Page 18 of Loving My Omega (The Perfect Designation Trilogy #2)

Chapter

Eighteen

T here was a soft knock on my bedroom door. Sitting up, I rubbed my rubbed my eyes for a second to wake up a little more.

“Colt?” My voice sounded deeper than usual and I cleared my throat.

The door opened a little before Colton peaked his head in. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

I shook my head. “What’s up? Did you get sick? Did you need something?”

After we picked up Colton’s stuff, he drove back while I shifted and cleared the path for him to the house. He had gotten out of the Jeep, asking me to stay in dragon form, in complete awe. It had been a while since I had someone up close to my shifted form who didn’t know a lot about dragons. However, Colton was absolutely enamored.

I had a feeling he would have loved to spend a couple hours inspecting us, but it was too cold and getting him inside where it was warm took precedence. It did make myself and my dragon proud that our mate was so in awe of us. It tickled the part of us that we needed to impress our mate. After getting him warm, fed and cuddled, I had him sleep in the guest bedroom so he could have his own space.

Colton looked like he he hadn’t slept thought. He shook his head and shuffled a little bit into the room. He had some sweats on but requested one of my shirts to sleep in. Of course, he swam in it but it was just another tick to make my dragon happy. His hands were holding the edge of the shirt tightly. It made me realize that something might be wrong.

“Colt? What’s wrong?”

“The storm…it’s…getting bad.”

I sat up more and tapped my phone, the light blinding me for a moment before I could read the screen. It was a little after two in the morning. Listening a little more closely to the noise outside, Colt wasn’t wrong. The wind was howling and the house itself groaned as it took the battering of snow, sleet, and wind.

“Is it bothering you?”

Colton nodded. “I don’t…have any windows in my apartment except in the kitchen we don’t hear much.”

“Did you want to get up? Make some tea or warm some milk up?”

He thought about it for a second, his hands tugging at the bottom of the shirt absently. Slowly, his head shook as he looked down at the floor. His lips pursed before he started to chew on his bottom lip. A blush now visibly splashed across his face. I tried to keep the smile from my face.

“Did you want to sleep in bed with me?”

His ears turned red as he nodded, his grip tightening on the shirt. Sighing, I patted the space next to me. He didn’t need to be told a second time as Colton shuffled over to the side of the bed and crawled in. I wanted to laugh as he burrowed his way into my blankets.

“Only for sleep, Colt. Nothing more.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

My eyes narrowed as the new lump under my blankets giggled. I slipped back down into the covers as well, laying my head on my pillow. He stayed curled up on the right side, facing the wall. Rolling my eyes, I snuck my arm under the covers. Colton squeaked as I pulled him to me. His back rested against my bare chest and I rested my hand on his hip.

“Goodnight, Colt.”

He hummed but it turned into a soft purr. Closing my eyes, I enjoyed the feeling of the vibration against me. I hadn’t slept next to anyone like this in over fifteen years. At the time, it was such a forced relationship and ended so poorly that I thought I might not feel comfortable like this again.

Colton was so different from her. From anyone else in my life, really. He fit so perfectly, not just against me but in my life. Getting him to stay for the weekend because of the storm could maybe turn into him staying longer, at least I hoped I could convince him of that.

After a few minutes, I felt Colton adjust a bit, his hand slipping under the pillow. What I didn’t expect was his other hand to cover mine, interlocking our fingers, and then slide them down his front. They rested on his bump and didn’t move. His breath evened out another moment later and I knew he was asleep. I was left laying stiff, my hand holding our hatchling. Eventually, I did take moment to let out a long slow breath and relaxed against him again. Burying my nose in his hair, I left myself enjoy the moment as I fell back asleep.

My eyes opened and I glanced at the clock. Surprise took over as I saw that it was ten in the morning. I couldn’t remember the last time I slept in this late. Before I graduated college that was for sure. Colton was still asleep as well, curled up against me. Even more surprising was that the storm sounded just as bad now as it did last night. It was dark as the wind beat against the side of the house.

Reaching above me, I grabbed my phone from the cubby in the headboard. My mom had texted, asking if we were okay in the storm. There was another text going out to all the teachers from the school. Apparently, most of the city had lost power overnight, which prompted the University to say they were postponing all classes and closing down campus until Tuesday. That was when the storm was supposed to pass. All online courses would be canceled as well. Colton wouldn’t be happy with that. Especially since all he had left were two finals that were supposed to be today.

