Baby + the Late Night Howlers

by Kathryn Moon

  “Let’s just see the nest,” Yvonne suggested.

  “No wait, I’d… I’d really like to meet everyone.” I gave Yvonne a look. The last pack had all introduced themselves to me and told me their professions and hobbies. Why couldn’t these guys?

  “If we stay too long you might…” and then Yvonne waggled her eyebrows. Somewhat unnecessarily. I was aware of what I might do. I still wanted to meet the alphas I came to meet.

  “We know this is only an interview,” Seth said. “No one here would break protocol and touch her.”

  Touch might lead to scent marking and since I had another pack to see, it was strictly prohibited. Unless I felt like creating an alpha pissing contest at the next interview.

  “Aside from you,” Yvonne said to Seth, raising a pristine blonde eyebrow.

  “Yeah. Aside from me,” Seth said, grinning back with a sharper edge than I’d seen him wear before. And despite the claim he’d put on me, not one of the alphas in front of us bristled. They barely even blinked, too focused on me.

  I liked that. I liked that this pack of alphas, who were all taut with interest in me, didn’t mind that their beta had already staked his claim. That meant the roles of the designations in the pack weren’t too old fashioned, which was a good sign since I wasn’t certain how successful an omega I’d be.

  Jonah’s throat cleared again, one hand reaching up and rubbing at the back of his neck. “Right so…I’m the Prez, President of the MC. Bomber— shit, Seth. He’s my VP. We run the bar together. Um… This here is Dusty.”

  Despite what Seth had said about no one touching me, I had an urge to cross to Jonah and put my hand in his. The man, intimidating though he looked, was clearly nervous. The more nervous he was, the more at ease I was. But I wasn’t about to forget the way I swooned when I got too close to him, and I was barely hanging on in the room as it was.

  Dusty was the first in the line of bikers in booths. He had a young round face, with speckled silver hair, and he broke out into a warm smile as I braved my way closer. Out of reach, but close enough to pick him out in my head. He was the warm blanket, and he looked as though he had the personality to match.

  “Is Dusty your real name or your biker name?” I asked.

  His grin deepened and his blue eyes sparkled. He was heavyset, but not overly so. Just soft and cuddly looking. “Both, Baby.” He huffed a laugh. “Feel like I should get a slap on my wrist for calling you that even if it is your name.”

  My own smile grew with his. “And the garage is yours?”

  “You bet it is,” he said, his chest puffing up proudly. “And let me tell you, Baby. Pack or not, you ever need a repair? Come and see me. I’ll fix you up, no problem.”

  He seemed like a youthful kind of Santa Claus, jolly and sincere and good. And damn if I didn’t want to go set myself down in his lap. But at least I was pretty sure all I wanted was a snuggle. I couldn’t say the same for the man across the booth from him.

  Deep Dark Woods, in the flesh.

  “And this is Green.”

  “Ryan,” the man corrected, with a whispery voice. He had silver in his black hair, with the lines around his eyes to match. He was older than most of the other pack members, but I would’ve guessed he was still in his forties. Asian, with broad features and olivey skin. “I’m the grower at the dispensary.”

  “About that—” Yvonne started from behind me.

  Ryan cut her off at the quick, his eyes sliding over my shoulder. “It’s licensed. Aboveboard. No additives. No under the table sales.”

  His words were clipped, the bite of alpha in his tone without any of the usual volume. I shivered, and his stare landed on me again. I wanted to put myself in his lap too, but unlike the immediate visceral response to Jonah, or the friendliness of Dusty, with Ryan I wanted privacy. Privacy and intimacy and something I hadn’t learned the vocabulary for yet.

  “Which makes me Thumb,” the next man announced. He was short, shorter than me, with velvety brown skin and keen eyes. His smile was easy going, and Ryan relaxed as my focus shifted to him. He smelled like melon and almonds— pleasant, but not for me—and he nodded to me in a way that made me wonder if I didn’t smell the same to him. I liked him all the same. “I run the shop while Green works his magic.”

