Page 17 of Our Haunted Omegas (Moonscale Heirs Duet #1)

I’d fallen asleep reading at the park and woke in a fiery world of confusion with the sirens wailing in every direction.

Then he was there suddenly – my stepdad.

He was always there as much as anyone else’s dad had ever been.

He scooped me up over his shoulder and dashed for the shelter.

Then when a whistle sounded, he tossed me down.

I fell and fell until I eventually hit the floor of the shelter and someone above me had slammed the door shut and dragged me further inside.

My giant dragon of a stepdad literally tossed me out of the way of whatever explosive the hate group set off.

My parents took the brunt of it, and I lived to see more days than I thought was ever possible without them.

When the clear magical fluid ran dry, Cobalt leaned back against the seat as if nothing had happened. I stared at him, drilling into him with my eyes, but his expression didn’t change. My wolf cocked his head from one side to the other and shifted my eyes to his.

“You have to say something,” I finally said as Indigo swung open the truck door and slid back inside. He glanced back at us but acted as if nothing happened too. He passed out snacks and drinks and told us how the gas station employee wore an old vintage Grim Howlers tee.

“Did that just happen?” I asked, glancing around the truck from man to man.

“Yeah,” Cobalt nodded. “I sort of lost it there for a minute.”

“Um…. You did what I wanted to do,” I said.

“Yeah,” he nodded again. “Is that okay?”

“I think so. It was strange. Everyone says it’ll hurt without sex.”

“I was gentle. Not everything has to hurt.”

“You have questions,” I said.

“Not really,” he shook his head. “I’m not here to pry into your past. Ideally, I would’ve waited until we were alone and it would’ve been more romantic or something but it sort of consumed you. So, I bit you. I keep waiting for you to be mad at me. I didn’t even ask.”

“I’m not mad,” I said after thinking about it for a minute in case it was the sneaky sort of anger that you don’t know about unless you search it out. “I’m--- Relieved.”

“I know,” he nodded, “because now you know I’m in it for the long haul.”

“It’s not a you thing,” I said and regretted it instantly. Wasn’t that how people broke up with each other all the time? “Really. It’s not. I’m too much for most people.”

“I’m not most people,” Cobalt said. “Plus, I was tired of my hands shaking. It was as if your anxiety wanted my attention and didn’t have any other way of getting it. Now, it has a pathway.”

“I guess so,” I blinked, still a bit confused.

“I’m not going to say all the things you hate for people to say. You know he was a good guy and you shouldn’t have had to go through it. No one should’ve.”

“And you’re not running away.”

“Why would I? You weren’t part of Mundanes Before Magic, Odell,” Cobalt flashed me a bemused look.

“No, but—That’s just it. People in my life end badly.”

“Excuse you,” Ambry said from the front seat. “I’m still here and alive and almost happy most days, fuck you very much.”

“You’re mad at me,” I growled.

“Not for getting bit. Not—I don’t know,” Ambry sighed.

“Do I need to pull over again?” Indigo asked from the front seat.

“No,” Ambry and I said at the same time.

“Sorry, brother. I started something,” Cobalt said.

“No,” I said. “I don’t know what’s started or – I just don’t know!”

No one said much of anything for the rest of the drive.

“None of us know,” my wolf sounded off in my thoughts. “That’s the problem.”

I almost asked what none of us knew but decided not to poke the beast. Instead, I curled into Cobalt’s side the best as I could while still wearing the seatbelt.

He wrapped his arm around me, and I dozed on and off for the last half of the ride.

Maybe the others did talk while I slept.

Maybe Cobalt spoke to his brother over their link.

I couldn’t be sure, but the truck was silent except for the rustle of snack bags and the gentle hum of the engine and AC.

Indigo and Ambry snuck out of the truck when we got to the cabin. I startled awake to the tailgate dropping down to unload stuff.

“I’ll help,” I sputtered still half asleep.

“Leave them to it. They need to burn off some energy anyway,” Cobalt shook his head and unfastened his seatbelt and then mine.

It had dug into my belly while I was asleep and left an angry red indent even through my shirt.

Cobalt rubbed the spot before my sleep-fogged brain fully wrapped around why it hurt a bit.

“I could get used to you knowing it all,” I managed a sleepy chuckle. “So, all-knowing mate, why is Ambry mad at me?”

“Because you insulted one of his favorite people in the world,” Cobalt frowned.

“I didn’t do anything to Indigo.”

