Chapter 29
T he lodge was pure chaos. There was a lot of shouting going on between the arrival of Morgan’s brother and his pack, and the revelation that the person who had escalated everything to a search and rescue had been the one responsible for it being needed in the first place. Pumpkin participated, dancing around the guests, barking.
Bear looked like he was ready to crawl out of his skin from all the noise.
I gave a sharp whistle and everyone fell silent. “Let’s all take a breath. There’s a lot to be discussed. Morgan and Cooper need rest, and I don’t want our omega to get stressed.”
“ Your omega?” Cash bristled.
Had that not come up in the shouted conversations? I couldn’t keep track of all the topics covered. “Morgan is our scent match.”
“What?!” they chorused.
“I do not have enough brain cells for this conversation,” Cooper groaned.
“Exactly why everyone needs rest,” I reiterated. “We’ll get another meal going. Cooper, you and your pack are welcome to the bunk room to discuss amongst yourselves. Morgan can enjoy her temporary nest, and we can all reconvene over dinner. Sound okay?”
“Yes,” Dakota answered for the others. “Thank you.”
They got Cooper back into bed, leaving the door cracked so I could hear that they were talking but not make out any of the words. Bear bundled Morgan into the remains of her nest, cuddling up at her back.
In the meantime, we had work to do. The wood wasn’t going to chop itself, and dinner certainly wasn’t going to cook itself either.
Ryder and Maverick took up the task of firewood, leaving me to monitor everyone inside. Morgan had passed out almost instantly after burrowing under a few blankets, and Pumpkin had gone outside to run some energy off. Surprising, since she was usually up my ass when I was cooking, knowing she was likely to get treats, but she had been too cooped up lately and needed to stretch her legs.
I got to work on some fresh pasta dough, meticulously mixing the egg and flour and kneading until it was smooth and elastic. I’d always found cooking to be soothing. That was as true now as it had ever been. Something about providing for an essential need to my loved ones satisfied my deepest alpha instincts.
Sauce bubbled away near the fire, made from a couple of gigantic jars of tomato sauce given to me by one of my beta cousins who had married an Italian woman who grew her own produce. Nothing beat homegrown, especially when it was prepared with love. I added handfuls of dried herbs to the mix, giving it a stir so all the flavors could meld while the sauce cooked down. Next up was browning a few pounds of ground bison to add into the mix. One of the perks of my extended community was that we all got to benefit from incredible food even if we didn’t have the space or resources to produce it ourselves.
Morgan yawned loudly, peeking at me through the blankets. “Whatever you’re making smells amazing.”
“You’re supposed to be sleeping.”
“How am I supposed to sleep through you cooking when it smells that good?”
“Fair point. The fresh pasta takes only a few minutes to cook, but I figured the sauce could simmer until everyone is ready.”
She crawled out of Bear’s embrace and right over to me, tipping her head up in offering. I indulged myself in a slow kiss, doubly pleased when it kicked off her purr. She sat down next to me and huffed a sigh. “I’m sorry about my brother and his pack.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for, little fox. Your family is welcome here.”
“They’re so much louder than you guys, though.”
I laughed. “True, but that’s okay once in a while. It’s obvious they love you, and that means I’m happy to have them here, no matter the volume.”
Her eyes turned shiny, her bottom lip wobbling. “They were the only ones who ever took care of me before your pack. My other brothers are… oh, fuck it, they suck. I know we’re not supposed to hate family, but I don’t know how else to describe how I feel about the rest of them. I was damn lucky Cooper fought back instead of punching down like all the others did.”
“I’m sorry most of your family hasn’t treated you the way you deserve.” My words were placid, but I was quickly adding to the list of people I was going to help Bear feed to wolverines. “Are they why you’re aggressively independent?”
Morgan gave a half laugh, wrapping her arms around her knees. “Unfortunately. It was never quite as dramatic as kill or be killed, but it felt pretty close sometimes.”
I pulled her onto my lap, breathing in her sweet maple. “You deserved better. Cooper did too. I know nothing is written in stone, but I want to make a promise to you.”
“Yeah?” she asked, voice watery.
“I promise you’ll never feel that way with us. We’ll take care of you whether you stay or not, regardless of if you choose us, because we’ve chosen you. Whatever you need, if it’s within our power, we’ll give it.”
Morgan sniffled, burying her face against my throat and draping an arm over my shoulder. “I don’t deserve that, Kit.”
“You do, but deserving is irrelevant. We take care of our own and you will always be that. I don’t want you to make any choices because you’re worried about us. It sounds like you’ve spent way too much of your life having to tiptoe around what others want from you. Choose what you want for yourself.”
She shuddered, clinging tighter. “I don’t know what that is anymore.”
“You have time to think,” I assured her. “We’re not going to demand an answer today.”
