Page 2 of Operation: CuddleDom (The Port Haven Omegaverse #9)

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept it to myself.”

“Don’t apologize, we’re all still figuring out how this pack thing works.

The second thing. Whatever decision you make, you’re going to do it with medical supervision.

Justice and I have been concerned. Your last heat on the yacht was too painful and too short, which isn’t healthy.

This can be a side-effect of long-term suppressant use.

” I sighed now. “There hasn’t been a really good time to bring it up to you.

See? We’re all figuring this pack shit out. So. Tell Justice and see a doctor.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

There was another thing that had been poking at my brain for a week or so. I had gotten an email from Willow, with details about her next heat. I’d said no immediately to being her heat helper. It was absolutely the last thing I wanted to do, but it had illuminated things in our pack’s future.

“Before I say this next part, know that nothing is wrong, and we do not have to do anything about this right now. But I want to put the idea in your head so you two can do your thing and whisper about it and decide how you feel.”

“We have a thing?” Mackenzie asked.

I smiled. “You have a thing, Precious, and we love that thing. You’re like twins developing your own language. It’s adorable.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure Mackenzie had realized that until this very moment.

“We have a pack math issue.”

“What the hell is pack math?” Theo asked.

“Packs exist because of omega heat. For heat to be safe and satisfying, an omega needs more than one alpha. And we have our own little age gap pack romance going on here. When Mackenzie hits her glorious stride, we’re going to be old men.

” I put on my ‘wicked’ smile, as Mackenzie liked to call it.

“Don’t you worry, our knots will still be going strong.

But in the near future, we should talk about expanding the pack and starting a relationship with a heat helper. ”

“A heat helper? We don’t need help!” Mackenzie protested.

“We don’t, but we do.” I put up a hand to stall any protests.

“It’s not unheard of for two omegas in a pack to have their heat cycles sync.

For a pack as small as ours, that might be stressful for all of us.

Physically stressful. And as your alpha, I want your heats to be fun, safe, and satisfying.

Or Justice could be traveling for work. There’s a hundred things that can come up that we can’t plan for.

Having an established relationship with someone we know and trust means that there will be no surprises during heat. ”

Theo and I shared a look. Mackenzie had been “surprised” during her last heat. He glanced once at her and nodded. He knew exactly what I meant. She hadn’t brought it up, and I was not going to probe her for details today.

Mackenzie rarely talked about her 10 year relationship with Daryl.

But it showed up in small and alarming ways.

Alarming for us, not for her. She would ask for permission before spending money and was shocked that Justice didn’t want to approve the grocery shopping list. She thought it was funny that we didn’t send her to her nest when we wanted to play video games.

She had asked me why I didn’t bring my phone to bed, so I would have something to do while I waited for my knot to let her go.

There were red flags everywhere for us, but Mackenzie was seeing it almost like a cultural difference, not that she had been in an abusive relationship.

“And,” I changed the tone before we tumbled into bad places, “We have a lot of love in our pack. And a stupid amount of money. Theo has always wanted a big pack. We shouldn’t be closed off to the idea.

Like I said, we don’t have to do anything about this now.

But test the idea out in your head.” Mackenzie looked dubious.

I pushed my point. “Like, Mackenzie, picture what it might feel like for you to see an alpha, who is not Justice or me, knot Theo.”

She sat up straight, blinked and turned her head away.

“So, do your thing, chat amongst yourselves, until Justice…” and we came full circle back to the topic at hand.

I cracked my neck and looked up through the canopy above us. The leaves were limp in the heat. There was barely a breeze. Like that night on the yacht when we’d stared up at the stars and Justice chose to suffer rather than seek comfort with his omegas.

“This is why we need a conspiracy.”

“Yeah, I still don’t get that part,” Theo said, popping the lid on a glass container and offering the brownies he made last night.

“Justice is stuck. We have to, like, crank him up. Wind him up and push him forward. But I think we have to do it in such a way that he thinks it’s all his idea.”

“But what’s wrong?” Mackenzie asked. She adjusted her leg that was hooked around Theo’s.

“Now you both know there’s some unresolved childhood trauma.

Should he go to therapy? Probably, but we are miles from that right now.

You both know he is…” I drop the next word carefully, watching Theo, “controlling.” He looked away.

“It’s more than a coping mechanism. And it’s heightened by being an alpha and a pack lead.

It’s who he is. That does not mix well with panic attacks, which, for Justice, are a fundamental loss of control. ”

I groaned as I sat up and reached for one of Theo’s brownies. It was gooey and rich and took a moment before I could speak again.

“To sum up, before the cruise, he was spinning out of control. He was supposed to relax and get his head on straight again. He comes home with a pack. And he’s currently denying the thing that could make this all better for him.”

“What’s that?” Mackenzie asked.

“You.” I looked between our two omegas.

“I’m still not following.”

“This isn’t aura damage, but omega auras are very healing, especially in pack bonds.”

“Okay, so what’s wrong with us it’s not working?” She bit her bottom lip, probably to keep it from trembling.

“Have you noticed that Justice doesn’t touch you?”

“That’s not true. He touches us all the time.”

“No. You touch him.”

She opened her mouth and closed it, and stared down at her sticky brownie, contemplating that.

