Page 16 of Bewitched

L ayla curled into Jaxon’s steady purrs as Roan, Kaiser, and Eris pressed into her on every side. Heavy and sedate, it was wonderful — all the safe smells and sweet scents of omegas with just the touch of spice from an alpha. She had been missing this for so long. She tried to touch them all at the same time, reaching to pet Eris’s hair or hold Roan’s hand.

Eris was the first to get truly bored of the puppy pile and wiggled to the edge of the bed to watch television. Layla half-listened as Jaxon commented on the stupidity of betas while Eris gave the backstory of every character on Love Island .

Roan stroked her hair, picking knots out of the frizzy mess. Kaiser caressed her legs, holding a calf before touching her knees and then back down to her ankles. It felt good. Intimate but not overwhelming. How had she missed out on so much of this?

She wanted it to last forever, just Jaxon surrounding her and the quiet voices of omegas arguing like pups around her. She wondered if Jaxon would want pups, if pups would make him stay, or if it was only another form of trap.

There was a shuffling at the bedroom door and the smell of sizzling meat. “Alright, fellas,” Holden said. “A real northern breakfast.”

Jaxon sat up, pulling Layla back with him as everyone made space for a large platter in the middle of the bed. There were heaps of bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, and toast.

Layla leaned back into Jaxon’s chest, feeling vaguely nauseous. “I don’t think—“

Holden waved a handful of forks over the platter. “You need your calories. Puts hair on your chest.”

Kaiser grabbed one of the forks and gently stabbed Holden in the wrist with it. “I’m not sure she wants hair on her chest.”

“You won’t survive a winter that way,” Holden said as he ruffled Roan’s hair lovingly. “This one here — can’t fatten him up. He stays skinny just to spite me.”

Jaxon took two forks and handed one to Layla. “Eat.”

Roan laughed. “Yes, my metabolism is all spite.”

Layla took a bite of potato just to appease the alphas and realized she was starving. Her stomach grumbled for more. Had it really been that long since she had a full meal?

She speared a sausage next as the other omegas gathered around the plate, and the two alphas remained on the periphery.

Jaxon curled over her back, touching her belly, still slightly bloated. She could feel his contentment in her chest, a weird blooming happiness that wasn’t coming from herself. She didn’t read into it too deeply. An alpha was always happy when feeding an omega.

She held up a piece of bacon to him, but Jaxon shook his head. She shoved the bacon in her mouth, not about to waste any of the greasy goodness.

Jaxon chuckled and nuzzled the back of her head. His constant touching wasn’t as oppressive as she expected. It was a lot, but she craved his closeness, his hands on her. It was instinct. She was his. He owned her, and that worry clenched inside her when she looked at it too long. A beta would never deign to be owned, nor would they ever want to claim ownership of another.

Alphas and omegas were separate. Strange. They weren’t part of the world her mother raised her to inhabit, no matter that Layla was one of those strange creatures she despised so much.

Eris climbed around Kaiser, reaching for a piece of toast and grabbing Jaxon’s knee for balance.

Layla couldn’t stop the growl from climbing up her throat.

Eris recoiled pulling his hands close to his body, curling over protectively. He was all big eyes and hurt feelings.

Layla covered her mouth. Why did she do that? Eris wasn’t a threat, but he was an omega with sharp teeth. “I’m so sorry.”

Jaxon tugged on Layla’s arms, pulling her further into his embrace and squeezing her tight against him.

Kaiser put an arm around Eris and dragged him away, settling him on the other side of Roan. Eris still looked pouty, and there were tears in his eyes.

Holden laughed around a mouthful of meat. “And they say we are possessive. Nothing scarier than a territorial omega.”

Layla glanced at Holden, but he was focused on shoving a forkful of fried potatoes into Roan’s mouth.

Layla wasn’t sure about territorial omegas. She’d seen what Mina could do with little prompting. And she had seen firsthand how Jaxon dealt with threats to what he considered his. It had been violent and bloody, but she had put a knife in a man’s back. It wasn’t very omega of her. But maybe she was wrong. She had been wrong about so much lately.

Eris kept staring at her, then turned a brilliant shade of red. “Oh, ew. You think I want Jaxon? I don’t want your mate. That’s gross.”

“Hey!” Jaxon grumbled.

