Page 56 of Claiming the Pack’s Omega (Riverwell Omegaverse #2)

Killian

T oday is the big day.

The day that Reyna meets my family.

Before I met Reyna, I would've worded that as "the day my family meets Reyna," because I always led every thought that had anything to do with my family with them.

Even after I moved out for college, even after I met my packmates, my family, my parents, my brother, they all still dominated the dialogue in my brain.

There was no escaping them.

But with Reyna in my life?

Everything has changed.

I can feel it. Deep in my bones. There's something in my head that's a little different.

And it terrifies me.

Because the last thing I want is to go back to how things were in my brain.

But by introducing Reyna to the chaos that is my family, I may send her running for the hills. And she'd have every right to do so.

I see the way she's been nervously preparing for tonight's dinner. I can read the thoughts that run through her head as she tries on the dresses that Theo has bought online for her to try. She's nervous.

Who wouldn't be? Especially after hearing the call the other day. Hell, I'm fucking nervous.

"How do I look?" Reyna asks, doing a little spin in a crimson red cocktail dress. It has a halter top that keeps her cleavage contained, but it hugs her every curve before flowing down to reveal her leg peeking through a ridiculously sexy leg slit.

Considering my mother's taste in clothing, and the possibility that she'll realize where Reyna is from when she doesn't recognize her from any of the higher echelon of Northside families, the lack of cleavage was the right move. Theo did a good job choosing this dress.

"Considering you're speechless, it either means I'm hideous and you're trying to find a way to tell me, or that this is the dress for tonight," Reyna says, a teasing smile on her delectable, very kissable lips. She does another slow spin and an unintentional growl leaves my throat.

"That one," I say, my voice vibrating through my chest. "Wear that one."

Her eyes widen the smallest fraction as her breath hitches in her throat. I reach out and wrap my hand around her delicate wrist. I can't get a good look at the pulse at the base of her neck, but I can feel it fluttering away under my grip.

She melts into my arms as I tug her towards my chest.

"I was going to argue with you," she says, her voice breathy. "But now I don't think that's a good idea."

I nod slowly, my gaze trailing over her bare face. She's gotten used to not wearing as much makeup around the pack house, when it's just the five of us. I have a feeling she'll be doing a whole routine, to prepare for tonight.

"That's probably best," I murmur. "I don't lose arguments very often."

Her pupils dilate as she stares up at me. Her lips are pink and oh so kissable. It hasn't escaped me that I'm the only one out of the four of us that she hasn't kissed. I want to change that.

Now.

Before my family has a real chance of fucking things up between us.

"Would you argue if I said I wanted to kiss you?" I growl, reaching up and gripping the nape of her neck.

She melts into that touch too.

"No," she breathes out.

"Good."

Using my hold on her, I lean down and crash my lips against hers. It's hungry. Desperate, almost. I pour every emotion I don't have the words for into the kiss.

All the hope for our future. All the anxiety around my past.

Her lips meet mine, matching the fervor and pace of each of my movements. She lets out a soft moan as she parts her lips, making way for my tongue and I almost lose it.

God, the things I would do to her if we didn't have a dinner with my fucking family in a couple hours.

She pulls away, her chest heaving as she blinks up at me through her thick lashes.

"Wait—stop," she pants out.

I freeze, my heart nearly stopping along with the rest of me.

"We—we've gotta stop—because if we kiss any longer, I'm going to rip this dress off and climb you like a fucking tree—and we don't have time for that."

I throw my head back, the intensity of my laugh shocking me.

It's like she took the words right out of my head.

"You're right," I say, my gaze darting between hers. My chest feels warm and I can't help but run my nose along her shoulder, really soaking in her unique scent.

"I should go get ready," she whispers, glancing away. She waves over her shoulder as she lifts the hem of her dress in one hand as she walks up our spiral staircase.

Letting her walk away from me makes my chest physically ache. I don't know how I spent my entire life without her presence.

"You good, man?" Theo asks softly, coming to stand beside me as we watch Reyna disappear up the top of the stairs to her room.

"Fine," I grunt.

"Mhm. You know, you pride yourself on being this big bad alpha, but when you do things like that, it really messes with your image."

"Do things like what?" I huff, fighting the urge to roll my eyes as I rip my gaze away from the empty staircase to look at him.

