11. Ollie
“We need to get back to normal.”
Ollie blinked at Loch, who looked over each of them like he expected someone to protest. Loch had called them all to the pack nest an hour ago without explanation. Ollie assumed he was bringing them together to discuss their next steps now that Binnie and San had claimed each other.
The two had been inseparable for three days. Literally. Even now, San sat draped across Binnie’s legs, a large comforter wrapped around them both. Ollie found it amusing that the two who had held out the longest were the most nauseatingly googly-eyed over each other. But the rest of them had been stuck in isolation together for the first few days after their claiming, so maybe it was just that nobody was there to witness their gross outpouring of affection.
He was happy for them, though. For both of them. But especially Binnie. Ollie always thought the alpha would have to hide part of himself to ever find a mate. Then along came San who was equal but opposite his friend in almost every way. Almost like they were designed for each other. Which, according to their—not-so-secretly—sappy and sentimental leader, was exactly how they all ended up together.
Ollie sighed, a pool of anxiety seeping through the cracks of his calm facade. Deke pulled him deeper into his embrace, his chest warm against Ollie’s back. Deke hooked his chin over Ollie’s shoulder with a concerned whine. Ollie bumped his cheek against the alpha’s, letting him know he was okay. Deke nuzzled his neck, licking over his scent gland, hands slipping beneath his shirt to splay over his abdomen.
His skin was scorching against Ollie’s. He was almost certain that, if he looked, he’d see the shape of Deke’s hands imprinted on the skin there. He was obsessed. Ollie wasn’t even sure Deke himself noticed how often he touched Ollie’s belly lately, but Ollie did.
How could he not? A tendril of heat coiled in his core every time Deke touched him. His body’s response to his touch was as instantaneous as it was embarrassing.
Ollie had never considered himself a sexual person. In the military, opportunities had been few and far between. At Cerberus, he’d been able to turn to the others in his group, most of whom sat in the room with him now, but he’d never really sought out gratification. There wasn’t anything someone else could do for him that he couldn’t do for himself faster and far more efficiently by just jerking off.
But ever since he and Deke had mated, Ollie found that his appetites had changed. Maybe it was his new omega status, maybe it was his insatiable mate and his perpetually horny pack. Whatever the cause, he found himself…susceptible to the pheromones of those around him, easily turned on by the slightest thing.
Ollie could have managed, could have endured…if Deke didn’t feel the need to touch him twenty-four-seven. But he did. And Ollie’s body had been trained to respond to every touch with an almost pavlovian response.
Deke rumbled low in his chest. There was no doubt he could smell the effect he had on Ollie. And if he could, they all could. Ollie closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and letting out. He couldn’t get hard every single time his mate touched him or they’d never get a single thing done again.
He glanced over to where Fen and Seth lay curled on either side of Saint, tucked under his arms, heads on his broad shoulders. They were both smirking at him. Jerks. If this was an omega thing, how did they rein it in? If it was just an Ollie thing, how did he make it stop?
“Are you pausing for dramatic effect?” Saint asked, as droll as always.
Right. Loch was talking.
The pack alpha gave one of his self-effacing laughs from where he sat, perched on the edge of the nest, his feet hanging over into the space, keeping some distance between them even as his eyes darted to his mate, who gave him a reassuring smile. “No, I was just sure one of you was going to argue with me.”
“I’m sure one of us will eventually, baby, but we’re going to need more information first,” Fen said, smiling encouragingly at him.
Ollie had to bite his lip to keep from snorting at the way Loch beamed at Fen. The omega could probably stomp on his balls and Loch would thank him for it. He was whipped. Disgustingly so.
It was cute.
Kind of.
“Seth and Fen need to get back to work,” Loch continued. “They already exhausted most of their sick leave during Deke’s super-rut?—”
“Sorry,” Deke muttered.
Seth giggled. “To be fair, Fenny and I exposed ourselves to your alpha pheromones on purpose.”
“It’s true. The horny little gremlins were outside your door huffing them like paint,” Saint confirmed.
Deke seemed to relax a little behind him.
“Yeah, nobody was upset about anything that happened during your rut,” Fen assured him, blushing. “Even if we didn’t exactly know what we were all getting into.”
Deke gave a jerky nod that Ollie caught from the corner of his eye.
