Falling Together (The Omega Haven Book 1)

by Claire Cullen

  Even with the light and their shifter eyesight, it was still dark enough to make him nervous. He reached out one hand, holding on to the back of Will’s jacket.

  “Don’t worry,” the Alpha said, without looking over his shoulder. “Worst thing we’re going to encounter down here is a few rats. And they’ll turn tail as soon as they catch our scent.”

  The stairs came to an abrupt end, leaving them in a narrow corridor. Will walked with more confident steps, reaching back and taking Jake’s hand in his.

  “I haven’t been down here in five years. I thought about sealing the whole thing off but it seemed better to have it than not.”

  He angled the torch up, giving Jake a view of concrete and pipes.

  “We’re passing under the road now. If you listen, you’ll hear vehicles overhead.”

  Jake closed his eyes for a moment, catching the sound of tires on tarmac as something heavy, a delivery truck perhaps, trundled past above them.

  “Come on, let’s keep going.”

  They reached a set of steps leading upwards and another door, identical to the one they’d left through. Will pulled the keys back out, opening this one with a little more difficulty.

  “Lock's stiff. I’d rather not break it and have to force the door open.” Easily done with shifter strength.

  And then they were out, into another narrow corridor with not a lot of light coming through. Will glanced left and right.

  “This way,” he said, heading left. Jake stayed close, trying to work out where they were. From the direction they’d traveled in, the old hotel was the only place that made sense. But why were they there?

  They stepped through another door and the world opened out, the room ahead large and empty. There was furniture, tables and chairs, covered by dust cloths. Sheets hung over the windows, blocking much of the light and giving the room a dull afternoon feeling.

  “This was the old dining room. The food was pretty good.”

  Will crossed the room, heading for a set of double doors. Outside was the hotel lobby, a winding staircase leading upward, and a set of elevators. Through another set of doors was a bar, with a large fireplace and a scattering of armchairs.

  “Your family used to run this?” Jake asked, feeling a chill run down his spine.

  “Yeah. My mother managed it for seven or eight years when I was a kid. But then those first medical reports came out, the confirmation that we existed. It was okay for another few years until a journalist in the city started dating a shifter, lying about what she did for a living, and wrung the poor guy for every bit of knowledge he had. Published a huge expose in the papers, naming nearly every shifter business in the city. The hotel closed down almost overnight, the bar too. Snakes reopened when the storm died down, around the time we started to see the shifter tourism kick off. The city got gradually more accepting, and we didn’t feel the need to hide so much anymore.”

  Will stepped toward the fireplace, running a hand along the carved and polished wood, coating his fingers in dust.

  “Things are better now that we have some protection from the law, but the transition period was brutal. Many families never recovered. Some suffered vigilante attacks and fled the city for the relative safety of the rural Packs. Most never returned.”

  Jake pivoted slowly, trying to imagine the room as it would have been back then. Fire blazing in the hearth, a couple sitting side by side, drinks in hand, chatting in the glow of the flames.

  “Why have you brought me here?” Did Will want to reopen the hotel?

  “There’ve been some things on my mind the last two weeks. The city, you and me, and the future.”

  He pulled dust sheets off two of the chairs, gesturing Jake to sit.

  “You’re going back to work as a cop in a few weeks,” Jake pointed out. Hardly the time or place to restart a business.

  “Yeah. And I can’t say I’m comfortable with you continuing to work in the bar in your condition. Being on your feet long hours, being around the rowdy crowd Snakes draws.”

  Jake nodded at that, though he was a little disappointed. He enjoyed the work, enjoyed the camaraderie with the rest of the staff.

  “And then there’s our living situation. I don't think us staying in that one room behind my office is going to work once the baby is here. We’ll need space. Light.”

  Jake wasn’t sure where Will was going with this but he wasn’t nervous. The Alpha seemed quietly confident.

  “And then there’s you. You might be okay right now cleaning tables and doing some accounting on the side, but you’re going to need something to sink your teeth into soon enough. I’ll be gone long hours for work and I don’t want you driven to boredom with no one but the baby for company. We're not like a Pack, there isn't family around twenty-four seven. And there aren’t exactly Omega and baby groups you can join. Not yet, at least.”

  Jake held up a hand finally, forestalling anything else Will might say.

  “Okay, hold on. How does all that tie in with you bringing me here?”

  Will grinned, springing to his feet. “Let me show you.”

  Taking Jake by the hand, he led him outside and up the stairs. The staircase wound around so that by the time they reached the top, they were facing the back of the hotel. Will pushed open the doors ahead of them, and they walked through to a large open room with wall to floor windows at the back, covered by heavy curtains.

  “This used to be a function room. Conferences, weddings.” He crossed the room, pulling back the curtains to let light inside.

  “There’s an outside area as well.”

  Jake came to stand next to him, peering out at the large, sunny space.

  “Right above us is another, smaller conference room. What do you think?” he asked, stepping back and gesturing around them.

  “What are you getting at, Will?”

  “I was thinking this would make a good apartment for us. Convert this room and room above. We’d have plenty of space and a garden,” he gestured to the balcony.

