Clay
My daddy was a grade-a asshole and thought crying was for ‘sissies’ as he’d said.
Mama Moore was the opposite, and would tell me how manly it was to show my emotions and wear my heart on my sleeve.
I know who I’m channeling as I watch the love of my life and my Omega sitting on the back of a horse and wandering off on the trails together.
My eyes are stinging, my cheeks are soaked, and I honestly cannot fathom how, after a year of me beggin’ and pleadin’ and promisin’ that this woman has just got him straight back up there like nothing happened.
Y’know what? I don’t give a flying pig's nipple. I just care that Teddy’s back in his happy place again.
Taking my phone out, I zoom in enough to catch a photo of the two of them sharing a sweet kiss before sending it off in the pack group chat.
There are heart emojis flying all over my screen in seconds, and a single reply from Atlas saying:
‘That’s our girl.’
My plan’s falling into place for this, and tomorrow, after she’s been woken up by one of us—girl can sleep for America, I’ve never met someone who naps so much—me and Atty are gonna take her nest shopping to work for a couple of hours, see if she wants to just have some easy fun…
And I have some ropes with her name on them, too.
??
It’s early when my alarm rings through me, gritting my teeth as my hand slaps for my phone.
Teddy cried himself to sleep last night about how much he doesn’t want her to go, and I think this is the fastest I’ve ever fallen for someone, except the man in front of me.
It’s only been just over two weeks, and she’s wriggling her way into all of us with that sassy little mouth and her goddamn thoughtfulness, even though she still isn’t quite a hundred percent about us lot yet.
The octopus next to me in bed detaches, and my jaw drops as I wonder what kinda pod person he’s been replaced with.
“You forgot how much trouble I have prying you off most days?” I joke, leaning in to kiss him awake. His unimpressed grumble makes me snort, but he’s not mad, not really.
“Yeah, yeah. I know you’ve got a date with Skye today, haven’t you? Go treat her good, do something exciting, then tell me all about it when you get back.”
“Yessir,” Saluting him, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, pull on some sweats and a shirt, and go find our girl, “Gonna treat her to some nest shopping before we go.”
At that, he sits up a little, eyes brightening, “I’ll get the other two, I’m not missing that for the entire world.”
Leaving him to go wake up Lucas early after being on night shift, I wander up to the Omega suite.
The doors open, that's a surprise. Usually she’s in bed til ten, then comes downstairs looking like a feral fox until she’s had her morning coffee.
Moaning sounds quietly from within the room, and I press my ear to the door to listen, trying to catch a glimpse through the crack.
I want to see if our girl has been imagining us whilst she—Nope, there between her thighs is a fluffy pale mohawk.
Atlas has gotten off to an early start, and just as I push the door open, she explodes.
Tugging at his hair, she’s panting and staring at me wide-eyed like she’s been caught doing something she shouldn’t.
I just cross my arms and lean back against the door frame, smirking.
“Good to see you putting our boy to good use,” I grin, eyes roaming over her sweat-sheened body. Atlas leans back leisurely, slick drunk as he licks his lips and hums.
“Just having some breakfast before I go down and make hers,” He says, sliding from the bed and fist-bumping me on the way by.
I can smell her on him, like he’s been out on a binge all night.
Jealousy burns in a hot wave through my blood, cock swelling as I look at our Omega, so damn pretty, all mussed from an orgasm and freshly awoken. She gives me the laziest smile.
“His mouth should come with a warning,” She blushes, falling back onto the sheets.
“Just you wait til the rest of us have had a taste of you.” Her eyes are magnetized to my tongue as it pokes out, licking along my lips, “Now go get showered and dressed like a good Omega, we have a busy day ahead.”
Ten minutes later, she’s down at the dining table, taking her place at the opposite side from Fury, who’s been roused early too, looking like he’s dragged himself through a hedge backwards.
Lucas is prim and proper as always, scowling with dark circles, poor guy can’t have had more than a few hours, but at least he’s off tonight for his own date with our girl.
Atlas is at the cooker, stacking sausages, eggs, and bacon on plates and handing them out one at a time until we’re all eating, and I can see our girl vibrating with anticipation. She practically inhales her breakfast, then sits back, swinging her legs until Lucas breaks the silence.
“Any more heat spikes?” He asks, his serious voice killing the excitement a little.
“This morning, Atty dealt with it,” Again.
I repeat in my head, narrowing my eyes at my packmate.
In the two weeks since she had the big spike, she’s backed off, offering affection pretty freely.
Goddess knows I’ve had more cheek and forehead kisses than I’ve had in my life, and the occasional thieved kiss on the lips, but that’s been it.
And then Atlas saunters into her room and just sets off another spike and gets to eat her out again.
Bastard. I know he won’t rub it in our faces, but I wish he would, so I could plead the case of my jealousy.
“What’s the deal anyway today?” She asks, looking between us all, wiping the last bit of egg yolk from her plate, “I didn’t think you guys got much time off together.”
“We don’t,” Fury says between bites, “I’m working late shift today, got a couple of surgeries in tonight, Luc’s got the night cause he’s back on dayshift tomorrow…
Yeah, so we’re gonna have a little pack bonding time before you have some two-on-one with Clay and Atlas.
” Wiggling his eyebrows at her, she sighs. Our Cardinal has that effect on people.
