Chapter 3
The tower rises high above the treetops, a glass-walled cabin perched atop a skeletal framework of weathered timber and cross-braced legs.
It is an old structure, built in the times before the Great Cataclysm.
In those days it was used as a fire lookout tower, where people called rangers would watch for wildfires.
These days, it’s our home.
I’m sitting on a stool in the middle of the cabin, still wearing the ridiculous little outfit I put on this morning to lure the boys with.
I’ve managed to tie the top shut where the Farlander cut it, but the laces keep trying to give, so I have to hold it closed with one hand.
I would like to change into something less revealing, but I’m not about to do that in front of the alphas.
I could tell them to avert their eyes, but I’m too nervous to say anything.
It’s not Bjor I’m worried about. Or Renn.
It’s Knar.
I’ve never seen him like this before.
Oh, I’ve seen him angry plenty of times. Roaring mad. But this is different. A cold, quiet fire that makes me too afraid to speak. He is standing at one end of the cabin, looking out across the forest. His powerful muscles are limned in golden sunshine streaming in through the windows.
Big Bjor is sitting on a bunk by the wall, idly whittling a piece of wood. He’s always carving away at something. He used to carve toys for me when I was little.
Renn is on the other side of the cabin, lounging on his own bunk. I catch him smirking at me, and I stick out my tongue. His green eyes roll.
“Eri…?”
Knar’s voice is thunder on the horizon. I sit up a little straighter on my stool.
“Yes, Daddy?”
“How long have you been living with us?”
It’s a question I’m not expected to answer.
Knar is fond of asking questions like that.
The truth is, I don’t remember exactly how long it’s been.
I just know I was still little when my parents were killed by Outsiders from beyond the Wall.
Knar was a friend of theirs, and he promised he would take care of me if anything happened to them.
Ever since, he and his pack brethren have raised me like their own.
Knar remains at the window, unmoving. You can see a long way from up here. All the way to the Wall, on a clear day. On the other side, the towers of the Central Ruins are visible in the distance, their glass windows gleaming in the afternoon sun.
Knar isn’t looking at either of those landmarks. He doesn’t seem to be looking at anything in particular. The room is quiet. The loudest sound is the scrape-scrape-scrape of Bjor’s knife, though my thumping heart is giving it some stiff competition.
At last, Knar continues.
“Haven’t we always tried to keep you safe, Eri? Haven’t we impressed upon you just how dangerous the Zone can be? And haven’t we told you… not to hang around with alphas?”
“You guys are alphas,” I quip. “You don’t mind me hanging around you.”
Source, I just can’t help myself, can I?
On his bunk, Renn snorts. Even Bjor chuckles softly behind his thick beard. But Knar isn’t amused. He turns from the window and fixes me with those gray eyes of his. At the moment, the color reminds me more of smoke than a storm cloud.
And where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Excitement spirals through me. An inappropriate spark. Knar is my daddy, after all. Not by blood, but still. I shouldn’t be feeling… this.
“You know what I mean,” Knar growls. “Young alphas. They’re only interested in one thing.”
Oh, I’m aware. Painfully aware, in fact.
The “one thing” to which Knar is referring is currently throbbing with unwanted heat.
If I were a guy, my loincloth would be sticking straight up right now.
Luckily for me, a girl’s arousal is a bit more subtle.
I squeeze my legs together and pray that Knar can’t smell the effect his lecture is having on me.
Source, what is wrong with me?
“We can’t keep her away from boys forever, you know?”
That time, it was Bjor who spoke. The big alpha has set down the piece of wood he was carving, and now he’s sitting with one elbow resting on his knee as he thoughtfully strokes his fingers through his thick beard.
When he speaks again, his voice is so deep and rumbling, I can feel it through the seat of my stool.
“Eri’s not our little girl anymore,” he says. “She’s a grown omega. She hasn’t gotten her first heat yet, but she will soon.”
The mention of estrus sends a blush into my cheeks.
Thankfully, Bjor doesn’t go into all the dirty details about what that involves—but he doesn’t have to.
Everyone in the Zone knows what happens to an omega when she goes into heat.
The way her body floods the air with pheromones, signalling a need that only a pack of alphas can satisfy.
Sometimes the mating can go on for days without stopping.
Arousal moistens the seam of my sex. I clench my thighs tighter.
Knar sighs.
“Perhaps you’re right,” he says, seemingly oblivious to my discomfort. “Perhaps it would be best if we sent her back to the Ruins to find some alphas her own age.”
