40. Talya
CHAPTER FORTY
TALYA
I snuggled into Colby’s side as I ate. The food was good, though anything I ate right after my heat was the best thing ever. Despite that, I thought that this was probably way up there as far as food went. I loved breakfast foods anyway.
“We should invite Kasen, Blakely, and Lohtus in,” I suggested before stuffing more pancake in my mouth. They were so soft and puffy, yet the edges were kind of crisp with buttery edges. Yummy! How did one make it that way?
Ainsley volunteered. “I’ll go get them.” He set his plate in Emerald’s lap and headed for the door. Everyone was dressed in underwear or shorts now. I was almost sad about it. I thought it was only fair that I saw them all naked while I was lucid . The thought made me grin to myself.
Kasen appeared in the door with a grin just a minute later. His eyes took us all in, and his grin widened.
“Get a plate,” Emerald said.
Kasen was almost bouncing as he came into the room. I thought it must have been difficult for him to have been locked out for so many days.
“Ohhhh… dress code!” he exclaimed as he quickly stripped down to his underwear and turned to the kitchenette. Emerald chuckled. “It smells like maple syrup and a lot of sex in here,” he said as he filled his plate.
Ainsley returned with our other two alphas on his heels, catching Kasen’s comment. “That’s exactly what you smell. Glad your nose is working.” Kasen turned to hand his two alphas plates of food and glare at Ainsley, but he quickly pulled the plates back. “Dress code. You must be down to your undies, alphas.”
Blakely and Lohtus looked us over, then Kasen. I was sure they knew this was Kasen’s rule and not something we’d commented on. I smiled around my mouthful of egg.
Sighing and very clearly amused by his beta’s antics, Lohtus pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the pile that Kasen had created with his own clothes. Without comment, Blakely followed suit. Lohtus remained in his shorts, but Blakely went down to his underwear.
When Kasen was satisfied, he handed them the plates he’d prepared for them. Lohtus slapped his ass when he turned. It was hard enough that I jumped at the sound and Kasen said, “Owww.”
He pouted as his alphas took seats with Ainsley and Emerald across from me. Rubbing his ass cheek, Kasen took his own, but instead of sitting beside Emerald or his alphas, he squeezed himself between me and Ronan. He gave Ronan a big grin. “You’re a sexy beast naked, big guy.”
Ronan snarled at him, making Kasen grin wider.
“Do it again.”
“Behave,” Lohtus chastised, though he couldn’t hide his amusement.
Kasen sighed dramatically and turned his attention to me. His eyebrows were knitted together. “So… your heat is over?”
I nodded. When I was finished chewing my bite of sausage, I said, “I’ll have letdown fevers which aren’t much different than the spikes leading up to heat, but they progress in reverse—progressively less intense and demanding. For a week to ten days.”
“That takes so long,” he said. “How do you live with it?”
“What choice do I have?”
Kasen tilted his head thoughtfully as he took a few bites. “I guess you don’t.”
“I’ve always thought that it’s something you learn to live with. If you accept it early on, then it’s not such a big deal. But if you live your life dreading it? It makes life exhausting since they don’t stop until you’re very old, and then you end up a miserable person,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“There are two big reasons that omegas begin searching for packs right away. One, the likelihood of abduction drops dramatically if we’re bonded to a pack.” I wasn’t sure that was the truth anymore, but I wasn’t going to bring that up. “And two, heats shouldn’t be dreaded. If you’re with your pack, they won’t be. You’re safe and taken care of when you’re most vulnerable. Instead of being an obstacle every three-to-ten months, depending on your body’s demands, it’s something you look forward to.”
“You looked forward to them?” he asked, surprised.
I shrugged. “Yes. It meant that Colby was home with me for almost three entire weeks without repercussions from work.”
“Huh,” he said, his attention drifting to his alphas and Emerald.
“We’re already home with you every day,” Blakely said, chuckling.
“Yeah,” Kasen agreed.
“You could sound a little more enthusiastic about it,” Emerald commented.
“Now that you live here too, I am excited about it,” he said, beaming. But then his smile faded. “If we can stay together.”
“They’re not breaking up our pack,” Ronan growled.
Lohtus nodded in agreement. “They’re not. We won’t let that happen.”
