Page 39 of Brave New Omega, Part 2
Chapter 39
KATIE
M y phone buzzes, jolting me from sleep. Loren is entwined around my back– when did he crawl into my nest?-- his cock nested between my legs. It’s warm and comfortable and I don’t want to move, but I don’t want to miss a call if it’s about one of my sisters. In my sleepy haze, I fumble with the touchscreen. I miss the call, but notice it was from Layla. I fumble, trying to call Layla back. I need to hear her voice, to let her ramble on about teas and yoga and celebrity gossip, just to feel a little bit of normalcy.
“Katie-kat!” Layla squeals on the other end. I swear she regresses ten years in age every time I call her. She’s like a tween screaming about her favorite musician.
“Hi Layla,” I say.
“How are you? Did the dinner go okay? Did that dress make it the whole night?”
“I’m okay. It’s okay,” I say, a swirl of feelings tight in my chest. Callum’s fierceness matched by his raw vulnerability; seeing Genevieve again and watching how much hurt still lingered with my Alphas; my intense feelings for all my guys that came on so quick – everything is still too fresh to really process. I just need like a week of downtime to make sense of it all.
“Good! So Aurelia just told us there’s an Omega-safe coffee shop on campus where we could meet you for coffee and hang out a little bit, and I really want you to come! It will feel more normal than you coming to our rooms. Please say you’ll come? Do I need to sweet talk one of the Alphas? I bet Loren is the easiest to convince.”
Loren huffs next to me. He can hear everything she’s saying, but he doesn't seem irritated. He smiles. “You don’t need permission to see your sisters. We just need to make sure you’re safe getting there and back.”
“Ohoo is he there?” Layla asks. “I want to talk to him.”
I glance to make sure we’re decently covered by the blanket, then hold the phone out. Loren grabs it, and Layla grins mischievously.
“Loren, this is Layla. I want you to know as second oldest and Katie’s only confidant,” I snort at that, “that Katie is extremely ticklish behind her right knee, her favorite color is green, she hates asparagus, and she loves when people play music for her.”
“Layla!” I shout, trying to take the phone back. Loren grabs my wrist, firm but gentle, keeping it in place between us.
“Oh really? What kind of music?”
“Mmmm, I play piano and she won’t ever say so, but she loves when I play for her, even if I pretend it’s not.”
I blush. Layla always loved attention, I assumed she played for the attention. She’d play all these moody pieces I liked, but I thought it was because they were difficult and we praised her. But maybe…well, maybe I’ve been wrong about her.
“I don’t play piano, but I used to play cello. Max plays piano, though. Perhaps I can coax him to play for you?”
“Max plays?” I look around the nest but my prizefighter is nowhere to be seen.
“Oh good, bringing the Omega closer to her Alphas!” Layla sings. “But really, Loren, let Katie come have coffee with us tonight. Please? Molly Beth really misses her, and Maddie needs Katie to put her in line. She’s been a terror.”
“Of course I’ll come, but you literally have a whole school worth of teachers there,” I say. “Can one of them mind Mads?”
“Nope.” Layla says.
“Coffee tonight works. I’ll arrange a car, just ensure that Aurelia is there for drop off and pick up,” Loren says over my shoulder.
“I am not in kindergarten,” I sigh. “I can get in and out of a car by myself.”
“Of course you can,” Loren says. “It’s someone interfering that I worry about.” He shoots me a look, and I remember the four attackers from outside the store. I roll my eyes but he has a fair point.
“Fantastic!” Layla chirps. “Drop her off at five.”
Layla chimes off and I hold the phone in both my hands, a bubble of warmth already spreading into my arms legs. She sounded happy– not forced cheerfulness but a bubbly happiness that can’t be faked.
“You know you can go where you want,” Loren says. I startle and look over at him.
“I don’t want you to ever think you’re trapped with us.”
It’s sweet, this attention to me, to my needs. It’s not Loren that feels like a cage –or Max, or Callum for that matter. It’s the rules, the unspoken assumptions made about who and what I need to be in this new world, and how little I understand them.
It's feeling like all my choices were made before I even arrived. Not that I would choose anyone different. Loren, Max, and Callum are three men who seem to perfectly balance one another – strong yet tender, anger with thought, aggression tempered by kindness.
“It’s not you,” I say. “It’s, well, it’s everything else.”
He nods, but doesn’t push. Not Loren, my patient professor.
“I’ll drop you off to see your sisters. Then Callum or Max can pick you up – freedom for you, and peace of mind for us.”
“Are Omegas really at that much risk?” I ask.
“Yes.” He says simply. I let the unspoken words hang in the air until he clears his throat. “We were once different than we are now. I told you some of the old legends about our shift between human and animal form?”