Putting my phone back on the shelf, I slipped out of the side of the bed, ensuring that no cold air hit Colton as I did. Going downstairs, I tried the lights but the house stayed dark. It looked like we didn’t have power either. There was a pile of wood next to the living room fireplace and I put a few logs into it. Clicking my tongue, I spit a small amount of fire into it and the logs immediately caught.

I took some of the logs and trudged back up stairs. Downstairs was starting to get cooler without the heat on, but the upstairs was still warm. My room also had a fireplace and I repeated the process. Immediately, warming the air as I snuck back under to the covers.

“Mar?” Colton sounded half asleep still.

I shushed him. “Go back to sleep. I’m right here.”

“I have…class…” He was nodding back off and I couldn’t help but smile.

“They cancelled everything because of the storm. Get some more rest.”

He hummed for a moment. “The storm is still bad.”

Settling my arm around him, resting it on his belly, I kissed the back of his head. “It is. So sleep. There is nothing to do right now but catch up on sleep.”

He hummed again and snuggled into me before quickly falling back to sleep. I’d need to wake us up in a couple hours and figure out what to make for food. Until then though, I could enjoy this new lazy side of life. Something that I could definitely get used to with Colton by my side.

My phone buzzed against the wood and I sighed. Reaching up, I silenced the call but still pulled myself out of bed. Pulling on a shirt, I headed back down stairs. Throwing another two logs on the fire, I called my mom back.

“ Mother .”

“Why didn’t you answer your phone? I was worried! I almost sent your dad down to check on you.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know I’m grown right? I can take care of myself?”

Leaning down, I looked into the fridge to figure out what I could make us. It would be easy to do a cinnamon and sugar congee. At the very least, I needed to get the generator going so that the food didn’t spoil. Checking the oven, I turned on the burner and listened but there was no gas either. I blew out some smoke.

“Mar?”

“Power and gas are out right now.”

She whined. “I’m sending your father.”

“Mom, it’s fine. The reason I didn’t answer was because I was asleep. I have the fire going and I can just cook on that. It’s not a big deal.”

She was quiet for a moment. “It’s noon . You want me to believe you, Marcus Blaze Alford, slept in till twelve ?”

I chuckled. “I actually have Colton staying over. His apartment lost power just from the little snow yesterday, so I had him stay for the weekend. He woke me up at two because the storm was bothering him. So he crawled into bed and I didn’t wake up till ten. I got up and checked the power, which was off, and I loaded up the two fireplaces. Then, I snuck back into bed until you called.”

“I’m sorry!! I never thought you’d sleep that late…or that you’d actually invite him over…”

Growling, I cut her off. “It’s okay, Mom. I needed to get up to make food. I don’t want Colton to go too long without food. He did manage to keep everything down yesterday. So I’m going to call that a win.”

“You father said that he was having trouble keeping things down. Is he doing the whole ginger tea and candies?”

“Yes. He’s tried just about everything you possibly can over the counter. I think it right now it’s just balancing it out until is subsides a little. Which I’m hoping is soon.”

On her side, it sounded like the house fully awake and she had the kids. “Good. If you need me to make anything, just tell me. I’ll make bread or meals or…”

“Thanks, Mom. I got it right now. Do you know if Dad tracked down one of the testers?”

She paused and then shouted into the house. Her hand was covering the phone, but I still needed to pull my ear away from the phone. There was another moment before she giggled and uncovered the phone.

“He did. Did you need it now?”

I stared at the rice I was washing. “No. I can wait till the storm passes. It’s still pretty bad here.”

“What are you doing with the machine anyways?”

Dad’s voice came over the line. “We are going to test his mate. See if we can’t gain some insight into why his pack is still after him or at the very least how strong of an Omega he is.”

“Do you really need to know that?” Mom asked.

This time, I answered. “It would help. Having more information helps us better protect Colton. It also means we can know what to expect for our hatchling.”

She squealed. “I can’t believe I get another grandbaby. I’m so excited. When are you going to bring him up to meet us? Do we need to come down? Maybe we could set up dinner!”

