Chapter Ten
Lux
Ihold her little body against mine, still wrapped in the blanket. The Olush medic had given her another once-over when she passed out. Nothing medically was wrong with her. He stated that when more of her medication arrived in a rotation or two, he’d send it on a transport.
There was nothing to do but take her home.
Now in the mobile, we sit in silence as she sleeps, or stays passed out, I don’t know which, in my arms.
Ziam had carefully rolled her head into my body, so that she might start to scent me, to take in my pheromones as soon as possible.
I stare down at her, occasionally brushing her short, oddly yellow hair out of her pretty, round face.
“Fuck,” Atiox finally announces, his gorgeous face lined with worry.
My heart has softened to her already. Poor terrified little thing.
Ziam takes a deep breath, “She’s scared. I suppose it’s understandable. She just needs a little time.”
I nod. “I agree. Even having agreed to this, it still must be strange. Especially for a class C planet inhabitant. They have only known of interstellar life for half a turn or so.”
Hopefully, a nap in Ati’s bed, surrounded by our scent, in her new home, will calm her.
WE HAD TUCKED HER STILL-sleeping little body into Ati’s bed, not the nest in the room on the third floor. We figured being surrounded by our scents would be better for her than an unmade nest.
We had all been lax to leave her, but Ziam had had an especially hard time; he had sat by her head, playing with her silky hair, until I had to bark at him to get him to leave her to her rest. Now downstairs, he digs in the cabinets to make some tea to help ease our nerves.
Ati puts the kettle on the stove, the flame very orange in the dim of the rainy day.
The pattering on the clear roof is calming.
I watch the large bodies of my packmates, my first and third, as they move around the kitchen silently.
Two other strong alphas to keep our omega safe.
Safe, sated, secure. Just as she deserves.
And perhaps bred.
Since seeing how happy omega Tristan and his pack was with their kits, it’s been playing in the back of my mind.
A few kits running around, teaching to swim in the river, climbing trees and getting their tails into everything.
And the thought of my omega, swollen and ripe with our young. .. that definitely does things to me.
I settle at a stool as Ziam tucks some dried herbs into four strainers and sets each in a mug.
The smallest mug is new, one that Ziam threw hastily and fired just the other rotation.
It would look silly in our hands, but he had studied the “Care and Feeding of Humans” manual to get a proper size for our omega.
“You’re a wonderful charax,” I offer quietly, knowing Ziam’s desire for praise. “That mug is the perfect size for her.”
I sense him smile even though his back is to me, as his slender tail fans faster back and forth. He pours hot water over the strainers, and Ati steps behind him, ducking his head, his tall horns and their chains tilting towards the cabinets as he kisses Ziam’s shoulder. I smile.
“Library?” I ask, wanting to be closer to our omega, without disturbing her. They both mumble affirmations, and I grab a tray for the tea.
Heading that direction makes my chest lighten, and I swear I can smell her sweet scent. It reminds me of a type of sweet jelly my one father used to make.
My omega. My little Octavia. When we near the library, my eyes flick up to her room door, near the ceiling of the incredibly tall space. The room that will soon be our nest. I cannot wait for her to decorate it.
As we settle on couches, Atiox curls next to me, his tail wrapping firmly around my ankle. I bite down a concerned sigh. He’s worried too, his need for touch shows it. I allow my tail to stroke over his silently as I sip the hot tea.
We sit in silence, save for the crackling fire and sound of water—both from the river and from the rainfall. Finally, Atiox opens his mouth. “I fear something is wrong.”
The patter of the rain grows louder as we all silently stare out the clear panels that overlook the river. I take a drink of my tea, the spices tart and the heat comforting.
Ziam nods slowly, curling in onto himself more in the chair he’s nestled in, even as his eyes flick to Ati’s door. “She should be awake.” He pauses, blinking his intense pale eyes slowly, “She should not have scrambled from us in terror.”
Ati’s tail tightens on mine. He adds, “What is wrong with her?”
I huff. “Nothing is wrong with her. She’s a very squishy, defenseless species, an omega of said species at that, sent across the universe that her kind hardly knew of a few turns ago. Let her be. She’ll settle in.”
Before they can argue with me, as I can sense is coming, the lights flicker in the now-downpour.
I shake my head, not wanting to hear it from them. “C’mon,” I admonish, “let’s get candles going, just in case.”
As we light the many candles in the space, I ruminate on what they said. Is something wrong with her? Surely not. Just overwhelmed. A lot has happened to her today. She’ll adjust.
We head up to the second floor, lighting sconces on the way. Our settlement is far from Celnoe, and even farther from Figate, where the nearest planetary reactors are. Sometimes our energy sources, especially in the rainy season, can fail.
Ati heads for the small stairs to the third floor, where only the omega’s nest is.
Quietly, muffled in the rain and dim, he says, “What if her heat hits and her body is untrained?”
He lets the indication hang a moment before continuing, “We will harm her body. In bringing her through her heat, we will cause pain, though less than the heat itself, and certainly not as long-lasting as heat-craze, but pain nonetheless. How would she ever love us?”
And just like that, Ati has voiced the concern that is curled around my brain.
The manual, and experience from other packs of Setias, indicate that an omega’s body, once exposed to alpha pheromones, is going to quickly drop into heat.
And that this tiny species, humans, must be trained to accommodate our size.
My hand freezes on the doorknob as I turn to look at my packmates’ sober faces.
“We’ll do this our way,” I say firmly.