I nod. I didn’t really take any of this to heart –just the ramblings of brainwashed cult members. But now, I wonder where the truth and the stories diverge. I mean, I traveled between worlds. Anything is possible, right?
“Some of the families can still shift. My father can, twice a year on the solstices when the old magic is still strong enough. The shift is powerful and was used by our ancestors in battle, when we were inter-fighting tribes, and when we were still at war with the Northmen. But that was all more than a thousand years ago. Times change, and the magic and our ability to shift forms changed.”
“You’re telling me you’re a werewolf?” I say. Ridiculous. But also… looking at his slightly pointed incisors and the way he’s bared his teeth when he’s angry, maybe not.
“Werewolf? I don’t know what that is. But no, I can’t shift. Father hoped that when I found my Omega it would trigger a shift, but…” he shrugs. No shift. No ancient magic.
“The shift is painful and mostly useless except to impress upon the world that your family is old blood,” he adds quickly. “I never wanted it.”
“So what does shape shifting have to do with Omegas?”
“Huh, never thought of it as shape shifting. But it has everything to do with Omegas, because as the generations were born, the only children with the power to shift from human to wolf, or lion, or bear, or eagle – the four noble families – were children born of Alphas and Omegas. Not Alphas and Betas, not Betas and Omegas and not Beta pairs. Only Alphas and Omegas.”
“So Omegas are prized because they’re magical breeders?” That does not sound particularly enticing to me. I drum my fingers on the armrest.
“No, not exactly. Omegas pass on the strongest genes of their Alphas, yes. But, Omegas and Alphas are biologically disposed to fulfill one another. An Omega in heat needs an Alpha’s knot to be satisfied – no Beta will fulfill her, even if she loves him. And Alphas need to care for an Omega –to protect and nurture. Our hormones need one another.”
“The biology evolved to keep the best genetic matches together?”
“Exactly!” Loren says with excitement. He taps my nose. “Over thousands of years, our biology evolved to such a degree that an unmatched Omega will die from the pain of her heat and the stress of not having an Alpha’s pheromones on her nervous system. It’s a complex dance, but packs used to be much bigger – sometimes having as many as a dozen members. But not just Alphas,” he adds looking at my alarmed features. “There might be four or five Alphas, one Omega and then half a dozen Betas. All living and working together. And not all romantically linked. We know that many larger packs had some Alphas and Betas that never bonded in a sexually intimate way with their Omega, just in platonic kinship. The mix of designation biochemistry offers balance across the board.”
“But you don’t do that anymore?” My mind is reeling with the idea of eleven other people in a pack. Holy shit, would a girl ever get a night to herself? Fuck that. Or not, as the case may be.
“No, only some of the older families have big Packs like that. My Father was in one– but many of them were killed in the first of the Beta Rebellions that lead to the Border War with Kharawyn. But even then, Omegas were central –they cemented the bonds between Alphas and their Betas. You are the axis point around which we all spin.”
His gaze softens and he grabs my left hand for a squeeze.
“We need you. Now that we have you, Love, we need you. We can’t lose you. It would kill us. And people who might want to do us harm know that.”
“So I’m a pawn.” I frown. I’m going to be locked in a cage because I’m a liability.
“Like hell you’re a pawn,” Loren snorts. “Katie, you’re the queen. But you aren't bonded to us yet. Someone with… nefarious intent could steal you away and force a bond. That's why Omegas are guarded. The sickness killed so many, and there are hundreds of packs without their central Omega bond yearning for that biological glue to hold them together. Some might take drastic steps to get an Omega –even discounting her consent.”
A fire burns in my belly. How dare anyone take an Omega – or anyone – without their consent! My skin sizzles, itchy and too tight. I bare my teeth at the thought.
“That’s not going to happen, alright Love? When you’re through your heat, we will bond – if that’s what you want. We can take all the time you need, of course. We just want to make sure you’re given the choice. Your happiness matters to us and if…” he hesitates, his voice growing small. “If you find that your true happiness lies outside our Pack, we would support you in that.”
Tears burn at my lashline. I hate these feelings that run like a steam engine through my rational thoughts! I’m grateful that I matched Loren and Callum and Max. I’m so grateful that they are men who think about my needs, and didn’t just bond with me the first minute they saw me. Fuck, it could have been so much worse.
I am not grateful to be in a world where Omegas are treated like possessions to be guarded and hoarded by society.
“Thank you,” I sniffle, and he squeezes my hand again. “I need to see my sisters and make sure they’re okay. But I’ll be mindful of the threats.”
Loren offers me a sly smile. “Katie, I have no doubt that you can take care of most threats. You are the most incredible woman –Omega or otherwise –I have ever met.” He kisses my fingertips and we lay for a few minutes in warm silence. My skin still burns and itches, but I ignore it and focus on the warm hum of anticipation at seeing my sisters again.