Page 1 of Operation: CuddleDom (The Port Haven Omegaverse #9)

REN TWILL

It should be illegal, criminal, to be this damn happy.

I leaned back on an elbow on a checkered blanket. An actual fucking checkered blanket. Mackenzie had made a passing comment about wanting to go on a picnic and the next day, a luxury picnic kit, complete with a wicker basket, wine tote, and checkered blanket had been delivered to the penthouse.

Justice was in his wish fulfillment era, apparently.

It made him giddy. I never wanted that to stop.

“You should have made them,” Mackenzie said, popping open the lid on a little glass dish. She fished out a tiny ball of marinated mozzarella, popped it in her mouth before setting it down in front of me.

“No, you don’t eat mushrooms,” Theo said.

“Yeah, but I’m not allergic or anything. You like stuffed mushrooms. Ren likes them. Justice likes them. I just think they are slimy and gross.”

“Exactly,” Theo said like that was all there was to the conversation, effectively banning mushrooms from the Twill household.

Twill .

It still gave me a rush, seeing “Twill” next to my name. Not all packs did the name change thing. Some adopted a new pack name. Some never did. I was more than happy to put Delano in the ground.

Mackenzie stretched her legs out, hooking one over Theo’s. I tugged at the hem of her sundress. I didn’t need a flash of her thigh distracting me. They chatted about food and the upcoming house manager interviews, finishing each other’s sentences, like they had been doing it their whole lives.

I cracked open a bottle of water. It was no longer icy cold.

Port Haven was experiencing an early fall heat wave with tropical temperatures.

We were tucked in the shade of a giant weeping willow overlooking the Grand Lawn of the University’s botanic gardens.

Not only was it cooler, but it also gave us a bit of privacy.

It was still public enough to stall any potential meltdowns that might occur.

I had completely chickened out of this conversation once or twice already, and was counting on the semi-public environment to make it easier. For me. Not for them.

I stretched my legs out, propped up one knee, and picked at the pasta salad with my fingers.

“So,” I kept my voice light, “we need to form a conspiracy.”

Mackenzie gasped. “Oh! Are we doing crime?”

“No.” My smile hurt my face.

“I know you’re the professional, but I think we did a rather good job at it during the cruise.”

“Speak for yourself. I am not cut out to be a thief,” Theo said, almost despondent.

“Well, stealing cars is out, at least until I get my license and can be the getaway driver.” She gave me a sharp look.

Justice and I had both steadfastly refused to be her driving instructor. It wasn’t a question of not wanting her to learn, if that’s what she chose to do. We didn’t think we could handle it and be nice in the process.

It was a control issue. We both felt better when we were the one who was behind the wheel.

Shit got tense when it was just the four of us in the new SUV he’d bought.

Limo service was a little better. But the thought of our omega negotiating a several ton vehicle through the Port Haven streets with little to no driving experience pushed our tolerance.

She had yet to book driving lessons herself, however.

I took a breath and inwardly braced.

“Justice isn’t doing well.” Not great phrasing, not that it mattered. There wasn’t a pretty way to deliver that line.

“What do you mean?” I felt the instant anxiety in the pack bonds. “No. But what do you mean?”

Theo twirled his fork in his pasta salad. “He’s not really eating.”

She turned to Theo with another gasp.

“What do you mean?”

“He cooks eggs every morning and never eats them.”

“Well, some people aren’t breakfast people. And he has a chef at work for lunch.”

“He’s not sleeping either.”

“Theo, what do you mean? How do you know that and I don’t know that?”

In the short time we’d been together, I had noticed that if she wound herself up a little, it was easier to talk her down, and she wouldn’t stew on it, so I let her go.

“He works in the middle of the night when he thinks we’re sleeping.”

That I didn’t know, but I suspected. It was part of the problem, or a symptom at least.

“What’s wrong?” Mackenzie’s bottom lip trembled.

I casually picked an olive out of the salad and bit into it. If he would just talk to me… But that was part of the problem, too.

“Justice has hit a wall,” I tossed the olive pit into the grass, “and we have to pull him through it. And we might not have a lot of time.” I regretted that last part almost instantly.

“I swear to god, Ren, if you don’t tell me…”

“Take a breath, Mackenzie.” Theo rubbed her back.

I went for a cherry tomato next, smirking to myself. Theo had remembered I didn’t like when they burst in my mouth, so he had taken the time to cut them in half.