“They were going to based on who shares bonds,” Kasen pointed out.
Silence filled the room for a minute. I wasn’t surprised when Kasen was the one to fill it again. “I’m just going to throw this out there. How about all the alphas bite everyone? Then we can’t be split up.”
Ronan set his plate down and rested a hand on Kasen’s leg. “We won’t be split up, Kasen. No one will allow it. Bites or no, we’re pack. We’re staying together.”
Kasen’s shoulders dropped. “How can you be sure?” he asked. We could hear the fear in his voice now. No more teasing. No more bravado. Just true Kasen sharing his insecurity. “What if they pretend to agree, then we’re put onto different planes?”
“They’re going to have to physically force us then,” Blakely said.
“What if they don’t let Em come with us?” he asked, turning glossy eyes to Emerald.
Emerald stopped chewing and stared at him. It wasn’t like we didn’t know that was what they had already alluded to. I thought that was unlikely now that Ainsley had bitten him, but… what did I know for certain?
“Emerald is mine. Ours. He’s not being left here,” Ainsley said.
“But…”
“Kasen,” Ronan said as he gripped the back of Kasen’s neck and turned his attention back to him. “I will not let us be broken. I promise. Trust me, okay?”
Kasen sniffed and nodded. “That they want to… It makes me afraid that they’ll succeed. Even if they have to use trickery to do it.”
I chewed my food a little slower. We’d only been within this protection program for a short time. I didn’t know how long anyone else had been. Either Kasen was just afraid of losing his pack now that he was happy or… his fear was learned because he’d lived it before.
Chills covered my bare arms. It was the first time in more than a week that I’d felt anything other than excessively warm, so I shivered and tucked myself further into Colby. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, kissing the side of my head.
“It doesn’t matter what they say or try,” Ronan said. “We’re not going anywhere if we’re not together. We can deal with the threat right here if that’s their game.”
Kasen stared at him with his brows still knit. “Is that allowed?’
“I think we’re in a very good place for self-defense if it comes down to that. This island is ready to protect their own. Talya wouldn’t have gotten off the island with those people. Even if they had some secret transportation, they wouldn’t have made it that far. There are only so many roads, and they can be blocked. The primary road through the town center was already blocked by the time I got there—the single road that is necessary to travel anywhere else on the island.”
“They tried to snatch her with an audience,” Emerald said. “You think they’d second guess running through a block? I can’t see that they’d care if they had to run everyone over.”
Ronan nodded. “They can’t do that if their tires are slashed. Yes, there were people blocking the road as well as large wagons and barrels and other things. I have no idea where they even came from. But there was also a roll of spikes laid down half a dozen yards before the barricade. They wouldn’t have gotten far with flat tires.”
My chest warmed at the thought. None of the islanders knew me. They were all betas and I was an omega, yet they were going to protect me.
“Now eat your breakfast and stop worrying, Kasen. This is family. No one will break our pack,” Ronan said.
Kasen turned back to his food, and we ate in silence for several minutes. When Kasen picked his head up again, it was with a teasing smirk for Ronan. “You can manhandle me any time. I like it rough.”
Ronan sighed.
“Eat, Kasen,” Lohtus said. Obediently, Kasen stuffed a piece of sausage in his mouth with a wide grin.
“We will talk about bites when Talya is completely over her heat,” Lohtus said.
“Is it too soon?” Kasen asked with concern.
“Do you know how long packs usually court an omega before a bite, even the ones who met through Pack Listing?” Ainsley asked.
I actually knew this answer, but Kasen shook his head.
“There are some wild outliers where it’s upwards of months, but on average it’s eighteen days,” Ainsley said.
Kasen stared. “Really?”
Ainsley nodded. “Generally speaking, when an omega finds a pack they’re interested in, they’ve already looked at the profile pretty thoroughly and requested their scent cards. By the time they meet the pack, they’re already quite certain that they’ve found their pack. As long as the meeting goes well, they almost always go right into courting, and within a couple of days, the omega will move in with their pack. That’s where the eighteen days begin.”
“Oh,” Kasen said. “I don’t know how I thought it usually went.”
“We met under different circumstances,” Lohtus said. “That’s why we’ve been taking our time. But Ainsley is right. As far as what’s considered ‘normal,’ this isn’t too soon. It’s on the longer end.”
