Page 4 of Our Haunted Omegas (Moonscale Heirs Duet #1)

Odell

A few more hours of sleep and a hot shower left me feeling more alive than dead.

I wasn’t in the mood to sit around the apartment doing nothing so I headed to the store.

If we finished stocking earlier both of us could go home and be inside well before anyone started celebrating with their damn fireworks and other booming devices.

Ambry’s dad was a good guy. He’d pay us for the full shift as long as the products were stocked before we left even if it only took a few hours.

Sometimes when we were both having good nights, we’d go in together and demolish the night’s work in an hour or two.

It was easy to zone into the repetitive task placing the products over and over again in their straight, tidy rows.

Besides, something was up. Missy was probably bitchy again for whatever reason. It didn’t take much to put her in a bad mood. She liked complaining all the time. Whatever it was, Ambry had his side of our link shut down tight.

“Hope they’re not being robbed,” my wolf said, his words almost a whimper inside his inner sanctum.

“They’re not being robbed,” I said aloud as I made the familiar walk in the dark.

A baby blue pickup truck pulled up beside me and my wolf snarled before seeing Teal’s friendly, familiar face behind the wheel.

“Going to the store?” he asked.

“Yeah. Thought I’d see if I could break Ambry out early,” I nodded.

“Get in. I’m picking up a delivery for a bar. One of my brother’s promises gone off the rails due to no fault of his own.

“Huh? I thought you said it was always really their faults,” I teased him as I climbed into the passenger seat.

“This time it’s not. It’s Ambry’s fault. Sort of.”

“Is Ambry okay?” I paused, seat belt extended and crushed inside my fist.

“He hasn’t told you?” Teal asked.

“Told me what?”

“I don’t know if I should say anything,” he said as his foot tapped the gas. “I mean you’ll find out when we get there.”

“Is he okay?” I asked again.

“Put your belt on, please, and yes, he’s okay.

Probably more so than ever before. Hell, maybe I should tell you.

Either way, he true-responded to my brother.

One of us triplets. I don’t want you to worry.

No one’s chasing you off. Not that Ambry would let them but you all are stuck with us too. So, you’re not going anywhere.”

True-mate.

The word bounced around my head. Ambry and I had shared his boyfriends before but this was different. True-mates were the real deal. My heart tripped over itself, and Teal frowned.

“I should’ve let him tell you,” he said a second later. “He probably could’ve reassured you better than me. Indigo is a good guy. Cobalt too. Indigo is the one who he responded to. You’ll like him. He and Cobalt are wild but fun.”

“Wild isn’t always fun,” I pointed out, frowning.

What in the name of Juda was going to happen to our peaceful life? Was Ambry going to try to pull me out into the larger world of the Moonscales and make me socialize at crazy festivals? Was he going to drag me to dinners at Moonscale Manor and make me learn what each of the fifty-two forks did?

I didn’t wait for Teal to kill the engine when we pulled into the familiar parking lot of Garner’s Grocery.

Even the parking lot felt like a second home.

At the far end, tucked behind the building, was the little picnic tables Ambry’s dad let us put in so that the staff had somewhere to eat outside and away from prying eyes.

Sure, most of the other employees used the break room but I enjoyed being fully away from work on my breaks and fresh air kept my wolf from having too many panic attacks.

“Will we have to live alone?” my wolf whispered into my thoughts.

Probably not but I didn’t answer him because I didn’t know for sure.

Maybe Ambry would figure out he was tired of us.

Maybe he’d figure how much more he could have on his own.

Sure, I did some of our job but when everything was tallied up he probably did more.

Besides, it was his dad’s store. So, it was more his job than mine even if I did it sometimes.

“Maybe this guy will make him happy,” I said to my wolf, trying to soothe him as I entered through the side employee door.

I let out a deep breath and did my best to put on a happy face except even I knew it looked more like a grimace than a smile.

Nothing lasts forever. I repeated that as a mantra as I sniffed out Ambry and his new mate.

“We’re not paying you two to work,” Missy’s voice reached my ears before I smelled anyone. “It’s bad enough you and your boyfriend share a job without you expecting us to pay your mate and his boyfriend ---”

“Don’t start with me, Missy. Don’t make me pull that card,” Ambry growled and I sped up. If Missy was going to fight him I had to be there too. We always had each other’s backs. Missy wasn’t always bad but the title of night shift manager went to her head sometimes.