Eris leaned closer to Layla, keeping his head lower than hers. “He’s like another dad. And I don’t want to mate my dad… any of them. That’s… ew.”

Layla chuckled softly. She really was being silly. No one was going to take Jaxon. She leaned into Jaxon as he caressed her thighs, his giant palms nearly going around her whole leg. Protective. Possessive. Something in her liked it, as much as she knew she shouldn’t.

Holden waved a bit of bacon in the air. “You know, you can calm that growling down if you just bite him.”

Layla tensed. She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to think about it.

“Back home, we wouldn’t let an omega out of the nest until we had a reciprocal bite,” he continued, oblivious to the sudden chill. “It keeps the alpha calm, and no one gets accidentally killed… what?”

Jaxon growled lowly.

Layla knew she should bite him. It was what he said he wanted. But what if it wasn’t? What if he regretted it? She couldn’t take his choices away like hers had been taken.

Roan elbowed his mate in the side hard.

“Ow, what?” Holden scowled at his mate and huffed. “All you omega Nashs are weird about your teeth. I meet your alpha sister, and we are best friends two minutes later.”

“Holden,” Roan said with a sigh. “She was trying to kill you.”

“No, she was just being friendly, right Jax?”

“Never know with that one,” Jaxon said, his mouth at Layla’s neck, attempting to soothe her. “I think she just likes the taste of human flesh.”

Kaiser and Roan laughed.

Layla squirmed under Jaxon’s hands, flashes of arousal sparking in her chest and her belly, but now wasn’t the time. She was still tired, hungry, and sore in too many places. She tipped her head up, letting her forehead rub across his chin, feeling the scratch of stubble on her face. Jaxon purred encouragingly.

Layla lowered her eyes back to her brother. “Remember when Mina tried to eat a squirrel? Just pulled it out of a tree and tried to eat it. It was disgusting. She was five!”

“I remember that,” Roan said as he leaned heavily against Holden. “I had to get rid of my pet rats because I was afraid she’d eat them.”

“It’s a right of passage for every alpha to attack something that bites back,” Holden said. “I slayed a cougar.”

“You did not,” Roan said.

Kaiser laughed. “Hera terrorized one of the kitchen staff because he wouldn’t give her extra cookies. Psychological warfare, you know. Hera was never one to get her hands dirty. But in the end, Father caught her exchanging the man’s shoes for a pair that was a size too small. We had to pay that poor man millions.”

Jaxon snorted.

Holden stared at Kaiser in awe. “She hunted man.”

Eris nodded his head and bounced a little. “Raina tried to attack one of my cats. I had to hit her with a broom.”

Kaiser jerked. “That’s why you two were fighting? You nearly gave her a concussion.”

“And she didn’t come near my cats after that, did she?”

Holden laughed. “See, omegas are vicious little creatures too. Roan nearly cut my throat with my own knife when I stole him.”

Layla stilled and glanced at Roan worriedly. She never got to ask him how he felt about being stolen. Having his life upended because an alpha wanted him. Roan had said he loved Holden, but that didn’t make their relationship easy.

“Holden, no,” Roan whispered.

“What?” Holden asked. “Ugh, cityboy. It was goddamn romantic!”

Jaxon cupped her abdomen again, fingers pressing into her belly, distracting her from the tense stand-off between the mates. He could probably still smell his semen in her. No amount of scrubbing could get it off. He would be soaked into her skin forever, even if the breeding didn’t take. It’s what heats were for.

She could be getting fat with his pup within a fortnight. She could feel herself getting wet at the thought. Layla blushed and pushed his hand away.

Jaxon rumbled with a growl but moved his hand to her hip.

Eris’s voice cut into the tense air. “Remember when Daddy Bryson and I visited your place, and we all cuddled in front of the fire? You made Dad read that silly love story like thirteen times.”

Layla smiled. She remembered the warm fire in the hearth and Roan by her side. She remembered Bryson as listless and sad. It was when Hera died. Grief enough to make Bryson take his only omega pup and hide with his best friend.

“I remember,” she said and glanced at Kaiser.

Kaiser was silent, staring at the blankets. It was almost as if she could smell his heartbreak. They had been mates. She couldn’t imagine being ripped from a mate she loved. She could barely manage thinking of what would happen when Jaxon sent her away.

“I miss those puppy piles,” Eris said.

