Archer
Chapter Twenty-Four
Just like every other morning, I woke up before the others. I liked this time of day, and I loved cooking for everyone. That wasn’t new. But what was new was that now, I was cooking for our omega.
She had claimed us all, and we were hers.
Bonnie was sound asleep, tucked in her nest, safe and warm. It made me so happy, knowing how much better her life was now than it had been before, and that she allowed us to take care of her like this.
Me? I’d never truly believed we would find our omega and live a happy life together, but here we were, doing exactly that.
I started breakfast, putting on a pot of coffee, mixing pancake batter, frying bacon, and scrambling eggs. I had a half plan for us to shift today, which meant we needed a lot of energy. Extra energy meant I was making a ton of food.
Dallas came out next, the scent of bacon a surefire way to wake him up. He jumped in to help, and then Justice joined ten minutes later.
Bonnie had expressed her worry about us and jealousy, not wanting to make any of us feel bad, but the three of us had never been happier, never gotten along better.
I thought she was beginning to see that.
We weren’t in competition with each other.
We all had a common goal to make her happy and give her the life she wanted and deserved.
I was starting to cook the pancakes when she came out, still not fully awake. I suspected the bacon had roused her as well. She greeted us each with a kiss on the cheek, which had become her routine. I loved it.
Her scent was a little stronger today, a little sweeter, or maybe that was just me being lovesick. It could easily be that.
But as I watched the others scenting the air, I suspected maybe it wasn’t.
It wasn’t heat. That scent would be overpowering, but it was a little different, possibly because we were all mated now.
After we ate, I asked Dallas if he could keep the store closed.
He looked at me funny. “Why?”
“I think we should spend the day together.”
“Give me ten minutes to go put the sign up.”
I loved how he instantly agreed.
When he left, Justice, Bonnie, and I went about the daily farm chores, feeding the animals, checking the fences, and they were done just a little bit quicker with Justice’s help.
Considering he only fed the chickens half as much as they needed and had to go back and do it again, I was impressed with our timing.
When Dallas came back from putting the sign up on the door, we were nearly done.
“What were you thinking, since this was your idea?” Dallas put his arm on me.
“I was thinking we have to play, fur on.”
“And what should we play?” Bonnie asked.
“Predator and prey, of course,” I said.
For our bears, it had always been a favorite game, but with Bonnie, it brought it to a whole new level. She might be an omega, but whoa, she could track us down like the fiercest alpha on the planet.
Our game was the equivalent of tag for kids, only a lot furrier.
We shucked our clothes. The household rule, the last one to shift was “it.” There were some days where that slowed everything down because we all wanted to be on the hunt.
But not today. We raced, and it was a close call, but Justice was first. We all bolted in different directions, and he chose his prey, because I was the slowest. I didn’t mind. I loved both roles.
And then it was two against two, the goal to be the last one standing. Bonnie won, just like she usually did. Now, it was her time to be the hunter. I lumbered toward the river, hoping that I could use it to help her lose my scent.
I was tackled before I got to the bank, not just by Bonnie, but also by Dallas and Justice.
I’d been the last one standing. That was a first. We rolled on the ground.
Instead of getting up and playing more, we curled up in the sun and rested in a dogpile…
or was it bear wolf pile? Whatever the case, it was so much fun.
We shifted back. Bonnie seemed slightly off.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just…lots of running. I’m going to go take a shower.” She brushed past me, and her scent spiked again.
Something’s changing. It’s her heat. It’s coming.
The others seemed to notice it too.
“It’s not just me who scents that, right?” I asked when she had walked into the house.
“Oh, no, that’s not just you,” Dallas said. “My bear was hinting at it this morning, but I didn’t understand what he was saying until just now.”
“I—we need to tell her. She’s never been through this before,” I reminded them. They were aware of our conversation that day.
“Yeah, we should. She deserves that,” Dallas agreed.
What she really deserved was having her mother teach her the things she needed to, but I wasn’t going to bring that up.
They were slowly coming to an understanding between them, and I had a feeling they would grow closer again.
But that hurt—that hurt was never going to go fully away. The damage was done.
“We’ll wait till she’s out of the shower and have a pack meeting over lunch,” Justice said.
I never thought we’d have a pack meeting explaining heat to our omega. But then again, having an omega as wonderful as her wasn’t something I expected, either, and that had turned out well.