Chapter 27 Pinched
Pinched
Oscar
Ipull out my whiteboard and show them all the plan.
It’s smaller than my whiteboard at the apartment, but it does the trick. My pack sits upon the small couch and chair in the living room space, also called the “receiving room.” Kol sits on the floor between Cadi’s legs. Locke is next to Cadi while Mads sits in his own chair.
“Here are the important tasks. Cadi, we need to officially register you, and you can be listed on all of our accounts. Mads, I need your medical information. I want all your appointments on the pack calendar. I would also like to suggest second opinions and further diagnoses. Locke, we need to ensure all ties to you in Salt Port are tidy. I need you to call any contacts from the O’Bannon pack house and get an update on Legs.
Kol, we need to buy a house big enough for all of us. Ok? Yes?”
They all stare at me with blank looks on their faces, blinking. I point to the items on the board.
“Yes? We all know what we’re doing?”
All four of them start talking at once—“I want to have a say in where we’re living.” “What are our options?” “We should find something now!”
I put my hands up.
“Ok, maybe that’s the most important item…I guess I can move that one up.”
“I’d say so, Oscar,” Kol says, and it’s so teasing I can do nothing but smile at him. “Let’s get everyone’s preferences together now. Oscar, erase the board. We need it for house shopping.”
I look longingly at my carefully crafted board with little task boxes and color-coded to each member. I sigh and then erase it.
“Fine. What kind of house do we all want?”
Cadi reaches out to the board and dances her fingers, asking me to hand it over. I can’t deny her even if I wanted to. I give over the board and then hand off the markers.
“Green for Kol. Orange for Locke. You’re purple. I’m red,” I explain each marker as I pass them off. “Black is for Mads now. Brown is for general.”
“And the blue one?”
“That was going to be Mads, but we decided on gray. There’s no gray marker, so I decided that he should be black…”
Cadi gives me a teasing grin, so I trail off. She has no idea how organized I like to be. I didn’t get my PhD and MD at the same time for nothing.
“Thank you, Oscar. So, I love this stuff. And so does Mads. On our first date, we discovered we both love the show Love Letters Home Renovations.”
“What! I love that show, too,” Locke says while jolting upright. “Did you see the episode where they turned the patio into a sunroom so their daughter with a terminal illness could see the sun year-round? I cried.”
“I cried!” both Cadi and Mads say.
They go on about all their favorite episodes until I try to take the board back from Cadi, but she yanks it back.
“Fine, ok, let’s get to work.” Cadi wriggles until she finds a good spot to put the board. “I’ll write down everyone’s preferences.”
“And then I’ll find places that meet our criteria,” Kol adds.
“Yes! Ok, I don’t want a big place with tons of rooms far away from the city,” Cadi says first.
Mads adds, “I agree. It should be in the city. Somewhere with bus stops, a cafe nearby, and parks.”
“Yes, parks!” Locke adds. “But also, a garden.”
“I just need a good amount of light for my plants. And myself. I need natural light in my nest.”
They talk over each other while Cadi adds everything to the board in a very chaotic manner. Sometimes, not using the correct color, and definitely not adding them in any sort of design. It’s like a word map. Some important things are tiny, and less important items overtake the board.
I grind my teeth a little.
“Should we all have our own rooms?” I ask.
Cadi blinks at me.
“No. I want to be close.”
Kol taps her knee, and she looks down at him on the floor.
“Oscar sleeps alone at night. He needs space.”
“Oh. Well. Who else needs their own room?”
Everyone remains quiet.
She writes down, “At least two bedrooms.” Which delights Kol. I’m not going to pretend I can share a room for long periods of time. I’ll need my own space. I just need a place to let my brain relax.
“I’d like it to be close to the Omega Shelter. I volunteer there three or four times a week.”
“Ok, that’s doable. It’s practically in the center of the city.”
“What about the hospital, Oscar?”
“Let’s not worry about that. I’ll take a car.”
The board is covered with little scribbles of all colors.
Kol has his laptop open and is typing away.
He tells us he has six properties we can look at and is just emailing the listing agents that we are going by today.
I clean up breakfast, and we pack everything up to move to a more comfortable room.
The nest rooms at this hotel aren’t designed for much else besides a heat.
We are moving to a suite in the other tower.
We leave our bags with the front desk to move to our new room, and then head out to look for a new house. Cadi is bouncing on her feet.
She’s so happy.
She’s been bonded. She had a successful heat. All her pack mates are here…for the most part.
I can also feel the little omega in the bond.