Layla looked down. It was the first and only time she had been in a true puppy pile. Hugging other young omegas close with the scent of a protective alpha close by. It was like that now — soothing and sweet. She had missed out on so much of what it meant to be a young omega. Even living in the omega dorms, she didn’t participate in the bonding parties.

She didn’t need them.

She wasn’t supposed to need them.

Layla brushed tears away. Jaxon made a sound, but she shook her head. At this rate, she was never going to stop crying, and it was best just to ignore it before it got worse.

Holden suddenly grabbed Kaiser, dragging him closer by his leg. “Hey! What are you—“

“None of that depressing shit now, omega,” Holden said as he held Kaiser down on the bed and wiped his wrists over his chest.

Roan chuckled and dragged Eris out of the way.

Layla gasped and tried to climb further into Jaxon’s lap, away from the impending fight. She was sure Holden was going to hurt him, bite him, do something awful. Her mother had said Holden would steal her away, too, if she let him.

Kaiser laughed and batted feebly at him. “Stop! Georgia is going to kill you.”

Holden flopped over Kaiser, holding him to the bed. He held Kaiser’s wrists together in one hand and lightly bit at Kaiser’s arm through his shirt.

Kaiser didn’t seem disturbed or offended by the rough play, and Layla slowly relaxed. Holden wasn’t trying to steal Kaiser. They were playing in that rough, comforting way that alphas always played.

“Lucky me then,” Holden said. “I would love to wrestle that woman.”

Roan laughed and pushed at his mate with his foot. “I would pay to see her mount you.”

Holden sat up. “You think she can beat me?”

“Yes,” Kaiser, Roan, and Jaxon said together.

Layla smiled. This wasn’t quite like the sleepovers and brunches she had with her beta friends, but this was nice.

She liked it. The puppy piles and the bonding and the soothing scents of contented alphas and omegas. She let Jaxon feed her and listened to Eris’s increasingly unlikely stories of how he found each of his cats.

Kaiser lay across the bed and let Holden scratch his belly. Sinking into the bed, Kaiser thrummed out a small purr.

Layla jumped. She had never heard that before, the sweet parental purr of an omega. How? “Omegas can purr?”

“Sure,” Eris said. “It’s deep in the throat, like in your chest.”

Eris gave a stuttering purr. “I’m not very good at it yet.”

Layla crawled across the bed, pushing aside the decimated platter, and laid her head on Kaiser’s chest, listening to the soft rumble. It was quicker than an alpha’s, almost like a constant hum. She melted into the bed and into Kaiser’s body. Jaxon caressed the back of her legs, and she shivered.

It was so good. It felt like a home she never had.

“Kitten,” Jaxon said. “Don’t fall asleep.”

“‘M not,” she mumbled. She opened her eyes enough to look at Roan. “Can you purr?”

“I never figured it out, I guess.” Roan brushed her hair from her eyes and laid his head on the other side of Kaiser’s chest.

“How did I get all the pups?” Kaiser said, and Eris snickered.

Holden reached for her, stroking her hair. She cringed under his hand for a moment, but his hand was light and cautious. Petting a frightened kitten. She could smell his pheromones heavy at his wrist. Rabbit leather and wilderness.

Layla had a fleeting impulse to rub her cheek against his wrist and to lick his fingers. It was a deep instinct that served no purpose in modern life. An instinct that certainly wouldn’t help her.

Layla moved away, retreating to Jaxon’s lap. Omegas were one thing, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about other alphas putting their scent on her when she was sober and present.

Jaxon pulled her close, and she put her arms over his shoulders and around his neck. “Hey there, good girl.”

Layla smiled and pressed their foreheads together. Affection bloomed in her chest and his scent. Life didn’t feel so hard right then, with Jaxon’s hands on her hips and his eyes staring into hers. It was almost like everything could be alright, with just her little pack right here. And maybe Mina.

“Can I?” she asked.

Jaxon grunted and slipped a thumb under her shirt, stroking bare skin. “Whatever you want.”

She pressed her lips against his in front of everyone. Jaxon pulled her in closer, held her against his chest, and opened his mouth. She licked into him, chasing his taste, coffee and cinnamon. She pulled back, and he gazed at her with a soft smile.

Layla slid down into his lap and curled into him, hiding her face in the crook of his arm. She needed this to last just a little bit longer.