Page 5 of Small Town Shy Omega (Applewood Falls #1)

Blake looked at me, and instead of frowning, instead of growing cross or worse yet—telling me to Hurry up and Just cross already, Layla —he simply removed his coat, and used it to pad the second trunk that he’d felled, laying it across the eddy. A second tree bridge.

“I used my coat to give you better footing, Layla. That way, you won’t slip on the damp bark.”

I walked across the tree, and I felt like I was floating. “Thank you,” I blushed, and my big, strapping Alphas all charged across the eddy, not even bothering with the bridge. Blake lifted his coat, like a man, and shook it off, and then slid it on.

We walked to a little glen, and Dreydon laid a blanket and spread a picnic lunch. We had fine cheeses, toasty bread, grapes and wine, and for dessert, chocolate raspberries.

I rested my head against Dreydon’s shoulder, and Blake reached out, rubbing my thigh.

“You remind me of a character from Shakespeare,” Blake said poetically, and I ticked my eyebrow up because I couldn’t believe his poetry.

“Oh, which one?”

“Cleopatra,” Blake said softly, his blue eyes on mine. “You give queen energy, baby… You have a beautiful soul, and you captivate all the men in your vicinity.”

All the men , I thought, and I let out a laugh. Even in my glasses, Blake thought I was… a queen.

“Oh, you know that’s not true.” And I ate a slice of cheese toast.

Dreydon looked at me seriously.

“Blake is right, Layla. You’re the fairest, most exceptionally beautiful Omega we’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“It’s an honor to be with you,” Josh growled, issuing me a nod. “To serve you. To perform work on your cottage. To perform manual labor tasks for you, and keep your land safe.”

My Alphas kept their word. That afternoon, after they safely guided me back home, they escorted me to my safe, cozy porch chair, and they worked.

They re-fenced my garden, tilled weeds, cut my grass, and even swept up the trimmings.

They fertilized my lawn, and when a little deer and her faun came trotting by later, even the two animals were impressed by the changes.

Like Bambi, I thought. Bambi and her mama like the work my Alphas have done to my garden.

The entire time my Alphas worked, I leaned back in my porch swing, novel in hand.

So lazy, I thought guilty, too busy effortlessly turning the thick paper pages, to be of much help. I am a lazy lazy girl… But they don’t mind.

My garden fence was mended, and the weeds had been plucked. My yard looked spic and span, and if there were fairies in the forest you bet they’d sprinkle some magic dust here.

“My cottage is presentable now,” I said, so grateful for the help. Tears actually welled in my eyes: and I hugged my chest, trying so hard not to appear weak.

Vulnerable… like I couldn’t maintain this property myself, like I thought I could when I inherited it from Grandpa.

No Omega wants to feel that she’s not self-sufficient.

“Hey,” Blake said softly, walking up to me upon seeing my damp eyes, flickering with tears behind my soda-bottle glasses. He wrapped one arm around my waist, holding me snug. “You could’ve done this yourself, Layla—I believe in you, and I know you could.”

“You’re strong,” Josh growled, walking to my other side. He held my hand. “You just… didn't want to do this work, perfect girl. You like to read, it’s not that you couldn’t re-fence your garden, with all these big, heavy logs—"

Dreydon nodded, the third pack member joining me. “You’ve got strength, Layla. Strength within. Maintaining this forest cottage is totally in your purview, and… We’re here to speed up the process. Do what you could totally do, but we’ll just do it a bit faster. Extra fuel.”

I swooned, my head supported by Dreydon’s strong frame. Each Alpha supported me, some more emotionally, some physically—but each contributed to manual labor.

“Thank you,” I whispered, more burning in my eyes. I hadn’t expected my Alphas to build me up like this. Build my confidence.

I could… do these cottage tasks, clean my yard, pick the big branches out that Dreydon, Josh, and Blake carried out so effortlessly. Not only did they carry them, they sawed them in masculine pieces, so they would be used for firewood.

I could do all these tasks, damnit—I was strong, I could figure out how to use the five-ton saw Josh used without breaking a sweat.

But… my Alphas did it for me. They made it so I could read, relax and eat sherbet cookies on my porch… while respecting the fact that they knew—they did know —that if I wished, I could’ve jumped up, and cleared my garden by myself.

Next day, I went out at dawn. Mauve sunlight poured over my garden, bubbling and pink. I planted all the flowers Josh had helped me pick out at the farmers’ market, my marigolds and geraniums and little mums.

