Omega Lost (The Rogue Pack Book 7)

by Samantha Cayto

  Despite being covered in fur, Loki couldn’t tolerate being in the frigid water for very long. Soon, he scrambled back onto the bank and up a wide flat rock. He stood on the surface and shook the water off his body before lying down. A ray of sunshine managed to slip through the branches of the surrounding trees, falling on Loki. As Bard watched, Loki shifted to human form and stretched out with a languid movement.

  Bard panted at the sight. All that wet pale skin was impossible to ignore. Strands of wet hair covered the boy’s slender back. They made a trail down to the soft swell of the omega’s small, high ass. The sight was so enticing, Bard shifted to use his human eyes to take it all in. He didn’t care that his own ass sat on a cold, wet patch of ground. His entire focus was on the almost painful beauty that was Loki.

  A soft sigh met his ears before Loki rolled onto his back. He bent the knee closest to Bard, obscuring the view of the boy’s small, yet perfect, cock. Biting back a groan of frustration, Bard stood to give himself a higher vantage point. That’s better. Now he could drink in all that Loki had to offer. Bard should have turned away and given the boy privacy. He also should have felt guilt over his voyeurism. He didn’t. His need for the omega had been suppressed for a very long time. He lacked the strength to do so anymore. His dick stirred to life, rising to full hardness and bobbing unabashedly in front of him.

  Loki sighed again and moaned, the sound making Bard’s dick jump. The omega stretched his arms above his head before flicking his hair out from under his body and letting it fan around him. Bard had seen just enough human art to notice how much the boy looked like an angel complete with halo.

  Or a virgin ready for sacrifice.

  That thought hit too close to the truth, so he turned away from it, but not Loki. No, he stupidly wandered closer. He wanted to see more and he was recklessly not concerned with showing Loki how much he desired him. The sound of his footfalls on the crusty forest bed was sufficiently loud to catch Loki’s attention. He turned his head toward Bard and slowly opened his eyes. His gaze homed in on Bard’s groin.

  “You’ve gotten bold, Gamma.” Bracing up on one arm, he added, “You’ve always been careful before about showing how much you wanted me.”

  Bard stopped. He ignored the urge to cover his shaft with his hands. The time for hiding was over. Besides, his dick was too big for that. His wolf howled at the thought with a fierce pride that made Bard smile inwardly.

  “Destin would have castrated me and then some if I’d allowed you to see my arousal before.”

  Loki flicked a strand of hair away from his face. “Not now, though, huh? Because he gave me to you and that means you can do anything you want with me. To me.”

  Bard winced at the omega’s bitter tone. He shook his head. “No. That’s not true. He has trusted me with your care, that’s all. And you’re all grown up, Loki. My wanting you is natural and acceptable. He knows that, and so do I.”

  He left off how hard it was to cast aside his many years’ practice of locking down his needs until it was appropriate to act on them. After so long, it was difficult to throw off his discipline and embrace his desire for the omega.

  Loki huffed. “You give me mixed messages, Gamma. Just yesterday, you reminded me of how much of a pup I still am. Now, you show me how much you want to mount me. Make up your mind.”

  Bard accepted the rebuke for the truth that it was. “You vex me, to be sure. I treat you like a pup because you act like one so much of the time. I see you now, though, and your maturity is obvious. My wolf certainly sees a grown omega ready for breeding.”

  “Whether I want it or not,” Loki spit out. “But then, my opinion hardly matters. My brother has never asked me for it.”

  Bard took another step closer. “You’re wrong if you think I possess you the way I would like to. Destin has not sanctioned that, nor would Lorcan permit it.”

  Loki snorted. “Save your fairytales for the pups. I know you’re going to mount me the moment I go into heat and I will have no say in it.”

  “That isn’t true. I won’t claim you unless you allow it. You have a choice, Loki.”

  “Really? Like I did when you helped Destin force me from my home?”

  Bard looked away, unable to bear seeing Loki’s devastated expression. “That was different.”

  “Was it,” the omega sneered. “I don’t see it that way. Then again, no one has ever been willing to explain it to me.”

