Chapter 14 #3
I looked over my shoulder.
“So what makes him Head Alpha?” I asked Malek while slowing enough for him to come a little closer.
“Mostly responsibility.” Malek explained as he adjusted one of the straps crossing his chest. “The territory. Safety. Problems that affect the whole pack. If something happens and someone needs to make the final call quickly, that falls to me.”
“That still sounds suspiciously like being in charge.” I observed to Malek, watching him cross the root I had nearly tripped over without looking down.
“Sometimes I am.” Malek admitted as his golden-brown eyes met mine briefly. “Not about everything.”
“He doesn’t get to decide what I eat.” Tavian announced from ahead of us, raising one hand as though he had discovered the most important cultural distinction.
“No one could decide what you eat.” Luca countered with a laugh beside me. “You’d argue until the food went bad.”
“I have standards.” Tavian defended himself while shoving a branch out of his path.
“You ate three green guavas last week.” Malek reminded Tavian, his voice perfectly flat.
“They were almost ripe.” Tavian protested over his shoulder, sounding personally insulted by the accusation. I smiled as I stepped around another muddy patch, the easy back-and-forth doing more to show me how long they’d been together than any explanation probably could.
“So outside of the things Malek handles, you’re equals.” I glanced toward Luca to make sure I had the important part right.
“Exactly.” Luca confirmed with a small nod, shifting the rolled tarp beneath his arm.
That answer created another question almost immediately.
I spent several steps deciding whether I actually wanted to ask it.
The only sounds around us were boots against wet ground, the occasional drip from the leaves, and Tavian moving through a patch of low vegetation ahead.
Curiosity won.
“What happens when one of you wants a mate?” I asked the men, keeping my attention on the trail and trying not to sound quite as interested in the answer as I was. Tavian’s pace slowed. Luca was quiet for a moment beside me, and Malek’s footsteps came a little closer from behind.
“We never planned on finding separate mates.” Luca finally answered, his voice losing some of its earlier amusement. I stopped walking. Tavian took another couple of steps before realizing and turned toward us.
“No separate mates?” I repeated to Luca while looking from him to Tavian and finally Malek.
“No.” Malek answered from several feet behind me, my gear still hanging from his shoulders. “That was never what we wanted.”
“Then what did you want?” I asked Malek as I shifted my weight on the uneven trail.
“One mate for the pack.” Tavian answered from beside a tree, resting one hand against the trunk while his usual grin disappeared.
“Is that common?” I asked Luca, keeping the question firmly in the territory of shifter culture.
“Pretty common.” Luca adjusted the tarp beneath his arm as he answered. “Not every pack looks the same, but several Alphas sharing one Omega wouldn’t turn any heads where we come from.”
I glanced toward Malek, yesterday’s explanation about his role taking on a slightly different shape now.
“And being Head Alpha—” I started, letting the unfinished thought hang as my attention moved between the three men.
“Doesn’t change anything romantically.” Malek finished for me without hesitation, his expression turning serious.
“He doesn’t get first pick either.” Tavian added from beside the tree, the edge of his grin finally returning.
“That is not what I was asking.” I informed Tavian as I gave him a flat look.
“You were thinking about it.” Tavian replied with an unapologetic lift of one shoulder.
“I was wondering whether Malek being in charge of the territory somehow carried over into the relationship.” I corrected Tavian, folding my arms while he continued looking much too pleased with himself.
“It doesn’t.” Luca assured me, his mouth curving faintly. “If a woman chose all three of us, she’d be with all three of us. Malek being Head Alpha wouldn’t put him above either of us.”
The answer settled something I hadn’t realized was bothering me.
The structure itself wasn’t entirely foreign.
Human packs could contain more than two partners too.
Three Alphas sharing one Omega wasn’t something I encountered often, but the relationship wasn’t difficult to understand once I stopped trying to fit Malek’s territorial role into parts of their lives where it didn’t belong.
“What makes it more common for your kind?” I asked Luca after Tavian pushed away from the tree and started moving again.
“Some of it is tradition.” Luca returned to my side, stepping over a slick root before continuing. “Some of it is practical. During a heat, one partner can stay close while somebody else handles food, sleeps, keeps an eye on the territory, or does whatever else needs doing.”
