Chapter 34 Marked
Marked
Kol
The three of us, Locke, Mads, and myself, sit in an SUV across the street from the omega shelter. It’s an older street filled with tall leafy trees, so we are sitting in cool shade, that’s nice at least.
Locke cannot stop staring at Mads’s bite mark. He got it prominently on his neck. It would be difficult to hide. He chose the spot, and Oscar didn’t give him a chance to reconsider. We all felt the same emotion at that time—desperate glee.
I’m staring at it, too.
It’s just so beautiful.
Mads levels me a look.
“You are actually drooling, Kol,” he says. I wipe my mouth. “What is up with you two, it’s just a mark.”
How could he know how it feels to see Oscar’s mark upon his lily white skin? It’s like sex. Or pleasure. Its ownership as well as belonging. Bites are everything to a chronically hungry alpha.
“Why did you want it there?” Locke asks the question that I’ve been too nervous to ask.
“On my neck? Isn’t that where it is supposed to be?”
Locke and I share a look—he didn’t know. Mads didn’t know what it would mean to have a mark on display like that. He’s so sweet. All three of us grew up in the culture of alphas and omegas. He’s not flippant about these things, he just doesn’t know.
I lower my voice and ask, “Did you point to that spot because you thought that’s where marks go?”
He doesn’t respond.
Yes.
The answer is yes.
I pull down the collar of my shirt and show my mark near my shoulder and top of my chest. “Here’s mine. I can hide it with a shirt.”
Locke’s mark is on the back of his arm. He takes off his shirt to show it to Mads.
There’s a pregnant pause in the air.
“Oh.”
“Usually, if you pick a spot not easily covered, it’s a message,” I continue to explain.
“What kind of message is this sending?” He points to his mark.
“That you want everyone to know you belong to Oscar. To not talk to you. Not bother you. That you aren’t to be fucked with, honestly.
And you being a beta…the message hits even harder.
Imagine an alpha tries to sit next to you in a bar, with a mark so obvious like that, Oscar would have every right to knock him on his ass. ”
Mads goes silent.
If I’m staring right at him, and we are close like in this car, I can feel what he’s feeling. Betas don’t have the same connection we alphas have. But it’s still there.
I can tell he likes this idea. He likes that it sends a message.
And I guess, if I think about it, it’s not a bad thing. Mads is still nervous around alphas. His mark may be the ticket to make sure they keep their distance from him. He’s thinking this, too, because I can feel his acceptance.
How nice.
Maybe that’s why Oscar didn’t ask him if he meant it when he chose his neck. Maybe Oscar knew that would be the best spot.
I just thought he wanted his claim to be obvious because it feeds into our alpha egos.
It’s a win all around.
Speaking of wins.
“Did you take a look at that listing I sent you?” I ask Mads.
He makes a listening noise, but he’s not really listening.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“What did you think?”
“It’s a two-bedroom ground floor condo. It’s clean, well constructed, in an established neighborhood with a doorman. Not sure it’s a great investment for your portfolio, but it’s not bad.”
I make a listening noise, too.
He stares across the street at the security guard near the fence. He greets an omega holding two little kids’ hands as they pass through the gate.
“Why do you want it?” he eventually asks.
“Oh, I already bought it.”
“Why?” His face is all screwed up like he’s judging me.
Oh, silly beta.
“For your mom.”
His head swings to me, and his eyes bug out.
“What?”
“It’s part of your bonding gift from us. I bought it with cash. Set up the utilities for her. She gets a monthly allowance from Pack Soto. Wasn’t that part of your requirements?”
I finished the sale of our last place in Salt Port and got a huge deposit in our account yesterday. So absolutely flushed with cash, I closed on the condo. A property was the easiest thing to buy.
His mouth slowly falls open like he’s lost control of it.
“What?” he asks, a loss for other words.
“She’ll like it, right? It’s between her work and her boyfriend’s place. I thought it would be an easy move for her.”
“Her boyfriend?”
I laugh at his silly face.
“You didn’t know?”
“How did you know?”
“Social media? Come on Mads. He’s all over her page.”
Locke laughs from the back seat.
I think Mads might be a little slow because of our big day yesterday, and then the intensity from the bonding.
I give him some slack. There’s a lot going on.
“Well, thank you. It sounds like a good investment.”
I chuckle to myself as I continue to stare at his neck. Would he let me lick it? Would Oscar? Oscar might be possessive of his mark.
The time continues to pass as we camp out in the car. I schedule a moving truck for later this week and send the confirmation to Mads’s email. Locke and I fight about the price of the new Nintendo console. Mads has to shut it down with an Internet search.
The whole time we wait no one gets bored or anxious. We know why we are here. Locke and I need to be near Mads. He doesn’t have our mark on him. Oscar is the bridge. Both of us need his presence to fully accept him into our pack.
Eventually, Locke passed out in the back seat.
Mads adjusts his leg with a small hiss. I completely focus my attention on him, and I feel it through the bond. The pain. Holy fuck. The pain. It’s throbbing and everywhere.
“Mads, where are your meds?” I ask in a tight breath.
“I got them. But they’ll tear my stomach up if I don’t take them with food,” he says.
I reach back and shake Locke awake.
“Oh goddamn,” Locke says with a hiss as he wakes up. “Mads, that pain is unbearable.”
His jaw clenches.
“It’s fine. I can go a bit longer.”
I turn the engine over and start driving. I think there’s something around here. I saw a Chinese market when I was driving down here the other day. The pain is indescribable. It’s not a throbbing or a sharp pain. It’s like the font of pain.
“I can’t sit back here and do nothing,” Locke says with a strained voice. I look at him through the rear view mirror. I can’t do anything either.
“I’m sorry,” Mads says, and I hate that he just apologized for that. I pull over at the first spot I see near a large park.
Locke hops out and opens Mads’s door.
“Let me do something. Anything.”
Mads doesn’t reply. He is in a lot of pain.
I come around, too, and we help him out of the car. I push his hair off of his forehead and hold his shoulder with my other hand. Locke, incapable of having boundaries, is crouched down, rubbing his leg.
“Guys, it’s fine,” he mumbles. I pull Mads into a hug, and Locke continues to massage his leg. He doesn’t stop us and we don’t intend to stop.