  Bard was torn, as he always was when this subject came up. He’d sworn to Destin, his beta and friend, that he would never reveal to Loki what had happened. Destin couldn’t stand the idea of his little brother being haunted with the truth.

  “Better that he hates me. Better that he hates all of us, than know the reason, Bard.”

  And Bard had agreed that it was best for Loki. So he had promised to say nothing no matter what. He was starting to hate the box Destin and his own honor had trapped him in.

  Before he could come up with a pathetic response, Loki’s eyes widened and he rose up and shifted. A split-second later, Bard heard the approaching steps. He whirled to meet the interloper whose scent had been downwind and undetectable to him. He would have shifted, as well, prepared to protect Loki with his life, except he saw that it was no danger at all. Or, at least, he hoped it wasn’t.

  Staying on edge, he barked out, “Griffin, what are you doing here?”

  The beta shifted to stand before him with equal human nakedness and vulnerability. He cocked his head to expose his neck in an unusual display for a beta with a gamma. “My apologies. I meant no offense or to cause any worry.”

  Bard relaxed his stance. “Good, although that is not an answer, Beta.” At the sound of Loki whining, Bard turned his head a bit without taking his gaze of Griffin. “It’s all right, Loki.”

  “Yes,” Griffin hurried to agree. “I only came because I, um, scented the omega, and…I was merely making sure he was okay.”

  Bard narrowed his gaze. “Indeed?”

  Griffin took a cautious step closer. “My wolf led me here without a lot of debate. The omega is pretty ripe,” he said in a low tone obviously meant for Bard only. “Not that I’m interested,” he hastened to add.

  Bard snorted at that protestation, and at the same time, his wolf rose up growling and spoiling for a fight. His erection having flagged at the initial confrontation, stiffened once more. “You’re motive is irrelevant, Beta. You are distressing the boy, and I won’t have that.”

  Griffin held up his palms and backed away. “I understand.” He paused and dropped his gaze. “May I ask something before I go?” He licked his lips when Bard didn’t respond. “I was wondering if you could tell me how Ryan is.”

  It took a moment for Bard’s brain to change gears from protective and possessive dominant, to conversational pack member. “Haldon’s widowed mate?”

  Griffin’s eyes went flinty. “Yeah, the sweet omega that asshole brutalized.”

  Bard’s wolf chuffed and relaxed. The anger in the beta’s tone made it pretty clear that his interest didn’t lie with Loki at all. “He’s fine, as far as I know,” Bard answered, trying to conjure up memories of what little he’d seen of the omega. “He and his pup live with the alpha and his family.”

  Griffin nodded. “That’s what I thought, but I don’t get to hang out in the longhouse yet and….” Now the guy seemed really uncomfortable and worried. “Do they get enough to eat?”

  “Everyone does in the Rogue Pack. Of that you can be assured.”

  Griffin nodded again. “Good. That’s good to hear.”

  Bard felt the need to alleviate the poor guy’s obvious worry. “Your contribution to the food stores is duly noted and appreciated. I’m sure the alpha will bring you and your gammas fully into the pack soon.”

  Griffin straightened. “They aren’t my gammas. They’re Lorcan’s the same way I am his. We’ll do whatever it takes to prove that to his satisfaction. I’m sorry to have disturbed you and distressed your omega.”

/>   “It’s fine.” Bard almost corrected the beta about his claim on Loki, then stopped himself. Loki might not be his yet, but he also didn’t belong to anyone else, either. What harm was there in staking a claim now with another dominant?

  Without saying another word, Griffin shifted and loped off.

  Bard watched him disappear into the thickness of the woods before turning his attention back to Loki. The omega sat on the rock in wolf form, obviously still tense from Griffin’s presence.

  “Everything’s all right, Loki. We should head back to the compound anyway.”

  Bard shifted as he waited for the omega to jump down. He took a deep sniff and damn if Griffin hadn’t been right. Loki’s scent was a heady one that sent a shiver down his spine and caused his wolf dick to extend beyond his sheath. Bard had spent so long ignoring his attraction to Loki that he’d missed—or more likely subconsciously dismissed—the way the omega’s chemistry had changed. His heat wasn’t merely on its way, it was imminent. Had the sight of Bard’s arousal been the trigger?