"Say you're fine when you're not fine. It's okay to not be fine, and it's okay to ask for help, you know that right?"

I take a deep breath, but it does nothing to get rid of the tightness in my chest. "I know that, but it's not that simple. I can't ask for help because there's nothing you can do. You know my family. You've seen the way they operate."

"They're literally batshit insane," Stone says from his seat on one of the lounge chairs in the sitting room. "Pardon my language."

Theo and I make our way over to him and sit across from him and Milo.

"They really are crazy," Milo says softly. "And I don't say that lightly. All of us have weird relationships with our parents, but yours is by far the worst."

"You know, I think Reyna's relationship with her parents is probably the healthiest out of the five of us," Theo adds.

"And even then, she felt the need to pursue the work that she did in order to provide for them and the rest of her family, so was it really all that good?

At least my parents had no issue feeding and clothing me.

" I can feel my hackles rising. I don't know why I still get defensive. Maybe because they're my family.

"Yeah, and your mom will fucking yell at you for literally no reason," Stone says, leaning back.

"She'll also disregard every single one of your accomplishments, regardless of how big they are," Theo adds.

My jaw clenches. I know they're right. I know it deep down in my bones. They're not saying anything I haven't already thought about myself.

"I'm sorry we're dogpiling you and getting all worked up, man," Stone says, scrubbing a hand over his face.

"I'm just not a fan of this whole dinnerthing with Reyna.

Your shitshow of a family are the type of people to say something that'll make me wanna tear my stitches and fuck shit up, you know? "

"I get what you're saying. Trust me, I do," I sigh. "If anything, I'm expecting something to go terribly wrong."

"And we'll be here to help if things go wrong. You're not alone," Theo says, reaching over and gripping my shoulder.

"If something does go wrong, we leave immediately. We don't give them a chance to rile us up enough to make things worse, okay?"

My packmates all nod in confirmation.

"One of us must be with Reyna at all times. She's not to be left alone." Especially not with my brother in the house, but I don't say that part out loud.

He'll probably have his own date to try and upstage the omega he thinks I'm bringing, but I don't want to risk him doing something insane.

"You don't need to tell us twice," Stone nods.

My hands are starting to get clammy, goddammit. I wipe them down on my slacks and nod.

"Great, then I think we're ready for tonight. Reyna has already listened to a call between my Mother, brother, and I, so she likely knows what to expect."

The rest of them talk briefly about work, the case, and those developments, but I find myself spacing out a little bit. I can't get rid of this impending sense of doom, no matter how hard I try.

I've never been a big drinker, but the liquor cabinet with our expensive whiskey is calling for me to pour myself a glass or two before I go, to prepare for this shitshow of an evening.

But that would be a terrible idea. I need my wits about me, when it comes to my family.

They have a bad habit of rewriting reality to suit whatever narrative they want, in any given moment, so I generally tend to avoid anything that changes my perception of things.

I've spent long enough out of that house to learn that the way I was raised wasn't normal, but there are just certain habits I picked up living in that environment that I can't seem to shake.

"You ready, boys?"

Reyna's voice is sultry and playful.

I turn around in my seat and my jaw hits the fucking floor.

I thought she looked enchanting in that dress before she headed upstairs to finish getting ready, but now? Now my brain has lost all ability to find the proper adjective for how stunning she looks.

Just as I predicted, her makeup is a lot more intense than it has been, when it's just been the five of us in the pack house. Her eyes are lined with dark eyeliner, giving her a fierce and sultry look and making her storm gray eyes pop.

As she lifts a hand to give us a little finger wave, her crimson red lips quirking in a little smile, I notice that both her lips and her nails match the dress she's wearing. Her hair is up in an elaborate up-do and her neck and ears are adorned with a matching ruby jewelry set.

She's used her physical appearance as a weapon for a very long time and it's obvious that she's a master at it.

"Holy shit," Stone breathed out.

"You look fucking phenomenal," Theo says, standing from his seat.

"Do I?" Reyna says, giving us a little spin.

"You know you do," I say as I stand and walk over to her.

As I stare down at her, my heart lodges itself in my throat. It's still so crazy to me that the little omega in front of me can make my body react this way.

"We're ready, but are you ready, Princess?"