“Binnie needs to get back to work, too. Working from home is fine but he’s far more effective in person and, honestly, his father is gaining too much traction for him to keep working from the sidelines.”
“You called a meeting for that?” Binnie said, smirking. “How…underwhelming.”
Loch rolled his eyes. “A lot has happened in the last few weeks.”
That might go down in history as the understatement of the year. Ollie bit the inside of his cheek, trying to force down that unease threatening to overwhelm him. That was something else that never used to happen before. This sudden panic that would well up then recede like the tides.
Loch threw a soft look at his mate. “I called a meeting to get our thoughts in order. We’ve had a lot thrown at us in the last few months. I just want us to…regroup a bit.”
“How so?” San asked.
“By walking through the last few weeks so we can come up with a game plan,” Loch said. “We can’t keep relying on Ollie to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to planning and logistics.”
Ollie startled at the sound of his own name. “It’s what I do.”
Loch nodded. “And you do it better than any of us. But I just want us to start from the top and walk through everything. We have to be able to handle things if you have to take a step back or if your…priorities shift slightly.”
If you’re having a miracle baby went unsaid.
“Starting where?” Binnie asked.
Loch looked at him. “We started out with a single goal: avenging Josh. That is still our goal. But Fen inadvertently tripped Dresden’s internal alarm bells and someone went after Deke to get to Fen. Then we all moved in here together.”
The cracks in Ollie’s calm facade widened. He’d forgotten about that. How could he forget that Deke got hurt. It felt like years had passed since that incident. “Then I identified our first target as Stirling, but then Deke presented and…things happened,” Ollie said, flushing.
Loch nodded. “Yeah, and while we were all…bonding, Fenny’s friend went off-script, digging into Stirling and caught someone’s attention. We just don’t know who.”
“Don’t forget Deke might be an enigma and Ollie might be pregnant,” Fen added, giving them what Ollie was sure he thought was a reassuring smile.
Mostly, it just made Ollie’s stomach churn, bile climbing up his throat. He breathed through it as Deke pressed a kiss to his neck, hugging him tighter still.
“Okay, now that we got through the ‘previously on’ recap, what was the point of all this? What’s the plan?” San asked.
Loch sighed, giving San a tired look. “Step one: we get back to our new normal.”
“What exactly is our new normal?” Saint asked, his fingers playing at both Seth’s and Fen’s napes while they basked in the alpha’s touch.
Ollie was learning that omegas were far more tactile than betas ever were or, at least, more than Ollie ever was.
“Well, like I said, Fen, Seth, and Binnie get back to work for one.”
“What if someone attacks them? Wasn’t the whole point of moving here safety?” Deke asked.
Loch nodded. “We’ll have safety measures in place. Binnie is perfectly capable of watching his own back, but Saint and I are going to make sure Seth and Fen get to and from work safely every day.”
“Why do we get the bodyguard service? Because we’re helpless little omegas?” Seth asked, rolling his eyes.
“Of course not,” Loch said.
“Because you don’t have combat training,” Saint reminded.
“Neither do San and Deke, yet I don’t hear you offering them an armed escort.”
Loch sighed. “That’s because I don’t think they should return to their old lives. San has his studio set up in the cottage so he can continue with his art from home for now. And Deke…well, I’m giving him the option of going back to school or putting his efforts towards something slightly more pressing.”
“Like?” Deke asked.
“Like figuring out whether you are, in fact, this enigma and what that means,” Loch said. “All the usual digital threads have led nowhere, but the university has a huge mythology and ancient text department. We think someone might be able to find something there.”
“And you think I’m the most qualified to do the research?” Deke asked, sounding doubtful.
Loch nodded. “Yes, with Ollie’s help.”
“What about Stirling?” Ollie asked. “I thought you wanted me on that?”
“Fenny has that covered,” Loch said.
“I created a program that will flag any suspicious activity from the transplant team, the hospital, and Stirling himself, so the next time any of them do something it will send me the alert.”
“And if they don’t do anything shady?” San asked. “How do you plan on flipping him to our side?”
Fenny shrugged. “I’ll fake it.”
Binnie’s brows went up. “What?”