  Regardless, he needed to get the boy back to the pack and talk to Destin. Whatever time they’d had to convince Loki to settle down and accept Bard as a mate was at an end.

  ****

  Loki lay on his stomach in the little room he shared with the twins in Craig’s and Mabel’s hut. The pups were tumbling all over him, but he didn’t care and paid them little mind. His attention was too consumed by his own twitchiness. He felt hot and bothered and could find no comfortable position or interesting activity since returning from his run with Bard. He wanted to jump out of his own skin and tear off back into the woods.

  He wasn’t stupid. He knew the reason. No shifter could miss the signs of a heat coming on, not even one that had never experienced it before. The way everyone looked at him sideways, too, was confirmation. His scent must be very strong to capture the attentions of not only the dominants but sigmas, as well. Mabel had taken one look at him and given him a sympathetic look before bustling him into her home.

  “You hang out here for the rest of the afternoon,” she’d said kindly. “Do you feel up to the pups for company? They can be both aggravating and a distraction.”

  “It’s fine. I don’t mind watching them.” His tone had sounded defeated and pathetic to his own ears.

  Being toddlers, Esme and Eli were indifferent to Loki’s seething undertones. They were only concerned with their own instant gratification. Their use of him as an inanimate object suited him well while he struggled to keep his heat at bay. As if he had such power. No one did. The decision he had to make couldn’t be held off any longer. If he didn’t take a mate, his heat would literally kill him. He knew that. Every omega did because it was something taught by mothers to their pups, although usually in optimistic terms.

  This is your destiny, Loki. His mother’s kindly face had lit up with joy to emphasize her lesson. Someday, you will go into heat, and your mate will breed you. He will be there always to protect you from everything, even your own nature. It’s a gift.

  From where he was lying at the moment, it didn’t feel like one. More like a curse, a burden, a mortal danger rushing toward him that left him with no choices and no way out. He clenched his increasingly itchy hole in a fruitless effort to ease the discomfort. It didn’t work. Nothing would except a dominant shifter’s cock.

  Like Bard’s.

  He didn’t want to picture the gamma’s long, thick shaft. Or, the clear evidence that the guy wanted Loki. Not that he’d needed a visual confirmation. Loki wasn’t sure when, exactly, but at some point during their years running feral, Loki had become aware of the gamma’s interest in him. If they’d been back home, he might have welcomed the attention. Not that his sire would have ever given him to a lowly gamma. Still, Bard’s virility had always been on full display, and Loki was an omega. He’d never resisted or resented his nature.

  It was the lack of choice that irked him. Although that wasn’t strictly true, either. He’d never expected to have a say in who his mate was going to be. No, it was more that once he took a mate here and now, there would no chance to return to his old home. His old life. He would have crossed a line, never to return. He would never again be an arctic shifter, merely an oddly-colored one here in the lower lands of North America. The finality of it was too painful for him to contemplate.

  So, he lay there, being a living tumbling block for Mabel’s twins until she came to bring them all to the longhouse for the evening meal.

  When he tried to take one of the pups, Mabel demurred. She hefted them both in her arms with practiced ease. It was for the best, he realized as he stumbled his way. He hadn’t expected to be so off-kilter physically. Nothing worked right, and the heat suffusing his body made him want to strip bare.

  He flinched at the noise and rush of pack members milling about. It was too crowded and overwhelming. He wanted to run back outside. Only his incessant hunger drove him forward. That and the sure knowledge that Bard would seek him out if he didn’t sit to eat. He managed to get to his family’s table and plunk himself down with an ungraceful sprawl of limbs. Knowing that Bard would bring him a plate, he didn’t worry about anything other than staying put.

  Sure enough, he caught the gamma’s scent a few seconds before he materialized with a mound of food. A shudder racked Loki’s body and an ache blossomed deep inside where he knew dormant eggs had woke in anticipation of a visit from a male’s seed. He ground his molars in an effort to suppress the reaction. There was a tremor to Bard’s hand as he put the plate in front of Loki. So, he wasn’t the only one suffering.

  Good. It was a petulant thought, but he was in a petulant mood.

  “Here, try to eat something.” Bard’s tone was its usual modular one, eminently caring and sensible.

