Page 2 of Tending Our Omega (Saved by the Alpha Pack #1)
Heath
“My feet are going numb, and we’re out of snacks.” James had taken over driving when we got on the road at noon and hadn’t, until now, made a peep of complaint.
I chuckled from the back seat. “Find the next town. I’m sure there’s something around here.”
The Pacific Northwest was beautiful in late summer. Spruce, fir, and cedar trees reached to the heavens above us and lined the highways, giving the entire ride through this part of Oregon a bluish, sleepy haze. It was like driving through a tunnel of life and death and love and secrets.
Then again, I was pretty dramatic.
It might’ve been the professor in me.
“I need to get out of this car, too,” Seth groaned, also waking up. Something about this place begged for a nap. Time moved slower here. The hours waned in a slug’s pace.
Exactly what we needed. A break from the hustle and bustle of schedules, bills, due dates, appointments, phone calls, and texts.
Seth and James weren’t pleased at the spotty internet, but I reveled in the quiet. The lack of urgency caused by a ringing phone.
The peace healed me a bit.
“Look at that.” James pointed out the rivers topped with white waves and winding paths we passed. He loved the water and the view. Seth liked everything. He was so easygoing. But give me the silence.
“Snacks sound good too,” Seth said.
“We brought a ton of snacks on the trip.” James had to be mistaken about being out of food, so I turned around to get something from the back of the SUV, but wrappers filled the space where our stash once was. “Seth,” I chided. “What did you do?”
“The hike yesterday made me hungry, and the hotel continental breakfast really didn’t do it for me. Bagels and cereal. My wolf scoffed inside me.”
“You even ate all the beef jerky,” James pointed out.
“Look at the sign!” Seth called out. “There’s a town up ahead. It says there’s a bar and restaurants.”
I sat up. There was a crick in my neck from sleeping in the car. I stretched left and right. “A drink actually sounds good. It’s been a while.”
“A drink it is,” James agreed.
We pulled off the road onto a town called Darkheart. The clouds chose that moment to part, let the sunshine in. We drove a short way to a bar that looked like a cabin. No neon lights or crowds of people inside. A simple place with small boulders marking the parking areas.
“Doesn’t look like a bar,” James said.
“It says Darkheart bar. They didn’t have the imagination to name it anything else, I guess.” I got out first and groaned at the stretching of my legs. I raised my arms above my head and elongated my spine. We really did need this stop.
“Let’s go in,” Seth called, already on his way to the door. James and I followed him and as I touched the door handle, a knowing piqued my interest. My wolf howled inside me, his hairs raising along his spine. Something stirred between us.
Almost as though I’d been here before. Like walking into a home I’d never known.
“Take a seat anywhere you’d like. I’ll be right with you.”
The voice of the female at the bar tugged at my chest, sending cascades of warmth through my body. Interesting.
We found three empty stools at the end of the bar, humans and shifters all around us.
Despite the almost-empty parking lot, the place was busy.
Must’ve been locals. There were a lot of cabins and houses around, so they probably walked here.
Coming from the suburbs where we drove everywhere, I was always surprised when people walked instead of jumping into their cars.
It sounded nice to be so close to things and yet surrounded by devastatingly beautiful landscapes.
Speaking of devastatingly beautiful…eyes…
“What can I get you boys?” The bartender came back to take our order, her long brown hair plaited into a braid. High cheekbones. A smile that made me almost melt right off the barstool.
James snickered. “I’ll have a whiskey sour.”
The rest of us ordered, and she mixed the drinks as though she’d been doing it all her life.
But she didn’t look old enough for that to have been very long, despite the silver strands framing her face and making her eyes pop.
When she came back and slid my drink over, our fingers brushed.
Her cheeks turned red and she cleared her throat, ignoring the reaction.
“Let me know if you need anything else.”
As she walked away, her scent hit me, dead in the chest. My wolf yelped, calling my attention to her cranberry-and-cinnamon scent.
The thing was, her scent already had my entire attention. Every drop of it.
“Tell me I’m not the only one who sensed that,” James whispered, leaning toward me.
Seth leaned in on my other side. “No. I scented her too. But…this can’t be true. We stumbled upon this place. What if…”
There was no what-if. We alphas had one scent match in this entire world. One fated mate made for us, and her scent told us everything we had to know.
We were scent matched. This woman, whose name I didn’t even know, was our destiny.
“She’s on scent blockers. It’s faint but definitely there. What the hell do we do?” I asked.
I was sure James and Seth were expecting a plan from me, but I was still in the stupor of her scent. My wolf purred for her. I didn’t even know that was possible, but here he was, purring like a damned cat.
“We have to talk to her. We can’t mess this up.” James got her attention, and my stomach flipped. This could either go very well or very badly.
I hoped for the former, but life tended to dole out the latter like candy on Halloween.
While we waited for her to come back, I got on my phone and booked us an Airbnb a few minutes away.
“What are you doing? We’re staying?” Seth learned how to whisper in a sawmill. He was also the skeptic of our pack. “We don’t even know…”
I shrugged. “I doubt she’s going to pack up her life tonight and drive off into the sunset with us. We can stay here and court her. Whatever it takes. We only get one fated mate in this life.”
“Hell yeah. Best road trip ever.” James was on board. Seth was, too. I could tell by the way his scent changed since we walked in the door, but he would be hesitant. I expected nothing less.
But could we get her to even talk to us? Her smiles were reserved. She looked down as she poured drinks and didn’t stick around to flirt with patrons as some bartenders did for better tips.
I needed to know her name. Calling her she and her in my mind was already getting old.
“What’s your name?” James blurted out when she came over.
“Romi,” she answered. Her eyebrows dipped. “Why?”
I read the omega as I would a room. She was defensive.
Her scent took on a sour tone. “Just wanting to know the name of the omega who made us this delicious drink.” My voice dipped to a whisper when I said the word omega.
In this day and age, there were still some people who disliked or shunned omegas for one reason or the other.
I never understood it myself. Omegas were treasures to us.
Our pack had searched through apps, dating services, omega-matching firms, all kinds of means to find our one and only.
After a few years, we turned it over to Fate.
I’d lamented giving up before. And now, seeing Romi, all of that had flipped my view upside down.
“I don’t really flaunt my designation, and I like it that way.” She lifted her chin proudly. “I have a life here, away from all that nonsense.”
I kept my scoff to myself. Omegas and what they brought to the pack dynamic was the furthest thing from nonsense. She was a queen to us. Our queen.
“Nonsense?” James spoke for me.
Seth was keeping quiet. Observing everything.
“Yes. Look, it’s very busy. If you don’t want another drink, I suggest you go. I’m not here to speak about my personal life. I’m here to earn a living. Good night.”
“The hell do we do now?” Seth asked once we were outside again. The night air was crisp, and the wind whipped around us. The change of the seasons was coming soon. I could feel it.
Lots of things were about to change.
“We go to the place I booked and make a plan.” I took the keys from James and headed in the direction of the cabin I’d rented.
“A plan to what, Heath? She’s clearly not interested,” Seth protested.
I met his eyes in the rearview mirror. “We’re not giving up on our fated mate. Even if that means relocating here and being near her.”
Seth gave a curt nod to the notion, while James clapped and growled a bit.
I hoped we could at least convince her that being an omega was a gift. Even if it was all she would allow us.