  Next was Cole, an exquisitely beautiful specimen of a man, and one who looked like he knew it. He had bright brown hair and icy blue eyes and a perfect nose and a dimple on his chin. If he had a job, no one offered me the information. He smelled like a perfect day at the beach—sunshine, salt, and whiffs of vanilla ice cream—and I realized he was one of the scent cards I’d been drawn to. He smiled without showing his teeth, and I found my eyes dropping to the floor as if it was too much to look back at him.

  There were others. Jeff, an older man with gray in his beard, who ran the Full Moon Diner and winked at me with a tease that made my belly flip even though his caramel pheromones were too strong for me. Roger, a huge and grinning black man who bounced for the club and had a gentle, animal smell to him and dog hair covering his black pants. Steve, a young, pale goth who was unable to keep a grin off his face and scented of licorice.

  Brody was a big Irish looking bear of a man who seemed wary of me and had a bit of a maple bacon thing going on I found appealing, but only gastronomically. His younger brother, Mackenzie, however, made me bite my lip. Mackenzie was the Secretary of the club. Tall and broad with freckles and red hair to match his brother’s—my own too for that matter—Mackenzie looked like he’d just walked out of a tourism guide for Ireland. His wild amber eyes flashed behind thick black glasses as he studied me piece by piece. Here was Black Coffee, one of my kryptonite alphas.

  Beneath their booth table, Brody kicked at Mackenzie’s shoe, breaking the force of his study and lifting his eyes to mine. “Hey, Baby.” No accent, but Mackenzie’s voice was deep and sweet, and I pressed my thighs together under my skirt.

  I swallowed, wondered if all the alphas could see me trembling, and if now was the wrong time to ask Mackenzie to bite me. “Hi.”

  Behind me, Seth and Yvonne both snorted.

  The next one was just as bad. Sanjay was tan with glossy black hair and lashes that looked as though they should’ve come from Sephora. He leaned forward in his seat as I stepped closer, my perfume no doubt flooding the air after my stare down with the redhead, and then pushed himself back into the booth, as far from me as he could get. I wanted to chase him in, suck on his skin and search for that dark cherry flavor I’d picked out for myself.

  Finally, finally, finally, we reached the last alpha. I was wet. I was perfuming. The room was too hot, and I was shivering. And here was my growler, the big blonde whose cheeks were still pink and whose fingers around the tabletop were leaving dents in the linoleum.

  “Bull—Quincy. He runs security for the building.”

  Quincy’s pheromones were expanding in the space between us, enveloping me in the gentle scent of roses. Roses had never made me so needy. I whined again, and Quincy slid to the edge of the seat, his legs spread wide in an invitation to me and the thick outline of a cock I was suddenly drooling for clear between his thighs.

  “You’re gonna break my heart if you choose another pack, kitten,” Quincy murmured, eyes smiling while he made my chest ache.

  An arm circled my waist, and I found myself gasping as I leaned into Seth.

  I was monumentally and astronomically screwed. Or I wasn’t, and that was the problem.

  “No emotional manipulation, please,” Yvonne said, but it wasn’t so biting. She knew, probably as well as I did, that the chances of me breaking this enormous man’s heart were slimming with every second that passed. “Now, about that nest.”

  Who needs a nest? Just surround me with these guys and I’ll be set, I thought.

  At the mention, the alphas in the room all tensed, and their scents shifted from sweet and tempting to…edgy was the only way I could think to describe it. Whatever it was, it helped me breathe a little
easier.

  “Right. The nest,” Jonah said behind me, and even Seth felt stiff at my side.

  “You do have one, correct?” Yvonne asked, her arms crossing her chest as I turned to face them.

  “We have a room. It needs… well, it’s just the shell of a space at the moment.”

  “Your old one—“

  “The one we had before is currently occupied. We stopped subscribing, and we weren’t expecting to find an omega on our own,” Jonah said, shoulders tensing. His jaw ticked and his fingers were clenched at his side, and I suspected he was containing a growl at being interrogated by an unfamiliar beta.

