Page 8

Vargas

No sleep was to be had until I saw Penn and our omega with my own eyes. We’d gotten a call from our packmate about an hour into their trip home. The deal was struck. The payment made.

Our omega secured.

We were betting everything on Penn’s instincts. Everything. Our lives. Her life. Half of our life savings.

I didn’t envy him the task, but now that he was in the truck with our female, the envy threatened to bubble over. He could see her. Scent her. Get to know her.

The person he carried home would not only be our omega, she would be our world, our mate, our partner, maybe the future mother of our children, though the last part was completely up to her.

“Vargas,” Wilder called out. Sometimes Penn would call me Var but Wilder never did. He said Vargas was too short a name to make it even shorter.

I got out of bed and tugged on a hoodie, along with a pair of sweatpants that were hanging on a chair. Once in the hallway, I faced my friend, who was also pulling on a sweatshirt. He was thicker than the rest of us, but his heart was made of gold. He would give anyone the shirt off his back if they said the word. “What is it?”

“They’re almost here. Penn texted me.”

“He texted while our omega was in the car with him? That’s dangerous. He’s being reckless.”

Wilder snorted. “What? He was probably at a stoplight. He would never endanger our mate.”

It was strange to talk about a mate when we’d never seen her. Wonder about the future when we had never heard her voice or smelled her scent.

Good thing I had full faith in our packmate.

Or was trying to.

“Oh. Yeah. Of course. When are they…”

Wilder and I both stopped breathing and raised our heads a little. The crunch of Penn’s truck tires on the gravel drive was undeniable.

He was back.

With our omega.

So I did what any mature alpha would do.

I shoved Wilder into my bedroom and made a run for it.

“Vargas. Godsdammt!”

He was on my heels in seconds, but we stopped short of the front door. “Okay. We have to calm down,” I told Wilder whose chest was heaving from the sprint.

“Are you talking to me or yourself?”

I shrugged. “Both.”

We made a show of taking a big breath and then opened the door. Penn was still driving up and soon parked in front of the cabin and turned off the lights. It was so black outside, even with my shifter sight, I couldn’t see much.

Penn got out and my heart stopped. “She’s asleep. Has been most of the drive.” I nodded and barreled down the stairs alongside Wilder, but Penn stopped us. “She’s scared and tired. She even cried in her sleep. It was heartbreaking.”

“I’m not gonna eat her,” I barked. “You don’t need to protect her from me.”

“Or me,” Wilder echoed.

“I know that, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t know us. Only our reputations. We have to take things slow.”

Wilder put his hand on my arm. “Let’s go and sit on the porch. We’ll let Penn wake her up since she knows him. The last thing we want to do is bombard her.”

He was right but damn it all, I wanted to see her. My wolf was outright feral inside me. He knew she was ours. No name. No scent. No face-to-face meeting.

“Fine.”

Penn nodded and went to the passenger door while Wilder and I sat on the steps. I sat on my hands, knowing otherwise, I would wring them with anticipation.

My heart was ready to burst from my sternum.

I heard a sweet ting of a voice and Penn pulled the blanket from her. “I can carry you,” he offered.

“It’s okay. I can walk. But thank you.”

Her voice wrapped around my torso and squeezed. My wolf went ballistic.

Go to her. Go to our mate. Carry her. Bring her to her nest.

She got out and looked to the porch. Wilder’s knee bobbed. My breath caught in my throat.

Forget the Goddess that created our kind, she was a Goddess in her own right.

“Her name is Rumor,” Wilder said. Shit, had I said that Goddess bit out loud?

Her blonde hair flowed in rivers down each shoulder and across her ample chest. Once the door was closed, I could see her curvy hips and hourglass figure. The worn-out clothes she wore somehow didn’t detract from her beauty one ounce. She walked over and stayed one step behind Penn. Of course she did. He was all she knew of protection, and he was her ticket to freedom.

Wilder and I stood as she got closer.

“Rumor, this is Wilder and this is Vargas. This is your…this is our pack.”

Wilder smiled and went down the stairs. “It’s nice to meet you, Rumor.”

She looked at me with those minty-green eyes. My words lodged in my throat like a boulder. “Rumor, it is lovely to meet you,” I choked out. “Welcome to our home. Your home.”

She nodded and a few things happened at once.

One, I was hit with her scent. Vanilla and jasmine and everything sunshine in this world.

Two, she stepped back, blushing, with her hand on her chest. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” I asked. “Whatever for?”

“My blockers only last so long. It’s…my scent. I’m sorry.”

Wilder stepped closer but she didn’t budge. “Your scent is beautiful, omega. There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

“Your scents are…this place… Oh…” Penn and I both reached out as her knees buckled.

I caught her up in my hold, honeymoon style, and turned to my brothers. “Penn, can you grab her things? Wilder? Her nest is ready?”

Wilder nodded. “I washed everything this morning and made it all up.”

“I’m putting her to bed.”

I carried our omega, sweet and scared as she was, up the stairs where we’d built her nest. Hers was the only room upstairs and she had the floor to herself. One day, she might invite us to join her there. Maybe in her heat. Or simply for her comfort, but until then, it was hers. It had always been hers.

I brought her to the round, built-in bed and laid her across the soft comforter. We’d shopped all the omega outlets to find the best comforters and blankets for her nest. The plushiest pillows. The best of the best even though at the time, we didn’t have a whisper of her. If she took to us, accepted our courting and us as a pack, she would probably start stealing some of our shirts and clothing that smelled like us. I’d walk around naked if she wanted everything I owned. We’d waited so long for her.

I could only hope she let us be hers.

“There you go, sweetheart,” I whispered. “Rest well.”

Penn came up with her bags and helped me pull off her shoes and tuck her in. Wilder cracked the windows a bit. He said he hoped the sounds of the wild would comfort her.

It was dawn before we closed the door to her suite and I could finally breathe again.