Skye is quiet, though, her face downcast as her clean plate suddenly becomes very, very interesting.
“I keep wondering when it’s all going to come crashing down. When one of you is going to push me too far, or finally admit that it is a big joke all along, and that dude from TV will jump out of the bushes screaming that I’ve been punked or whatever that show was.”
Nobody speaks for a long time. Every second we don’t, she’s getting more worked up, wringing her hands, tapping her feet, and I think she’s about to explode when Teddy stands and holds out his hand, “Come on, sweetheart, let’s go.”
We pile into two cars, one with me and Atlas, since we’re going on a date with our girl after, and the others in Lucas’ SUV, figured it would be easier to get about if we didn’t have to drop everyone else off first. Atlas is fidgety on the way there, pressing the window switch, changing the air on his side, and flicking the heated seats on and off.
It’s driving me fucking nuts, not to mention how he’s changing the settings that Teddy usually has.
“What’s wrong?” I finally ask after he reaches to turn on the radio and I smack his hand, “You know the rules.”
“Shotgun shuts his pie-hole,” He grumbles, then we both laugh, “Wonder if Skye’ll binge-watch it with us.”
“You kidding me?” I snort, “She’s been eyeing up those boxsets like they’re made of gold, we’ll get her all nice and settled sometime and watch through them, blankets, snacks, the whole lot.”
It’s quiet again for a little longer.
“Do you think she meant what she said? About us, thinking this is a big joke?” The vulnerability in his voice hurts my heart. I hate to see a pack brother hurting, and I reach over to pat his shoulder.
“I think that she thinks she means it.” I reply to him, glancing over to catch the confusion on his face, “She grew up in a family where her dad had very traditional ideas about how Omegas should be treated and act, but very non-traditional ideas on structure. She’s waiting for us to stop her wandering out to see the horses, to keep her in her nest whilst we knot her as we please, or demand she gets her implant removed, y’know?
” I take a deep breath, the pure revulsion at that thought flooding me, “It’s gonna take some time before she stops expecting us to send her away. We just gotta love her good.”
Atty brightens at that, gray eyes wide, “So it isn’t too soon to tell her I love her?”
I choke on my breath, glancing at him, “Yeah, yeah, dude, it probably is. Last thing you want is her thinking that you’re trying to overwhelm her. Go easy. She’ll let us know when it’s time.” He deflates at that, “But you can still show her. We’ll give her the best time today, okay?”
Ten minutes later, we pull in behind the SUV to World of Nesting, this big warehouse right on the edge of the city.
It’s enormous, and absolutely packed with people.
Citrine has maybe a hundred thousand residents, and it feels like every last one of them is currently piled into this place.
Skye squeals as she gets out of the car, taking turns throwing her arms around each one of us, topping it with a slobbery cheek kiss in her excitement, and the mood lifts.
We are all a little worried, given how big a step this is, to let her make her own decisions with her nest. It’s usually reserved for once you’ve finished the contracted period and taken the Omega on as a permanent pack member, but I think, looking at her delighted little bounces, that this is exactly what she needs. Now to drop her second surprise.
“C’mere, darlin’,” She flies at me like she’s walking on air, and I fish out my wallet, picking the black card from it and handing it to her. She looks down, then back at me, then down, then back at me, “It’s a pack account card.”
“But it’s got my name on it.”
“Yup, you’re part of this pack, it’s limitless too, so unless you’re planning on buying a couple of private jets or a whole private island, then you can get whatever you want. So let’s go shopping.”
It’s clear as soon as we step in the door that our girl is overwhelmed and underprepared for this sort of trip.
I can practically see her tail between her legs until Teddy grabs one of those giant bucket carts and starts pushing it to a stand at the front door.
Apparently, there’s a checklist for nests?
Gods above, I thought it would just be blankets and pillows, and from the looks on my packmates’ faces, so did they.
We are all about to learn some things today.
With a checklist in hand, our Omega is suddenly the captain of this crew, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she is about to climb in the cart and start demanding we hoist anchor… Maybe we could get some carts for Bowline.
“Okay, first stop, paint. It says here that paint is the base for any good nest, even before the nest itself. Apparently, the right color lowers an Omega’s stress by up to thirty percent!
” She’s reading straight from this sheet of paper, her green eyes wide, “Oh, that sounds about right. I don’t like how sterile the nest is, so maybe not white. ”
Teddy chips in with, “Purple?”
Our Omega takes a second, a faraway look in her eyes, before the most adorable crinkle appears between her brows, and she pouts, “No. Dark blue. Like a really dark navy, but you can tell it isn’t black.”
“Very precise, what a good Omega,” Lucas speaks for the first time, and to our surprise, she preens.
Her entire body lights up with the praise, and she scampers off to the paint section.
We all turn to him, gobsmacked, but he only shrugs, “Omegas thrive on praise. Just call her a good girl and she’ll melt. ”
Has he just been keeping that to himself all this time?
This man, who has had multiple years of experience with two different Omegas, is just going to let us flounder?
Of course, he is. Should have expected it.
I think the closest we have to experience is Fury’s revolving door of women, period, but that’s hardly courting behavior.
“Well? I need my cart!” Skye calls out, pulling us to attention. She has three paint pots stacked in her arms, wobbling with the effort, before I rush to grab them from her, swinging them into the cart, “Okay, next, lights!”
Okay, so I might be a little fearful for the bank account.