Page 22

CRUX

With everything that had been going on the last few months, none of us ever got a desire or a chance to explore our new hometown. Not that I was sightseeing. I had a specific place I wanted… needed… to go.

I cozied my Jeep up next to the curb, parked, and looked at the tattoo shop with its neon sign and its strange kabuki mascot. Or was it an oni? Did that count as some weird cultural appropriation thing? Who knows.

I vaulted the door of my Jeep and walked in.

“Welcome to Pins & Nettles,” said an omega from behind the counter. She looked to be college age. Early 20s. Her hair was two toned, divided down the centre hairline of her scalp. One half was …something, the other blue. “I’m Caira. You have an appointment or are you a walk-in?”

“Is Jackal here?” I asked, distracting myself by browsing the art on the walls. Jackal’s distinct style was all over the place.

“Just a sec, I’ll go get him.” The omega left the counter and went into the back room. The wait wasn’t long, mere seconds, and then Jackal came out with the omega. He gave me a double-take, like he couldn’t believe I was real and standing right in front of him.

“Hey, Jac,” I said.

“Crux? What are you doing here?”

“Why does anyone come to a tattoo shop?” I answered.

He ignored my snark. “I mean here. Port Haven. Moms sent you to track me down?”

“Nope. Moved here,” I shrugged.

“Really?” he folded his arms across his chest. “Were you ever planning on telling me?”

I shrugged again, pretending to be interested in the selection of art on the walls.

“Well!” He grinned his sharp, wide smile and hooked his arm around my shoulders. “Look at this. The Leoni Brothers together again, free to run wild in Port Haven.”

Jackal’s smile grew. He was always smiling, even when we were kids. I shrugged out of his hold.

“I’m just here for ink,” I repeated.

“Sure. What do you want?”

“Don’t know.” I answered. “But I want it in your style.”

“Cool. This way to the drawing board.” He made an after you gesture and we walked to an artist’s table with a light board. Jackal dropped onto the stool. He took a pencil from the cup and twirled it in his fingers. “So, any ideas on the theme? Subject? Placement?”

“Arm maybe?” It was the only answer I could provide. “And I want it blue.”

“Of course you do. But I’m gonna need more than that. I need an object.”

I knew why I was here, I just didn’t know what I wanted. Taking a deep breath, I thought of Skye. She was why I was here. I wanted something that would remind her, remind both of us, that no matter what, I loved her.

Then, it came to me, all at once. I described it to Jackal and he understood immediately what I was picturing.

That was the thing about Jac, he could read me.

He looked out for me. We were only two years apart, but he always shielded me from the worst that our mother’s alphas dished out.

When it got bad, Jackal put himself between our fathers and me or our mothers.

And he always managed to do it with a smile, which only angered the alphas more.

While I was outside hanging out with Severen and Halo, Jackal was cleaning up drunken alpha rage and wiping away blood drops before they could stain the kitchen tiles.

“How’s that?” He leaned back and showed me the sketch.

Two birds, one black, one smaller, and blue, perched on a wire that was a heart monitor line, with sharp peaks and valleys.

The birds were in his signature sketchy style, like an old cartoon where you could see the guidelines in the model.

But the messiness was precise and intentional.

It was why I had come to him, specifically.

“Perfect.”

“Alright, this way to the chair, mon frere.” Jackal nodded for me to follow him. The omega girl was replacing the paper, and bringing over the inks.

“Caira, this is my brother, Crux,” Jackal said.

Caira smiled, her eyes brightened. “I didn’t know Jackal had a brother. Nice to meet you.” We shook hands.

“I didn’t know my brother had an omega,” I said. “So we’re both secrets, I guess.”

She snickered. “Need anything else? I was planning to go to the art store.”

“Go on,” Jackal said. “Go do what you gotta do.”

Caira kissed his neck, then disappeared out the door.

“That’s your omega, huh?” I asked. “She’s cute.”

“Yep. And she comes like a freight train.”

“Charming,” I muttered, but Jac just laughed.

I got on the chair and took off my shirt so he could work on my arm. He placed the stencil and got to work right away.

“This your first ink?” Jackal asked, the buzz of the needle gun humming under his voice.

“Yeah.”

Jackal’s own arms were covered in ink. It was all so interwoven and puzzled together that the images were hard to decipher, but it somehow all complimented itself perfectly.

“Who is she?” he asked. “You’re obviously doing this for a girl.”

I swallowed slowly, and debated how much to tell him. “Skye. My omega. She had a rough few months. I just needed something to show her I love her.”

