Page 31 of Our Haunted Omegas (Moonscale Heirs Duet #1)

Ambry

I didn’t like the looks on the triplets’ faces when they walked back inside. They looked as if they decided to execute someone and the shadow dog was the most likely subject for who they planned to put on the chopping block.

“They wouldn’t do that. Indigo wouldn’t let them,” my wolf chimed into my thoughts and I prayed he was right.

“Is everything okay?” Odie asked, meeting his mate’s gaze.

“I think it is,” Cobalt said, stepping into the nest and sitting down on Odie’s other side. He ran a long, tentative finger over the shadow dog.

“I don’t think I own anything haunted. If I did, don’t you think he’d have come out by now?

” Odie whispered as if it was all one big secret.

“This didn’t happen until after you claimed me and we had sex for the first time.

I think us coming together unlocked something inside me. I think it made something stronger.”

“You think the dog is part of you?” Cobalt asked, speaking slowly and choosing each of his words carefully.

“Not in the way you mean. It’s not like a fetch, I don’t think. Maybe you gave me magic.”

“My dick has been called magical but I don’t think anyone meant it that way,” Cobalt chuckled, trying to break the tension.

“You did react to his anxiety – A LOT,” Teal pointed out.

“Uh… because it was A LOT of anxiety,” Indigo countered.

“Stop teaming up. We’re all on the same team!” Teal tossed his hands up in the air. “I’m not on the outside. I’m still me and I still have your backs!”

“Come in here,” Odie beckoned to Teal. “Unless you’re worried about the dog.”

“Odie’s right. We all need to work together,” I nodded. “Everyone in the nest.”

“It’s not even finished,” Indigo pointed out.

“We’ve got time. It isn’t even pee stick time yet,” I sighed.

“What do you think it is, Teal?” Odie asked a few minutes later once everyone was settled into the nest and stretched out on their backs.

Teal didn’t answer for a long moment. I glanced at him. His eyes shifted from his to his dragon’s, going back and forth as if they were sharing a calculation and putting together the puzzle carefully before announcing their theory.

“It has to be something that’s been with you for a long time,” he finally said. “It’s protective of you or is it he?”

“I say he, but I don’t think the magic has a gender,” Odie admitted.

“Okay, he’s protective of you.”

“That’s why I think he came from Cobalt,” Odie shrugged.

“Like he’s your baby?” I arched a brow.

“No, not like that. He’s magic and something more. It’s like he’s all the bad stuff trying to do good things,” Odie said, his brow furrowed together as he thought about it.

Teal’s draconic eyes lit up.

“What?” Cobalt asked, sitting up and cocking his head to the side.

Indigo followed suit and I bit my tongue to keep from grumbling.

I loved how close Indigo was to his brothers but sometimes when they slipped onto their private link I felt like I was standing outside a glass door straining to figure out what the heck was going on inside another room.

“No,” Cobalt shook his head. “That’s not happening.”

“Don’t you think he gets a say in that? Did I become a medical doctor to deliver our babies?” Teal stood up and his brothers followed suit.

“Sit down!” Odell sat up. “Don’t fight. I don’t know what’s going on, but there aren’t any babies to deliver right now anyway.”

“He thinks the shrapnel in your butt is haunted,” Indigo said and I stood up.

“Why are all of you talking about Odie’s butt? Seriously! This is getting out of hand!”

Odie stretched back out with the dog on his stomach. The brothers all looked at one another. Teal and Cobalt panted as if one of them might actually take a swing at the other. Indigo slipped between them and put a hand on either of their chests.

“It’s not your choice anyway,” Indigo said. “It’s up to him.”

“What is?” Odie asked.

“Whether or not you show your butt to Teal,” Indigo filled in the gaps for us.

“Uh…. I don’t want a surgery,” Odie shook his head.

“We’re not taking anything out if it means getting rid of that dog,” Cobalt said, through gritted teeth. His hands shook with the effort it took him not to shout.

“Don’t,” Indigo said, patting Cobalt’s chest. “Come on, you two. Don’t do this.

No one’s doing anything to anyone who doesn’t want it done.

Cobalt, if you eat him, I’ll never forgive you.

It’s like you said, Ambry might be pregnant already.

Odie wants to have babies too. He’s going to deliver them, if they’re live births.

If you take a chomp out of him there might not be enough of him left to do his job. Besides, he’s Teal. He’s us.”

“Hey, are you magical enough to know if it’s haunted?” I asked, stepping in between Teal and Cobalt with Indigo.

“It’s only been proven recently but haunted objects give off weird static when viewed with an ultrasound machine,” Teal explained.

“You want to ultrasound my ass cheek?” Odie sat back up.

“It doesn’t have to be me. I have the portable here but almost anyone could do it. He’s just jumping the gun because he wants to protect you,” Teal said.

“I’m not jumping---” Cobalt started but Indigo patted him on the chest again.

“He’s us. So, stop it!” Indigo snapped and both of his brothers startled back from his touch.

“This isn’t going to be what messes everything up.

Maybe Reve deserved to die. Maybe he didn’t.

He probably did, though. It doesn’t matter what we find out about the magic – it doesn’t matter if it was Odie’s, or Cobalt’s, or both or some haunted thing somewhere.

It doesn’t matter. If it was somehow our fault we keep our mouths shut.

Magic defends. That’s what it does. We’ve seen it our whole lives.

It’s not like it went after some innocent kitten.

They’ve proven Crilus wasn’t lying about him.

If he does that, there’s probably more he’s done too.

So, whatever the magic is, it did us all a favor.

So, now the question becomes, Odie, do you want to find out where the magic came from? ”

“Finding out means we can protect it from those who want to cleanse it,” Teal added.