  “Can we do that?”

  “Sure, we got a residential permit on the hotel back a while ago. Just never had cause to use it, with our numbers, it made more sense to live in Snakes.”

  “So we’d live here, in the hotel?”

  “Only it wouldn’t be a hotel anymore.”

  “Then what would it be?”

  “You said it yourself, Jake. There is no place for Omega to go anymore when they’re in trouble. They need somewhere, a safe haven. This could be that.”

  Jake blinked. “How?”

  “There are four floors of rooms above us. It wouldn’t be too hard to renovate. There’s still a working kitchen. We could build a rooftop garden, too.”

  “But what would we do with them once they were here?”

  “Get them acclimatized to the city. Teach them survival skills, upskill them for work.”

  “But what kind of work?”

  “That's something I’ll have to talk to Mitch about, but we could look at a scheme that incentivizes shifter businesses to take on Omega. They’re not half as reluctant as human-run businesses and there are even a few studies that show that humans favor shifter businesses where front line sales staff are Omega. They see it as us taking care of our own.”

  Jake ran the idea through his mind, trying to look at it from all angles.

  “Would it be safe?”

  “We’d have to keep it quiet. Probably not have them traipsing in and out the front door. I think we’d need a front, something to explain away why the hotel is suddenly active again.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “A tourist office tailored to shifter tourism. The city needs one. It would also be another way to employ the Omega who come through here.”

  “You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah, I guess I have.” He grinned again, full of life, and such a contrast to the ghost of an Alpha he’d been when Jake had first met him.

  �
�Alec has a background in architecture. I’ve asked him to join us this afternoon, draw up some plans for what might work.”

  “Do you think we could really do it? Keep Omega safe here?”

  The whole idea sounded amazing but was it even possible?

  “We can give it our best shot.”

  Jake walked back out to the top of the stairs, Will following behind him.

  “It’s going to be a lot of work.”

  “We’ll be kept busy, that’s for sure.”

  Will stepped over to stand side by side with him as they looked down at the lobby. He could picture it, tourists wandering in, excited to know where to see and mingle with the city’s shifter population. Given the interest they showed in Snakes, it wasn’t hard to imagine how something like that would come in handy. He glanced upward, imagining Omega living above them, a place of safety to settle in while they learned about the city, worked out what they wanted to do.

  “Think how different things would have been for you if there’d been somewhere to go when you first got to Eden.”

  It would have saved him a lot of pain, but that wasn’t all.

  “But then you and I might never have happened. I wouldn’t want to change that, not for anything.”

  Will wrapped an arm around him, tugging him closer.

  “Neither would I. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change things for the better for those who come after.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The next few weeks were a sort of orderly chaos as he handed over his responsibilities one by one. Dave was taking over managing Snakes with Will overseeing things as needed. Teresa had taken control of the city’s accounts. Alec would join her just as soon as he finished project managing the hotel renovations.

  New arrivals to the city were still coming to Will and their policy was still to send lone Omega home, but only after a cup of tea and a long chat with Jake or one of the other Omega, to tease out if they could safely go home and to gently disabuse them of their preconceptions of what they might find in Eden city.

  Jake spent a lot of time over in the hotel, helping with the work. The news from across the road was generally good. Most of the furniture could be repurposed and the kitchen was still functioning though they were going to incorporate a second kitchen upstairs in the shelter. Alec had a few clever suggestions that meant the minimum actual building but that would effectively give them a tourist office alongside a café that were completely separate from the Omega shelter above and their little apartment at the back.

  Alone in his office, he heard Jeff before he saw him.

  “Will, you’ve got visitors. A man and a woman. They’re here about Jake.”

  Will had half been expecting a visit from Jake’s family, given they now knew where he was. He was surprised it had taken them so long.

  “Did they ask to see him?”

  “No.” Jeff shook his head. “Just you.”

  “Show them in, will you?” he said, unearthing two chairs to set in front of his desk.

  A minute later, three sets of footsteps echoed along the corridor before they entered. Jeff stood in the doorway, not leaving until Will nodded. He knew Jeff wouldn’t go far, just in case.

  Will stood slowly, sizing up the new arrivals.

  “You must be Rick,” he said, “and Kelly.”

  “Jake’s told you about us, of course,” Kelly said, with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  Rick eyed him, looking him up and down, then leveling him with a glare that said he was not impressed. Will ignored it, seeing Rick for what he was. A bully.

  He let slide the usual greetings expected when two Alphas met, gesturing the couple into the seats.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “We have a proposition,” Rick said, sounding bored. “We hear you’ve taken Jake as your mate.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “You want Jake, we want our baby. We’ll compensate you, of course, for the inconvenience of Jake’s condition.”

  Will listened, keeping his expression open. Leaning forward, his fingers steepled together, he spoke carefully.

  “I’m afraid there must be some mistake. Jake is mine. That baby is ours. Mine. Not yours. No compensation you could offer would induce me to surrender our child.”

  He sat back, watching them calmly but alert for their reaction.

