Chapter 36
Lane
W e’d all noticed the switch in Oriana’s demeanor. She closed her eyes and snuggled into the seat on the way back.
She seemed happy and content on the outside, but I’d seen how she’d tensed when we walked up to the stall for the nesting materials.
It also hadn’t slipped my notice that she’d avoided talking about a nest. I just thought she was private about it.
However, that reaction told a different story.
When we got home, she muttered something about having to use the bathroom and ran upstairs, leaving us alone.
“Is it just me, or is our omega freaking out about nesting?” I asked, not bothering to beat around the bush. Who knows how long we had to figure this out.
“She never did before, but…” Cameron trailed off because we all knew what he was about to say.
“Has she had a nest since she’s known you, Roman?” Hudson asked, looking concerned now, too. His dark eyes were full of worry as he glanced at the stairs. There wasn’t a sound drifting down them yet.
She was definitely hiding from this.
Tate took a moment to let Henry outside before joining us. “We need to talk about her heat anyway,” he pointed out. “Limits and consent, all of that. I refuse to go into one without knowing what makes her feel comfortable and safe. She’s closer to it hitting, I felt it this morning when she kissed me.”
Roman glanced nervously at the clock on the wall. “Well, it’s been about five minutes. Let’s go up and see if she’s done.”
We went up collectively as a pack. I hoped it didn’t freak her out more to see us all as a united front, but we all had to be involved in this conversation.
She couldn’t keep hiding from us.
I was the first to reach the door, knocking softly. I could hear her moving around inside, so I knew she wasn’t in the bathroom any longer. She opened the door with a frown. She was guarded now.
I glanced behind her to see the bags for her nest sitting outside the door along with older bags, too.
The door itself was still firmly closed.
“Hey, we just wanted to talk really quick,” I started off, but Hudson took over. He was always the more eloquently spoken one when it came to hard topics, so I was happy to let him lead.
“We just noticed that your mood shifted a bit when talking about the nest,” he started, but even he seemed out of his element, glancing at Tate for backup.
“That and your heat’s approaching. We need to talk about that anyway,” Tate supplied.
Cameron, apparently, wasn’t so gentle. He looked right at our omega.
“Baby, have you nested at all since…?”
Her eyes watered, and she shook her head a little. “No, I can’t... it’s not…” She stumbled over her words, which was not like her. Before the panic really took over, she rushed to the other room. “I gotta go check on Henry.”
“Wait,” Tate said. She froze at the door, her entire body slumping. “Look, we don’t have to talk about the nesting right now, but we do need to talk about heat. Are we spending it in this room?”
“Yes,” she said, grasping onto that word like a lifeline and holding it tight. She lowered her head and turned around. Those gorgeous, ocean blues swam with tears and worry but we weren’t going to walk away just because she didn’t want to nest.
“What about bites? Do you want to bond with us all?” I asked carefully. I had no idea if she bonded with anyone outside of Roman and Cameron yet, and didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.
Yet, I needed to know for myself, too. Because I wanted that, so fucking bad.
A tear finally fell as she shook her head vigorously. “I do.”
“We do, too,” I reassured her. “We all want you. We just want to make sure you’re comfortable doing it during your heat. I know instincts can get out of hand.”
“Just… don’t treat me like I’m fragile,” she said, looking almost disgusted with herself at being vulnerable. I hated that she’d had to put up so many walls. One glance at Cameron told me he was one step away from puking.
“We won’t,” Tate promised. “You aren’t fragile. But we will be gentle with you when you need it. That doesn’t make you weak.”
His words were cut with a hard edge, making it clear we disagreed with her view of herself. It might take a while to fix what was broken, but that was fine. We weren’t going anywhere.
“Any hard limits?” Hudson asked. “Things you don’t like?”
“My Omega is pretty vocal. She’ll tell you,” she promised. “I just want you guys there. Be with me, take care of me, and don’t fucking leave me.”
“We would never,” I promised. Hudson nudged Cameron, because really, it was him who needed to give her the reassurance for this one.
“I’ll be here the whole time. I won’t leave your side,” he vowed. There was enough determination and promise in his words that she let out a breath, nodded, and turned, hurrying away before we could bring up nesting again.
“You’ve got to fix that,” Hudson said, looking right at Cameron. “She’s an Omega. She needs her nest. It’s her safe space. We can prepare this room, but she needs the option.”
Cameron’s eyes flickered right to me, shocking me, and then to Roman. “Can you two help me? I’ve got a couple of ideas, but…” he trailed off.
“Of course,” I said without hesitation. I turned to Tate and Hudson. “Can you guys distract her with a date?”
“Of course,” Hudson agreed.
Tate nodded, running a hand over his stubble. “We’ll take her out for dinner. Can you be done by tonight?”
“Come hell or high water,” Cameron promised.