Fenny gave him a look. “What? Faking evidence is easy enough in this day and age. I’d rather have actual evidence but they’re not fighting fair so why should we?”
Binnie nodded. “Fair point.”
“Is Ollie…safe?” Deke asked, then gestured vaguely. “You know, out there in the real world? What if someone notices?”
“Nobody in DC knew Ollie before. Anyone he meets now won’t see anything other than a claimed omega with a younger but very protective alpha,” Loch said.
“Once I’m back at work, I’ll have a much easier time looking for any backdoors to the National Registry so we can handle it once and for all,” Fen said.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Seth asked.
Fen lifted his head up just enough to give Seth a look. “It was your idea!”
“I know, but I mean doing it from work. Isn’t it safer to do it from here?” Seth asked. “If you get caught, you’ll lose your job and get thrown in prison. Messing with the National Registry is like…a felony.”
“Do you want me to do this or not?” Fen asked, exasperated.
“Not,” Ollie said, a little louder than necessary.
“What do you mean not ?” Fen asked. “We made a plan.”
Ollie’s stomach was churning once more. If he’d eaten anything, he might have thrown up. “You made a plan and I was just too in my head to argue. I can’t ask you to risk prison for me. Especially when we don’t even know if there’s a…”
“Baby,” Seth said, tone sharp. “ Our baby. The pack’s baby. I think we all know there’s a baby in there. The alphas in the pack can’t stay away from you and you’re definitely not yourself lately.”
Ollie wanted to scream, “you don’t even know me,” but Seth did know him. They were all connected somehow. They all coalesced together effortlessly from the beginning. Besides, ignoring a problem didn’t make it go away. Still, it felt like the last tenuous thread keeping him from plummeting into the abyss and he was watching that thread unravel before his eyes.
“I know,” Ollie snapped. “It’s in my body. Believe me, I know. But I am not asking Fen to risk prison for our…” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “For our baby.”
“You didn’t ask,” Fen said, giving him a sad look. “It’s what we do. We’re a pack.”
“Not officially,” Ollie countered. “Not legally.”
Loch cleared his throat. “And that’s the other thing I wanted to talk about.”
Ollie’s heart rate accelerated. “Meaning?”
“Well, with San and Binnie mated, there’s no reason for us not to make it official. If that’s still something we all want,” Loch finished, sounding far less confident than when he started the statement, like he thought one or two of them might have changed their mind.
Ollie looked at the others, ensuring they were nodding before he did the same. Nowadays, becoming an official pack was more about paperwork than ritual, but the bite was required. Just like with the mating bite, there was some kind of salivary component that signaled they were pack, making their connection stronger. But more than that, it let others know that the person in question had legal protections under the law.
“When do we want to do this?” Loch asked. “Officially?”
“Like the paperwork or the bite?” Binnie asked. “I can handle the official paperwork when I get back to work. I can walk it directly to the agency and make them process it then and there. You just need to have a pack seal.”
Loch nodded. “It’s covered.”
“And the bite?” San asked. “When are we doing that?”
“The full moon is tonight,” Loch said, shifting his weight awkwardly where he sat. “We could do it now, like…right now. Unless you guys want a more formal ceremony with all the fanfare? Then we can wait until next month.”
The full moon wasn’t a requirement of the pack ceremony, just a remnant of a much older time when they could still shift from their current forms into something animal-like. Just like in any aspect of their lives, the ceremony could be as formal or informal as the pack liked. There were a lot of silly traditions that had no actual bearing on the ritual itself, but made it feel more grand.
The only real necessity was each member sinking their teeth into the pack leader’s bite as he bit each member in turn. And, in this day and age, the paperwork and fees, of course. Bureaucrats had their hands in everything. If they could make money off it, they would.
“I don’t want to wait,” Seth said. “I don’t think we can afford to wait. I just want to be an official pack. Now. Tonight.”
“We’re not really a fancy ritual kind of group, are we?” Saint asked. “I’m not putting on some silly robe and reciting some ridiculous oath like in a bad movie.”
The others snickered but Fen sat up. “Let’s do it here. In the pack nest. Now.”
Once more, the others all nodded.
“Ollie first,” Seth said, sitting up as well.
Ollie snapped his head around, looking at Seth in confusion. “Why me?”