  “You’re lying,” Kelly said. “Jake was at home when he went into heat. We got him pregnant, not you.”

  “As I’m sure you’re aware, an Omega’s heat and the fertility that comes with it, can last up to ten days. Jake was here, with me, in the city, well within that window.”

  He kept it vague. The fact that Jake was only in his presence for all of fifteen minutes with absolutely zero exchange of body fluids wasn’t relevant. The fact that the baby wasn’t biologically his wasn’t relevant. Jake was his so, by extension, the child was his too. That was how it worked with shifters.

  “You and Jake can have more children. Children where they’ll be no doubt of their parentage. Every Alpha wants to be certain their progeny are their own.” Kelly was beginning to sound desperate, her eyes flicking worriedly to Rick who sat there impassively, a muscle twitching next to his mouth the only outward sign of tension.

  Will stood, pushing back his chair.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. We’re very busy today and I don’t have time in my schedule to continue this conversation. There’s nothing to be said that I haven’t said already.”

  “I’d like to see Jake,” Kelly said. “We haven’t talked in so long. It would be nice to know he’s doing okay.”

  “Jake isn’t here and he doesn’t want to see you.”

  “Take the money,” Rick said out of the blue, not looking at him. “Make it easy on yourself.” He did look up then, his eyes dark with anger. “Or you’ll be in for a world of hurt. Jake, too, when I get my hands on him.”

  In the space between heartbeats, Will had vaulted across the desk, grabbing Rick around the neck and slamming him against the wall.

  “Jake is mine.” The door was flung open, Jeff at his back. “Threaten him again and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

  He pulled back, shoving Rick in the direction of Jeff.

  “Get out. I don’t want to see you back here again. Either of you.”

  Rick shook off Jeff’s arm, but went for the door instead of Will. Kelly’s eyes were ringed with red as she hurried out after him.

  “See them out, will you?” he said.

  Jeff nodded, following after them with quick strides. Will kept an ear out for more trouble from them but they left quickly, albeit noisily.

  Dave came to find him just before lunch, taking one of the seats Rick and Kelly had vacated.

  “I hear you had visitors.”

  “Yep. They wanted to buy Jake’s baby.”

  “Think that’ll be the last we see of them?”

  “I’d like to believe that but I don’t think they’re ready to give up just yet.”

  “The law backs you and Jake, one hundred percent.”

  “Yeah, I’m just glad the human laws haven’t caught up with us there. Can you imagine shared custody between Jake and Rick? Visitation rights, all that crap.”

  “Shifters don’t have the patience for all that. There’d be a huge uptake in challenges.”

  “And more bodies on the ground.”

  “What will you tell Jake?”

  “That they came, and they left. I don’t want him worrying but he won’t thank me for keeping things from him.”

  That night, Will ran them a bath, and they lay together in the warm water. He ran a soapy washcloth across Jake’s shoulders and down along his chest.

  “Kelly and Rick stopped by today.” He thought Jake might have already picked up their scents, but he was exhausted after a long day. Jake tensed in his arms at the words, twisting to look at Will’s face.

  “What did they want?”

&
nbsp; “The baby. I told them what I’ve told everyone else. It’s our child. Yours and mine. They have no claim to you, so no claim to the baby.”

  Jake settled against him. “They didn’t stay to talk to me?”

  “Kelly asked, after I said no. I sent them packing. If you want to see them, it’ll be on your terms, not theirs.”

  He nuzzled the curve where Jake’s neck met his shoulder, rewarded with low moan.

  “I don’t want to see them,” Jake said, angling his head to give Will better access. Will squeezed the washcloth hard, coating his hand in soap and let the cloth fall into the water, then he reached down between Jake’s legs, running a gentle hand along his length. Jake moaned louder, squirming against him.

  “You work too hard,” Will said in a quiet undertone. “Not enough relaxation, not enough pleasure.” He stroked Jake again before slipping beneath to fondle his balls lightly, Jake shuddering at the touch.

  “Can you… can we…” The Omega spread his legs and arched his body back, pressing against Will’s groin and leaving no doubt as to what he was asking for.

  It took a few minutes to prepare Jake, the Omega’s whimpers and hitched breaths spurring him on and then he just slipped inside, drawing Jake’s body back until they were flush.

  “Like that,” Jake murmured, gasping when Will rolled his hips slowly. Will took his time, giving voice to every need of Jake’s for touch, for comfort, for an Alpha who cared about him for more than just the babies he could grow inside him.

  His hand continued to stroke lazily over Jake, only picking up the pace as the water cooled. They came as one, Will biting down on the soft flesh of Jake’s neck, marking him as his, inside and out.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chris’ visit the week before Will was due to return to work was a welcome diversion. Will was especially happy for the excuse to pull Jake from his exertion. He’d been doing his best to get the Omega to slow down as his pregnancy progressed but if anything Jake was throwing himself harder into the job.

  They sat down together at a table in the bar, which wasn’t due to open for a few hours. Will filled Chris in on the plans for the hotel, the other Alpha seeming surprised when he heard the extent of it.