No matter what they’d been through in the past, and whatever had gone down between them, Cameron was a good alpha.
It may have taken him time to get there, but he was there now, and he was trying his best to be what she needed. I hoped this was the final thing to reassure her omega that we were all here and wouldn’t leave her.
Five minutes later, the front door closed.
“So, where do we start?” I asked, looking at Cam. He let out a sigh and turned to the door that had yet to be opened. The hinges creaked as if it hadn’t been used in months, and from the musty smell, it definitely hadn’t.
Our girl hadn’t opened this one time.
Everything in the small room was white. There was a wall-to-wall mattress, so everywhere you stepped, it was soft. The small space was covered in a big white blanket, and the walls were plain.
A large window filled up a large portion of the back wall, light blocking curtains hanging around it.
The rest of the nest was bland—no style, no substance, just bare bones.
“Well, I guess we’ve got the base,” I managed, my heart breaking for our omega. It was part of their instincts to nest, and I knew it had to be driving her crazy.
I wondered if it had a little bit to do with how up and down her emotions and her heat spikes had been. She was craving her safe space, and she couldn’t have it, or rather, wouldn’t let herself have it.
“Whatever we do, it can’t look like her old nest. I know that much. It’s just going to remind her of what we had, and I fucked up,” Cameron said firmly. His eyes spoke volumes of his pain, but his need to make this right was stronger.
“What did her old nest look like?”
“Not her style,” Cameron admitted. “It was like something out of a magazine. All cozy aesthetic but no real heart or style.”
“Well,” Roman said, “I happen to know our girl loves her mood boards. Let me go through her Packvlog account and see if I can find any.”
We all settled on the couch in the master bedroom as he searched through her socials to find one. It took some digging, but it looked like she had made one a while back, but the last picture she added was only a few weeks ago—after she’d already met us.
Hope and excitement started to build as he flipped through page after page, showing the space she’d created in her mind. It was full of bursts of colors, starting with a stained glass window, ending with colors that matched the colorful panes.
They were all deeper jewel tones—dark violets, teals, blues, greens, and a few hints of gold mixed in. It was beautiful and elegant. Just like our perfect omega.
She was intricate and complicated, but also so fucking trusting when she gave in, sweet, kind, caring, and selfless. I loved how much of her soul she put in everything she did.
“This is nothing like the one she had when we were together. This could work,” Cameron said. His shoulders relaxed and some of the shadows that had been in his eyes faded. It was a starting point, now we just had to get to work and make it a reality.
“How the hell do we get her stained glass?” I muttered, facing the most complicated part first. They made window clings but I wanted something more than fancy stickers for our girl.
Cameron clapped Roman on the arm. “Well, we have a resident artist. Do you think you could find supplies and paint that window for her by hand? Honestly, I think she’ll love it even more if it’s from you.”
Roman opened his mouth, stunned that Cam had asked him, but he quickly nodded. “Of course, I can. I’ll do anything for her. I’ll look up some designs. In the meantime, we’re going to need a lot of things. I’m going to send these screenshots to your phone, and we’re going to have to split up. I will head for the art store. You guys have to head for some nesting stores. Find everything you can and spare no expense. I’ll give you what I have. I know it’s not a lot, but if we combine, it’ll be…”
“It’s fine,” Cameron said. “I’ve more than saved up for this moment.”
“We’ve got money to spend,” Lane said, not missing a beat. “Cameron and I are on it.”
Roman hopped in his car a few minutes later, while we climbed into Cameron’s truck. He bypassed the nesting store in town and headed for the city. We needed a wider selection. I wasn’t settling for less because of limited stock. She deserved our effort.
“The store I’m heading for is about an hour away, but they are going to have a way bigger nesting selection. Hopefully, we can find everything we need. I also have a few antiques in mind that we could pick up from the store room, try to mix in her style.”
“That’s smart,” I agreed.
This was probably the first time Cameron and I had been spending time like this alone together, but the ride wasn’t awkward. He was tense, and I didn’t want to let it stay that way, so I quickly turned on the radio.
I paused when I had, by default, gone for rock music and looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Please tell me you’re not a country nerd.”
“Sometimes,” he said with a shrug, completely unapologetic. “But, I can handle this.”
He turned it up, so I didn’t question his tastes further.
Then he shocked the hell out of me when he started singing along. It was a fairly popular song, but I hadn’t pegged him for knowing the lyrics. I didn’t hesitate to join in.
This all alpha band was one of the best. The lead singer had a smoky voice that reminded me of my own, and I didn’t hold myself back as I belted it out.
The tension fell away, and instead, we basked in the moment of taking care of our omega. Our instincts were to provide for her and everything we were about to do was for her.
Even if she wasn’t quite ready for it, the nest was going to be perfect.
