Page 12 of Wild Omegas (Wild Skies Ranch Omegaverse #1)

Luke

I can’t believe I let the truck get into a spot where the transmission suddenly went. That’s not common, but there were no other warning signs. Now Brooks gets to spend time today or over the weekend repairing it when he could be taking time off for once.

The tow drops us off in front of the main house at Wild Skies. My truck will have to sit there until repair, keeping Josie’s car company.

We collect our sopping wet things from the tow and head inside.

The air is admittedly thick around us all.

To go from a night out to fucking in the bed of my truck in the rainstorm to having a silent but soaked ride back with the tow is…

a rollercoaster to say the least. There are a lot of obvious questions and even more obvious answers.

I want Josie to be our omega, for example. I think we all do. But will she want to join our pack, or was tonight just a fling? And if it’s a fling, how the hell are we going to keep working and living alongside her?

I’ll make her mine. In a lot of ways Josie has always felt like mine, ever since we were kids. But we were far too young then to have known what our designations would be if anything, or that we’d be scent-matched.

We were just friends. Really close friends. But we were kids.

That is definitely no longer the case. All I can think about now are Josie’s moans and the way her body so easily drew all three of us in.

She’s perfect, and she’s ours. End of story.

We hurry into the house and Carson lights a fire in the living room’s fireplace so we can warm up and dry off. When Brooks offers to grab everyone some clothes, Josie grabs his wrist.

Blushing, she says, “I was kind of hoping we could all just… stay here. Grab some blankets and pillows. Lay together.” She tucks a loose strand of her beautiful brown hair behind one ear.

A smile blooms on my face. More time with us all as a pack is exactly what the doctor ordered. Assuming, of course, Josie wants a pack. “That sounds perfect.”

So we go about setting it up. Brooks grabs blankets from around the house, I help Josie stack pillows, and soon we’ve got a lovely and comfortable place to lay together for the evening. Add in peeling off our wet clothes and climbing into it together, and we’ve created quite a… nest.

It’s a nest.

I watch Josie carefully. Is she even aware what she’s building? Because even with us bringing her supplies and helping her arrange them, she is the one arranging it all. She’s the one that called for it in the first place.

Which means Josie’s heat is coming soon.

I catch Brooks’s gaze and then Carson’s as they must similarly arrive at the same conclusion.

Josie says nothing as we climb in together, dry off, and wrap blankets around all our bodies.

We lay like that in silence for a long time, with fingers idly touching Josie, hands running across her back and thighs.

It’s intimate and quiet, but every touch feels weighted. Purposeful.

Until I notice something I’ve never quite had the chance to before. Josie moves fast, has from the moment she blared into our lives with a shot muffler and twisted ankle. It’s not until I’m holding her hand in my own now and inspect every inch of her available to me that I see them.

Burn scars on her fingers. A vein of it trails down that wrist, too.

“What happened?” I ask, but maybe I shouldn’t have. Not every scar is a story someone wants to share. But on an otherwise soft and strong omega, these burn scars stand out.

Josie’s body stiffens. It’s enough to tell me I fucked up. I shouldn’t have asked.

Instead of answering the question, Josie posits one of her own. “Does your pack have an omega?” She chuckles. “I mean, I’m assuming you don’t after tonight.”

Carson smiles warmly. His fingers have been tracing the swell of her hip for the last ten minutes. “No, no omega. We haven’t really been looking.”

“Life on the ranch took priority,” Brooks adds. “And honestly, we all had things that brought us here that we had to deal with.”

Carson nods in agreement even though it’s not entirely true.

I’m at Wild Skies because I’ve always been here.

I’ve never felt a reason to leave and go elsewhere.

But Carson… Carson ran from the CEO life, retreating once a severe work-life balance nearly left him in a hospital.

And Brooks? The most I know is he was working on a case in law enforcement that was dark enough to send him packing.

He found his way here, and for that, I couldn’t have been more grateful.

These men are my packmates. My best friends. My brothers.

I glance down at Josie’s burn scars again. She has a right to her privacy of course, but if those weren’t an accident, I would love to have a conversation with whoever is at fault. Scarring someone so beautiful is unacceptable.

Josie shifts on to her back so she can see all of us at once. “I understand. Wild Skies is a great place to run to when you need help.”

“That’s what your grandparents always said,” I offer.

