Seth’s eyes closed involuntarily as his mouth was softly ravaged. Then it was over, and still he kept his eyes shut, listening. Human footsteps turned to paws clicking on the floor. He didn’t open up again until he heard nothing at all.
The room was empty. Caleb was gone. And, Seth felt more alone than he had running feral.
Chapter Fifteen
“Here you go,” Joey said with a bright smile. “One vanilla cupcake and a big glass of milk to wash it all down.”
Seth wrinkled his nose. “Thanks, but I don’t really like milk. Can I please have water or juice instead?” Even as he asked the question, he knew what the answer was going to be.
“Sorry.” Joey flitted back to the stove where he had big pots of stew simmering away. “Andrea has two servings of dairy every day on your diet. Milk is a good source of that. We don’t want your mate returning to find that you didn’t follow instructions. Let me be your object lesson about what happens when omegas go off script.”
“Yeah,” Will said around his own mouthful of cupcake. “Joey’s lucky Liam has let him out of his cabin finally. We all benefit from his cooking, too. These are awesome,” he added, before stuffing the rest of his treat into his mouth.
Joey grunted. “I’m glad you like them, but really, they’re my way of showing my overprotective mate that being a new father doesn’t make me an invalid. I’m happy to be back in the kitchen, although I can’t leave the longhouse without Liam by my side.”
Seth forced some milk down before chasing the taste away with the more tongue-pleasing frosting. “It’s not fair.”
Both of the other omegas barked out laughter. Then Will waddled over and sat opposite him at the kitchen table.
He gave Seth a sympathetic look. “You can’t think about it that way. Sure, being mated to a high-ranked pack member means you have to put up with their domineering ways. And, all of us here know what it’s like when those kinds of guys abuse their power. Our mates aren’t like that.”
“Right,” Joey added. With a final stir of one of the pots, he went to check on his pup who lay sleeping in a bassinette. “Everything they do comes from a need to take care of us. Isn’t that right, Little Craig,” he whispered.
Straightening, the omega grabbed a cupcake off the counter. “They’re irritating as shit, but they love us and we love them.” So saying, he stuffed the whole thing into his mouth.
Will nodded. “They do, and we do.” He sighed. “Even when we want to smack them in their smug beta faces. Or gamma faces, as the case may be.”
“Don’t forget the alpha’s.” Kyle strolled in carrying a sleeping Hope in one arm. “Sometimes Lorcan makes me so mad… Then he does something really sweet that makes up for it.
“Mabel has Annie,” he shot at Will before homing in on the cupcakes. “Are these up for grabs?”
Joey nodded. “Yup, I made plenty for after dinner. We broke into them early to help fatten up Seth.”
Having finished his treat, Seth toyed with his glass of milk. “I don’t think they’re on Andrea’s list of nutritious things for me to eat.”
“No, but the milk is,” Kyle observed. “Drink up.”
Seth resisted the urge to stick out his tongue. As easy-going as this pack was, he still didn’t think showing such disrespect to the alpha mate was a good idea. Instead, he took a deep breath and downed the rest of his milk. It wasn’t so bad, really, and it was good for him and the pup. He palmed his belly at the thought, an automatic gesture that had become a habit in only a few days.
Kyle nodded. “Good. We want you nice and healthy for Caleb when he returns.”
“If he returns,” Seth muttered, being unable to curb his tongue.
The other omegas went quiet. Seth kept his gaze on the table, feeling awkward. He didn’t want their pity.
“Oh, honey.” Joey came over and hugged him from behind. “You’re not really worried he’s not coming back, are you?”
He shrugged. “I guess not. I mean, I know he can take care of himself and that he’s committed to the pack.”
Joey’s grip tightened. “He’s committed to you, too.”
“And your pup,” Will added.
Kyle joined them at the table. “Of course he is. Why would you even doubt your mate?”
“No reason.”
He tried to avoid their stares of disbelief. The three of them proved impossible to ignore. “Okay. It’s just that I know he had a tough puphood because his dam died whelping his little brother, and his sire kind of went off the rails. If I hadn’t wandered into the pack lands, I don’t think he intended to mate with anyone. I kind of forced his hand.”
