Chapter 21
I was typically the first to wake up, wanting to get things started in the kitchen and check that the house was all secure. Dylan didn’t usually head to bed until the very early hours, so I often got up just an hour or two after he went to bed. Carter was more of a lone wolf; we never knew when he’d wake up. Sometimes it was a rough night, sometimes he’d sleep three days straight. If he’d had a few beers, I probably wouldn’t see him for a good day or two while he slept off the hangover—because that man was a lightweight. Why Carter thought he could handle whiskey was beyond me.
Before Juniper came to stay at the cabin, I would’ve lazed around in bed for ten minutes, trying to pull myself together and join the land of the living. I liked my sleep as much as the next guy. But ever since our new guest had joined us, I found myself hopping out of bed almost immediately, curious to see where she was, what she was doing, and if she was okay.
I knew it was ungodly early, but I wanted to start on something for breakfast—maybe prep some pancakes with chocolate chips or possibly bagels. I’d never really made bagels before, but I had a recipe for them. Ever since Juniper had mentioned going to that little bagel shop with her family, I’d wanted to do it. I knew that none of my pack mates would say no. They were human garbage disposals, and we’d eat anything.
Wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts, I stumbled down the hallway, scratching the back of my head as I yawned. I came to a stop when I noticed the TV was still on in the living space, though it was on mute. Taking a few steps forward, I reached for the remote to turn it off, thinking that it had accidentally been left on by someone. That’s when I noticed Dylan on the sofa with Juniper next to him, fast asleep. Her head rested on his chest, and she was nestled into him contentedly, making soft little snoring sounds.
Dylan, on the other hand, was wide awake, leaning his head back on the sofa as he gently ran his hand through her hair. This was an unexpected development.
I circled around the couch and raised my eyebrows at him. He shrugged—or at least, I think he tried to, though the gesture was very small because he clearly didn’t want to disturb Juniper.
“It seems like someone’s omega instincts are kicking in,” he said. “She’s been very cuddly and nesty, and I wasn’t about to leave her alone.” He paused, glancing down at her. “Of course, omegas crave human contact.”
“Well, if that means we need to have snuggles, then we need to have snuggles,” I said with a grin. I knew I was probably her favourite out of all of us, and I was definitely down for some omega snuggles. “Is she going to need anything else?” I asked, frowning. We were so unprepared, and Juniper had been remarkably easy, considering she didn’t have most of her omega instincts. I still wanted to throttle the idiot who’d hurt her.
Dylan cocked his head, looking down at Juniper, and his expression wasn’t one of disdain, like I expected. In fact, it was an oddly warm expression. “I don’t know what else she’ll need,” he said. “But it may be worth trying to build a nest for her out of what we’ve got.”
That made me raise my eyebrows. Building a nest for an omega was quite an intimate act. Usually, alphas would only build a nest for an omega if they were planning to, well... fuck said omega in the nest. Or, at the very least, rut her through a heat.
Dylan noticed my expression and scowled. “It’s not like that. She hasn’t got anyone else to help, and she hasn’t exactly had the time to do it herself, has she?” he shot back.
I grimaced. “We really don’t have much we can offer her,” I said, thinking about what we had throughout the cabin. “I’m going to get breakfast started, and then I’ll look around.” I eyed him. “Do you want me to take her back to her room, or?—”
Dylan cut me off. “We’re okay here,” he said. “It’d be rude to disturb her.” When his voice stuttered just a bit, I suppressed a smile. That was utter bullshit—he was starting to like her, and he was enjoying having her curled up at his side. At the end of the day, Dylan was just an alpha. Any one of us would enjoy a small, sweet omega nestling into our side.
“Are you not going to wake her up for your gym session?” I asked, keeping my voice low to avoid waking Juniper but not missing the chance to get a chuckle in.
Dylan frowned. “She can use a rest day. She’s clearly exhausted.”