The one in Salt Port. It’s a strong connection despite the distance.
She doesn’t know how to block me. I’m the pack lead, so to close off from me requires some skill.
Skills she doesn’t possess. I can feel her strength and her tough resolve.
I can feel her apprehension and fear. She leans into the bond for some strength.
When she’s feeling anxious or worried, I feel her seek out the threads of her bond to Locke.
I’m not sure if he’s aware, but he reassures her with his presence.
The threads of our bond are all very clear to me. I see everyone. I feel them all. It’s part of who I am to try to meet all their needs, so I need to be aware of them. I feel their pain, inadequacies, shame and guilt, joy and love. I feel it all.
If possessed, I could pull away from one of the bonded, aiding in the detachment or dissolution of the bond. I’d use my alpha-influence to do it. If possessed.
We arrive at the first place, which is an apartment on the top floor in the fashion district. The elevator jolts and sputters. Cadi has Kol chase her from one end to the other, and she doesn’t like how the floors bounce. He captures her and twirls her around.
That’s an important item for me, so I find the whiteboard discarded on the counter and add “can handle chasing.”
After we go through each of the rooms, underwhelmed, we find ourselves in the kitchen, shoulder to shoulder, realizing how unrealistic it is.
“Kol, Locke, and I tend to congregate in the kitchen. We usually end up working at the kitchen table. Let’s add that to the list—big kitchen.”
Cadi nods and adds it to the list in purple.
Hm.
Kol gets back on his phone to find the next place.
We hit up two more. One has too many stairs, and Mads has trouble with them, so it’s an immediate no. Another doesn’t have windows with enough light and no outdoor space. We stop at a pizza place for lunch, and Kol is desperately typing on his phone while we eat.
“This is harder and more exhausting than I thought. You guys do this for a living?” Cadi sighs and eats her third slice. Heats will leave an omega very drained. I pass her over a lemon-lime soda and my breadsticks, which she takes gladly.
“I think we are all a bit exhausted from the last few days…” Kol says, and he’s right. We probably needed a rest day.
Pain and heartache come from Locke. I whip my head to him to see him casually eating and chatting with Cadi. I feel the same thing off in the distance from the little omega. They miss each other. He’s doing a good job hiding it.
Mads isn’t hiding it, though. His face is turned away, and his lips are pinched.
I wipe my mouth with a napkin and ask, “Let’s keep looking at places. I’m sure we will feel better if we find something we like.”
Kol nods. “I agree. Now, I have a little bit of a strange option. It’s near the Omega Clinic.
There’s a bus stop across the street. The hospital is on the same road, a mile away.
There’s not a park super close, but it’s still walkable.
There is a coffee shop, a cosmetology school, and a music store on the same block. It’s in the entertainment district.”
Cadi’s eyes are wide with excitement. Mads asks, “But what makes it strange?”
Kol takes a deep breath. “It’s an old atrium. Single-level, glass roof. It can be rezoned for residential, I just checked.”
“An atrium? Like a greenhouse?” Cadi wonders.
“Similar. It’s big enough for us. I think you’ll be surprised. The street entrance is small, but it’s bigger in the back.”
“Lots of light?”
“I’d imagine.”
Cadi shoves the rest of the pizza in her mouth and starts scooting off the bench.
“Let’s go!” They all laugh and try to clean up as fast as she’s out of here. She’s an absolute joy to have with us. She lightens all our moods.
Cadi loves plants, something I discovered when I finally learned her full name and could do an internet search. It was the same thing with Mads when I discovered he likes fish and aquariums. Cadi is a plant girl. Her apartment is covered with them. I’m proud I got her a pothos.
We walk to the atrium, as per Mads’s request. I hang back with him as he takes his time.
Kol and Cadi speed up and stop, and speed up then stop again, chatting the whole time about renovations and city code.
She’s very interested in how it all works.
Locke is far ahead, watching out for dangers and clearing the sidewalk for us.
When Mads and I are alone, the rest too far up ahead to hear, I ask, “You miss her?”
He stumbles a bit, and I grab onto his arm so he doesn’t fall. He pulls away, regains his balance, and we keep walking.
“Oscar…I…” I just wait. I asked a clear question, and I expect a clear answer. He breathes loudly for a few breaths and then begins again. “I do miss her. I think she’s accidentally become very important to me.”
“Mads, would you reject her if I asked you to?”
He huffs out a breath.
“It feels like I already did, before you even asked.”
I place my hand on his upper back. He’s a good beta. He’s a good man. He thought he got to keep his omega, but he still had to reject one.