“I don’t think there is anything to cleanse,” Odie frowned. “I don’t think it’s negative. If it was, it’s not anymore.”

“Do you want to know where it came from?” Cobalt asked.

Odie leaned back on his elbows and glanced at me. It wasn’t my question to answer but I’d definitely want to know if my ass cheek was haunted.

“Why do you think it’s my ass?” Odie asked.

“Good question!” Cobalt said, throwing his hands in the air.

Indigo grabbed them and put them back at his sides. I stepped away trusting Indigo to navigate his brothers. He’d lived with them all their lives. I sat back down next to Odie and took his hand in mine.

“Because Cobalt’s right. Your scent is like ninety percent less anxious since that thing showed up.

If it was inside you and now it’s not it would explain a lot and I only know about it because he,” Teal pointed to Cobalt, “told him,” he pointed at Indigo, “about it. I think something to do with Cobalt’s magic probably cleansed the haunting but kept it around.

Now, it’s whatever that is. It’s like his magic strangled it into submission. ”

“No,” Odie shook his head. “If you’re right, he didn’t strangle or beat it into submission. He befriended it. What do we do if you’re right, though?”

“That’s up to you. I think we could remove it and put it on a necklace or something,” Teal said.

“That’s not morbid,” Cobalt rolled his eyes.

“Or we could leave it where it is now,” Teal finished his thought.

“No one’s going to study him to learn how this happened,” Cobalt said.

“I’m not a test subject,” Odie crinkled his nose. “But I don’t think getting the ultrasound makes me one.”

“I’ll do it,” I volunteered. “I’ll do the ultrasound. That way, Cobalt can hold your hand, and Teal can look at the screen and not touch your ass and get eaten.”

“It wasn’t about that,” Cobalt cut in again. “If Odie wants Teal to touch his ass, Teal can touch his ass. He’s just been through enough without having medical tests forced on him. It sounds like some sort of strip search followed by a probe or ---”

Indigo laughed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“He’s afraid of doctors,” Teal said as if he’d just remembered the fact. “There’s this doctor named Dara. He’s a great guy but I can’t count the times Cobalt nearly took of his hand when we were tiny.”

“My dragon said he didn’t have permission, and he tried to give me a shot anyway,” Cobalt said, and I melted a little alongside Odie.

“You’re going to have a long three months if you two have a wolf pup,” Teal pointed out.

“That’s why you became a doctor,” Cobalt countered.

“Well, I don’t know if it worked because we just came pretty close to blows,” Teal stood akimbo, rubbing the toe of his boot against the hardwood floor.

“I wouldn’t have let it,” Indigo shook his head. “It wasn’t going to go down like that. Cobalt doesn’t want Odie’s freewill trampled on. No one’s trampling on it. No one gets to look at anyone else’s butt without permission. Guys, we are grown ass men. We should not have to have this conversation.”

“I’m not the one trying to scan people’s asses,” Cobalt laughed.

A second later we were all laughing. It wasn’t that funny, but I’d rather have them cracking up than exchanging blows.

***

Later that evening, after the nest was built, we all gathered in the living room with Teal’s portable ultrasound machine. Odie wasn’t the shyest person I’d met and Cobalt didn’t seem to be that modest about his own body but he might’ve blindfolded us all if we let him get away with it.

“It’s okay,” Odie whispered to Cobalt who sat on the floor, stroking Odie’s hair as if he was dying instead of about to have his butt scanned for haunted shrapnel. “I’m okay. If we have a baby there’s going to be a lot more scans. Scans all the time and bloodwork. They’re going to suck my blood.”

Cobalt whispered something in Odie’s ear that I couldn’t make out and his face turned beet red. I didn’t want to know what Cobalt promised to suck to make it up to him, but I had a good idea of what it might’ve been.

“Here,” Teal handed off the ultrasound wand to me and Cobalt reached over to point out where it was.

“This is awkward,” Odie laughed, hiding his face in a pillow. “I feel like a porn star for a very niche audience.”

“If it was porn, the wand would be going somewhere different,” I teased him and he laughed again. “Hold still. Now I’ve lost the spot. I can’t scan your butt if you’re wiggling around.”

“I take it back. I feel like a melon or something being scanned at the grocery store and you’re the new cashier who doesn’t know how to ring up the fruit,” Odie teased and Cobalt pointed out the slight raised spot on his butt cheek again.

“Are you three having fun?” Indigo asked from his post across the room.

“No,” Odie said. “They’re playing with my butt cheek and it’s going to be achy later.”

“There it is,” Teal said a moment later, glancing down at the screen. “A bit to the left please, Ambry.”

“So, am I haunted, doc?” Odie asked.

“That you are. I’ll print it off and show you, but yeah. Haunted not by a ghost but more like by the – Probably the energy of the war, if I had to make an educated guess,” Teal said, his face grim.

“Don’t look at me in that tone of voice about it,” Odie scrunched up his nose.

“I meant what I said,” he added a moment later when he realized what he said.

“Like I said something about Cobalt changed it. Sure, I’m still sad.

Sure, I don’t trust the world not to be fucked up, but now it’s like everything I’ve gone through is my sword and my shield.

How many survivors get to say that and mean it fucking literally? ”

“You can pull your pants up now,” I announced, handing the wand back to Teal.

“I think it amplified what I felt,” Odie frowned once his pants were back on. “Now that it’s out of me, I feel what I feel, but not under a magnifying glass. I don’t think we’re in the free and clear but I think we have a chance.”

“We always had a chance, Odie. I think we’ve done pretty well for what we had.”

“We did,” Odie nodded. “I’m ready for more, though. As worried as I am that the past will gobble up the future, I don’t want to be an old wolf, white in the muzzle, wondering what the fuck would’ve happened if I tried.

“Same, friend, same,” I nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder.