by Grey, Aspen
Off Limits Omega
Wolves of Mist Peak - Book 1
Aspen Grey
Contents
Scent of the Author
Also by Aspen Grey
1. Blue
2. Blue
3. Alexander
4. Alexander
5. Blue
6. Blue
7. Alexander
8. Blue
9. Alexander
10. Blue
11. Alexander
12. Blue
13. Alexander
14. Blue
15. Alexander
16. Blue
17. Blue
18. Alexander
19. Blue
20. Blue
21. Alexander
22. Blue
23. Alexander
24. Blue
25. Alexander
26. Blue
27. Alexander
28. Blue
29. Alexander
30. Blue
31. Alexander
32. Blue
33. Alexander
34. Blue
35. Alexander
36. Blue
37. Alexander
Epilogue
Scent of the Author
Also by Aspen Grey
I. An Omega For Two
1. Max
Scent of the Author
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Scarlet Mountain Pack Series
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Chapter One
Blue
“Don’t look like that,” my father said as the truck bumped and groaned over yet another pothole or frost heave, causing my head to slam into the ceiling. It had happened so many times I’d stopped keeping count, but one thing was for sure; my head was sore. “You’ll like it here. It’ll be a nice change from the city.”
I looked out the window at the gray sky and the voluminous clouds in the distance, puffed up and swollen like wet purple wool. It would only be an hour or so before they were dumping rain over us.
“Yeah, a nice change from year-round sunshine,” I said sarcastically. My dad just frowned, knowing better than to get into an argument with me.
We were moving from Los Angeles to a town called Sleepy Hills, Colorado, after my parents’ divorce. I hadn’t seen it coming, and maybe that was why it hurt so much. If only I’d had a little bit of a warning, maybe then I could have prepared myself and not fallen into the black pit of anger and despair that I’d been in for the last month. But then again, maybe not. A divorce was a divorce, and learning that your parents weren’t going to be together for the rest of their lives was a tough thing to come to terms with.
I didn’t know the real reason, of course, but I had a suspicion that my father, Terrence, had been cheated on by my other father, Louis. I’d heard him try to apologize for something several times, and saw the look of complete betrayal in Terrence’s eyes. He’d become a changed man, no longer cracking jokes and loving life like he used to, and just keeping his head down, forcing smiles and repeating old jokes I’d heard a thousand times. Even though I was terrified of moving and was personally devastated by the divorce, seeing him like that broke my heart.
The truck bounced again and my dad slowed as he looked down at his phone. We hadn’t been to the house yet, and the GPS had been spotty out here in the middle of nowhere.
“Are we close?” I asked hopefully.
“It looks like it’s saying it was back there,” he motioned behind us. “But that can’t be right.”
“Let me see,” I asked him, taking the phone from him. But he was right; the little red dot signaling our destination was behind the little car icon showing our position.
“Ah! There it is!”
I looked up as dad hit the gas, pointing to a small house barely visible behind a thick line of trees on the property line. As we passed them and I got a better view of the place, my heart sank.
Don’t be a downer, Blue, I told myself as dad pulled into the dirt driveway that was spotted with puddles. It’s not bad, it’s just…different.
Different didn’t even begin to describe it, though. Our place in Los Angeles had been a wonderful apartment in Santa Monica, two blocks from the ocean, with an incredible view and a private entrance. We didn’t have a yard really, but the beach was a five-minute walk so who really cared?
Our new home was a simple cape with faded paint and a set of front steps being held up by a stack of red bricks that looked as though they’d come from the chimney which had fallen into disrepair. It also needed a coat of paint—badly.
I thought I’d been hiding my thoughts and keeping them from creeping into my expression, but I guess I was wrong.
“Come on, Blue. It’s not that bad,” my father said as he pulled up and parked. I could hear in his voice just how much he was trying for me. He didn’t want to be here either, but he was doing his best to keep it together on my behalf.
“No, it’s not!” I said quickly. I forced a smile, but must have done a good job as it seemed to work on him. The sad look on his face vanished and he gave me a loving pat on the knee.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s take a look inside.”
Dad opened his door and I got out and followed him to the front steps and stood back while he went up them, expecting them to collapse at any moment. Fortunately, they held strong and dad retrieved the key from his pocket and opened the front door.
He’d bought the place sight unseen, which was a huge risk, but the owners had been adamant about selling it quickly and had let it go for a really good price, which was good, as the divorce hadn’t finalized yet and we were short on cash—really short.
The door swung open to reveal the inside, and to my surprise, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected.
“How about that?” he said with a smile, raising his arms like a presenter. There was a living room to the right, and while small, it had a bay window and a yellow couch that looked to be in pretty good shape. There was a tiny study on the left, and a hallway that led to the kitchen in the back.
We took the stairs to the second floor and found the bathroom and two bedrooms on opposite sides of the house. Dad pointed to the larger of the two. “That one’s yours.”
“Oh, no, dad,” I protested. “You take the big one.”
“No, no,” he refused. “The old man doesn’t need that much space. You go ahead.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sure as shootin’,” he smiled. “Besides, you still have one more year of school left. I’m sure you’ll need space for your projects and all that.”
“Thanks, dad,” I said, giving him a hug. “You’re the best.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon unloading the truck, being forced inside when those rain clouds indeed made their way overhead and dropped an ocean of rain on our heads. Dad ordered a pizza from a local restaurant and we watched Netflix on the couch using my iPad, as we still didn’t have a television yet.
“Dad, I’m nervous about tomorrow,” I confessed. The divorce had come at the most inopportune time (as if there was an opportune time for your parents to split up) as it was my senior year of high school and I’d been torn away from everyone I’d ever known and brought here where I knew no one.
“I know, bud,” he replied. “But I wouldn’t worry. You�
��re a friendly guy. You’ll fit right in.”
“Do you think there are many shifters here? Because if I have to spend a whole school year turning down human guys—”
“I’m sure you’ll sniff out some,” he smiled. “We are up in the woods after all.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, and they’re probably all smelly, grimy lumberjacks living off the land with no clue how to dress and horrible taste in fashion and music and—”
“Whoa, there!” my dad exclaimed as though he were calming a horse. “Easy there, wolfie! Let’s not start with the doomsday scenarios just yet. See how your first day goes and who you run into. I don’t know what you’ll find, but I can guarantee you one thing.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“It won’t be anywhere near as bad as you say,” he replied. “In fact, this move might just be the best thing that ever happens to us—to you.”
I doubt it, I thought. But that’s not what I said.
“Yeah, dad. I hope so.”
Chapter Two
Blue
The next day went by pretty fast. Dad dropped me off, said goodbye and went off to his job at the lumber mill. I felt as though I was a soldier heading into hostile territory, but I kept my head up, found my locker, got my books from the office, made it through all of my classes and even managed to answer a few questions in calculus, which I was great at despite hating math with a passion. Dad had been right about school itself not being that bad, but he’d been wrong about one thing, the most important thing:
There were no shifters.
I was the only one—a lone wolf so to speak, thrust into a new environment completely on my own. I sat by myself at lunch and no one made an attempt to get to know me. This wasn’t like those movies where the new kid is instantly welcomed by a group of outsiders who tells them everything there is to know about the school. As I stepped out of the front doors of the school and into the cold September drizzle, far away from the sun of Southern California, I felt more alone than I’d ever felt before.
“You guys want to go to the quarry?” a good-looking senior guy asked a group of girls standing close by.
“It’s too cold for swimming,” one of them replied.
“He’s just trying to get us in our bathing suits!”
“Aw, you read my mind,” he laughed. “My parents are out of town. How about a party at my place?”
“Hell, yes,” one of the girls replied. “I can get my drink on and my dance on!”
I turned slightly towards them, trying to make myself noticeable and hoping they were friendly enough to new kids that I might get an invitation too. But it was like they looked right past me, as though they could somehow tell that I was a shifter and did not belong with them.
“Cool, I’ll see you guys around eight,” the guy said as he hopped down the steps and waved to his friends. They hopped in a black Camaro and sped away laughing. My heart sank.
How was I supposed to make friends when I felt so out of place? How was I supposed to date or find a serious boyfriend? Shifters and humans didn’t coexist—the humans didn’t even know we existed, so to get together with one was impossible. I could never be bred by a human, never know the love of a human, never reveal my true self to a human.
“I’m doomed,” I said to myself as I texted my dad.
Where r u?
I looked around but didn’t see his truck. A few seconds later I got a reply.
Running late. Be there in fifteen.
“Ugh,” I groaned, locking my phone. Fifteen minutes? I could shift into my wolf form and run back home in five. I was even contemplating it for a moment—I could stash my bag in my locker and hide my clothes somewhere out back so I didn’t destroy them when I shifted—but before I could do something that rash, I heard the sound of an engine and a window rolling down behind me. Before I even heard the voice, I smelled him.
A shifter!
