Chapter Atlas
Atlas
I swear I hadn’t meant to come. I definitely hadn’t meant to come all over the carpet.
Rum scented slick soaks my face, my tongue darting out to catch every single last morsel of my Omega. If I could go the rest of my life digging the last drops of her from my mustache and beard, I would.
Relaxed and finally at peace, she falls asleep almost instantly after her orgasm, head dropping against Fury’s shoulder and a soft snore escaping her.
Lucas had fled as quickly as possible, his retreating steps followed by our quiet snickering—we all noticed the wet patch on the front of his pants.
I guess if I weren’t the only one, then it wouldn’t be so bad.
Scrunching my nose, I look down at the glistening, pearly streaks on the carpet, then back up at my pack lead with an apologetic smile.
Fury returns it, his belly and chest covered too. Oh.
With a curt nod, I stand, glancing between Skye and the rest of my pack, wondering what happens now. Teddy reads it clear on my face, “She’s skittish still. She doesn’t trust us, and I think she’ll take the first opportunity to bolt as soon as she wakes up.”
Clay agrees; he usually does when Teddy speaks.
In the time since we’d joined the pack, watching them fall in love is bittersweet.
I want something like that, a warm lover to hold at night, someone to just have fun and play with.
I want to be surrounded by the love that I grew up with.
My mom’s an Alpha, and Cardinal of her pack, with two other Alphas and her Omega.
I’m a mirror image of my Omega dad, so the shock when I presented as an Alpha and sprouted from this little string bean, several feet up and out, had been a little much.
And like any young male shifter, I left my pack and wandered, just following my heart…
Halfway across the country and into Clay.
When I shifted back, I scared the shit out of him, but the feeling of family had been just too much to resist, and he’d done what he always does, treated me with nothing but kindness.
“Maybe we should stop talking about this whilst she’s here,” Fury’s voice is tight, angry, pulling me back from my daydreams to wince at his bared teeth. I’ve never seen him as dominant as he’s been the last few days.
“C’mon, bossman,” Clay murmurs, and I can see his anxiety stepping up, his hands moving constantly over Teddy, his leg bouncing.
I hate that he feels like he has to defuse everything before it starts, and rest my hand on his bouncing knee.
Not to stop, just to support, “I agree with Teddy, maybe taking her on dates and letting her get to know us individually without the rest of the pack would let her relax a little more.” Bobbing my head, I feel the weight of a heavy blue gaze.
“I like that idea,” I shrug, avoiding eye contact with Fury. My wolf already has his tail between his legs, back curled, “I could take her down to the center for a day. I wonder if she’d enjoy the axe throwing.”
Clay growls at me, then, “I want to take her there.”
“We can both take her? We do different activities. You take her on the ropes and zips, I'll do axe and archery.” It’s a simple fix, really, and it means we can both have eyes on her and enjoy a little friendly pack competition.
I can picture her now with one of the compound bows, guiding her from behind…
straight on my cock. Said cock gives an interested twitch, and I frown down at it.
Staining the carpet once is an accident, twice might be a little much, and from the heat I feel on the back of my head, it wouldn’t be as acceptable a second time.
“Do you really think we should be giving her sharp objects to throw, considering she’s already tried to escape?” Teddy’s face is dark at the thought, “That feels like… Such a bad idea. I don’t think we need any more missing limbs in the pack.”
“Pfft, I think Atty would look great with an eye patch when she pokes one out with an arrow,” Cutting through the tension, Fury laughs, his big wolfish grin brightening the room and bringing some levity back even as Lucas storms back to settle on the opposite sofa.
He’s got clean sweats on now and his stupid fluffy leopard slippers on his feet with the big clawed toes on the end; a Christmas gift from Teddy one year, I think.
Our Beta fills him in when he sits, a tangle of emotions crossing his face.
“She… I don’t want her,” He sighs, and the fight seems to leave him all at once, staring at our Omega.
He’s as suckered in as the rest of us; it’s not hard to see, but he’s so damn scared of going through it all again.
He should just tell her, she’ll understand, she’ll see why he's not warm and open. “I won’t lose another Omega. Especially not to pack politics, Brynn’s been breathing down our necks for a while, and…
I’m not a wolf; I don’t understand all your damn rules.
It’s like speaking a whole other language. ”
“You already speak a whole other language, irm?o,” Fury reminds him with a wry grin.
