Page 4 of Operation: CuddleDom (The Port Haven Omegaverse #9)

THEO TWILL

The frying pan sizzled as Justice cracked in the eggs. I leaned against the counter, watching him cook like he did every morning. There was an absent precision about it. He kept glancing at his watch, letting time tell him when the egg was done, rather than how it looked in the pan.

I wasn’t going to let my thoughts stew, yet again, on how much we were fucking up all his routines. Everything about his life was different now. Ours too, but it affected Justice the most, probably. And me second.

My first few days in this apartment had been disorienting. I probably would have woken up every day in a panic if Mackenzie hadn’t been wrapped around me every morning. I still technically had my old apartment. I had been dragging my feet with packing it up completely, and I wasn’t sure why.

The toast popped, and Mackenzie bumped my hip as she reached for the butter. I stifled a yawn. We had stayed up picking apart the first night of “Operation CuddleDom.”

She had declared it a success, save for one side effect she hadn’t anticipated.

“It took everything I had not to just climb him like a tree,” she had admitted.

She rode me, whispering in between gasps what her next plan was.

As we came, I covered Justice’s bite mark with my mouth, and she called out his name into my ear.

I hadn’t gotten much sleep, and ended up puttering around the kitchen for hours before everyone woke.

I had debated for a solid half hour if I should rearrange the utensil drawer.

I couldn’t decide if that would fuck up Justice’s headspace or not.

Like, would he be distressed when he couldn’t find a spatula?

I blinked and watched Justice slide his eggs onto a plate. Ren had been right about Justice, right about everything. His fork hovered above the plate, and he shook his head like he was just noticing all of us here. He joined us at the little breakfast table, putting his plate down.

“What’s on your schedule today?” Ren asked, scrolling through something on his phone.

“Product demos this morning. And then a sit-down with marketing. Investor calls. Nothing terribly exciting,” Justice said, cutting into his eggs, breaking the yolk. “Should be home by six.”

I stifled a gasp at the burst of sunshiny warmth coming from our alpha. Mackenzie had noticed, too. We connected across the table, sharing a moment of shock at feeling Justice through our pack bonds. “Home by six” had made him go all warm and fuzzy.

“I’ve got that focus group for Twist,” she blurted, stuffing toast in her mouth. “Ellen thinks we might be ready for packaging mock-ups next week.”

I did the same. It was a cover for our stupid grins.

She and I had consumed enough pack romance novels to know that you were supposed to feel your alphas once they’d bitten you.

We talked about it endlessly and searched all the omega message boards.

We even considered posting anonymously on the “am I the problem” board.

Ren had said we both should take a course on auras, but we had figured it would just develop naturally.

“That’s ahead of schedule.” Justice nodded approvingly. I saw how his eyes lingered on her as she got up to get more coffee, like he was calculating how long until it would be appropriate to touch her again.

“What about you, Theo?” Ren asked.

“Nest consultant at three,” I said casually.

Ren nodded. It was a code word. We were going to head to my apartment and figure out what needed to be done.

Mackenzie’s anxiety spiked whenever we talked about my apartment.

Ren thought it was an unnamed fear that I had had a whole independent life before meeting her and that I might want to go back to that.

I thought it was more her bumping up against the realization that Daryl had been a shithead and had wasted her life.

Either way, we didn’t want to cause her distress unnecessarily.

“I should go.” Justice stood and put his plate of untouched eggs in the sink. He made it a few steps before pausing. Mackenzie whipped her head around to me as the feeling of nervousness hit the edges of my awareness.

He turned back around and crossed the room to Mackenzie. He placed an awkward kiss on her cheek before heading for the hall, almost like he had stolen that kiss.

I followed him, heart suddenly pounding, snagging the bag out of the fridge along the way.

“Justice, wait,” I called. I’d been up since five preparing it, and now I was unsure.

He turned, eyebrows raised in question.

“I… I, uh, made you lunch,” I said, suddenly feeling foolish as I held out the box in the little black insulated bag. “I know you have a gourmet chef at work, so it’s okay if you don’t want it.”

He stared at it like this was the first time he’d ever seen an insulated bag.

“It’s just a bento,” I rambled, wondering if he could feel my anxiety rising.

“There’s the fried chicken bites you liked from dinner last week.

Marinated in ginger and soy. Some rice with furikake—oh, and those little rolled omelets you like.

I ordered those yesterday though, from that sushi place.

I can’t quite make them right yet. And I pickled some cucumbers because I noticed you always eat those first… ”

“You made me lunch.” His voice was so quiet, so surprised, that I stopped mid-sentence.

“What?”

“No one’s ever…” He left the sentence hanging. He took the bag from me and held it like it might explode. His thumb brushed the edge of the zipper, slow and unsure.

“You didn’t have to do this,” he said, but his grip on the bag tightened.

“I wanted to,” I said simply. Then, before I could talk myself out of it, I added, “I like taking care of you.”

Something flashed in his eyes, dark and hungry. In one fluid motion, he slammed me against the wall, his mouth crushing mine like he’d been starving for it. His knee split my thighs, and I ground against him until my cock ached.

He gripped my hips and held me steady. When I gasped, his hand slid to my throat. He didn’t squeeze. He just kept me there, exactly where he wanted me, like letting go wasn’t an option.

“Theo,” he rasped, like it meant mine .

“Alpha,” I breathed, shifting my hips just to feel the outline of his hard cock against me.

“I have to go,” he said, his voice rough. His eyes searched mine, like leaving was the last thing he wanted to do. “But we’re continuing this later.”

“Yes, Sir.”

He pushed off the wall and paused to kiss me on the cheek, just like he had done with Mackenzie.

And then he was gone, with the lunch bag swinging from his fingertips, leaving me slumped against the wall, a puddle of slick and omega need.