“So, Lane, are you going to tell me about yourself?” Cameron asked as the song ended. He turned the radio down. “Other than the fact that, apparently, you can sing?”
The vague answer was on the tip of my tongue—the one that I gave anyone who asked so I didn’t have to really dive into the truth. But when I glanced at Cameron, I realized I didn’t want to hold back.
We knew about all of his skeletons at this point—the worst moments of his life and what he’d done to Oriana, and how he’d made up for it.
Maybe that was my motivation, or maybe I just truly trusted Cameron at this point.
The familiar grief rose to the surface, that old wound opening up as if it was fresh all over again. I shuddered against it but managed to keep my voice mostly steady.
“When I was just entering high school, I snuck out one night just to meet with some friends. It was a stupid party. When I came home, the sirens were everywhere, and smoke filled the air. I’ll let you fill in the blanks without going into detail about how I lost my whole family that night,” I said, looking out at the landscape as it passed by. Bile was rising in my throat as I sucked in lungfuls of air to calm myself.
Oddly, his scent, strong, steady, sweet and woodsy, helped the pain settle back in its usual place.
Cameron didn’t talk, but his hand landed on my shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze of silent support. I leaned into it, soaking in the comfort and not overthinking it.
We were family now and that would take some getting used to.
After a few minutes, I continued my story. None of it was pretty but it made me the man I was today.
A lot of trauma, too many tattoos, and dark humor for days.
“After that, I wound up in foster care. I didn’t have any family, or at least none that would step up. Those were some of the worst years of my life, and that’s saying something after losing my entire family, right?”
My laugh was hollow and full of pain. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say it was bad. I’d had to fight to keep my dignity in some of those houses. I starved more nights than I was fed, and I dealt with some of the worst of alpha-kind.
Somehow, that didn’t ruin alphas for me as a whole. Mainly because I was raised by some of the best. They would have been horrified to know the conditions I’d had to endure when they were gone.
“When I met Hudson and Tate, I was a mess. For some reason, we just clicked. Tate had been pretty jaded and had warded off all omegas. Hudson had lost his only family and was kind of a mess. Thankfully, he didn’t have to face the same horrors of foster care that I went through. Not to say they’re all bad. I met some people who adored the homes they ended up in. Unfortunately for me, I just didn’t end up in one of those.”
“Fuck those people. You never deserved that. No kids do.”
“I made sure they paid for it before I ran away. I’d been smart enough to gather evidence against them. It was detailed: photos, descriptions, dates, times, the works. I turned it into my caseworker on my way to school one day, and then I left town. I refuse to ever go back again, but I did check in a few years later after I was a legal adult, and heard that they went to jail. It seemed I wasn’t the only one they’d abused.”
“Damn, I’m proud of you for turning them in. That took some guts,” Cameron said.
I didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need me to. I let his words sink in. Usually, I was met with pity. But Cameron just met me with pride, making me feel like I really was strong.
Sometimes old insecurities were hard to shake. Lately, it was a whole lot easier.
It took a lot to move past everything, but I felt like I’d finally left my past behind. Now that I found Oriana and Rockwood Valley in general, I knew the only way from here was up.
In fact, it was a lot easier to agree to a pack and the idea of a family one day, knowing that our kids, no matter what happened to us, would be fine. Not only did Cameron have siblings and a mother that was attentive, but Roman had a family. They had their own downfalls, but they were family through and through.
“Okay, that’s enough heavy conversation,” I said as I rolled my shoulders, giving him a half smile.
“Yeah, you already know my bullshit. Fucked up, drank a lot, tried to fix it. Here we are,” Cameron said. It was a small summary for a wealth of emotions and issues, but I appreciated the humor he was bringing into it.
Sometimes, dark humor was the only way to get through. I knew that better than most.
“Thanks, Cameron,” I said before turning up the next song.
Thankfully, the rest of the drive was a lot lighter, with us just singing along and enjoying the drive. Thirty minutes later, we pulled up to a big-box nesting store.
We started to climb out until my attention caught on a small, colorful building across the street and a complex.
“Wait, do you see that?”
Cameron followed where I was pointing and immediately buckled back up and pulled out of the parking spot, driving across the street to the strip of small businesses.
This one was still bigger than the ones in Rockwood Valley, but Heavenly Nests’ window display was convincing that we were in the right place.
“Yeah, let’s start here. You know our girl is all about supporting small businesses,” Cameron agreed. “Good find.”
He gave me a fist bump before we hurried inside, eager now that we were this close.
“Welcome in! Are you here for your omega?” an older omega called out. She had large glasses that slid down her nose and curly gray that was pulled into a big, poofy ponytail. Her style was as colorful as the store and I trusted that she was exactly the person we needed.
“We are,” Cameron said. “We’ve got her mood board here. Is there someone who can help us find everything she needs for a brand new nest? Hers is a blank canvas, and it can’t stay that way, especially with her heat hitting really fast.”
