Chapter 20
Katsu
We’ve known for a few days that it was her birthday and that the town was throwing a massive birthday party for her.
It’s funny, but I didn’t think she was the kind of omega to want a big celebration.
She seemed like the type to enjoy a small, intimate gathering, but her family and friends are really excited about it.
Fox went shopping. For hours and days. Scouring the Internet, trying to find the perfect thing to give her. In the end, he ordered five gifts.
I’d ordered one.
I look at the black-wrapped box and wonder if she will like it. It’s too late now to change things. I’m nervous, which is new and unusual for me, but just shows how much I care already.
I walk up to her house and find Julia almost pulling her out onto the porch.
“We can just skip it, no one will know,” Cordie says in panic.
“They’ll know. Come on, don’t be a chicken.”
“I don’t want this. You know that. Why didn’t you stop them?” She clings even harder to the house. Her hair’s a mess, and she looks delightfully tousled.
“Oh, honey, this is a celebration, the town deserves a chance to say thank you.”
“No, it doesn’t!” Cordelia snarls and tries to struggle free. “Let me go!”
“No, you are coming to your party, and that’s that!”
Julia is dressed up in a dark coat and has her hair piled on her head with glitter in it. She looks pretty, but she can’t hold a candle to her daughter, or maybe I’m just biased.
I clear my throat. Cordie is still clinging to the door frame, refusing to let go, and Julia has a hold of her arm and is tugging her, trying to free her from the death grip. They both whip their heads towards me, but neither yields.
“Happy birthday, gorgeous.”
She gives me a tight smile. “Can you come back tomorrow?”
I blink, unsure of what to say to that. I don’t think anyone has just dismissed me so effectively before. It’s…refreshing.
“Cordelia Darla Lake, you apologise to that handsome alpha right now before he decides he doesn’t want you.”
“He can want me tomorrow. I’m not doing this.”
Julia lets go. “Fine, desperate times. Desperate measures.” She pulls out her phone and glares with narrowed eyes that promise that her wrath is coming.
“Wait!” I say to Cordelia, who is trying to escape. “I got you something.”
She glares at her mother. “Come inside. You can hide with me.”
I enter the house, trying not to smile when she slams the door and goes and flops on the couch.
I sit beside her and study her intently, trying to gauge her mood. “I can tell that you hate your birthday, but I will love this day forever because it gave the world you.”
She grumbles and wiggles deeper into the couch, trying really hard not to look in my direction.
“And I bought you this. But it’s not what it is that’s important, it’s what it represents.”
I hand her the black-wrapped box. She takes it slowly and opens it, pulling out the silver cuff with its engraved horses running out of the ocean.
“It’s beautiful.”
She looks on the inside and sees the words I’ve written down.
I get down on my knees in front of her, trying not to laugh at the way she sits up suddenly, trembling with a tension that turns her scent sharp.
“I promise to be patient and kind. To listen to you at all times. With all my strength, I will protect you from even the slightest harm. You will never be alone because we are together. And I will love you until the day I die and perhaps even longer.”
The words are engraved on the bracelet. Jewelry is pretty, but it’s my intention, my words that are the gift. My promise. My pledge. Patience, kindness, to listen, to protect, to be together, and to love her.
She’s staring at it for so long I think she hates it, and then I see a single tear fall, and she throws herself at me, hugging me tight. When her lips find mine, I realise that other than in her heat, this is the first time she has instigated a kiss.
I never want it to end.
I cradle her head, teasing her mouth open, teasing her lips with mine. She invades all my senses, just like she has invaded my heart, just like she has invaded my world.
She slides off the couch and sits on my lap. I pull her closer, wrenching my mouth away so I can drag my lips down the delicious satin of her jaw to the scent-soaked skin of her neck.
She lets out a weak whine; I wrap my hands tighter, pulling her up against me. All I can think about is getting her naked and pulling that slick, loaded pussy down onto my face.
“NO! None of that.”
We break apart as Lorelei, Sofia, and Asher come in.
“Oh, come on. She’s getting lucky, I mean if it were my birthday, that would be the absolute best present. This really is her worst birthday ever. You, Mum, are being a pussy block.”
“I am not!” Lorelei hisses. “I do not want to hear about your sexual exploits, Asher.”