Joey ruffled Seth’s hair before sitting next to him. “Look who you’re talking to. Like we don’t have similar stories. Liam was drafted into stud service when I turned out to be an omega.”
“Finn ended up stuck with me when my old alpha kicked me out of his pack,” Will chimed in.
“And Lorcan was handed me in order to seal a treaty, except my sire really intended for me to be a spy.”
Joey put his hand on Seth’s arm. “The point is, sweetie, we all ended up being in loving mated pairs even though our relationships had rocky starts.”
“What we’re also trying to say,” Kyle added, “is you should give your relationship with Caleb time. You two might fall in love the same way we did with our mates.”
Tears pricked at Seth’s eyes. Oh damn, there he went again. He tried to hold them back. “I think I already have. I just don’t think he’s ever going to feel the same way.”
There was a chorus of sympathetic noises, which only served to make the tears fall.
Joey jumped up. “Don’t cry. Have another cupcake.”
Will headed to the refrigerator. “And a second glass of milk. May as well get the dairy requirement over with for the day.”
Seth sniffled and rubbed at his eyes. “Thanks, guys. You’re all great friends, and I am happy to be part of this pack.”
Kyle nuzzled his sleeping daughter and shot Seth a wan smile. “You simply want your mate to love you. It’s not too much to ask.”
Seth mustered up a smile in return. Although he didn’t want to gainsay the alpha mate, he wasn’t so sure about that. Wanting Caleb to love him seemed like reaching for the stars when he was lucky to have the land beneath his feet.
****
Spending days in wolf form, running through thick forest, catching game on the fly and slaking his thirst in cold running streams, made Caleb feel more alive than he had in a long time. It allowed him to shut down his intellect to its barest minimum and simply allow his senses and instincts to guide him through his day. He ran until his muscles burned, then loped along, experiencing interesting scents that delighted his canine side like watching a good movie would his human one.
It was invigorating and soothing in equal measure. It well-explained why one might turn feral for the rest of their days. Only finding sweet release embedded in Seth’s body could compare. And that was the answer as to why most shifters wouldn’t take to a solitary life roaming the woods. In the long term, his kind needed the social contact of pack life and the emotional support of family, including mates and pups.
This primitive journey surpassed the mating experience in one way—he had only himself to worry about, and that freedom was a welcome gift. If only for a short while. Out in the wild, he could put aside the complexities of his feelings for his mate and the worry about taking care of him and their future litter. He only had to focus on putting one paw in front of the others and seeking out those who might join him in the Rogue Pack.
Returning to the land of his birth was easy to accomplish. He basically headed north before turning right. He avoided human settlements and other packs’ lands, including his old one’s. Once he’d reached the right general vicinity, he ramped up his thinking mind and skirted Magnus’ territory to begin his search for the ferals based on what he recalled from his old pack member’s story.
It ended up
being easier than he’d expected. He caught the ferals’ earthy and strange scents very quickly. He stopped and sniffed the air, trying to decide on a direction. Once he did, he kept his pace slow. He didn’t want to give any mistaken impression that he was being aggressive. In the end, they found him. As he entered a small clearing deep in the forest about a kilometer from the outer ring of Magnus’ territory, a trio of stark white wolves emerged to impede his progress.
Caleb stopped instantly and stared back at the beta flanked by two gammas. They were big, even by his standards, the beta easily reaching alpha proportions. The male almost had the aura of an alpha, as well. He would have been the obvious choice among this small group to be in command. As he stood looking at him, Caleb felt the pull of obedience.
Because joining them to gain their confidence was the plan, he lowered his head in submission. The three sets of bright blue eyes stared back at him with slightly bared teeth. They were in full-on protective mode. A flash of movement to Caleb’s left caused him to shift his gaze. There, peeking out from behind a thick tree, was a much smaller shifter. Its omega nature was clear even with so little to see. And, that one bit of knowledge explained the others’ stands. They had a young, vulnerable shifter with them.
A low growl brought his attention back to the beta. The male had taken a step forward and his teeth shown wickedly in the shaft of light pouring down between the tree branches. Caleb lowered his head even more, exposing his neck in obvious submission. He even let out a whine for good measure. Lorcan was counting on his at least talking to these three in order to issue the invitation to join the Rogues. He’d never get the opportunity unless and until he gained their trust. That would take time.
He crouched with his neck exposed, waiting to see if he’d get an offer to run with them or have his throat ripped out. He wasn’t afraid, gammas rarely were. But there was more at stake than his life. A vision of Seth in the future flashed through his mind. The omega’s belly was rounded with their pup. An overwhelming need to return to his family rose up. Instead of turning tail and running, he lay down and rolled onto his back.
Time suddenly seemed short.
****
Seth woke early, the rising heat of the day already making the longhouse hotter than he liked. In his year of living feral, he’d gotten used to the more consistent coolness of the woods and regulating his temperature though panting was far more efficient than what a human could manage.
Because the others were in the last of their sleep cycle, he carefully and quietly got up, dressed in only loose-fitting jeans and padded out to the kitchen. He was still getting used to wearing clothes again, and going light on the constriction helped with his closed-in feeling. He knew, too, that Joey and the kitchen sigmas didn’t put a lot of restrictions on others helping themselves. So long as he didn’t take the last of anything without permission, he was good to go. After near-starvation for so many months, his hunger had yet to fully abate. His eating for two increased the ravenous feeling.
He peered into the fridge, eyed the yogurt with disdain before grabbing it. It counted as one of the two servings of dairy he needed each day and when filled with fruit, it wasn’t as bad as drinking milk. He opened it, tossed in a few berries and stood leaning against the counter as he ate.
His days had become pretty routine in the few weeks since he’d been bred and abandoned. No, that wasn’t fair. Caleb had left on urgent pack business. He hadn’t left Seth because he didn’t want to be with him. That didn’t mean the gamma wasn’t glad to have a reason to put some distance between himself and his breeding mate. Thinking those thoughts, though, only served to make Seth sad. There was no point in wallowing in his misery that way.
Seth needed to keep busy. He had chores, having taken up weaving. He’d missed it, actually. There was a kind of solace in the rhythm of passing the shuttle back and forth. He was even mentally planning on the colors and pattern of a blanket for the pup. Sticking his spoon inside the yogurt cup, he flitted his free fingers over his abdomen. It felt fuller, but that might be from eating so much. He’d been concave when Caleb had found him. The pup really wasn’t developed sufficiently for him to show yet.
He picked up the spoon and continued to mindless shovel the food in. If he finished before the sigmas arrived, he’d avoid the nauseating smell of coffee brewing. Back in his old pack, he’d enjoyed the drink. Now, not so much, probably because he’d been without it for so long.
Halfway through, he felt the odd sensation of slick leaking from his hole. He paused and frowned, then took another spoonful before feeling it again. Putting yogurt and spoon down on the counter, he went to the bathroom off the kitchen. His lungs froze and his heart skipped a beat when he realized what he’d sensed wasn’t slick at all. Of course, it wasn’t.
He stumbled out of the bathroom and headed down the hallway for Andrea’s room. He slowed down to a shuffle, afraid to go faster for fear of aggravating what he knew was happening. Even though his mind told him it didn’t work that way, he was reduced instantly to working on a primitive level of mindless fear. He reached the healer’s door and pounded on it, the sound registering at a muted level past the greater pounding of blood in his head.
“Seth?”
The healer’s worried face showed through a curtain of tears he hadn’t realized he was shedding. Then she was pulling him inside, lying him down, and checking him with an agonizing level of compassion and gentleness. He wanted to howl in his misery. Having accepted his fate as a mated and bred omega, he couldn’t bear the idea of losing the pup. His wolf did cry out in that plaintive way of someone not in control of their fate.
His focus came and went. He heard Andrea murmur how it wasn’t so bad, only a small amount of spotting. He latched onto that assessment as a lifeline. She asked him questions about pain, tiredness and queasiness, and did certain smells and foods bother him. He answered each one truthfully, and she seemed pleased.