“I don’t know what to do with that.”
“You don’t have to do anything with it. There’s no pressure.”
Morgan shifted on my lap so she was straddling me and we were pressed chest to chest, her arms around my neck. “You’re wearing too many clothes.”
“I can’t get naked with you when your brother is in the next room.”
Morgan laughed against my skin. “Not naked, just less clothes. I need to touch more of you.”
She tugged my shirt off, pulled up her sleeves, and rolled her hem up so her shirt was closer to a crop top, then pressed our stomachs together, purring happily. I laced my fingers together over her bare back.
“Better?” I asked.
“Much.” She nuzzled closer.
An awkward cough caught our attention and we both turned to see Cooper standing in the doorway. “I feel like I’m living in the twilight zone.”
“How so?”
“The Morgan I know would never snuggle up to an alpha.” He let out a sharp laugh and his pack gathered at his back.
“Baby Morgie is growing up,” said Cash, grinning ear to ear.
“I’m twenty-seven,” Morgan protested. I’d half expected her to bolt away with them looking, but she didn’t move an inch.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Dakota asked.
“I’m sure Ryder and Maverick would appreciate help bringing firewood in,” I suggested. “You don’t have to, though. You’re guests here.”
Levi waved off my last statement. “Not in my nature to sit down when others are working. We’ll help. You took care of Morgan and Cooper, and we’re going to repay that.”
He and Dakota headed outside to assist, and Cash bullied Cooper back to bed after a quick bathroom trip, leaving Morgan and me alone once more.
“Would you hate me if they took me into town?” Morgan asked quietly, her grip on me tightening.
“Of course not. Getting you there safely has been one of our goals since you arrived.”
“Maybe they could take me on the snowmobiles and we could come back?”
I nodded. “Not much option to do otherwise until the roads are fully clear. That should be in the next day or two. Cooper isn’t in any condition to travel. We should get you checked over at the clinic, and your brother can rest here for a couple of days.”
“Would you want to come with me?”
“I’d love to.”
“What am I supposed to do about Brandon? Do I report him?”
“I think you should, if that’s something you’re comfortable pursuing. I know legal battles can get dragged out, but he committed a crime and put you in danger. He should face consequences for that.”
Somehow I doubted he actually would. A few places threw the book at alphas who deliberately endangered omegas, but not everywhere. Even if nothing came from it, people would know what he had done. Maybe it would protect other omegas from him.
“I’ll definitely talk to the police when we get into town. Even if they don’t give a shit about my safety, maybe I can get him for theft since he stole my phone and all my supplies.”
Fucking Brandon.
I didn’t hate many people, but he was top of the damn list. Every one of her brothers besides Cooper was also on it. My omega deserved a decent family, and if she couldn’t get it by blood, she could get it by bond. My family and Bear’s were physically the closest and I knew they would love her. When it was better weather, we could host all of them so Morgan could get to know her extended pack family. Whether or not she bonded the rest of us, Bear was her bondmate, which meant his family was hers now.
Cooper didn’t know about the bond yet and I wasn’t sure how he would react to the news. Morgan hadn’t said anything about it. We had a thousand things we needed to discuss, that being one of them.
Bear sleepily patted the space next to him, and when he found it devoid of Morgan, he sat up slowly, blinking until his eyes locked on her in my lap. His smile was soft as he crawled across the short distance between us to kiss Morgan’s cheek. Her purr erupted and she tilted her head back for a proper kiss.
That was a good sign, right? She was out of her heat and still wanted to be close to us. Hopefully that extended past today.
I wanted to know so many things, but Morgan and Cooper weren’t in the best condition, and my mother had drilled patience into me from a young age. I could wait. It might drive me a little batty to do so, but Morgan needed to understand we would support her with or without answers, and Cooper needed to see that his sister was comfortable here.
The outdoor light on one of the outbuildings flickered on. I swallowed my nerves. Power was back. Our guaranteed time with Morgan was dwindling by the minute. If power lines were being repaired, that meant the road clearing was close to being done. By the time we went to bed, our route to town would probably be wide open. Maybe before then, but the nearest clinics would be closed already, unless Morgan wanted us to drive into the city for a hospital.
A lengthy list of tasks awaited us once we could move freely again: machine repairs, supply runs, clinic visits, and police reports. All I cared about was making sure Morgan was safe and figuring out how devastated I was going to be if she wanted to leave.
I held her a little tighter. I wanted to beg her to stay, but it wasn’t fair to put that kind of pressure on her. Maybe she wasn’t the one who had to stay. Maybe the only way for us to have her was for all of us to be prepared to leave when she did, to give up our physical home to find our spiritual one in our omega.
If the adage “home is where the heart is” was true, then our home was her, and no physical place could ever compare.