“You look lost,” the voice called. My heart leapt as I spun around to see an alpha leaning out of the driver’s side window of a lifted black pickup. He was handsome, obviously older, with brown eyes and brown hair that he’d cut into a faux-hawk. It was a little douchey, but then again, so was his truck and sleeveless t-shirt he was wearing. That was his look and I was okay with that.
“Just...a little,” I managed to reply. “I’m new here.”
“I can see that,” he smiled. His scent was strange, like that sweet-smelling smoke you get at a bonfire—not quite seductive, but definitely alpha. “Get in. I’ll give you a ride.”
My instincts told me to be wary. I was in a new town, knew no one, and my dad was only fifteen minutes away. But then again, he was the only shifter I’d run into all day, and if the town was so sparsely populated by our kind, what were the chances he was some kind of a bad guy?
But still, I hesitated.
“Relax, sweet pea,” he smirked, almost condescendingly. “I’m not going to drug, kidnap and rape you or anything.”
I burst out laughing. His joke instantly relieved all of the tension, and I shrugged. “All right. As long as you don’t do that! What’s your name?”
“Larcon, what’s yours?”
“Blue,” I replied.
“Blue? I like that.”
All smiles, I hopped in the passenger side of his truck and texted my dad.
Got a ride from a friend. Be home soon.
Dad instantly replied.
Great! See? Not that bad!
“So, my place is just down the road, it’s uh…Emory Lane.”
I pointed left out of the school parking lot, but to my surprise, Larcon took a right which headed into town.
“Uh…” I said slowly. “What happened to not kidnapping me?”
“Relax,” he smiled. “I can’t bring a cute omega like you home without at least taking him out for a quick drink, can I?”
“I’m not old enough to drink,” I smiled back.
“Don’t worry about that,” he replied. “I know a place.”
I should have been more cautious, but I was feeling excited. I’d gone the whole day feeling alone and now I’d not only run into one of my own kind, but he was a real looker too! An older guy alpha with a nice scent and his own truck who was taking me out for a drink? Maybe this was the good twist to my crummy day.
He pulled into the small downtown of the aptly named Sleepy Hills and into a parking lot beside a dive bar that didn’t even have a sign. “Come on,” he said as he hopped out and led me inside.
My heart was starting to race as I stepped into the dimly lit establishment that smelled like stale beer and wet. I’d never even been a big drinker, but I was longing for some kind of contact with another one of my kind, and to be honest, I was a horny teenage boy too and Larcon was a hottie—even if he was a bit of a redneck cliché.
“Two rum and Cokes, Bruna,” Larcon said with a wave to Bruna, the bartender, a heavyset gal with her hair in a red bandana.
“He of age?” she asked. For a moment, I almost jumped out of my skin, but then I saw her smile and knew she was just messing with us. We all laughed and Larcon led me over to a table near the back in a corner out of the way. Sleepy Hills must have been a really quiet town, as we were the only ones in the place.
“So tell me about yourself,” Larcon said as we took a seat. He pulled his chair up close to me, so close I could feel the warmth from his body. “What brings you to Sleepy Hills?”
“Oh, that’s a long sad story,” I replied. “But tell me—where are all the shifters? I didn’t run into any in school!”
“Yeah, we keep to ourselves mostly. I’m part of a pack, we’re called the Kurrens, and we live on the other side of Mist Peak. There’s another pack on this side, but I wouldn’t go anywhere near them.”
“Oh? Why not?” I asked as Bruna set our drinks down in front of us.
“They’re real assholes,” he replied. “They’re called the Webbers. Dangerous too. Stay away from them.”
“Thanks for telling me,
” I replied as he drank some of his drink. I didn’t really want mine, but I also didn’t want to be rude, so I took a sip as well. It was more bitter than I’d remembered rum being, but again, I wasn’t a real drinker so I wouldn’t really know.
“Not bad, eh?” Larcon asked.
I nodded, hiding my grimace. “Yeah.”
“Drink up!” he said, cheersing my glass with his.
“Okay, but just this one,” I replied. “I don’t want you getting me drunk and taking advantage of me.”
I said it with a wink to let him know I was just kidding. I wasn’t worried about him anymore. He’d given me a ride and told me who to look out for and bought me a drink. He was different from the guys back in Santa Monica, but that wasn’t a shocker. I had to get used to how they did things out here.
I took another sip, and for the first time all day, really let myself relax. My phone buzzed and I checked it. Another text from dad.
Home. Where are you?
I replied quickly.
Met a shifter friend. Be home in a bit.
Dad wrote back.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!
I smiled.
I won’t!
And that was true. I really wasn’t a bad boy—not even remotely. In fact, having this drink with Larcon was the most rebellious thing I’d done in a long time.