The heat drains from my face. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Knar has always been so adamant about keeping me away from alphas. So have Bjor and Renn, for that matter. What’s the cause of this sudden change of heart? Have I played my little game too many times?
“No!”
All three alphas lift their heads and stare at me hard. I feel myself withering under that triple gaze.
“Excuse me?” Knar says.
“You can’t send me away!” I say, not even caring if my bratty tone infuriates my pack master. “You just can’t! You… you promised my parents you would protect me, no matter what!”
Knar stares me down, stern yet calm.
Why is he so Source-damn calm?
“Eri,” he says. “This is serious. It isn’t just a matter of you getting knocked up on accident. That stunt you pulled today could’ve gotten you killed. If we hadn’t shown up when we did—”
“I know!” I shout. “I— I’ll be good from now on! I promise!”
“We’ve heard that before,” Renn chimes in.
Normally I would scowl at him for a comment like that, but right now I’m too panicked. I cast my eyes around our dwelling, searching for something—anything—that might change the alphas’ minds.
I find it in the corner.
It’s a bundle of about a dozen or so spears the four of us have crafted together.
The best spears in the entire Zone, if you ask me.
We trade them with other packs for stuff like furs and baskets.
And we have a nice little division of labor going on: Renn is the one who scavenges the steel from old pre-Cataclysmic machines; Knar melts it down and forges it into spear tips; Bjor carves the wooden hafts…
And me, I lash the tips in place with cords of sinew. My smaller fingers are better suited to such delicate work.
“If you send me away, who will tie the spears?” I ask.
“We’ll figure something out.”
Knar’s words hit me like a punch and leave me cold. I thought I was an irreplaceable part of this pack, but I guess not. Tears ache behind my eyes.
“I don’t even care about boys,” I murmur.
“Your behavior over the past year suggests otherwise.”
“Nah,” says Renn.
Knar looks at him. “Nah?”
Renn swings off his bunk and stands up, moving toward me in that lazy, graceful way of his.
“Don’t you see it?” he says. “Eri doesn’t really care about those boys she’s always flirting with. They’re just toys to her. She’s just using them to get the three of us riled.”
My pulse jumps.
“What are you talking about?” Knar growls.
“Think about it,” says Renn, moving closer to where I’m sitting.
“Our little Eri’s a smart girl. And if a smart girl really wanted to fool around with alphas, she’d figure out a way to do it without getting caught.
Yet somehow, Eri always seems to do the exact opposite.
She likes getting caught. She likes seeing how we’ll react… ”
Renn places a finger under my chin and tilts my face up toward his.
“…isn’t that right, little omega?”
I’m too tongue-tied to answer. I’ve always known Renn was handsome—but I’ve never noticed just how handsome until now. The way he’s looking down at me makes me tingle in places I shouldn’t.
“Eri?” Knar says. “Is this true?”
The pack master is standing right beside Renn now, towering above me with his fists planted firmly on his muscular hips. His expression is severe, but his face is every bit as handsome as Renn’s. For some reason, it suddenly occurs to me that my face is level with—
“Eri,” he says. “I asked you a question, young lady. Is what Renn said true?”
I bite my lip, then nod.
“Hang on,” Bjor says. He’s standing over me now too, with his meaty arms folded across his hairy chest. “Are you telling us you brought all those boys home just to… to piss us off?”
I squirm on my stool.
“I wasn’t trying to make you angry, exactly. I just liked how you would get all… all…”
“Protective?” Bjor offers.
“Possessive?” Knar suggests.
“Jealous,” says Renn.
That last word in particular hits me like a slap—not to the face, but to a different, more sensitive portion of my anatomy. I don’t think I’ve ever been so explicitly aware of my body as I am right now, surrounded by my three alpha daddies.
For a few long moments, nobody says anything. Then Knar speaks again:
“You’ve been a bad omega, Eri.”
“I know,” I stammer, struggling to hold back tears, “but please, don’t send me away.”
“We’re not going to send you away,” Knar says. “But we do need to punish you somehow.”
My heart swells with happiness. He’s going to ground me. Fine. I don’t even care that I’m too old to be grounded. I’ll stay at home for the rest of eternity if that’s what it takes. Just as long as I don’t have to be away from the alphas I love.
Knar takes me by the arms and gently lifts me to my feet. My face barely reaches his chest. He moves me to one side, then sits down on the stool where I was just sitting. I give him a quizzical look. He pats his thigh.
“Bend yourself over my lap,” Knar growls. “It’s time for your spanking.”