Chapter 12
TWELVE
“It sure is,” I say bluntly.
I don’t want to pretend that this isn’t the strangest fucking thing we’ve gone through. A few weeks ago, Atlas was our partner, and we were planning to knock out Kieran Cobb and Prism with his help.
Now, it seems like we’re all realizing that eventually, he’s going to go into heat, become a needy mess, and then we’re gonna be fucking in this nest.
Not going to lie. A needy Atlas sounds so fucking hot. He’s always so put together, so domineering, that the vision of him writhing, desperate, and begging makes me feel like I’m going to black out, the blood rushes from my head so fast.
We’ve never been together or anything, mainly because I don’t shit where I eat, but also because there’s no way a guy like him wants Sebass with the fat ass. But, yeah. I would never kick him out of bed for eating crackers.
And the Gods were smiling down on me because it’s not just him!
Athena.
An appropriate name for the goddess of a woman who looks so delicious in a baggy shirt that it may as well be lingerie.
But both of them in heat? Shit fuck, how are we going to manage that? With four Alphas versus two Omegas, the odds seem stacked against us.
There are more holes than dicks. If they sync up, which, let’s be real, they’re definitely going to because these two are going to do everything together, we’re going to have two Omegas, panting and desperate and filling this nest with the smells of a lazy Sunday morning, and we’re only going to have four dicks to service them.
Athena bursts out into a surprising laugh that makes all of us stare at her.
“Whoa, do that again,” I say, shuffling across the nest to be closer to her. “Are you ticklish? Can I tell you a joke? I have to hear that sound again.”
She narrows her eyes at me like she thinks I’m joking.
I’m not.
If I have to go full cartoon and drop an anvil on my foot, I will, if it means I can hear a sound of joy slip out of her lips after seeing her so traumatized.
“Please don’t tickle me,” she finally says, a shy smile on her beautiful face. “But that’s mainly because I’ll pee myself. Icarus wasn’t lying about the UTI.”
Charles’s nose wrinkles, as if he doesn’t like her saying something so personal out loud. I don’t mind. I like honesty, especially from our Omega. We need to know what is going on so we can take care of them.
Sometimes, I struggle to understand the hidden meanings in people’s words, so I like it when someone is straightforward with me. Leaving things up for interpretation is not my style.
“We should order some cranberry juice then,” I say, pulling my phone out.
“I’ll do a grocery order. We’re looking pretty slim.
Do you have any favorite foods you want me to get?
Do you drink coffee or tea? I don’t know if you remember, but you smell like coffee, so I am quite partial to the hot bean juice. ”
Atlas snorts. “Are you going to ask me what I like?” he asks sarcastically.
“I mean, yeah. After she answered, duh.”
The Omega rolls his eyes before kissing along the curve of Athena’s neck as she answers me.
“I drink coffee, but typically only as lattes.” I add an espresso machine to the online shopping cart, alongside the cranberry juice.
“Favorite foods? Uh, charcuterie? Cheese? I like food that I can eat with my hands. Sandwiches, fruit, raw veggies…” She blushes and tucks her hair behind her ear. “I have texture issues.”
“So does Sebass,” Harvey says.
I ruffle the hair on the back of my head. “Yeah, different from yours, but I get it. Charles is gonna have a fucking ball cooking for the two of us.”
Charles makes a noise of disagreement. “I am happy to make sure both of my Omegas get satisfying, healthy meals.” He emphasizes both, as if I could forget that Atlas is also my Omega.
To be fair, it seems like Atlas doesn’t want to be seen as an Omega, and I’m going to do my best not to treat him any differently than I did before, if that’s possible. It may not be.
“Atlas?” I say, trying to catch his eyes. “Any requests?”
He adjusts his body slightly and pulls Athena in between his thighs. He’s taller than she is by at least a head, and she slips under his chin easily. I’m even taller than he is. How will she fit in my arms?
“I typically go for an energy drink in the mornings.”
“Omegas shouldn’t have so much caffeine,” Charles Fucking Idiot Lupine says. “It’s not good for your system.”
Atlas stares blankly at the Alpha. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows and takes a deep breath, clearly gearing up for a fight.
“Charles, I mean this disrespectfully when I say, shut the fuck up.” Charles stumbles backward a little.
“I am still Atlas Cassidy. I am not Atlas the Omega. You don’t get to decide I smell good and try to change my entire personality.
” He turns back to me and smiles stiffly. “I like the white ones.”
“Heard!” I throw a case of his preferred energy drink into the cart and look around the nest. “Does anyone else have any requests? Speak now or… make me place another order tomorrow.”
Athena snorts out a small laugh, and I make a mental tally mark in my mind.
Sebass, two, everyone else, nada.
In the end, we left the nest after the Omegas fell asleep. Both of them passed out while listening to us talk about one mission we went on with Atlas, which didn’t surprise us. I don’t doubt that they’ll sleep for hours to recover from the horror of what they went through.
We didn’t feel right staying after they passed out, not without them explicitly saying they wanted us to sleep there, so we all slipped out and went to our own rooms.