I almost choked on thin air. “Wait, let me make sure I heard this correctly— the Dylan is saying someone can take a day off from the gym? Are you okay? Do you have a fever? Crap, maybe we need to call for medevac.” I grinned. “If this is how you die, I’ll give you a nice obituary.”
Dylan glowered. “Stop prattling on, you idiot,” he growled, his voice raised ever so slightly, making Juniper stir. He quickly resumed stroking her hair, soothing her back to sleep. He handled her with ease, and I was almost impressed.
Deciding to leave more teasing for later, I went to the kitchen and quickly went about preparing breakfast. I decided on bagels, since they’d take a bit of time to rise. Juniper was still fast asleep, and I wanted her to be awake when they were freshly baked. I had a bit of fun making a few different variants—I made blueberry ones, some cinnamon sugar ones, and some savory ones with chives and onions.
As soon as the little rings of dough were resting on the kitchen counter with a cloth thrown over them, I wandered to the back of the cabin, straight into Carter’s room. Well, it wasn’t exactly Carter’s room, since his room was now taken up by a very small, slightly stubborn omega. The alpha in question was actually staying in a room I could only describe as a storage closet he’d thrown a random old mattress in.
We were all close as a pack, so I didn’t bother to knock before pushing the door open. “Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty. We’ve got a job to do,” I told him as he stirred and glowered at me from the bed.
“Why the hell are you waking me up? We’re on vacation,” he growled. His hair was sticking up at all angles, and his eyes were heavily hooded with sleep.
“It seems like Miss Juniper has been having some more omega instincts during the night, so I think it’s time we gather materials for a nest,” I said, my hand on the doorknob as I paused. “Actually, it wasn’t even me who came up with the idea—it was Dylan.” I smirked as Carter’s eyes shot open.
“Dylan suggested we build a nest for an omega?” he asked, eyebrows raised.
I shrugged. “I was just as freaked out as you are. I genuinely thought he was dying, maybe a chronic disease finally caught up to him, or he’s got the plague or syphilis. Either way, we need to start gathering whatever we’ve got. It's not like we have any proper nesting materials in the cabin, so we need to see what we have and do our best.”
Carter nodded sleepily, running a hand through his hair. “We can do that. But why isn’t Dylan searching?”
I smirked. “Because the pretty little omega is currently asleep on his chest in the living room, and he doesn’t want to disturb her.”
Carter chuckled. “This is turning into a very interesting winter, isn’t it? You never know…maybe next year, he’ll actually want to court an omega. It’s not like we don’t have the money to try.”
I nodded. “Yeah, we could try. But…are any of them going to be like her?”
Carter shrugged. “No, I think Juniper’s a one-of-a-kind creature.”
Half an hour later, we had created a small mountain of blankets on the bed in Juniper’s temporary room. We’d gathered everything we could find, including duvets, quilts for the extra-cold months, and even a few knitted blankets one of our mothers had made when we first moved in.
“This isn’t great, is it?” I said, eyeing the pile.
Carter cocked his head. “It smells a bit musty, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, if I was building a nest for an omega, it certainly wouldn’t be this.” I sighed.
“Imagine if we were in the city; we could go to one of those fancy nesting stores and get her all the soft, comfy blankets she wanted,” Carter said.
I laughed. “You’d bankrupt yourself buying her absolutely everything .”
Carter was a softy, and he totally would do something like spending an exorbitant amount of money on the omega. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do the same, but for now, I was pretending to have the moral high ground in this situation.
“We should launder it first,” Carter said with a frown. “Most of this can be washed, I'm pretty sure, and we can use the tumble dryer for a while.”
We’d been avoiding using the tumble dryer because the generator could only produce so much energy. Now we had an extra person at the cabin, we were trying to be a bit more cautious. We also had no idea when the mud slides would eventually clear and we could get to town. We could potentially be stuck for a lot longer than normal, so we were trying to conserve energy. But for Juniper, to make her bedding smell nice, we’d happily spare a bit of energy. I would’ve even offered to skip a shower, for the sake of our omega, if it weren’t for the fact she would probably be repulsed by me if I smelled of body odor and sweat.