Page 10 of Wild Omegas (Wild Skies Ranch Omegaverse #1)

Brooks

“What? Did you think I couldn’t ride?”

I have to bite my cheek to keep from telling her I wish she’d ride me . Because holy fuck . City girl can ride .

To be fair, it’s a fake bull in a bar meant to challenge but not kill drunk people. But she is still every bit as amazing as she was up on that thing, thighs clenched to stay on, bent slightly over so her ass?—

“You did amazing,” Luke says as he welcomes her back with a hug. Lucky fuck.

Josie tucks into his side for a moment before hugging Carson and then, finally, me. “Thank you, thank you. Simply a bar trick, that’s all.”

Could make it a home trick, too.

Jesus, I need to calm the fuck down. But I can’t. And thank god there’s now a table in addition to my jeans hiding my rock hard length from view. This wild omega is going to draw me into a fucking rut if she’s not careful. All wild eyes, cheeks flushed, and floral honey-scented.

Maybe she’s purposely trying to put all of us in a rut just for fun.

Calm the fuck down, you idiot.

I drink some beer. I’m not sure that’s going to help, though. It makes it all too easy to busy myself with thoughts of Josie’s thighs rather than keeping my mouth from saying anything stupid.

“Well, now that I’ve been showed up,” Luke says as he rises from the table. “Guess I should reclaim some honor.” He heads down to the bull next. He’ll stay on, but he’ll provide a good show for the rest of the bar, and Josie.

“You’re so beautiful,” Carson says. Aggressive, but true.

Josie grins at him. “Thank you. You all clean up fairly well yourselves.”

I dip my hat toward her. “We do our best. But genuinely, you were amazing.”

She gives me a look that’s somewhere between amused and disbelieving before placing her hand over mine. “I appreciate that.”

Her hand is warm but so tiny next to mine. So unaccustomed to the kind of work ranch life includes. I want to teach her all of it. “Of course.”

We watch Luke, and then Carson and I each have a go because why the hell not.

By the time that’s complete, line dancing starts in the side room and we have a go at that.

Turns out, Josie remembers quite a bit from her early teen years, and while I haven’t got a rhythmic bone in my body, Luke and Carson dance for a while with her.

I simply watch. I don’t mind it—in fact, I enjoy it.

Seeing Josie so happy when she was decidedly not for the first few days after her arrival at Wild Skies makes me happy in return.

A joy I’m too afraid to put too many words to because nothing has happened between any of us.

There’s so much we want to have happen though. At least, as far as I can tell.

Luke and Carson can’t hide their attraction to her. I can’t. And while we haven’t talked about it as a pack, it’s like we almost don’t need to.

And then she went and rode that damned mechanical bull and I can’t get the vision of it out of my head.

By the time we hop into Luke’s truck to drive home, I’m convinced I’ll be hard all night until we’re back at the ranch and I can take care of it. That’s when the truck slows to a stop as Luke pulls to the side of the road.

“What’s wrong?” Josie asks him from the front seat.

Luke smacks his steering wheel. “Not sure. Thing’s a bit older, could be anything.”

“I can take a look?” I offer.

Luke nods.

I hop out of the car and they all follow. No sense staying inside a car that’ll heat up fast in this weather. The air feels humid and heavy, like rain is finally going to fall, and there’s an electricity on the wind. A storm is coming.

I pop the hood and pray it’s something I can fix without tools. Such prayers fall short. “Shit. You’re going to want to call a tow, Luke.” Can’t repair or replace a transmission on the road.

Luke takes off his hat to run a frustrated hand through his hair. “Yeah. Got it. Thanks for checking it out.”

I clap his back. “All they have to do is get it back to Wild Skies. I can fix it.” Being able to fix most things at this point has truly been a wonderful blessing of experience.

It almost makes up for the things I can never fix that I didn’t break, like the trafficked omegas from my last official case with law enforcement.

Luke nods and walks off a bit into the dark to make the call.

Carson pulls Josie to the side of the truck that’s not facing the road. “Not many people this late at night but better to be safe.”

I close the truck’s hood and join them just as a few drops of rain begin to fall. I look up. “Well, there’s the storm I was feeling.”

Josie crosses her arms. “Didn’t think it was supposed to rain.”

“You never know out here,” Carson says.