  Loki wanted to scream. Without looking at the gamma, he picked up his fork and started shoveling food into his mouth. He didn’t bother to notice what he ate or how it tasted. He only wanted to feed at least one hunger plaguing him.

  “Slowly, or you’ll choke again.”

  The mild admonishment infuriated Loki. He picked up his pace, stuffing his cheeks to the bursting point. He didn’t slow down even when he predictably needed to cough some out of his airway. On a certain level, he knew he was acting irrationally. Yet, he didn’t care.

  “Here, drink some milk.” Bard placed a glass within Loki’s line of sight.

  He sat blinking rapidly, swallowing furiously to clear his mouth and throat. His hand shook as he reached for the glass. Instead of picking it up, he knocked it over. Milk flew across the table. He watched it spread out past the pitcher and under the plates before shoving his chair back and jumping up.

  “No!” He screamed the word, drowning out every other voice in the room. “I don’t want to. I hate milk.” Which wasn’t entirely true, but he had reached his limit.

  Silence blanketed the room. Every pair of eyes turned to stare at him. He stood there with a trembling body and a growing sense that he’d lost control. He didn’t know what to do or where to look.

  Bard, now also on his feet, reached out. “Loki…”

  He jerked away. “No. Don’t touch me. I don’t want you, and you can’t make me. I want to go home!” He didn’t so much as look at the gamma, had no idea of the effect his words were having. Nor did he care. His misery consumed him. And, there was nothing left for him to do except burst into tears.

  The first cry came out as a wail, a sound that perfectly embodied the turmoil inside him. After that, he doubled over with wet sobs that made him deaf and oddly also blind to what was going on around him. Not that it mattered. His sole focus was on the misery pouring uncontrollably out of him.

  “Loki!” Destin’s voice managed to break through.

  Loki only batted him away, heedless of his disrespect to a beta who was also his brother. “Your fault!” The accusation burst past his crying.

  Then a different voice washed over him, a soothing maternal one. A soft, feminine voice was reass
uring him that everything would be all right. That he was safe. Warm and tender arms wrapped around his shoulders and helped him to straighten. He leaned into the welcoming embrace, comforted by the way it reminded him of being consoled by his mother. Here was a safe place to let himself go and wallow in the overwhelming situation that he saw no way to escape.

  When those same arms led him out of the room, he went without a struggle. He lay where they placed him and he let them strip him of clothing that grated against his skin. Pressing his face against the pallet, he wept and wailed with no end in sight.

  ****

  “This cannot continue.” The alpha’s understated pronouncement was punctuated by Loki’s agonized cries.

  Bard had ceased flinching at the sounds, having become so swamped by them over the last several hours that he simply absorbed them as he’d learned to do with his old alpha’s punishing blows. His wolf was a different story. He prowled back and forth under Bard’s skin, barely contained. He kept pressing to come out, and holding him back was draining Bard of his strength.

  This is my fault.

  He knew that wasn’t actually true. Loki’s heat was to blame. Bard’s actions at lunch had merely been the catalyst that had blown open the omega’s existing distress. Having scented the boy’s heat the same way one would detect being hit in the face with a two-by-four, Bard had still not tread lightly enough around him. Not that he had expected the outburst and the torrent of tears. That was not typical omega-in-heat behavior. Then again, when had Loki ever been the typical omega?

  When he was a pup. Before we forced him from his home.

  That reminder was not helpful, either. So he put it aside and focused on the urgent matter at hand.

  “With respect, Alpha, what do we do?”

  It was Andrea who answered. “He must be bred. There is no other solution.”

  The healer had joined most of the pack’s council around the large conference table while Loki remained secluded, yet audible, in her room. Most of the dominants sat with miserable expressions on their faces. Destin looked absolutely stricken. He cringed with every sound his little brother made and his hands lay fisted on the table’s surface. There wasn’t a full complement of decision-makers in the room. Deirdre, who was out trying to keep the rest of the pack calm, Liam, Craig and Daniel were missing from the meeting. The gammas were on guard duty because they’d been on their shift since before lunch. Daniel’s absence almost didn’t count given his part-time membership. Plus, with his mate so close to whelping, his priorities were clear.