Others came in, Kyle and Lorcan, and helped him to the pallet the healer had to keep her patients close by if need be. He could hear their quiet conversation, the healer giving her diagnosis and prognosis to the alpha. With Seth’s mate absent, the alpha was the logical one to make decisions for his care.
Seth couldn’t be bothered to look or even listen closely. What did it matter? He was losing his pup, and his mate was far away. It wasn’t only comfort he needed from Caleb at that moment. Despite being almost crippled with terror, he had enough presence of mind to know that his miscarriage would lead to another heat. If Caleb didn’t return in time, who would service him, and could he stand the idea of being mounted by another?
“I should never have sent Caleb away at this early stage. Damn!” That was Lorcan, the alpha obviously thinking along the same lines.
“You couldn’t have known.” Always the loyal mate, Kyle immediately sought to ease Lorcan’s guilt.
“There is no need to be alarmed yet, Alpha. There isn’t much blood, and Seth isn’t in any pain. Are you, dear boy?” Andrea’s warm hand touched his shoulder.
Still not able to stand opening his eyes and looking at anyone, he shook his head. There was no pain, and apparently that was a good sign. He focused on that fact with desperation.
Andrea patted him. “He’ll stay here with me, and we’ll wait and see. Omega pregnancies are always tricky, but no need to assume the worse. Seth otherwise seems to be experiencing the normal symptoms of breeding.”
“Good,” Lorcan said. “Because I have no way of contacting Caleb. We have to hope that he’ll be back soon.”
****
Their little group of ferals lounged in a clearing near a small pond. Having feasted on a deer, they were quietly digesting their meal, although each of them remained alert for trouble. In the few weeks he’d spent with them, Caleb was slowly becoming a welcome member, but they still didn’t trust him and that was a good sign. Being cautious was a sensible attribute in a leader, and the beta showed that and other qualities Lorcan would be happy to have in
a new pack member.
One of those was that the adolescent omega always ate first. He was a male, as it turned out, and given his scent, a brother to the beta. There were no females and no other pups. Once the omega had his fill, the gammas took turns. Only after they were also done did the beta step up. Clearly he took his role of leader seriously and such behavior spoke well of him. Since their first meeting, the group hadn’t stopped Caleb from eating when everyone else was done.
This latest kill was Caleb’s, actually. He’d dragged the deer carcass over to the beta as an offering before standing aside for the omega to feed. When the boy had finished, the beta had allowed Caleb the next turn, the first real sign that he’d been accepted into their group. Not completely. The others still kept themselves between him and the omega, never letting Caleb get too close and never leaving the young one alone. No wonder they hadn’t fought Magnus’ boys when they’d stumbled upon them. These foreign shifters didn’t take any chances with the omega’s life.
He had no idea who they were exactly or where they’d come from. They stayed in wolf form and so did he. There was no point in trying to talk to them for recruitment until he’d managed to build trust. That would take time. Hopefully in a few weeks, they would be comfortable enough with him that he could get them to shift into humans. Then they could explore the possibility of their coming back with him. His instincts told him they were decent shifters, good candidates for the Rogue Pack, but he couldn’t act precipitously any more than they could. He had a lot more vulnerable pups to protect.
An anguished cry startled him out of his post-feeding stupor. He raised his head in alarm and looked around. None of the others acted as if they’d heard it. Instead, they eyed him suspiciously. The cry repeated, this time accompanied by a painful whimper. That’s when he realized it was in his head.
Seth!
His mate was in trouble. He lunged to his feet, panic causing his paws to scramble on the pine needle bed. The ferals copied him, instantly alert to danger, yet obviously confused about what was causing Caleb to act so. He didn’t know, either, not precisely. He was amazed that he could hear his mate with so much distance between them, but those few sounds weren’t enough to tell him exactly what was happening to the boy. Yet, there was only one thing to be done.
Taming the Omega (The Rogue Pack Book 4) Page 15