“Settle your wings, Mom. Let me just…get through this weekend and see. I’d like to move him to the house first, and get him settled. The more comfortable he is, the better.”

I added the washed rice to a cast iron Dutch oven. After adding water, I added some cinnamon sticks, a pod of vanilla and brown sugar. Mixing it a little, I added a pad of butter.

“Of course, of course. You tell us. I just really want to meet the shifter who stole my little boys’ heart.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Mom, please. Don’t make this a big deal.”

“No! It is a big deal! Don’t you take this away from me! You got that? I will be excited. I will shower him with gifts and food and all the things he needs. And don’t you dare try to stop me, Marcus.”

“Yes, mother . As you wish.”

For the sound of it, my dad just got slapped somewhere. “Why can’t you agree like he does?”

“He’s being sarcastic, sweetie. If I say it, I mean it.”

“He was not you old coot!”

Chuckling, I switched the phone to speak. “I’ll talk to you guys later, alright? I need to get this food on the fire and then check out how much damage the storm did last night.”

Putting the lid on, I carried it by the wire hook and pulled down the hook in the fireplace. Once I ensured the pot wasn’t swinging over the fire, I distributed the logs a little more evenly to cook the congee nice and slow. My mom finally spoke up as I came back into the kitchen.

“Ty says he want to be the one to administer the test. Whatever that means.”

“That’s fine. I just think it will be good to know what we are working with and what the pack thinks they know. Plus, I’ll talk to Colton about it. He’ll be worried about it showing up in the system, but as long as Dad got an offline one, I think he might be interested to know.”

Mom spoke to Dad quietly and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. “Alright, sweetheart. Do you need anything else? Did you want us to bring anything?”

I smiled and shook my head. “No Mom. I’ll talk to you later.”

“If it get’s too bad, come up with your mate. You can stay with us until the snow melts a little and the power becomes more stable.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. I love you.”

“Love you.”

The phone hung up and I sighed. Rubbing my face, I turned my focus to topping for the congee. Bacon was easy and I could cook that on the fire but it would be too rich and fatty for Colton. It wasn’t traditional but I figured since he had the cinnamon and sugar graham Crackers on the list that he would like it better than another plain chicken broth meal. I decided to just make a fruit salad with the more water based fruits like grapes, cantaloupe, and an apple.

Sitting on the couch, I grabbed the papers that had been passed over to me for the finals and placed them on the coffee table. Getting out my phone, I quickly drafted an email through my teacher’s hub and sent it off that the deadline was moved to Tuesday at seven p.m. due to the weather and some not having access to their internet.

As I started to read and mark through the papers I received, I sighed. The ones that weren’t going to get an A, I decided to scan the pages with my notes and send them a quick email, telling them they had until Tuesday to turn in another version or they would get the grade marked on the paper now. Maybe Colton was right, that I was too nice but I hated failing students.

“Alpha?”

Leaning back, Colton was rubbing his eyes at the top of the stairs. I smiled at him. He looked so silly in my shirt, but my dragon purred. Happy with the arrangement.

“Good afternoon, sleepy head. Did you get enough sleep?”

He groaned and padded down the stairs. Flopping next to me, he rested his head on my shoulder. His eyes slipped shut and he let out a long sigh.

“You managed to get me to sleep in too.”

He huffed. “Yeah, sure. Yet here you are…working.”

“I needed to start on lunch. I’m not about to let you skip meals.”

Colton sat up, frowning for a moment. “Is it true? They cancelled classes?”

“Till Tuesday. Online and in-person. The University sent out a text to all the teachers. You’ll probably have a few emails waiting for you.”

He groaned. “ Great . Hopefully, Professor Min and Professor Carden sent out a way to take the final. I don’t want to have to wait till Tuesday. Winter session starts.”

I chuckled. “We don’t have internet. You wouldn’t be able to connect through your laptop to get anything.”

“There are such things as phones. I can log in on that!”

Shaking my head, I chortled. “You are the only one I know of who would be pissed over a couple days of no class.”

“I’m going to school to learn, Professor . Not to fart around.”

Laughing, I set my papers down on the table. Flipping around, I straddled Colton who looked shocked as I caged him against the couch. Smirking, I leaned closer to him and nipped his jaw.

“I can think of a few things that we could do in the mean time.”