Seth shrugged. “Precious cargo. Besides, if we bite you while you’re pregnant, the baby is born with our combined DNA in his or her system. They’re pack by default, our connection will be stronger.”
Ollie flushed, the tips of his ears growing hot. It was true. The baby—if there was one—would share a much closer bond with the pack when they were born. They would still need to reaffirm their pack status when they came of age, but this was something packs sometimes did with pregnant omegas.
Like me.
“Yeah, okay,” Ollie said. “I’ll go first.”
He knee-walked over the uneven surface of the nest, navigating pillows and blankets and bodies until he was in front of Loch. He peeled off his shirt, dropping it beside him. The bite would be on the opposite side of his mating bite, which Loch could have reached without Ollie removing his shirt, but the wound would bleed and Ollie really liked that shirt.
Loch’s palm curled around the back of his neck, burning against his skin. Alphas ran so hot. He drew Ollie closer, the scent of petrichor flooding the omega’s nostrils as the alpha closed the distance between them. Ollie tilted his head, baring the unmarred side of his neck for Loch. His heart was hammering against his ribs, not with panic but something adjacent. He clenched his fists but tried to relax the rest of him.
Loch’s lips were soft, settling on his skin a moment before his teeth did. Pain flooded his system as Loch bit down, sharp teeth sinking into the skin on the side of his jugular. Almost as soon as it started, it morphed into something else, a searing heat that instantly faded to a dull throb, like he could feel his heart beating in the wound.
When Loch released him, Ollie felt…odd. Lightheaded. Loch’s wet tongue licked over his bite a moment before someone’s arms came around him from behind, pulling them into his arms.
Deke.
His mate. Ollie gave him a dopey grin, his palm cupping his face. “Hi.”
Deke gave him a curious look. “Hi. Are you okay?”
Ollie gave him a clumsy okay sign, still a little giddy. He could hear the others laughing at him but he didn’t care. He was laughing, too. Even when Deke sank his teeth into the same wound. There was no pain at all this time, like Loch’s saliva had a numbing agent in it. Maybe it did? Ollie had never imagined himself as part of a pack so he’d never looked into the science behind it. Even the idea of a mate had always been this vague, amorphous thing, the barest shape of an idea. He’d never really truly imagined he’d find someone. Not past the abstract, anyway.
But now, he had Deke, who was one of the prettiest boys Ollie had ever seen up close. “You’re pretty.”
He heard Seth snicker. “Is this a side effect of the bite?”
“Yeah,” Loch said. “It can make you feel…”
“High?” Seth asked. “Because I’ve never seen Ollie smile like this.”
“Yeah, close enough,” Loch agreed.
“Like rolling on molly,” Binnie added.
The rest of his pack mates’ bites were a blur. Each time someone sank their teeth into him, he grew a little hazier, a bit fuzzier, but still aware enough to know what was happening. Things were just…happy. Colorful. And Deke was so kissable. So, he did kiss him.
Anytime Deke wasn’t sinking his teeth into one of his pack, his lips were on Ollie’s. And when they weren’t, Ollie kissed Seth…or Fen…even Saint. At first, they’d all just been indulging him, but once completed, the person bitten would collapse beside him, looking just as silly and happy as he felt.
Ollie had no idea how he managed to bite the others. He knows he did. He could still taste their blood on his lips whenever he licked them. Or maybe that was left behind by someone’s kiss. He didn’t know. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything but rolling around in the nest with his pack.
Fen was the last bitten, but as Loch’s mate, it fell to him to bite the leader. If Loch hadn’t had a mate, it would have fallen to whoever he considered his second-in-command. Saint or Binnie, probably. Not him. Ollie was not in command of anything, especially right now. He crawled to Loch when it was his turn, sinking his teeth into the much smaller wound made from Fen’s mouth. When he finished, he rested his head on Loch’s back for a moment before letting San pull him down into another slow kiss.
Ollie let his fingers lazily trail up his neck as San’s tongue licked into his mouth. He pressed against the new bite, but the blood had already clotted, scabs forming. It wouldn’t heal as quickly as some wounds did, but Ollie didn’t want it to. He wanted to be able to feel the throbbing ache that let him know he belonged somewhere.
That he belonged with them. All of them.
With his mate.
With his pack.
With his family.