“He really cares about you and you know that,” Cobalt said, not letting me dance around the matter at hand. “He doesn’t think you’re cursed to be around.”

“It feels like it sometimes.”

“I think you two will be fine. Right now everyone is on edge. It’s like we’re passing it around. You and Ambry are passing it back and forth. Then I pick up on it and then Indigo worries about me.”

“He does worry about you and Teal a lot,” I said. “He said as much that morning I had the breakdown in the kitchen. He also insisted he knew you better than anyone else and that you’d figure out how to make it all make sense.”

“Glad someone has confidence in me,” Cobalt laughed.

“I hate that I make you uncertain.”

“You’re not the first thing to do that, you know.

Plenty of things have made me feel uncertain.

Sex and seduction are easy. We’re all animals at heart.

Unless I’m hitting on a lesbian, mated person, or someone who is ace I have at least a fifty-fifty chance.

Everyone wants to feel good. It’s all primal.

Love – caring – and all that stuff is always uncertainty.

Anything can happen and eventually everything will happen.

Though, I trust myself. Hell, I trust myself more than I trust anyone and I chose you as much as you chose me. ”

“That was before all of this,” I sighed.

“Do I come across as a dragon who would run from a challenge?” his words came out blanketed in a low, throaty draconic growl. Mischief danced in his eyes, reminding me the world wasn’t actually ending right now, my brain just wanted to trick me into believing it was.

“Not really,” I said, drawing out the words unsure of what he wanted to hear.

“Good. Now that we’re alone,” he said and I glanced down at his lap before he could finish his sentence. He was hard, pressing against his pants. Of course his dick was hard. He’d bitten me and then I snuggled right into him. I should’ve---

“Ummm…. Please never give me a pity hand job,” Cobalt said, meeting my gaze, all the playfulness gone from his expression.

“I didn’t mean it like that! Sure, I should’ve done something for you—”

“No,” he shook his head. “We’ve got to take the should out of our sex talk unless it’s we should have sex because we’re both in the mood. If you want to play with my dick, I’m probably down for it but I don’t want you to add it to your list of chores or something.”

He was full of surprises. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though, should I? He hadn’t pushed for anything since I met him. At this rate, I’d have to believe I needed to buy a bat to keep people away from him because the world really was falling into his bed just for the hell of it.

“It takes two to fall into bed,” Cobalt said, blushing, “but I like that visual.”

“Of what? The people falling into your bed or the bat?”

“Both,” he laughed. “I always erred on the side of ‘try to be impressive’ rather than trying to ‘wear’ down someone’s no to a yes.

That’s not a fucking yes. Look, I like sex.

It’s probably my favorite hobby but no one needs it to live.

Well, maybe people under the incubi and succubi umbrellas but they’re few and far between and no one owes them sex either. ”

“You make it sound like I had people knocking down the door and begging to dick me down,” I said, blushing at the words as they rolled off my tongue.

“Just in case you haven’t figured it out, I didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong. I love sex. Well, I love the buzzy feeling of arousal and touch and cumming.

I love how it makes my heart race and makes it hard to be anxious because my nervous system is so fucking preoccupied with all the sensations that anxiety doesn’t get to step in and take over. ”

He arched a brow at me and I opened my mouth, figuring I didn’t explain it well enough, but he spoke before I got another word out.

“Are you telling me I should get you off whenever you have a panic attack?” he asked, and my face burnt red hot.

“Not exactly” I shook my head. “Was that rhetorical or were you actually asking?”

“Actually asking,” he said. “It’s a bit iffy in your head.”

“Because if I’m having a panic attack and you try to do that, you’re likely to get bit,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

“So, it’s like a preventative?” Cobalt arched his brow, turning sideways on the seat to face me.

“Sort of,” I said and glanced away. Why was it so hard to look at him now? Sex was one of the few things that usually didn’t cause me anxiety.

“We don’t have to talk about this,” Cobalt said, holding up a trembling hand in explanation.

“Sorry,” I said and bit my lip. “It helps when anxiety comes from overthinking.”

“That makes sense. If your brains are fucked out it’s hard to think,” Cobalt shrugged.

“You’re evil. You know that, right?” I asked, trying to ignore how slick I was. Maybe he was right. Maybe I just needed my brains fucked out.

“That true-mate response magic would love that,” he said.

“Like you wouldn’t.”

“Never said that,” he shrugged. “Now, do you want to sit in the truck all day, go inside, or explore?”