“Don’t be a purist, Mum. You chose to meet your scent matches at stupid young. I hope I never meet mine. Life is too much fun to settle for just one pussy or dick when I can try them all.”
Lorelei sniffs and pretends she didn’t hear those comments.
“I know you are saying these things to shock me because you are angry with me, but you are going to finish Light Knot Night, and then you will attend the next one, or I will…I will…” Lorelei mumbles wrathfully. “I will take away the license for the gallery.”
Asher jerks back as Cordie climbs off me, allowing me to stand up and make myself presentable. I wonder if we can slip out the back.
“That is Felix’s dream. You can’t do that!” Asher whispers harshly.
“You promised you would all help me when I started this.”
“That was when it was a guarantee to fail!” Asher shouts.
“You promised,” Lorelei says, and her lower lip wobbles.
“Mum, that’s cheating.” Asher growls and paces quickly. “Fine, I did. I made a deal. I will honour it, don’t shut down Felix’s gallery.”
“Thank you, my darling.” She turns to Cordelia. “You also agreed to this.”
“I didn’t realise it was going to be this big,” Cordelia snaps. “Everyone is going to be there.”
“Come, say hello, blow out the candles, then we will all look the other way while you go practice getting pregnant,” Lorelei snaps.
“GRANDBABIES!” Julia squeals. “Oh, I have all the perfect names picked out. I want two little girls and a boy.”
Cordelia grabs my wrist and steps back, her face white, but my head is spinning. Having little miniature children that look like Cordie or Fox. A boy like Sebastian or a miniature of myself?
I didn’t…think about that.
My chest gets tight and bubbly like it’s filled with champagne.
“Sit down, Katsu, breathe.”
I’m helped onto the couch and my head pushed between my knees.
“Didn’t he know sex made babies?” Julia asks. “Do I need to have the talk with him? I can, I was very good at it.”
“No! No, thank you, Mum,” Cordie says.
I glance up and find Asher on the couch in silent convulsions of laughter. Evil, that is the evil twin, I’m sure of it.
“Fine, let’s go to the party,” Cordelia says heavily.
“Aw, no baby making?” Julia whines.
“Not with an audience, no,” Cordelia growls.
“Oh, good point. How long does he need? Is he a pocket rocket or a steam engine?”
-A what now? I stare at my soon-to-be bonded’s mother, wondering if there is an option button for her.
“Mum!” Cordie shouts.
“Judging by the colour, I’m going to go with steam!” Asher says helpfully.
Sofia has been leaning against the wall watching silently, but when Cordelia turns on her, she straightens. Something passes between the two omegas.
“You are the oldest; you control them, or I will make you pay.”
“There is nothing you can do to me.” Sofia tosses her hair in a haughty challenge.
“Oh, you want to bet,” Cordelia narrows her eyes. “Does your pack know all the stories?”
Sofia straightens, her smug smile vanishing.
“Yes, of course.”
“Hindrance Hove?” Cordelia asks sweetly.
“Pshaw, of course, they know that one.”
“Squid coma of 21?”
Sofia’s eyes narrow. “Yes, they know.”
“What about the great adventure, Raiders of the Lost D’arc?”
Sofia gasps. “We’re supposed to be best friends.”
Cordelia doesn’t back down.
“Wait! I haven’t heard that one. What is it?” Asher shouts.
Cordelia doesn’t look away; Sofia refuses to break eye contact. The tension rises to untenable levels.
At last, Sofia dips her head, submitting. “You win. Mum, we have to go. There is an issue with the cake.”
Lorelei shrieks and spins away from her conversation with Julia. “Asher, get your butt out here, I need you to carry all these down to the party.”
Asher gets up, glaring at us. Sofia stands still until they are gone, watching Julia run past with Lorelei and Asher.
She makes a slicing motion across her neck. “You are dead to me.”
Cordelia snorts.
“You better keep that secret forever.”
“And ever!” Cordelia says, and they hug, all the anger disappearing.
“Thanks, Sofia.”
“No worries. Get your butt to the party, or we will all never hear the end of it.”
Cordelia sighs.
“And get dressed, you heathen. You look like you crawled backwards out of a nest.”
I glance at Cordelia and realise her hair is in a messy bun; she’s in track pants and a jumper that looks like it belongs to a guy. I didn’t even see her clothes; I just saw her.
