Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
Crystal slams her hands down on the desk. “That asshole!” she seethes.
We’ve been watching the conversation the others are having with the medical team that experimented on Atlas and Athena. When Atlas spewed his antiquated ideas about Omegas being weak and worthless, Crystal blew up.
“How can he think that? After everything he’s seen? All the Omegas he rescued?”
I can’t help but turn the mirror onto myself.
Is what Atlas said much different from the attitude I’ve had toward them?
I’ve assumed our Omegas need to be protected and coddled.
It’s not that I think they’re weak, not necessarily, but I’ve spent my whole life being told that their designation means they deserve comfort and care that is not afforded to Alphas and Betas.
As Harvey leaves with Athena and Wyatt drags Atlas out of the interrogation room, Clicks remains oblivious to the fuming Omega, who stomps around the room with a phone pressed against her ear.
“Mav, I’m on my way home…. No, I’m not hurt. Atlas is being a fucking asshole.”
She shoves her phone in her pocket and, without a word, storms out of the room. A few moments later, Wyatt drags Atlas into the doorway.
“Chuckie, let’s go,” he barks with a dominance I haven’t heard from him in a long time.
“Thanks for everything, Clicks,” I say, grabbing my blazer from the back of a chair and following behind the fuming Alpha as he pulls our Omega behind him.
Atlas is subdued, staring at his feet, allowing Wyatt to lead him to the car without complaint.
He knows he messed up.
Our pack lead shoves him into the backseat and climbs into the driver’s side. I debate whether to go into the passenger seat or the back with Atlas, eventually deciding to sit in the back with him.
I can’t quite articulate why I want to sit with him, but it feels right. Not in a ‘this is what an Alpha is supposed to do’ way, but in a ‘this is what I’m supposed to do’ one.
He wrings his hands in his lap. “I-”
“No,” Wyatt barks, cutting the Omega off.
“I’m so tired of your attitude, Atlas. We’ve been understanding because you went through a horrifying ordeal, but fuck, could you make it any harder to support you?
You’ve rebuked our help at every turn, to where Athena feels like she has to, too.
And now you’ve let your self-loathing spill out of your giant fucking mouth and hurt our Omega. ”
“Hey,” I interject. “Lay off.”
“No!” Wyatt snarls, briefly taking his eyes off the road to glare at me. “He’s being an ass. Yeah, he went through something terrible, but that doesn’t mean he can take it out on the rest of us.”
“But that doesn’t mean he needs you to be so aggressive to get your point across.”
“Why are you defending him? He’s been the worst to you! He doesn’t need or want you to defend him just because he’s an Omega now.”
“It’s not because he’s an Omega!” I can feel my face getting red as my anger rises. I don’t look at Atlas, not wanting to read the emotions on his face. “It’s because he’s a human who went through something awful. He doesn’t deserve to be berated by you for how he processes it.”
A sharp whine from Atlas jars me out of my anger. When I look at him, his face is flushed with embarrassment and frustration. “Don’t say anything,” he grits out. “Don’t you dare.”
“This is what I mean!” Wyatt shouts, stopping a little too short at a red light. “You’re acting like being an Omega is a moral failing. A whine doesn’t make you less of a man.”
“Doesn’t it?” The Omega shouts, smacking the back of Wyatt’s seat. “You all want to treat me as someone to be pampered. I’m still Atlas! I’m still the guy who’d drink you under the table during poker nights.”
“And we never said you aren’t,” I remind him, turning sideways in the seat so he can see the sincerity on my face. “You can be that man and be an Omega, too. You can be that man and need to nest. They’re not mutually exclusive.”
“What the fuck is wrong with me?” Atlas whimpers, sinking further into the seat. “I hate this. I hate it so much. I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
“You’re Atlas Cassidy,” I remind him. “You’re the guy brave enough to go undercover as an Omega in an Omega trafficking ring.
You’re the person who has worked tirelessly by our sides for years to keep Omegas safe.
You cherish Omegas. You know they’re strong, resilient, and special.
You know an Omega completes a pack, and that doesn’t make them weak.
You’re that man, and you’re my Omega. You can be both. You are both.”
I thought that having a male Omega would somehow change me, but it hasn’t. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a sexual relationship with their Omega, but I’m sure they’re out there. Asexual Omegas exist, right?
However misguided the assumption was, I thought that biology would make me develop those types of feelings for him.
It hasn’t.
I don’t feel that simmering arousal like I feel for Athena when I look at Atlas.
It’s more familial. I want to make sure he’s safe and taken care of, and I can feel in my gut that we need each other in our lives.
Does that make me a bad Alpha? Shouldn’t I want to be with my Omega in that way? To give him my knot?
But maybe whatever it is that bonds us together as a pack gives everyone what they need. Atlas doesn’t need another person to knot him.
He needs someone to meet him where he’s coming from and to see him. All of him.
I can be that person. I can be that Alpha.
“I don’t want to be both,” Atlas says softly. “I just want to be Atlas.”
“I’m sorry that was taken from you,” I place my hand on his arm. “But we can’t go back. We need to figure out how to move forward.”
Wyatt whips the car into our driveway and gets out, slamming the door behind him.
