4. Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Raece
T his party wasn’t for us. It wasn’t for our pack. It was merely a reason for those on the upper echelon to drink and eat and be seen in their expensive ass clothes.
Oh, they congratulated us, the mated omegas surrounding Wren and dragging her from our side before she’d had a chance to taste a single thing offered here.
Probably for the best. We would get her home after the party, I would mark her, then we would do our duty of providing and protecting.
And knocking her up.
Fuck.
Not that she wasn’t gorgeous. All we’d been given was a file and a picture with a warning from the headmistress that while Wren was close to her heat, she was on the rebellious side and spirited. I’d almost choked on my laughter at her warning. Any omega would need to be spirited to join our pack.
Mateo’s head appeared over the crowd, practically snarling at anyone who attempted to stop him as he made his way to us with long strides.
“It’s time to go,” he said when he was close enough.
I frowned at him, then looked around. The party had barely just started. And then I realized I could no longer see Wren.
“Where’s the omega?”
“Sick in the bathroom. She needs to go home. To the pack house.”
Sick in the bathroom . Was she actually sick or had the day caught up with her? That didn’t quite mesh with the description we’d been given by the headmistress from the Center.
“Get the SUV. Meet me out front.”
I separated from the group and headed toward the hallway, turning my head side to side in search of the bathroom.
“It’s over there,” Mateo said, passing me and stopping in front of a closed door down the hall on the left.
“I got it,” I said, jerking my head toward the exit.
I was pack lead. It had been my decision to seek an omega so we could officially register our pack. There was no way we would stop the under the table shit, but it would keep the heat off of us if we were registered and able to open a legitimate business. There would be less questions and raised brows at the amount of money we brought in each month.
Each of us had come with a decent sized account as we’d built our pack, but the money had only grown in that time.
I smirked at the memory of the day I’d brought up adding an omega to the mix. Winter and Doran had come close to jumping my ass, doing their best to beat some sense in me. Mateo wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, but he was loyal and followed my lead without much of a protest.
Dean…
Well, that asshole was excited about the prospect of pussy on demand. And then, when I’d informed him none of us would touch her without her explicit permission, he’d joined Winter and Doran in their protests. He’d been a bitch for weeks and I’d been tempted to shove my cock down his throat just to get a moment of quiet.
The moment I pushed in the door I felt like someone punched me in the dick and squeezed my heart at the same fucking time. Rotten bananas. Scorched cream. When she’d joined us on the dais, she’d smelled like warm banana pudding.
Now?
It was fear. Anxiety. And a touch of anger. Her sweet, warm signature had transformed and sent my alpha into a frenzy. Find who caused her to feel this way. Kill them .
Stepping fully into the room, I found her huddled against a stall, her knees hugged to her chest, her cheek resting on top of them.
Her eyes rolled up to mine, red rimmed, her nose and cheeks pink. She’d been crying.
But when she spotted me, she straightened, sniffled, and pushed to her feet as though she refused to allow me to see her in such a vulnerable state.
The way she swayed as she stood ruined the strong act she was putting on for her audience of one.
My hand shot out to steady her, but she shrugged away and stepped around me, stopping in front of the mirror to straighten her dress, swiping a hand under her eyes to wipe away her smudged makeup.
“Mateo said you were sick.”
Her eyes met mine in the mirror and, yep, I could see the spirited woman we’d been warned about.
“I’m fine,” she said, turning and crossing her arms.
And perfectly outlining the tits that were barely held back by the gown she’d been stuffed into.
She caught the path of my gaze and dropped her arms, but the damage had been done – I was officially obsessed with the thought of seeing how she would look beneath all that silk and tulle.
“I’m bored, anyway. The pack brought the vehicle to the front. Let’s go.”
Her nostrils flared as she took a deep breath and moved forward. I held out a hand, but she bypassed it, leaving me to watch as she left the gaudy pink ladies’ room.
Definitely spirited. And fuck if that didn’t make my cock stand up and pay attention.
When I finally caught up with her, she was standing at the door, Mateo blocking her exit, her head tilted back as she glared at him. Mateo simply smirked down at her.
“Our job is to protect you. Ceremony or not, you’re still an unclaimed, unmated omega. Meaning any alpha could take you away.”
She blinked a few times and her shoulders rolled forward a little as she seemed to deflate a right before my eyes.
I could admit to myself I felt bad for her. Because of the way she’d been born, she was now at the mercy of a group of strangers. She had been taken from her family the day she’d presented – sixteen according to her file – and had been raised by the Center, trained on her duties as the perfect omega.
That perfect, submissive omega had yet to make an appearance and a darker side of me wondered if I could train her myself. I didn’t mind a spirited woman, but there was something hot as fuck when they submitted to my cock in the bedroom.
After a few moments, she squared her shoulders, jutted her chin out, and followed Mateo through the door where the rest of the pack waited in the SUV.
Dean stood by the passenger door, holding it open like he was some kind of valet.
“Your carriage awaits,” the dumbass beta said, wrapping an arm around his waist and bowing.