Kasen grinned at me. I was surprised when that’s all he did before turning back to his plate.
I thought about their bites and making it official. At a minimum, I would need Ronan and Ainsley’s bites, and probably Colby and either Lohtus or Blakely would need a bite. Or I could just have their bites, too? But there needed to be at least three bites to truly make the pack whole since whoever was in charge apparently didn’t understand that packs could bond without bites. It wasn’t as potent, but we could still feel the bonds.
“In a roundabout way, we’ve led into this talk of them, so what’s been going on since we’ve been holed up with our omega?” Ainsley asked.
Lohtus shook his head. “A couple more texts stating that they’re keeping our perimeter safe and that we can rest assured and concentrate on Talya’s needs. They stated that ‘the island is perfectly safe and back to normal.’”
“We asked a couple of our trusted farmhands to keep us apprised on what’s going on in town. They said that the two that had been after Talya were the only suspicious newcomers right up until they failed to grab her. Another half a dozen have since landed on the island and are trying to assimilate,” Blakely said.
“How do you know they’re not just tourists?” Colby said.
“Tourists are easy to spot—the picture taking and their excitement. Generally speaking, they’re happy and look like tourists in their behavior. These guys are either trying too hard or…” Blakely looked at Lohtus, who shrugged. “One shop owner said they looked almost brainwashed. Programmed. They said they got a very odd and uncomfortable feeling. It’s clear that they’re not used to the mass population giving a shit what’s happening. Most people just look the other way, even if it’s violence or kidnapping. It doesn’t involve them, so they don’t want to be involved.”
“I’ve heard of that,” I volunteered. “A few years ago, there was a news report that an omega had been in a mall—in the food court—on a very busy day when three betas tried to abduct him. They were dragging him away while he screamed and fought against them. Everyone simply looked the other way. They were going to let it happen.”
The horror that had raced through me when I’d heard the report gave way to dread. That’s what betas thought of omegas. Disposable. For something stupid that was completely out of our control. It was their own jealousy or hatred of something they couldn’t understand and didn’t agree with.
“What happened?” Kasen asked. I was relieved to see the horror that I felt reflected in his face. “You said tried , so he escaped, right?”
“There happened to be three alphas shopping that day, and they intervened,” I said. “But had there not been any alphas there? They’d have taken that omega. No one was going to do anything. Not the shoppers. Not mall security. Not the workers within the food court. No one.”
“That’s the world these guys think they’re operating in,” Colby said, nodding. “They don’t understand that that’s not how this island works.”
“I imagine they don’t advertise that they’re here to steal an omega, but has there been any word as to why they say they’re here?” Ronan asked.
Blakely and Lohtus shook their heads.
“They don’t talk to many people. They wander through the town, trying to appear as though they’ve always been there. But the town has tabs on them at all times,” Lohtus said.
“The thing is, there’s been no reason to force them off the island so far. Their behavior and appearance matches the two who tried to take Talya, but they haven’t said or done anything to give us reason to force them to leave,” Blakely said, shaking his head.
Ainsley sighed. “Of course they haven’t. That would give them away.”
“I have a feeling they already know they’re being tailed. No one has made any effort to hide the fact that we’re on to them. One doesn’t even go into shops because all the pointed staring has made him uncomfortable,” Blakely said, grinning.
I yawned as my eyelids got heavy. All of our plates had been cleaned for a while now, and I was ready for a nap. Another yawn overtook me, and I leaned heavily into my alpha.
“Ready for a nap, Talya?” Colby asked, his fingers moving softly over my jaw.
“Yes, please.”
Our plates and the tray were removed from in front of us, and Colby adjusted the pillows behind us so we could lie down.
“Is it okay if we stay too?” Kasen asked.
“Yes,” I said before anyone else could answer. “We can have our first slumber party now.”
I didn’t have to open my eyes to know that Kasen was beaming. He laid down beside me, snuggling at my back. I felt Ronan’s hand on my hip so I knew that our big alpha was curled around Kasen. It didn’t take long before everyone was settled.
My lungs were filled with the most delicious scents, those of my pack, and I sighed with contentment. As I fell asleep, the thought that drifted through my mind was that I couldn’t wait to feel them all in my chest in the same way I felt Colby.