Unfortunately we’re still at least twenty minutes by car from the ranch. We could walk, but someone would still have to stay with the truck. I don’t think Luke is in that big a rush to leave his treasured possession behind unguarded.

Rain starts to fall faster now. Josie sighs and nods as if at the end of some internal argument. “Yep, figures.”

“Hmm?” I ask.

“This is how my life goes.” She lets out a frustrated growl that does nothing but honestly kind of turn me on more. Our ferocious little omega.

Well, not ours . Not yet. Maybe not ever.

“Good,” Josie continues, “really good stuff, followed by this.”

Carson nudges her side with his elbow. “It’s just rain, Josie. Are you afraid of it?”

Her eyes narrow. “No. I just…” She sighs again and relents. “No, you’re right. It’s just rain, and now this night can last a little longer.”

I smile. I hadn’t quite thought of it that way, but she’s right. Had this not happened we would’ve gone back to the ranch and carried on to bed like normal. Now we have more time for an actually, genuinely, fun night.

I can’t remember the last time genuine fun was had by me at least. “There’s that, yes.”

Josie looks up at me. I’m aware I’m grinning at her like an idiot with nothing in my mind but the image of her on the bull still.

I can’t shake it, even now as rain presses wet dark brown hair to her forehead.

I lean in and take a risk—pushing it behind her ear.

To my surprise she doesn’t pull away. Being this close to her makes her scent inescapable.

Not that I’m trying. If anything, I’m drawn further in by the honey florals.

Carson moves closer. “Josie, you really were a wild thing tonight.”

It’s too dark to see it well with the cloudy and rainy nighttime skies, but I can just imagine a blush warming her cheeks like it had at Wild Rodeo.

“That was nothing,” she says dismissively, but it has the opposite effect she wants.

“I was hoping so,” I risk saying. “I’m thinking you can handle wilder bulls.”

Her breath hitches. For days now we’ve been dancing around her and the fact that our designations’ biologies demand we are together. After the initial week of getting to know each other while her ankle healed, everything has come into sharper focus.

I want Josie. I know the others do, too.

We just need her invitation and we’ll make her the happiest omega. We’ll take such good care of her, even better care than we do her family’s ranch.

We just need the green light.

Josie looks at Carson and I in turn, a confident smirk on her face. “Oh, that? I absolutely can. The question is, can you handle a wild omega?”

Carson meets my gaze over Josie’s head. Is she for real?

He nods.

I grab the side of her face and draw her closer to me. “Easily.”

Rain pours down, soaking us, as my lips brush Josie’s.

Hers are soft and full and everything I could have imagined.

My fingers twine her hair as I cradle her head, deepening the kiss so my tongue can ask for entrance to her mouth.

She obliges and our tongues dance as Carson moves in closer.

As if sensing him—or more likely his scent moving closer—she turns in my hold to kiss him, too.

He growls a satisfied noise deep in his throat.

I hold her hips as they make out in the rain.

Something catches my eye in the darkness. It’s Luke coming back. He’s not looking yet, his phone in his hands. “Tow should be here in thirty minutes—” He cuts off once he sees the three of us molding together.

Josie breaks off from Carson to hold a hand out to Luke. “We’ll pass the time.”

Luke looks down at her hand, then to me and Carson. We nod an okay. Without further invitation, Luke tosses his phone into his truck and hurries to Josie. She meets him with arms that wrap around his neck as his lips capture her mouth.

My heart does a flutter leap I’m too heady in Josie’s scent to tame. This could all fall apart. This is far too new, too fragile to hope it’ll last past sunrise. But hell if I don’t want it to.

I need this. We all do. We’ve been looking for an omega and she happened to waltz right into our lives. Josie is it. She’s everything. A small little spit-fire omega able to take us all on.

When Josie and Luke pull away, she takes in the sight of all of us just standing there waiting for what she wants next. I’m coiled tight, ready to pounce if given the okay. Kissing is one thing. What I’m dying for is something else entirely, and for that, there has to be enthusiastic consent.

Josie tilts her head and flashes us all a mischievous smile. “What’s wrong, cowboys? I heard we have thirty minutes, and that you’re not scared of rain.” She reaches out to take Carson and Luke’s hands and place them on each of her hips.

Luke growls and moves Carson’s hand out of the way so he can lift Josie up onto the bed of his truck. “Hold on tight, cowgirl.”