas hoping for it, if you catch my drift. There’s a lot, and most of it is bullshit, so I will have to comb through it to see if any of it can lead us to something valuable. ”
“Keep us posted,” I call over my shoulder, heading down the hallway to the nest. Inside, I hear Athena and Atlas speaking to one another in gentle tones. I feel bad eavesdropping, but I can’t help it. I hold up a hand to stop the guys, and they all fall quiet behind me.
“What if we’re still there?” Athena asks in a shaky voice.
Atlas responds with his own question. “Or what if we’re dead, and this is just a hallucination in the last seven seconds of our lives?”
“What if they throw us out because we’re not real Omegas?” Athena sounds dangerously close to tears.
“Or what if they get rid of us because we’re shit at being Omegas?”
“What if…” She inhales sharply, and I hear a heartbreaking sob. “What if they only want one of us?”
Rustling of a blanket precedes a haggard, untried purr escaping Atlas. “Then they get neither of us. We’re a package deal, okay?”
I want to interrupt them, but I don’t want them to know all of us were listening to them spill their fears out when they thought they were safe. After a few moments of silence from the nest, I stomp a couple of times before showing up in the doorway.
Atlas is wearing only a pair of boxers, clearly having stripped out of the pajamas I brought him for bed, as he tenderly kisses Athena.
My stomach flips and my face heats, watching them together, remembering what it was like to be in Atlas’s embrace.
What would it be like to be in the middle of them? To have them both at once?
It’s shitty of me to think about when they’ve gone through so much, and I try to push it out of my mind.
“We’ve got more things for you,” Charles says tentatively, nudging me with his shoulder to get into the doorway. “Can we come in?”
Atlas nods tightly, his jaw locked as he waves us in. “You don’t need to ask.”
“Yes, we do. An Omega’s nest is-”
Atlas cuts Charles off. “Blanket permission from here on out. We will tell you if we don’t want you here, right, Athena?”
Athena nods but doesn’t speak. She stares at my pack like she’s trying to dissect us, trying to understand what we’re doing here.
Part of me is, too. What are we doing? We’ve gotta be crossing some boundaries, pushing too far by putting ourselves in front of them like Alphas on a platter.
Charles unpacks the bags, explaining everything he got and why, much to Atlas’s chagrin. The man seems pissed that he’s being treated like an Omega, and I get it.
He was a Beta, and we were all friends, and now he’s our Omega.
Talk about a switch in dynamics.
But he lets Charles talk, which must be more for Athena’s benefit than his own. Eventually, when the plethora of items Charles purchased is lined up on the side of the nest, he settles, his Alpha instincts satisfied.
An uncomfortable silence takes over the nest, and we all stare at one another, willing someone else to figure out where we go from here. It’s probably supposed to be on me, as pack lead, to do that kind of thing, but I’m at a loss.
“Well, this is fucking weird,” Atlas says.