“Uh… Did I say we wanted paid?” Someone asked, sounding like a snarkier Teal. “Either of us? You need to calm down. I get it. All these alphas in your little territory is making you uncomfortable but we’re not here for you.”

“It’s not really her territory either,” another man said.

“Guys,” Ambry said. “Don’t start that.”

“Why not?” Missy snapped and I heard the eyeroll in in her voice. “It was the card you were going to play anyway.”

“One day I will be your boss. One day me and Odie will be in charge,” Ambry said, his voice flat.

I took a deep breath and found his scent.

He was irritated, flustered, and horny. Ambry’s mood always soured when he was horny and not getting relief of some sort.

Usually, I told him to take a shower or made myself scarce by going for a walk.

It wasn’t like we hadn’t seen each other in the throes of passion before but sometimes everyone needed time alone with their hand or favorite toy.

I took another deep breath, and my ass introduced itself to the floor.

I caught myself on the heels of my hands before I fell all the way back and took another deep breath.

My wolf, who had been cowering in a corner of his inner sanctum since Teal delivered the news, stood up, his tail wagging tentatively.

“Alpha?” my inner beast whispered into my thoughts.

A second later, a man was on top of me. I squeaked and hated myself for the sound.

I hated how fearful the vibration sounded crawling out of my throat.

If the man noticed, he didn’t seem to mind.

He was huge with dark hair that showed little streaks of blue that looked like they were from an old dye job.

He buried his face in the crook of my neck and frozen I let him.

What else could I do? Fate was here breathing down both of our necks.

It was here whispering that we’d chosen one another in the Other World.

The man trembled and I wondered if the confusion was from true-responding to me and Ambry.

“I’m going to murder them,” he whispered, his voice gravelly as if it took great effort not to run off and accomplish that task right then. “Teal. Indigo! I’m going to murder them one by one. I’m going to dig up the graves of those hateful bastards and---”

Teal and his third triplet appeared as my mate spoke with Ambry on their heels. Where Missy had gotten off to I didn’t know but I really didn’t care either. I wrapped an arm around the giant trembling above me afraid that if I let him go he might really desecrate graves in my name.

“You alright?” Ambry asked, ignoring the brute that was over me.

“Yeah. Never thought I’d have a lie down on the floor here but it’s not too bad,” I chuckled, trying to break the tension.

“What did you tell him?” Ambry asked as Teal and Indigo knelt on either side of their brother.

Wait! If Indigo was there next to Teal that meant --- what did that mean?

“Cobalt,” Teal said gently.

That was it! He was the third triplet! I held him a little tighter once I reassured myself by holding him, I wasn’t stealing any happiness away from Ambry.

“I didn’t say anything to him,” I shook my head, remembering that Ambry asked me a question. He flashed me that soft look that said he knew how when everyone talked at once I couldn’t follow along at the best of times. This wasn’t the best of times. Well not for my cognitive function anyway.

“It’s all his scent guys,” Cobalt said, tightening his one arm grip around me. “It’s all over him. It’s like he’s shouting they tried to—”

“Hey,” Ambry sat down next to me and tapped Cobalt on the shoulder. “It’s from the war but how do you know it’s from the war? Are you a seer?”

“It’s still all over his scent. It’s like he can’t get it off of him and…” Cobalt fell quiet, and his face screwed up.

“Don’t shift in here,” Indigo said, rubbing circles on his back. “There’s no one here to fight. Anyone that did hateful things for that group are long gone. No one’s going to hurt him. We won’t let them. We won’t let them hurt anyone else.”

“If you’re going to shift please don’t squash me,” I whispered, and Cobalt let out a little laugh.

“How about we finish stocking the shelves and leave these two alone to talk?” Teal suggested. “I think they can manage on their own for a minute. You’re not going to shift, right, Co?”

“I think I’m okay. I think he’s okay,” he said, nodding at his brother.

“Good dragon,” Teal patted him on the back and Indigo helped Ambry to his feet. I reassured him I was okay over our link. Only then did he take Indigo’s hand and let himself be led off.

Slowly, Cobalt sat up, pulling me up with him. The room swam for a second and righted itself. Was I dehydrated or was the true-mate response fucking with my head?

“Sorry about that,” he said, his hands still trembling. “When my dragon gets something in his head he usually doesn’t rest until he gets it done. That doesn’t always work out for the best.”