She smiles softly.

“They’re good people,” I add.

“So are yours,” she replies.

My heart warms. Hearing her say that about two of the people I love most in this world makes this very real set of feelings for her grow.

When we were kids every part of our lives just seemed to fit together.

Then we grew older and she stopped coming out to Wild Skies as often.

Then she disappeared altogether when she left for New York City.

Brooks shifts onto his side. “Do you have a pack?”

Josie shakes her head but her eyes are tight. “I wouldn’t be here either if I did.”

“Do you?” Carson presses again. “It matters.”

If she’s already marked or taken then not only have we greatly overstepped, I’ll also be losing the woman I love for the second time.

The woman I love.

Oh, shit. It hits me then all at once. This growing weight of warmth in my chest when I look at Josie, secrets and all.

It doesn’t really matter with her other than me wanting her to feel safe enough to tell us what she’s running from.

But around that weight is this blooming bond, a connection I can’t explain.

No words feel adequate. It’s like a sunrise—radiant, breaking through night with wild force.

Slowly at first and then all at once the sun is up and life feels bright.

That’s Josie.

Night was fine. It worked. Life before her was… what it was. Then she appeared as daybreak. Now life is bright. It has warmth and meaning and, hopefully, a future.

Josie shrugs but I can tell her words mean everything but nonchalance to her. “I had one once, yes. But we weren’t scent-matched and they preferred an omega who was. So… They let me go.”

Her words ring genuine and it makes me angrier that they are true. Who would let his wild omega go? Who would be so stupid ?

I cup Josie’s face and kiss her forehead. “It was their loss.” And our gain. But I don’t say it. It doesn’t feel right to say aloud no matter how true it is.

Josie shrugs again. “It’s okay, it’s better this way.” She smiles up at each of us in turn. “Don’t you think?”

I do, but I desperately hope she means what I hope she means.

“Would you want to join Wild Skies pack?” The sheer amount of anxiety coiled tight at the prospect she might say no makes my words barely stronger than a whisper.

My lungs simply won’t hold the air required to speak at a proper level.

It’s as if everything hinges on her reply.

That’s because it does. If she says no, this might end right here, right now. I’d let her walk away because that’s the right thing to do. But it’d be the hardest decision of my damn life.

Josie doesn’t reply right away, and the hesitation nearly sends me reeling. Brooks and Carson pick up on the clear hesitation, too. It feels slightly out of place. Is it because we all just met? Because she doesn’t really want a pack? Or something else?

All those phone calls.

The new phone.

The fact she’s got someone trying to reach her.

My gut twists over on itself. Is it her old pack?

“The answer can be no,” Brooks says although I wish he fucking didn’t. Even if she absolutely can say no. I don’t want her to do anything but stay .

Tears prick Josie’s eyes. One stray one falls. I brush it away with my thumb. “It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just… I got into trouble back in the city. I don’t want you all to be brought into it. But by being with me… you might. I can’t say more, so please don’t pry.”

Determination solidifies in my chest. “Josie, there’s nothing we won’t fight for you, nothing we can’t help you with.”

“Danger is no stranger to me,” Brooks adds. “Whatever it is, we can face it together.”

Carson lightly kisses her shoulder. “We’ll protect you, Josie. We’re in this together.”

She nods and closes her eyes. A few long, deep breaths pass her lips before she opens her eyes again. “I believe you all. God, I do. I just… it feels wrong to involve you by association.”

I stroke her cheek again with my thumb. “There’s nothing we can’t handle together.”

Josie’s tears stop falling. She turns her face into my palm and kisses it gently. “Then yes. I’ll be your omega.”

A sunrise bursts to life in my heart. That’s the only way to describe it. “We’ll take care of you. We promise.”

I lean in and capture her mouth with my own, our tongues dancing until I pull away to let Carson and Brooks kiss her as well.

But the kisses and gentle touches return to the heated, desperate moves from earlier in the rain storm.

Every brush of skin to skin becomes a glorious painting in its own right, full of passion and ownership.

She is ours. We are hers. And while we won’t claim her yet, I’m all too aware of how our scent marks her without our bites needing to grace her skin just yet.

That can wait. The entire world can wait. Because right now in this temporary nest we’re building the foundations of a beautiful pack.

As long as Josie never disappears from my life ever again.