I got to do the fun work in my garden, and three big tears rolled down my cheeks. Like magic fertilizer, those flowers that the tears touched bloomed even more radiantly, and the Alphas joked that my tears were life-giving.

“They do the things I don’t want,” I whispered, fingers covered in earth. I loved the texture of dirt, though the little worms clinging to my hands weren’t so fun. “I don’t like weeding, I don’t like mending my fence. They… helped.”

Other Alphas?

A laugh escaped me, for my last pack demanded I learn how to snake a toilet. A toilet, really—not that I couldn’t, I could and did many times, but…

What Alphas, self-respecting or not, really demanded their Omega snake their toilet?

“And the shower,” I murmured, the memories unpleasant.

How would they really think their Omega would see them, would I see them as…

men? As men, who sat on a smelly sofa, playing video games while I, a pretty, fair Omega, snaked a shower drain—mainly to pull out their beard hair?

I appreciate you, read the note. I barely glanced at it: I was in a hurry to get to the optometrist, but when I saw it…

I stopped.

Lifting the note, pure feeling tugged at my heart. An Omega is nothing but pure feeling, I thought to myself, studying the lovely note. I was an eternal well of feeling: I was an open heart. I flipped the note over, shocked that more words were on the backside.

I appreciate you, all you do, and every day in your presence is a miracle. Please don’t cry today, sweet Layla. You deserve one day without tears…

— Blake

I calmly went to the optometrist. My glasses were outdated, my prescription needed updating.

Halfway through the examination, I realized I was crying.

Tears rolled down behind the scary metal machine, and I had to fan myself, apologizing profusely to the doctor.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, wanting to sound strong and confident… but I didn’t.

I could, I reminded herself, refusing to seem so weak and vulnerable in front of the optometrist. If I really wanted to get it together, I could.

Or maybe… I couldn’t.

Earlier that morning, Josh had given me a foot rub when I woke up, complaining that my left ring toe was sore… And Dreydon had let me decide on cereal for breakfast, when he’d wanted eggs.

Today, I couldn’t.

I just let the tears flow, and I had to fan myself with a spare eye chart the optometrist had lying around. A J L Z F I —that’s what the first line read, but I couldn’t see the others through my tears.

I cried, because my Alphas were so kind to me… they wrote me notes, and I knew other packs did not treat Omegas so kindly.

Other packs treated their Omegas like my exes treated me—never waiting on me, never massaging my foot after some misfortune had befallen my left ring toe.

Other packs demanded that their Omegas snake the shower drain, whereas here my pack was, not only snaking drains and re-fencing my garden, but writing me gentle notes of appreciation.

I kept the note close to my chest as I went out to lunch with a girlfriend, an Omega named Irene.

“And then,” I sighed, poking at my chicken rosemary lemon rice, “my former mother-in-law…”

“Oh, is she still in contact with you?”

“She reached out to me after the breakup, and berated me.” More tears welled in my eyes, but I thought of the note.

The note in my breast pocket sustained me.

It gave me strength, power, and hope through difficult conversations—not that I couldn’t just barrel my way through tough talks about my former mother-in-law, who’d behaved so cruelly toward me— narcissist, I thought with a shiver—but the note from Blake just supported me.

I could talk about my former mother-in-law without a man holding my hand and telling me I was brave for speaking my truth.

But…

It felt nice, I thought as I ate some of my lunch, it was just nice to have a pack who understood. Who supported me, stood in my corner. In a way other packs hadn’t.

“I was never the problem,” I suddenly realized, turning my dewy eyes up.

Irene made a sympathetic face. “Oh, Layla. How could you ever think you were?”

“I don’t know, I just…”

All my life, Alphas and even other Omegas had tried to keep me down. I couldn’t fathom that I’d ever listened to them, when I was so much…

More.

“You’re more, baby.” Dreydon let out a growl, holding my hand tight.

He’d re-shingled my entire cottage roof, hardly breaking a sweat—and when he came in, he simply shrugged and offered me a smile.

He doesn’t need praise, I thought, burying my cheeks behind my paperback.

He’s not like other Alphas… He didn't even break a sweat.

And good, I also thought. Good, he was fulfilling his natural role. Completing his Alpha duty.

I lifted my eyes, the blueberry wine we’d been gifted from Gretel earlier that morning making my head hum. “I am?”

“Your former mother-in-law didn't see you, Layla,” Blake whispered, his voice prickled with pain. “She didn't see… your goddess inside, and damnit—I do. We do: once seen, it’s impossible to unsee.”

My lower lip dipped in shock, and I tried to maintain my composure.

“My… inner goddess?”