“He’ll cool off,” I tell Atlas. “You know how he is.”
“Yeah,” my Omega says softly, eyes unfocused. “I know.”
I’m plating up a sandwich when Sebass comes sliding into the kitchen on socked feet.
“Clicks is a cool dude,” he says, throwing open the pantry. “He was able to find more chatter on the dark web about the experiment. Most of the stuff I had found was bullshit, but there are a few threads he wants to follow.”
“That’s good, right?” I ask, sitting on a stool at the bar. “Did the medical team ever tell you if they were working with anyone other than Tyler?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, after everyone left, I went back to hang out with Clicks and Nitro, and Boots went in to question them.” He shudders. “I didn’t know questions could end in a punch, but hey, grammar rules are constantly evolving, I guess.”
My packmate pulls a bag of white cheddar popcorn from the pantry and leans against the counter. He shoves a handful into his mouth. “Where’s Atlas and Wyatt?”
“Wyatt stomped into his room about an hour ago and hasn’t come out. Atlas is in the nest.” I asked him if he wanted me to come with him, but he said no.
I didn’t want to push, but I will have to eventually. We can’t live like this forever.
“Athena and Harvey stayed behind,” Sebastian continues, eating another handful of popcorn and speaking around it. “I’m sure they’ll be back later.”
I hum in acknowledgement, my mind wandering to my Omegas, as it tends to do when I have some downtime, and tune out the crunching of my packmate.
How can I help them both? Athena needs care and a gentle hand. Atlas needs someone to be a landing spot for him, to take his aggression while helping him see his worth.
I can be that for both of them, I know I can, but I need to figure out how. There is no rulebook for our situation, no guide I can reference.
I’m going to have to figure it out on my own.
“Okay, well, I’m gonna do some more digging on this doctor. Need anything from me?” Sebastian asks. When I shoo him away, I’m left with only my thoughts. Eventually, I can’t stand to hear myself think anymore, and I head to the nest to find Atlas.
“Come in,” he says after I rap my knuckles on the door. When I enter, the nest is still in disarray, and none of the new things we purchased are set up. They’re still in the shopping bags, and he’s staring at them with disdain.
What does Atlas have against nesting? I will never understand. It seems fun to me.
“Don’t say it, Charles,” he hisses, not taking his eyes off the overflowing bag of pillows. “I don’t… I can’t.”
I don’t say anything.
What can I say that I haven’t already? My words haven’t gotten through to him once.
It’s time I try a different tactic.
I snag one of the smaller bags and make myself at home in their bathroom.
I plug the bottom of the tub and fill it up with hot water, tossing in a eucalyptus-scented bath bomb.
There are several unscented candles in pretty crystal holders that I picked out, so I set them up around the sides of the tub and light them.
I fold one of the fluffy green towels and put it in the warmer that sits on the floor by the tub. I grab a face mask and shampoo, placing them on the side of the tub before going back into the nest.
“Up,” I say, moving behind Atlas and grabbing him by the shoulders. “Let’s go.”
“What the fuck, Charles?” he seethes, trying and failing to keep me from guiding him into the bathroom. When he sees what I set up, he swears again. “No, absolutely not.”
“Shut up, Atlas.” There’s no venom in my words. I’m genuinely not upset with him.
I really do just want him to shut up for a moment.
“You’re going to get in this tub and let me take care of you.”
“I don’t need you to take care of me,” he growls. “Just because I’m an Omega doesn’t mean we’re going to be together.”
I scrub my hand down my face, taking several deep breaths so I don’t lose my shit and bark a command at him.
“Why do you always go there? I don’t need to be sexually attracted to you to be your Alpha.
I can take care of you without wanting you on my knot, Atlas.
Which, for the record, I don’t. I want to make sure you’re well.
And you’re not well right now. So get in the fucking bath and let me take care of you. ”
His lip curls as he stares at me, unblinking.
He thinks he’ll win this, but he won’t.
I cross my arms over my silk shirt and square my shoulders, prepared for a long standoff. I have all night.
Eventually, he rips off his shirt with a growl that is much deeper than I would expect from an Omega, and shoves his pants down.
“Fine! You want to get me naked that badly, Chuckie?”
I roll my eyes and bite my tongue so I don’t snap back at him. As he lowers himself into the tub, I kneel beside it.
He splashes water on me, soaking the front of my shirt.
He thinks this is a clapback at me, but it’s not.
Sure, water can make silk swell and potentially damage it, but that is a reasonable price to pay if it helps release some of the stress he’s carrying and gets him to finally embrace being an Omega.
I ignore his outburst and hum to myself as I’m opening up the face mask.
“This stuff isn’t Omega exclusive, you know,” I say, pulling it out of the package and smoothing it over his tense features, ignoring the way he swats at me.
He’s not going to run me off, no matter how hard he tries.
“And even if you weren’t an Omega, you’d need to take care of yourself after what you went through. ”
He adjusts himself in the tub, almost as if he’s trying to make himself uncomfortable, but he fails. “Don’t lie to me. This is because I’m an Omega.”
“Shut up and relax, Atlas Cassidy.”