I didn’t say that I had spent hours upon hours looking at her EKG monitor as she slept. I didn’t say that I was terrified she wouldn’t come back to us. But… there was something else.

“She smells like blueberries. And bluebells. Blue things. She has the most amazing blue eyes. They stand out from everything around us. Her eyes and her smell… That’s how I knew she was mine.”

“Makes sense.” Jackal said, not looking away from his work.

He knew about my colour blindness since we were kids.

I would watch him draw and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between green and red. No one really listened though, and it wasn’t until I managed to create a pack with Severen and Halo that I finally saw a specialist to confirm what we already knew.

“She met someone,” I said, my throat dry.

“An alpha. She wants to get to know him. Says she’s drawn to him.

” Maybe I was sort of hedging the story, but it felt too big to get into the whole heart transplant angle.

And maybe I wanted the unconditional sympathy of someone who wasn’t directly involved in the whole situation.

This time, Jackal did risk a glance away from his work. His distantly familiar toasted sugar scent was an immediate comfort. It brought me back to pillow forts and loud music in big cupped headphones that engulfed my ears and drowned out the yelling. “Oh, man…”

“His eyes are blue.” Jackal was the only person I admitted that too. “His eyes are nearly as shocking and captivating to me as Skye’s. I can’t help but think that’s a sign. Like maybe he’s supposed to, I don’t know… join us?”

“Is he hot?” Jac smirked.

“I don’t normally go for guys, but he’s not bad to look at, I guess. I just…” My words trailed off.

“I get it. Alpha jealousy and possessiveness, or opening up a pack can get messy.”

“Yeah, and Severen’s been a real alphahole lately,” I muttered.

Jac lifted the tattoo gun from my skin and looked at me, his eyes dark.

“Everything okay?” he asked, older brother protective instincts thick in his voice.

“Everything’s fine. It’s nothing like that. He’s just been pulling back. Withdrawing. And omegas need affection, especially Skye, right now.”

“Well, then you have three options. Smother Skye in love, to make up for what she’s missing from Severen. Keep going like this. Or challenge Severen for position of pack lead.”

I scoffed. “So, two options, then.”

“I mean…”

“Severen is a good pack lead. We’re just hitting a fucked up rough spot right now. That’s all.”

“What about the new guy?” Jac asked.

I let out a long breath. “I want Skye to be happy. If he makes her happy, then… I gotta learn to get along with him, I guess.”

“So, what? Are you supposed to court him or something? Like he was an omega?”

I snorted. “No way.”

We fell into comfortable silence, punctured only by the relentless buzz of the tattoo gun. I liked the pain, the feeling of the needle breaking through my skin. I found it therapeutic, like when I had given blood.

“So, how did you meet your omega?” I asked.

“Concert. Scent match. Few months back.”

“She looks like she suits you.” A lazy drawl threaded through my words.

“Oh, man, you have no idea,” Jackal chuckled. “She’s an artist like us, and we taught her how to use her body as a canvas. Made her a straight up exhibitionist.”

“Really?” My brows went up. “Let us know when her next show is.”

“Absolutely.”

The gun fell silent and Jackal wiped down my arm. “Alright, bro, you’re done.”

He applied Saniderm to the area, and walked me to a full length mirror to see his work.

The blue was vibrant, with different shades simulating highlights and shadows.

Dark, inky blues, almost black shone like oil on the crow’s wings.

The blue bird was rendered in a fairly realistic way, while the crow was an abstract swish of brush-like markings, giving the impression of a blackbird not quite realized or given form, a shadow cast by the blue bird.

The heart monitor line was firm, straight, and thin as electrical wire on a telephone pole, a perfect perch for any bird.

“It’s perfect.” I turned to Jackal. “Thanks, Jac,”

“Of course, man.”

We raised our hands to shake, like men, but instead Jackal pulled me to his chest and wrapped his arms around me. I tensed, but then let myself ease into the protective embrace. This was my brother, by blood. Someone who always looked out for me.

“Come back soon,” Jackal said. “Bring your omega and her new toy for some matching ink, hm?”

I chuckled as I pulled away. “Maybe. How much do I owe you?”

Jackal shrugged a shoulder and raked his hands through his shoulder-length hair. I wasn’t sure if it was black, or purple, or what, only that it was dark. “Fuck it. Fifty for the supplies. Labour’s free this time.”

I grinned. “Thanks. And yeah, next time Skye and me are in the neighbourhood we’ll be sure to stop in.”

“You’d better.”