“Not because an Omega can’t take care of herself.” Malek added from behind me, his steady voice making me glance back. “The point is that nobody in a pack has to handle everything alone.”
I held his gaze for a second, letting the distinction settle before Luca continued.
“If a pack has children, it helps there too.” Luca ducked beneath a low branch, then held it aside so I could pass without catching my braid. “More parents around. If somebody is exhausted, working, or needed somewhere else, there are still people there.”
“If they want children.” Tavian emphasized from ahead, looking over one shoulder with an unexpectedly serious expression. “That part isn’t automatic.”
The tension I hadn’t realized had gathered across my shoulders loosened.
Good.
“So the three of you expected to share one Omega eventually.” I adjusted the strap crossing my shoulder as the trail leveled out again.
“If we met someone all three of us wanted, and she wanted us.” Luca glanced toward me as he answered, his emphasis settling just as firmly on the second half.
Something about the way he looked at me made my next step slow.
Tavian had gone unusually quiet ahead of us.
When I glanced toward him, he was watching me instead of the trail, the easy humor that normally sat somewhere in his expression noticeably absent.
Behind me, Malek’s footsteps stopped altogether.
I looked from one man to another.
“Why do I suddenly feel like this stopped being a general lesson about leopard-shifter relationships?” I asked them as my fingers tightened slightly around the strap of my camera bag.
“It did.” Malek answered from a few paces behind me, his golden-brown eyes holding mine when I turned toward him. The simple answer did absolutely nothing helpful for the strange little twist beneath my ribs.
“We’re interested in you, Evie.” Luca added from beside me, his voice warm but direct as he shifted the rolled tarp beneath his arm. “All three of us.”
I stared at him.
Then Tavian.
Then Malek.
For once, Tavian seemed perfectly willing to let the silence sit there.
“You mean interested as in…” I let the unfinished question hang between us because apparently my ability to form complete sentences had abandoned me at an inconvenient time.
“As in we’d like the chance to see where this could go.” Tavian answered from beside the nearest tree, his expression more serious than I was used to seeing on him. “With you.”
There it was.
Not a discussion about some future Omega they might meet one day.
Me.
My first reaction probably should have involved the fact that three attractive Alpha shifters had just admitted they were interested in me. Instead, one particular detail from the conversation lodged itself firmly in my head.
“Is this because I’m an Omega?” I asked them, my grip tightening briefly around my camera strap. “You’ve always known you wanted one shared Omega, and then I wandered into your territory unattached.”
“No.” Malek answered so quickly that my attention snapped back to him. His expression had gone completely serious, whatever amusement he’d carried earlier disappearing.
“There are other Omegas, Evie.” Malek continued as he shifted one of my bags higher against his shoulder. “If having an Omega in the pack was all we wanted, we could have pursued someone years ago.”
“That would also have been considerably easier than waiting for one to arrive carrying half a camera store.” Tavian added from beside the tree, carefully letting a little humor back into the conversation.
“It is not that much equipment.” I gave Tavian an offended look, grateful for something easier to respond to.
“You brought six bags.” Tavian pointed toward the collection currently hanging from Malek, his amber eyes brightening as though the evidence spoke for itself.
“Five. The other one folds down.” I corrected Tavian automatically.
“It still turns into a bag.” Tavian’s grin widened.
“Can you survive one serious conversation?” Luca asked Tavian as he tipped his head toward him, though the smile pulling at his own mouth took most of the bite from the question.
“Usually.” Tavian pushed away from the tree and straightened. “I make no promises.”
The interruption gave me enough time to let the more important answer settle. They could have pursued another Omega. They hadn’t.
I looked back toward Malek.
“So what made you interested?” I asked him, quieter this time. “Because apparently I missed quite a bit while I thought you were just a leopard.”
For a few seconds, Malek only studied me. The forest moved around us while he considered the answer, leaves whispering overhead as something small scampered along a branch somewhere behind Tavian.
“You helped me when you thought I was just an injured leopard.” Malek explained, his gaze remaining steady on mine. “You kept coming back. You talk while you work. You forget everything around you when you’re taking photographs. You argue with Red.”
“I do not argue with Red.” I objected immediately, pointing at Malek before the accusation could become established fact.
Malek raised one eyebrow.