“Idiot,” Mateo muttered.
The giant alpha rounded the vehicle and climbed into the seat behind the driver, Wren hesitantly slid into the seat beside him, then I sidled up to her right. Dean took the rear seat while Winter drove with Doran in the front passenger seat.
One big happy fucking family.
The trip back to the pack house took under twenty minutes and Wren remained silent the entire time. In fact, she looked as though she was trying to curl into herself to avoid touching either Mateo or me.
Her eyes widened when Winter pulled into the driveway and parked along the steps. She craned her neck to see through the side window, her mouth dropping open a little.
Our house was big. It was the epitome of luxury. And one of the biggest reasons we needed an omega in order to register our pack, to look like legitimate businessmen.
Sliding from my seat, I once again held out my hand, waiting for her to slide her tiny one into it.
And, once again, she scooted from the seat, gathering up the layers of skirting, and ignored me completely, her eyes still on the house.
Dean chuckled as he climbed from the back, shaking his head with a shit eating grin wide on his face.
Mateo rounded the SUV and stopped beside her. She tilted her head back to look up at him. Wren was small, petite like most omegas, but looked downright tiny beside the nearly seven-foot-tall alpha.
Fragile. So fucking fragile. And we were officially tasked with her protection. Fuck.
What the hell had I been thinking? We tended to accrue enemies. And what better way to go after a pack than to attack their omega?
When Mateo stepped forward, Wren followed him at a small distance. It appeared she trusted the giant a bit more than the rest of us, not that she’d said much or even come close enough to touch.
I was just behind her with the two betas and Winter bringing up the rear.
Wren stood in the foyer, her head craned back as she turned to check out the house. If she thought this was nice, wait until she saw the omega wing and nest we’d had prepared for her. Just because we hadn’t wanted an omega didn’t mean we wouldn’t take our duties seriously to make sure she was safe and comfortable.
And eventually pregnant.
Kids were not conducive with our lifestyle. A family was nothing short of a bargaining tool or bait.
But…fuck. What other choice did I have? I could have continued the way we were living and risked the authorities taking too close a look.
Then the five of us would have spent time – a lot of time – in prison. Our money would have been seized by the government and then we would have ended up in the trenches with the junkies, the alphas who’d mentally broken after losing their packs, the runaways.
Nah. I didn’t judge anyone for the way they lived, whether by choice or not, but that wasn’t what I wanted for my future nor for my pack.
“Your belongings will be delivered tomorrow. And we put in an order for clothing and undergarments as well as some toiletries. Until then, I’ll grab something for you to sleep in,” I said, passing her as she continued to gawk at her surroundings.
When I passed her, her scent had returned to its delicious state and reawakened my cock.
We were to consummate the bond tonight. In the earlier days of the law changes, an official would be present to witness as the pack lead marked the omega’s shoulder then fucked him or her.
Lucky us, that shit had gone by the wayside. The only witnesses now would be the pack.
I could already hear Dean’s bitching and whining about watching as I knotted our omega while he had to rub one off later.
Once behind my bedroom door, I sucked in gulps of air that smelled only of me. I knew what I had to do tonight, but I didn’t want to lose my fucking mind and go into rut. That wouldn’t exactly endear her to me or the pack. And, while this was more a business interaction than anything else, I wanted her to trust us, to respect us.
She wouldn’t do either if I held her down and lost control to my baser needs.
By the time I left my room, I could practically follow the trail of Wren’s scent straight to the omega’s wing. The entire fucking pack hovered inside while she wandered the space, looking over the furniture, the big screen TV, even peering inside the bedroom and the ensuite bathroom, before opening the door that led to the nest.
She closed that one quickly as though she either didn’t want to think about it or wasn’t ready to acknowledge what was coming soon. It was only a matter of days before she would be writhing in pain, her fever spiking to dangerous levels, begging to be fucked and knotted to ease her discomfort.
After a few minutes, she finally turned to face the pack. Her pack. Our pack.
Her cheeks were pink, her chest rose and fell as though she was breathing heavily.
Time to get this shit over with so we could all go on with our lives.
Crossing the room, I sat the clothes on the couch and nodded toward the bedroom.
“No,” Wren said.
“You’d rather I bend you over the couch?” Because I would have been more than happy to do just that. The more time I spent in her presence, the more her scent was burrowing itself into my very pores and forcing all the blood from my brain and straight to my cock.
Raising a hand, I trailed my fingertips along the swell of her tits that spilled over the top of her dress. I wanted to know how she looked beneath this bundle of lace and gauze. I wanted to feel the weight of her tits in my hands.
I wanted to know if she tasted half as good as she smelled.
“I want some privacy,” she said, her chin lifted and her eyes boring holes into my damn head.
There was a fire in her sky-blue eyes, and I had a feeling tonight wasn’t going to go as smoothly as I’d hoped.
Turning toward the clothes, I frowned at her. I hadn’t exactly brought her lingerie to change into. And why the hell would she need privacy to change when I was minutes from seeing her naked?
Or at least the lower half of her naked.