40. CALLUM
Chapter forty
CALLUM
L oren stills in my arms, then pulls abruptly away. I know why, I can hear Katie’s surprise and hesitancy. I should have heard her approach, but with Max stinking up the kitchen with their delicious scents all mixed together like a fucking drug cocktail, I didn’t catch her footsteps.
Katie hoovers in the doorway, watching us with a mix of shock and curiosity. Some of the older family packs don’t approve of Alphas having relationships– to be an Alpha is to dominate, to take up space. To be in control . When Alphas are in relationships, it necessitates a trade, a sharing of power, a willingness to allow someone else to dominate you.
Loren’s father never understood. Saw our intimacy as weakness.
But he’s wrong. We are stronger because we give and take. Because we can be fully vulnerable with one another.
If our Omega is uncomfortable with that, well…. she isn’t for us. The bloodwork would mean nothing if she asks me to forsake Loren.
“Hey Tough Girl! How are you feeling?” Max says, breaking the tense silence.
“I’m fine,” she says.
What a poor liar she is.
Loren unloops his arms from my waist, and slowly circles the counter, moving with a kind of deliberate ease, like you might with an easily startled horse.
“I heard you had an eventful afternoon,” he says, a smile on his lips.
“I, yes.” She looks from Loren, to me, to Max, a blush tinting her cheeks. Then she lifts her head, that spine of steel returning. “I’m sorry if I interrupted anything. It’s not my business who you’re intimate with.” She nods decisively.
Katie begins to back into the dining room, but Loren grabs her.
“You weren’t interrupting anything. And of course it’s your business; you’re our Omega. You should understand all of your pack’s dynamics.”
Katie flinches when Loren says “your pack.”
So she might accept Max fucking her at the gym, but she still doesn’t see us as her pack.
My fingers curl into a fist at my side.
She’s not Genevieve .
Maybe if I repeat it enough, it’ll sink in. She’s an Omega– one that hasn’t pushed for us to give her anything, or share any secrets. In fact, she’s doing everything she can to avoid real intimacy. She’s stubborn, and independent.
She’s the opposite of the poison Beta.
But I can’t help that instinctive reaction to mistrust, to try and decipher the motives behind the manipulation.
Except there isn’t any manipulation.
“Callum and I are packmates and lovers,” Loren says simply. “Is it a problem on Earth? For Alphas to be intimate?”
“No,” Katie answers quickly. “I mean some people don’t think men should be together, but they’re twats. And we don’t have Alphas, remember?” She looks past Loren again to me, then to Max.
“I just… why have an Omega if you’re all together?”
“We’re not all together,” Max says. “I’m a packmate only, no bonus benefits. Hot as these Alphas are, they don’t exactly row my boat.”
“Row your boat?” Katie asks, then laughs. “Back home we say “float your boat”-- I guess it means the same thing.” Tension breaks around us, and Loren’s shoulders, which were hovering by his ears, relax back down. My own fist uncurls.
“We have hearts big enough for all of our relationships,” Loren says gently. “Aurelia said on Earth you usually have one relationship at a time.”
Katie nods. “Yes, and that’s hard enough to manage,” she says, her voice lighter than before. “I guess I don’t understand wanting to add another… complication if you already have relationships. Why do you want me if you have each other?”
Loren’s face softens, and he takes her hand.“Because you complete us, Love. I have a heart big enough for all of you, and I need all of you to fill it.”
A cascade of emotions cross Katie’s face. Hope and longing, desire and raw need. Fear and discomfort.
Finally, she shakes her hand free, and offers a half smile.
Max breaks in, pulling us out from the disquiet building. “Did you know that Gerard left us caramel cake for dessert tonight? It’s my favorite!” He laughs. “Wait, it’s my second favorite dessert. Because our Omega’s pussy is my favorite.” He winks at Katie’s shocked face, and Loren snorts, pulling her to the dinner table.
I watch from the kitchen as the last of the tension lifts and Max pours out more wine.
I want to go to them, but some invisible thread holds me back. I want to be with them, my pack. To be with her , my Omega.
But the gate around my heart is too heavy to move.
So I will content myself with watching from the sidelines.
For now.