“Oh dear,” she said, eyes widening. “Show me what you got. I’m ready.” She grabbed a few things off her desk, including a tablet and a notepad. With a push of her glasses, we had all her attention.
She focused on Cameron’s phone as he flipped through the pictures, taking notes, nodding along, and even queuing up a few things in the online shopping cart.
“Preferably everything we can find in person,” I said quickly, afraid she’d be ready to ship half of it. We needed all we could, now. Not later.
“Of course,” she promised. “Anything on here we have in inventory. I’m just marking it so I can find it. It’s my way of staying organized,” she promised.
After that, this omega turned into a machine. She called out into the back, and two beta men came out, giving her indulgent smiles.
She ran this place like a drill sergeant. They didn’t even flinch as she barked orders. In fact, they followed happily, smiles on their faces.
The betas collected everything she said until the counter was a mountain of colorful fabrics and nesting items.
I wasn’t sure how half of these things were going to go together, but that would be a problem for when we got there.
At least we’d have Roman with his artistic eye in the mix to save this situation. The rest of us were hopeless.
As she sent the betas off in search of a few more things, she turned to us, giving a reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry, honies. I’ll show you everything I’ve got at the end. Then you can pick and choose what you want.”
Cameron nodded, then turned to me. “We’re getting it all, right?”
I snorted and shook my head. “Oh, absolutely. We can even put some in storage if we have to. Then she has options later when she’s more comfortable with it.”
He offered his fist, and I bumped mine to his again, glad we were on the same side. Cameron was an easy alpha to get along with.
Oriana might have hated the thought of nesting, but I had a feeling when she saw what we were about to create, she’d feel a whole lot different.
Even if it took time for her to come to terms with it, that would be fine. She knew what her omega needed.
We just wanted her to have the option.
Either way, we were a patient pack, and we wouldn’t be giving up on our omega.
Cameron
My omega didn’t have a nest. In fact, she was terrified of nesting. Because of me.
I did this to her. The amount of pain I caused was unforgivable, yet here she was working past those old feelings and giving me a second chance.
Sure, we were young. But this? This was all on me.
I had to fix it. Or at least try. It wasn’t like I was going to push her into it if she refused, but at least she’d have a new nest as a fresh start and could use it anytime she felt up for it.
If she ever did.
The smell of paint was building in the air as Lane and I turned the rest of the space into a cozy nest. Once we hung the sheet fabric over the walls, it was like a whole new room and we were just getting started.
Slowly, the space was transformed from a blank canvas to a beautiful mix of colors that complemented the stained glass window that Roman was working on.
When we finished hanging everything and had it all set until he was done painting, I ran downstairs for drinks and snacks, bringing some to Roman because the beta wasn’t about to take a break.
“Here, eat,” I offered. “Drink something.”
“I will,” he dismissed as he dipped the paint in a pretty green, not even bothering to look my way.
“No, now,” I argued. “Eat fast and it will be out of the way. You’re going to get high from these fumes.”
He grumbled, but sat the brush down, took the offerings, and went to the main room. From the way he was rapidly blinking his eyes, he needed this moment more than he realized.
“I should be finished in about twenty minutes. Where are the others?” Roman asked before taking a bite of his sandwich.
“Tate’s been keeping me updated. They just started the bonfire so you have some time. He says she’s still a bit off, so I don’t know how long they’ll manage to distract her,” Lane admitted.
The silence that followed was heavy. This upcoming heat was going to be intense. It was also going to be a learning experience for all of us.
And at some point, I’d have to forgive myself. There was no real way for us to move on if I hated myself as much as she should hate me.
Self-loathing and constantly gauging her mood wasn’t going to create a solid pack foundation. It was toxic and broody.
I’d hated myself enough for both of us all these years. And I also always tried to find ways to keep her in my life. Now, I was putting those things into practice.
No. Not just me. My pack. Our pack.
I had two other alphas and two betas by my side to help provide for our omega. And providing went far beyond simply being committed and giving her a knot when she needed one. It meant we took care of her emotionally, which was the most important part.
As I thought it over, it felt as if some of the weight lifted off of my shoulders. I wasn’t alone in this, even right now our betas were kicking ass on this nest right alongside me.
“Done,” Roman said as he stood up, turning to look at us. His smile was bright and sunny as he stepped aside with a flourish.
“Holy shit, Ro!” Lane cheered, hurrying over and clapping him on the shoulder.
Me? I was stunned.
Somehow this magical beta and his paint brushes created an intricate stained glass that looked deceivingly authentic and downright beautiful.
“It’s… everything,” I said, settling on one word to sum it all up.
The three of us had finally created a nest worthy of our incredible omega.
I just hoped that her reaction was good and I hadn’t made yet another mistake.