Page 5 of A Home for Tyler (Omegas of Animals #14)
Dimitri
Animals was everything I’d heard and more. Warren and Karma welcomed me and set me up in an apartment in the housing behind the club. They insisted I should stay as long as I liked, but of course I couldn’t stay forever.
Karma’s response to that was, “Then stay as long as you like.”
What was there to say to that but, “Thank you.”
“When you get up in the morning, just head on into the kitchen and tell the cooks that you’re Warren’s cousin, and they will make sure you get something to eat.”
“There is always something for staff and their families to eat,” Warren added, putting his arm around Karma’s waist. “Hungry now?”
“No, I ate at a place that had all sorts of deli meats and cheeses? Charcuterie I think it was called. Or something like that.”
“Oh we know them. It was good, wasn’t it?” Karma left her mate for long enough to give me a big, warm hug. “I can’t believe this is the first time you’re visiting us.” She spoke low, in my ear. “Warren is so excited. He’s going to want to show you all around.”
“I heard that, Karma.” Her mate, my cousin chuckled, though, taking now offense. “Of course I want to show him around. When he was a kid, he was one of my favorite little cousins, always following the big kids around and trying to growl like a bear.”
Karma returned to his side and gave him a stern look. “Don’t embarrass him. He’s not a kid anymore.”
“Get some rest, cousin.” Warren guided Karma toward the door, the two walking in step, bumping hips.
They were the happiest couple I’d ever met, and it made me wonder if Fate would ever have a mate for me, too.
Not everyone got one, and through the past ten years, while working my way up in a company that said goodbye to me without a second thought, I’d put off the thought of mating.
He’d be there, my omega, when the time was right, I’d told myself.
But, watching the door close behind the pair, I asked myself if it was a matter of waiting for the right time or if, maybe it just wasn’t in the cards for me. I stripped down to my boxers, turned off the bedside lamp, and crawled under the duvet, only just noticing what lay right above my head.
Although the dwellings were buried deep in the mountain’s stone, a skylight at the top of a long tube allowed the starlight to show.
I didn’t know how that worked, only that it did.
And I fell asleep while the constellations wheeled above me, reminding me that all my worries were infinitesimal in comparison to the vastness of the universe surrounding our small planet.
My dreams, instead of being filled with tension on work-related matters, were of sailing through the velvet depths of space. Passing stars in all colors, novas and supernovas, and so many things I had no names for, but only the ability to appreciate their magnificence.
I’d have said I loved my work, thrived on the wheeling and dealing, on helping my company to grow and succeed, but as I rode a rocket to somewhere, a voice came from nowhere and everywhere. “It’s time. You’re not one of them. You can be yourself now, in all that means.”
I woke rested and feeling as if I’d shed a weight that my shoulder never should have borne.
Sure, I’d enjoyed the ride while I worked at my job, but in fact, I’d let it absorb me in an unhealthy way.
Time to relax and enjoy myself with my family and others at Animals.
I kicked off the duvet and got my shower things.
The bathroom attached to my room was gorgeous, walls carved from the natural stone and one of those with a drain in the floor so the whole room was, technically, the shower.
Having slept in, the skylight was casting a ray of sunshine on my pillow when I returned to the room to get dressed and go find the kitchen before it was too late for breakfast. Although Karma had said there was always something available, I didn’t want to put the chef through any extra work if they were already starting lunch prep.
“Cousin Dimitri!” Karma was seated at a table in the kitchen, along with several other people, when I arrived.
“I was just about to go do some shopping. I’m glad I didn’t miss you.
Here, take my seat.” She stood up and carried a mug to the industrial dishwasher. “Try the waffles. They’re very good.”
I tried the waffles. One of the cooks brought them over to me, and my mouth watered.
They were crisp on the outside and fluffy inside, topped with a mountain of fresh strawberries and peach slices and whipped cream.
The maple syrup was warm, the bacon crisp, and the coffee rich and strong, and it made the coffee I’d thought was so great in the city look pretty pathetic.
The people at my table were employees who lived in the housing.
They filled me in on what it was like to work for my cousins and assured me the food was always this good.
After breakfast I walked around the inside of the club, taking in how big it was and what it looked like in daytime.
There were people sweeping and cleaning others working on the lighting, and someone was setting up some kind of equipment in the DJ booth.
I didn’t know what I’d thought about nightclubs, but probably that they were a lot less busy during the day.
Warren and Karma had told me to make myself at home, but they were busy people, and I didn’t see either of them again until after sunset when we met for dinner in the kitchen.
The chefs were getting ready for the evening, but they had a staff meal all set up, which I’d been invited to join, consisting of a choice of a pasta made with burst cherry tomatoes or burgers topped with avocado and bacon and cheese along with a cake that was made in honor of someone’s birthday. Chocolate. So. Good.
But my ease that had lasted all day after my dream was fading, replaced by a growing restlessness that Warren noticed when we were finishing up eating.
“Why don’t we go in and have a beer and you can see the club all lit up.
I heard you had the self-guided tour earlier, but I think you’ll be amazed at the difference between then and now. ”
I was about to say yes, when Karma laid a hand on her mate’s arm. “Warren, maybe Dimitri would like to shift first. I think we forgot to tell him where to go to do that here.”
Warren tapped his forehead. “We didn’t. Just so you know, it is fine to shift in the club, so long as you don’t get out of hand.”
“I’d never—”
“I’m sure, but most people prefer to go out back. The employee parking lot, where we had you leave your car has a trail leading down to the desert floor. It’s really a magical place to run. My bear loves it.”
“You don’t mind if I go?” They were so kind, it seemed a little rude to take off on my own when Warren would be busy and Karma didn’t shift, and was also busy.
“Not at all.” Warren pointed to the back door, where I’d entered the kitchen. “Go, and when you’ve had a chance to blow off steam, come and find one of us. The club can be a little overwhelming on your own some nights.”
The cliff at the end of the parking lot was high above the desert, but while I stood there, deciding what to do or how to do it a dragon shifter arrived a few feet away, stripped and left their clothes on a bench before launching into the sky.
My bear growled, demanding to be free, and I hurried to undress before he ruined my clothing.
I wanted to get down there and run in the moon and starlight.
My bear could already feel the sand under his paws.
He emerged, huge and magnificent, and loped down the path.