The blue glow of my computer makes my eyes water. I should sleep, but I can’t. I can’t stop thinking about the forum post I saw this afternoon.
An anonymous user was talking about how Betas were an abomination and the source of all problems, and that to fix our society, we had to work on breeding them out and turning them into Alphas and Omegas.
It was all normal extremist bullshit until it wasn’t.
anonymoususer98246:
a buddy of mine says that the design clinic is really just a front to eradicate all betas. that people working there are trying to figure out how to change living ones
anonymoususer3097z:
No fucking way, that’s conspiracy shit. I’ll believe it when I see it. I still haven’t seen proof of a Beta being turned at all.
anonymoususer98246:
believe what you want but that place gives me the creeps so i wouldn’t be surprised
I stare at the forum posts again. They talk about the supposed Omega conversion therapy, but no one seems to know exactly who is doing it. It’s all “I heard” and “My buddy says”.
If there is any truth to the Design Clinic being behind this, I need to find out.
But I’m going to have my work cut out for me hacking into their system.
It’s essentially a digital fortress because of the sensitive data it contains.
I may have to get my buddy Blaine to help me, but he’s gone straight and only uses his powers for good now.
Still, if he knew what was at stake, I bet he’d help me out. The tide would change for us if I could find out who’s behind the medical side of things, since we already know it’s Tyler, Atlas’s ex, doing the physical trafficking.
I’m scrolling through more endless, misogynistic comments when a scream shatters the silence of the house.
It’s a pained, struggling sound that makes me want to hurl. I take off running to the nest, nearly tripping over Harvey. He’s in a pair of tight briefs and a baggy white shirt, and he looks barely awake.
When we make it to the nest, Wyatt turns the corner from the other side of the hall, glasses halfway off his face. He throws open the door, and the three of us pile in.
To find Charles kneeling in front of a sobbing Athena. Atlas retreated to a corner of the nest, wrapping his arms around his knees to hide his face. His body shakes violently.
Every time Charles tries to touch Athena, she screams again, her body curling up to protect her from dangerous memories.
“I don’t know what to do,” Charles says desperately. “She won’t wake up.”
“Atlas?” Wyatt asks, moving closer to the other Omega. “Atlas, is everything okay?”
Atlas doesn’t answer, but he looks up at our lead Alpha. His eyes are glossy, and wet tears make tracks down his face. “I can’t save her. I couldn’t save her. They took her. What if this is the time she doesn’t come back? They took her. They took her.”
He continues his chant, not saying anything else. I’m not sure whether he’s actually seeing Wyatt.
“Who’d they take?” Wyatt asks, and I’m pretty sure he knows damn well who they took. Is he trying to get Atlas to wake up and realize Athena is here with us?
A scream from the other side of the nest makes my head whip back to see Charles gathering a kicking Athena into his arms.
“I know, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but this is the only thing I can think of,” he says as he strokes a hand down her hair. A loud purr rumbles out of his chest, and I watch as her body melts against him at the sound.
Wyatt looks awkward as hell as he pulls Atlas to his chest and mimics Charles.
Within minutes, we have two Omegas who are calm and blinking out of their nightmares.
Atlas is the first to notice what is going on, and he practically throws himself out of Wyatt’s arms. “What the fuck are you doing?” he snarls.
“I was purring for you. You were all out of sorts, real upset,” Wyatt tells him, pushing his glasses up on his nose. Sometimes I forget he wears contacts since I never see him wearing the thick-framed glasses. “Charles did it for Athena, and it worked, so I thought…”
“You thought I was a fragile Omega who needed help?” Atlas’s words are so sharp that Athena whines, making the other Omega stiffen.
“Atlas,” Harvey says calmly. “You were having a nightmare. Wyatt was trying to help.”
“I don’t need your help!” he shouts. I’m sure he didn’t intend for it to be that loud, but Athena still flinches and whines at his words. “Fuck!” he swears while rubbing his chest and looking at his bonded Omega.
“Calm down,” Charles hisses around his purr, situating Athena on his lap more. “You’re not the only one who is having a tough night.”
Finally, Athena looks up at Atlas, and I can practically hear his heart break. Tears immediately gather in his eyes, and he drops to the surface of the nest and crawls to her.
“Goddess,” he whines, the sound so natural and yet so strange to hear from the man I have worked with for so long. “I’m sorry.”
Athena doesn’t seem to be present right now. Her eyes are cloudy, staring unblinking at the wall. Charles strokes a hand down her hair as he continues his purr.
“Why isn’t she waking up?” Atlas asks desperately, grabbing her face in his hands. “Why is she like this?”
“She’s traumatized, that’s why,” I say, shrugging and crashing onto the nest beside him. “Everyone processes trauma differently. We need to support her the best we can.”
“Purr,” Wyatt says roughly. “Everyone needs to touch her and purr. She needs to know that she’s safe here.”
We all crowd around the catatonic Omega, touching her softly and purring. It’s a discordant melody, with none of us practiced, but we try our best.
Our Omega needs us.
Our Omegas need us.
But right now, one needs us more.