He hasn’t stopped stroking his hand over our Omega’s head, running his fingers through that rich, reddy-brown hair until the waves settle across her shoulders.
He’s so careful with her, handling her delicately so as not to pull at any tugs too hard, his fingers working to untangle them.
With his own long black hair, I figure he’s got it down how to deal with knots.
“Surely you can do this for her? She’s a scent match; the longer she’s here, the more painful it’ll be for you both to fight it.
You need to decide whether the pain of your past outweighs the love in your future, and stop letting it hold you back. ”
Lucas squares his shoulder, a demonic hiss escaping from between his clenched teeth.
It’s not the first time the two Alphas have been at each other, but Lucas is quick to remember he isn’t the Cardinal of this pack, despite his past, “Do you think I enjoyed losing two Omegas?! Do you think I enjoy reliving the heartache of having to confirm that it was Tomas on that table? Of finding Maggie in a puddle of her own blood? I. Cannot. Take. Another. Loss.” His anger crumbles away, body slumping like a puppet with the strings cut, and he buries his face in his hands, “She won’t want me, I cannot look at her without thinking about all the ways she could be taken away, how many ways we could lose her. I’m a cat too, she cannot want—“
“I think you should all stop assuming what I want.” A small voice remarks.
Skye sits up, tugging the blanket more firmly over herself when she notices how it's fallen. “I think I’d want you fine, but you won’t give me a chance.
” She scans the room, meeting each of us with intent, “I never want to be a kept Omega. I don’t want to be bound by a pack that’s going to force stupid rules on me and turn me into some awful breeding machine…
” Lips pursing thoughtfully, she goes silent, sinking back into Fury as the purring starts up.
She looks ready to continue before I open my mouth and stick my whole foot in.
“We don’t want kids.” I blurt, and five sets of eyes turn to me.
Sure, the pack has talked about it previously, but we all like our lives the way they are, and with most of us having weird schedules…
It just wouldn’t work. We do pack bonding nights on Mondays usually, though Lucas is hit or miss in attendance, and otherwise, there are only maybe two of us in the house at a time.
“You… Dont..?” Hesitant and careful, Skye's face is a mess of her emotions. Relief, clear and pure, is at the forefront, and I wonder what’s happened to her to make that thought terrify her so much.
She’s contemplating me until I feel as naked as I am.
It’s hard to make a shifter feel awkward; we’re naked so much of the time, but the minty depths of her irises are drowning me.
Murmurs of assent join mine around the room, and Clay breaks the silence with a grim set to his lips.
“My daddy was an abusive asshole. Never wanted them in case I ended up like him. Got a vasectomy fresh in my twenties and never looked back. Mama Moore was a little disappointed, but it didn’t make much of a difference when I’m knot deep in Teddy’s ass.”
“Most feline shifters can only reliably breed with their own,” Lucas mutters, “We have some… Difficult… Anatomy, especially as an Alpha.”
Difficult is right, he is pretty precious about his shower time, and is usually the most clothed of all the shifters in the house. But we’ve still all seen him at some point, and it makes me ache a little, even knowing I’m not into guys and would not be taking that anywhere near me.
I should be more concerned about possibly scaring our Omega given the outburst, but her scent has brightened, sweetened just a little, and Fury gives me an appreciative look. Letting me know I’ve done good saying what I did.
“You don’t want to keep me home. You don’t want to use me for that.”
“No, darlin’, Clay’s smile is soft, voice quiet.
“Hell, we’ll support whatever you want to do.
You want to help Teddy on the farm? Sure.
You want to work at the center with us? We’ll find you a spot.
You want to work in the city away from us?
We’ll get you a car. If you want to sit in your nest all day and be a pampered little Omega, that’s good too,” His hand flies up as she scowls, “I’m just saying it’s an option. Just give us a chance.”
Silence deafens us as we watch the wheels turning. With the soft overhead lighting and the hearth blazing away, she looks like a ravaged angel, all sleep-ruffled and flushed.
“And what if I want to do something I shouldn’t?” She asks, a breathy whisper as she clutches the blanket.
“Naughty, naughty Firecracker,” Fury barks a laugh, pulling her closer, “We’ll be your alibi.”
“And what if I want to burn down the auction houses?”
It’s my turn to chuckle, “Then, babygirl, we’ll hand you the matches.”