  “It’s fine, honestly,” I said, glancing between them. “Anything will do.”

  Jonah only grimaced at my answer and avoided my eyes.

  “Let’s just see it then,” Yvonne said. She looked briefly at the line of alphas I’d just met. “Maybe with less of a crowd so we don’t overwhelm the omega.”

  “Baby,” Jonah corrected, his eyes narrowing on the woman. I wanted to preen. “Right. Follow me.”

  “It’s no good,” Seth whispered in my ear as Jonah marched with heavy steps to an unmarked door on the far side of the bar. “We’d do up something better for you, honestly.”

  I offered him a smile and then turned to the pack. “It was nice to meet you all.”

  A few managed a smile for me, most were staring at Jonah’s back with worry on their brows. How bad could the nest really be that they all looked so hopeless?

  5

  Baby

  It was truly awful.

  The door Jonah led us through took us downstairs to the basement of the strip mall. The first room was bar supplies; kegs, cases of beer, and cleaning supplies that made my sense of smell shrivel up and want to hide. The second room was a collection of unmarked boxes, simple storage, some broken workout gear, and parts that probably belonged to motorcycles. In the corner was a door. Behind the door was “the nest.”

  It was an empty room, without windows, with stone walls and a cement floor. There was an old wooden bed frame propped in pieces against the far wall.

  “We didn’t get time to put that together yet,” Jonah muttered, looking anywhere but inside the room. “Not really sure this’ll be the place.”

  “This is a cell, not a nest,” Yvonne snapped. “You can’t be serious. This is unacceptable.”

  “It was… the only spot we had when you called,” Jonah said.

  “It wouldn’t be here, precious,” Seth assured me as I studied the space.

  “I think it’s time for us to go,” Yvonne said, but without actually looking at me.

  “Wait!” I shouted, and Jonah and the two betas froze. My hands were up in front of me and my eyes were wide and my heart was pounding.

  No, I did not love the nest. But I stepped inside and offered it every consideration I could. Even the horrible flickering fluorescent lamp hanging overhead.

  “If there was… carpeting. And something on the walls? And we got rid of the overhead lighting…” I said slowly.

  “It would still be a windowless room in the back of a cluster of storage, underground,” Yvonne said, practically spitting.

  “She’s right, Baby,” Jonah said softly, and I turned to find him…close. Closer than he’d gotten yet. Close enough to touch and to smell. And it made the ugly room feel a little better. “Omegas should nest somewhere safe and warm and comfortable. This isn’t any of that.”

  I chewed on my lip and tipped my head back, unconsciously tilting it to the side and offering my throat. A pink tongue flicked out and smoothed over full lips before Jonah caught himself and swallowed, tearing his gaze off my neck.

  “Is there…do you have any other space?” I asked. I glanced at Seth past Jonah’s shoulder. “Somewhere that…smells more like the pack?”

  Jonah swallowed again and rolled back on his heels.

  “We could make you a good nest in my apartment,” Seth said, and Jonah’s head whipped in his direction.

  “A beta’s space isn’t the most ideal,” Yvonne said, some of her temper waning.

  “It sounds nice to me,” I said, and Seth grinned.

  “It wouldn’t— you might not—” Jonah stuttered, and then blurted out. “It’ll smell like me too. We’re— we’ve been— shit.”

  “He’s trying to ask if it bothers you that he and I fuck,” Seth said, grin growing.

  “I beg your pardon?” Yvonne snapped as I gasped.

  Suddenly Jonah seemed to grow in the room, shoulders broadening as his arms crossed over his chest and his features sharpened. “My VP and I are all but bonded. And omega or not, he stays.” His voice boomed in the space, but he wasn’t using his full alpha bark.

  “Unaccept-“

  “That’s fine,” I said before Yvonne could finish. She choked and Jonah coughed, while Seth grinned. I understood the issue now and I knew of one way to settle the situation. “Yvonne, could I have a little time to talk to Jonah and Seth? And a little privacy?”