I pick up the bracelet and put it on her wrist.
She looks up at me, ignoring Sofia’s chortle as she disappears.
“I will do whatever you want to do.”
“Run away with me?”
“Of course. Where do you want to go?”
She rests her forehead on my chest. “You are too perfect.”
I stroke her back. She pulls away and gives me one of those incredible smiles.
“I’ll be back. I’m just going to get dressed for my party.”
She is gracious and charming, and you wouldn’t think she wanted to be anywhere else. I don’t know if anyone else can see the strain around her lips, or the way her eyes flicker to the door as if she’s waiting for someone to come rescue her.
I wait as long as I can, watching as the Sol family mix with my parents and Julia. Groups of people wander around and around, and she’s standing still in the middle of it all, looking like she wants to scream.
I set my glass down and stalk into her space. People fall aside, moving away from us as my aura hits them. But as soon as she feels me coming, the tension that is holding her shoulders rigid relaxes, and she turns towards me with a smile.
“It’s your birthday, and I would like to dance with you,” I murmur. “But not here.”
The elegantly decorated Sol house is beautiful, but it’s not where I want to be, so I take her hand, and we sneak out of her party. Sebastian and Fox notice us leave but intercept Sofia, who tries to follow.
We get to the road, and when she breathes out, she lets out a cloud of white air. She shivers, but I pull her into my arms. I will be her warmth tonight. She looks up at the stars and smiles.
“I wanted to explore the world, follow the stars to wherever they went. Do something so epically amazing that it would leave my mark up there. When I was young, that is. Childish dreams are so amazing, aren’t they?”
“It is quite a dream. Have you given up on it?”
“No, my dreams got smaller and more contained, that’s all.”
I don’t want her to be smaller; I want her to be bigger. “You should take up space, be loud, have messy, chaotic dreams. Be seen.”
She laughs, but the sound is full of self-mockery. “You would not say that if you knew…” She stops abruptly, and her scent gets slightly sour, like she’s in pain.
“What is going to make you smile right now? What do you need? Because I can do what I think you need, but I’m not sure you’d want me to.”
“Why don’t you try and see what happens?” she says under her breath, her fingers creep up my chest until one hand sits on my shoulder and the other rests on my neck, her thumb gently stroking my skin.
It’s incredibly intimate and I think will become one of my core memories. This moment with my omega, staring at me the way she is, in the dark as I realise that she is so enmeshed in me that I’d never be able to forget even a moment with her.
“Fine, but one dance while we wait for Fox and Sebastian, and then I’ll do it.”
She huffs. “Has anyone told you that you are bossy?”
“All the time. But I’m only bossy because I care. It’s who I am. If I didn’t care, you would get my polite indifference.”
“I could not abide your indifference,” she murmurs as her fingers slide down my chest.
I swing her around and, to my surprise, she can dance really well.
“You know your waltz.”
“My mother is an omega of many hobbies, I told you that.”
In the dark, in a small town called Sunshine Cove, I dance with the omega who has stolen my heart. A waltz under the stars. The music is only in my head, but still, I lose another part of myself to her.
We don’t get to finish the song when I pick her up and walk away from the party, doing what I promised. Sebastian and Fox jog to catch up.
“Where are we going?” Cordie asks.
“I’m kidnapping you. I didn’t think as far ahead as where to go, but I feel confident that if we go back to our house, we will be found in minutes. So, escape it is.”
I set her down when we arrive on Main Street. There is no one but us and the golden yellow from the streetlights shining down on the paved street. The beach roars, and the stars are our silent witnesses.
We sit on the stairs and talk of simple things. Favourite foods, funny stories, memories. Things that fill in the missing gaps of what we don’t know about each other.
Fox gives her the five gifts. Two stuffed animals, one a horse and one a magpie.
A ring that belonged to his grandmother, the simple silver band fits her ring finger perfectly, and then he stripped off his top and showed her the place on his chest, right over his heart, where he had her name and Sebastian’s tattooed, right beside mine.
She touches it without saying a word, but we can all see how moved she is.
“Can I stay with you tonight?” she murmurs.
“Yeah, of course.”
“Take me home, then?”
I stand up and hold out my hand, and she takes it.