“We were all sitting on the couch last night, right? What happened?”

“We just watched a movie,” Mackenzie said to Theo. He frowned, trying to see what I saw.

“Mackenzie was in your lap. She’s always in your lap, Theo. You’re always curled around each other. I dug Mackenzie out of your cuddle puddle and then you both were in my lap. You two are always touching each other.”

They looked down at where their legs were intertwined as proof of what I was saying, and they immediately disengaged. I grabbed their ankles and twisted them back together.

“ This is not the problem,” I caressed their legs, “we love it. And before you two get all twisted about it, he doesn’t touch me either. The problem is twofold.”

“Shit.” Theo exhaled loudly and shook his head. “Justice said Mackenzie always comes first and that he’d never come between us.”

“Literally.” I nodded. “It’s almost as if he feels it’s not his place to physically insert himself.”

“But he’s our alpha,” Mackenzie said.

“On top of that,” I blew out my own exasperated breath, “he feels so good when he is touching you, when your aura is affecting him, that he feels it’s selfish. You two can’t fully comprehend how good you feel.”

“Selfish?” She sounded incredulous.

I nodded. “He feels good touching you. That makes him feel like he’s using you for his benefit.”

“But he’s our alpha. We basically, well, belong to him.” Mackenzie’s fingers went to the bite mark on her neck.

Another “shit” from Theo as he got the subtext. Daryl had treated her like property. He would have passed her from alpha to alpha like a doll. Justice didn’t want to be that. None of us did.

“Right. Justice’s brains are a little bit scrambled right now.

He’s very logical. A to B to C. But his logic is running on the wrong tracks.

He’s developing habits that are going to become ingrained behavior.

We need to interrupt that. We need to be smart and sneaky about it because his logic, and well, alpha stubbornness, are going to fight us. ”

“We can’t just sit down and have a conversation about this.

I’ve tried. He can’t recognize that there’s an issue here.

If we tackle it head on, I’m pretty sure it’s going to have an opposite effect.

So, the three of us are going to enter into a conspiracy, coordinate our efforts, use our own version of exposure therapy and turn Justice Twill into a cuddle monster. ”

Mackenzie snorted a giggle and covered her mouth.

“We are going to start small. We just can’t dive tackle him.”

“Okay. What do we do?”

“When we’re on the couch tonight, put your head on his knee.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s where you start. Put your head in his lap, let him play with your hair. Hold his hand. Put his arm over your shoulder. Snuggle into him. Make constant contact with you so natural and normal that he’ll notice it’s not there and will seek it out on his own.”

“Oh.”

“Now, we need to coordinate. Exposure therapy works with incremental changes. not triggering a negative response. I nominate Mackenzie to be in charge of PDA.”

“What do I do then?”

I kept my face, posture, my aura as neutral as possible for this ripping off of the bandaid.

“Call him ‘sir’. In front of us.”

Theo held my gaze, but stopped breathing.

“You forget, if I’m paying attention, I can feel what you’re feeling.

Last week, when we were teaching Mackenzie to play Go Kart Go, you got up to get a drink, and Mackenzie hogged the couch.

You sat on the floor and ended up sitting between Justice’s feet.

Tell me that was not the best feeling of your life. Because it sure as fuck was Justice’s.”

He licked his lips and fought off his own little panic attack.

“And I guarantee you he’s going to get twisted up about it. Because a good alpha doesn’t make his omega kneel at his feet.” Theo’s eyes darted to Mackenzie. “She needs to be set free to thrive. You need to be controlled to thrive. Justice can provide both those things if you lead him there.”

“I…” Theo stalled out.

“Have you stopped to think that Justice needs it, too?” I pointed between the two of us.

“That’s not the nature of our relationship, but if it’s there with Justice, fucking cool.

I have to be honest, Theo,” I let more of my annoyance into my voice than I wanted, “as your pack mate, not your alpha, I don’t want to be in a pack where my pack mates can’t be exactly who they are and feel like they have to keep part of themselves behind closed doors. ”

I stretched all the way across the blanket, coming to my knees, and wrapped my fingers around his throat.

“And as your alpha, I want all of you. I need all of you. I love all of you. Hiding this part is pointless, not to mention insulting that you don’t think you can trust us. ” I kissed him quick and let him go.

“It just feels… fragile,” Theo picked at his thumbnail. “I didn’t know how you’d react.”

“I mean, it’s kind of hot,” Mackenzie added for good measure.

Theo looked off into the distance and blew out a cleansing breath.

“We’re going to baby step this.” I dusted off my hands and leaned back. “We’ll coordinate our efforts so it doesn’t feel like we are dog piling him. Mackenzie will turn him into a cuddle monster. Theo will bring out his dom side.”

“What are you going to do?” Theo asked, putting the cover back on the brownies.

“Oh? Me? I’m going to hold him down and fuck him into next Tuesday in front of you.”

Mackenzie and Theo traded a wide-eyed look.

We started packing up some of our trash and empty containers.

“It’s kind of like we’re on a secret mission,” Mackenzie said. “Oh! We can call it ‘Operation: Cuddledom’ or something. Get it? Cuddle? Dom? Cuddledom.”

Theo snorted. “You might have to bring your branding team in on that name.”