“This is really Justice’s story to tell, but at this point, I’m not sure he can get there on his own.” I didn’t change my posture from the relaxed sprawl I was in, nor change my tone. They didn’t need my own trauma about all this to amp up the situation.

“I think I had mentioned that Justice’s parents weren’t great. That is a severe understatement.”

Theo nodded. Mackenzie twisted the hem of her dress in her fingers.

“Both his parents were thrown out of their packs. Their bonds were broken.”

“Fuck,” Theo breathed. Mackenzie’s eyes went wide.

“There isn’t much you can do about the aura damage that comes from broken bonds, except…”

“Form a new bond,” Theo completed my sentence. That made me smile, despite the topic of conversation.

“So that’s what they did. They were desperate.

Aura damage eventually leads to madness and death.

They hated each other. But no other pack would have them, so they did it anyway.

And then thought it was a bright idea to have a kid.

I’m going to spare you the details.” Liar, I was sparing myself the details.

“They were too broken, too stupid, to actually parent a child. When they couldn’t handle it, or they needed a babysitter, they would lock him in a closet.

When he cried, they’d upgrade to a padlocked freezer chest in the garage. ”

He had missed school, again. I had searched his house, top to bottom, screaming his name when I heard the pounding from the garage. I had taught myself to pick locks that day.

“Oh god,” Mackenzie’s voice was small.

“The claustrophobia?” I just nodded at Theo’s question. “And the panic attacks.”

“Justice doesn’t have panic attacks. He’s just… He’s just stressed. We all get stressed.” She wasn’t in denial, she just didn’t have the right frame of reference for everything.

“That’s why he was on the cruise, Mackenzie,” I added softly. “He was spinning out long before that. He was forced to take that vacation. To get a grip on his life, and he comes back as a pack lead with two omegas and the criminal ex who ruined his life.”

“So, we’re the problem?” Her voice shook. I took the knotted hem out of her hands and smoothed it against her thigh.

“No. Justice is the problem. Good news though. You are the solution. But we have to be smart about this, and I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Ren. Is Justice dying or something?”

“No, pretty girl.” I sat up and pulled her to me to kiss her forehead. “Justice is rolling out coping mechanisms that will turn into habits and then conditioned behavior that he won’t be able to break.”

“The eggs,” Theo’s head was hanging.

“The eggs.”

“So before Mackenzie’s next heat, which should be two months?” I paused, doing the math in my head, “And Theo’s right after that…” I practically stuttered as Theo’s aura lit up.

“What?” I said, turning to him, my eyes sharp.

“What what?”

“Pack bonds, love. You can’t feel whatever that is,” I made a messy hand gesture, “and not have us know it. Don’t like it? Take an aura management class. Pack Bonds 101.”

Theo just nodded and chewed on his lip. Not a great sign. Mackenzie got animated, talked nonstop when her emotions were elevated. Theo chewed on his lip and thought. He took a breath and blew it out.

“I’m still taking low-dose suppressants.”

“Theo?” Mackenzie looked shocked. I was right there with her.

“What’s that about?” I asked softly. I had been basically stretched out at their feet since we’d spread out the picnic blanket. I shifted so that I could stroke my index finger up and down his ankle, hoping he’d get through contact with my aura that I wasn’t pissed.

“I don’t know,” he said around a sigh, “I just… I don’t know.”

“Can I put words in your mouth?” He nodded, so I continued, “You think that two omegas going through heat is too much and you want to make sure Mackenzie is taken care of?”

He shot a guilty look at Mackenzie.

“That’s part of it. I’ve been on suppressants for so long and, male…” he cut himself off and rubbed his eyes before trying again. “I guess part of me is… concerned about having a normal heat cycle.”

“Because you’re a male omega?”

He shrugged.

I snagged another tomato out of the salad and thought for a minute while I chewed.

The bite of the vinegar in the dressing went well with my simmering anger.

I wasn’t angry at Theo. Slightly annoyed he’d keep this from us.

My anger was more at the world that would make such a divine creature unsure of himself because of who he was.

“Okay. I’m saying this as your alpha,” his head came up, and he finally met my eyes, “I’m going to require two things of you.

” I counted off one finger. “First, is that you have this conversation with Justice, and us, as a pack. This is just like the baby conversation. We all shared the same opinion that kids were not something we wanted to do, and we each made our own decision about birth control. But we all got on the same page. As a pack. How you manage heat, what happens to your body, is up to you, but it does affect the pack. We should all talk about it.”