  Yvonne’s mouth was hanging open as her stare bounced between the three of us. “Fine. Fine. I’ll be by the front door.” She marched right out of the nest and through the storage room, and soon I could hear her heels smacking on the steps up to the bar. I sighed as she left and passed Jonah in favor of curling into Seth's side, his arm wrapping around me and his nose dipping into my hair for a quick sniff.

  “I didn’t want to agree with her but she is right, I don’t really like it down here. That’s not a deal-breaker, though.”

  “We’ll find you somewhere better, precious. For now, let’s take her to the office, yeah, Scorch?”

  “The office?” Jonah repeated numbly.

  “Yeah,” Seth said, eyebrows raising over bright green eyes.

  Jonah’s throat cleared, and he led the way to the office, glancing back regularly as if he were afraid we weren’t following. Or as if he just enjoyed seeing me cling to his beta. I hoped it was the latter.

  Upstairs in the bar, the alphas were whispering as we returned, voices dying out as we crossed the space.

  “You leavin’, Baby?” Dusty called out.

  “Not yet,” I answered as we headed for another door, this one with a crown emblazoned in glossy black over its surface.

  “That’s a good sign, at least,” Dusty whispered to the others.

  Jonah’s office bowled me over with his scent, so much so that Seth scooped me up off my feet and then curled up on a large leather couch against the wall with me in his lap. Apple pie and bright lemon. Ohhhh it smelled like both of them. I whimpered and squirmed as arousal tackled me with full force, tucking my face against Seth's neck as I tried to regulate my breathing.

  “The fucking office, Bomber?” Jonah hissed.

  “What? She likes it.”

  I loved it. I wanted to strip and beg, yeah. But also I wanted to grab five blankets and cuddle into this couch and never leave.

  “Can this be my nest?” I asked, words trembling as I crossed my legs in an effort to keep myself from straddling and humping Seth.

  Seth laughed and Jonah sucked in a breath. “Baby girl, you can have absolutely anywhere to nest you want,” Jonah ground out, alpha growl coated in sweetness.

  Baby girl, that was what I’d been waiting to hear. I smiled and forced myself to relax, melting in Seth's arms and letting my head relax back on his shoulder. Jonah was staring at us together with open hunger, his hands clamped around his knees as he sat in a chair in front of a wide desk facing us. Behind him, on the right side of the room, a narrow door led to a tiled bathroom and I could glimpse a shower stall inside. It would work as a nest. Small, faint lighting, a bathroom, but the busy bar next door would be an irritation.

  “About the two of you,” I said, watching tension snap Jonah back into place. “They said at the Center that omegas sometimes take…offense to smelling their alphas on others.”

  “If by taking offense, you mean get in a snitty rage,” Seth murmured.

  “
Yeah, well. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”

  Jonah was frozen, and I thought he might leave bruises on himself with how pale his fingers were turning on his knees. “You don’t?”

  I shook my head. “I… I mean, okay, I lived as a beta for like my entire life until now. Not one instance of omega in my family, and… I liked being a beta. I liked…you know. Havingsexwithbetas.”

  Seth grunted and his arms tightened around my waist at the announcement. Jonah’s lips began to curl and his pheromones thickened in the room.

  “And I like the way you smell on him,” I finished, knowing I must have been tomato red by then. I twisted to catch Seth's eye. “I like the way you smell on your own, too. So as far as I’m concerned, if I choose this pack, I choose you with it.”

  Seth's expression was soft, eyes heavy-lidded, and since he was a beta he ignored Yvonne’s scent-marking rules and dipped his head down, cheek nuzzling against mine and lips barely catching the corner of my own. No alpha would catch him under all the perfuming I was doing anyway, but I liked the hints of him I was able to smell. I sighed and across from us, Jonah began to rumble an alpha’s contented purr.

  “Do omega’s change their mind about this kind of thing when a bond takes?” Seth whispered, lifting his head from mine and looking to Jonah.

  “From what I heard, omegas who want to will rearrange packs from the start, bond or not,” Jonah said, still staring at me.

  “When I— if I do choose… the Center says I should find a pack for my heat, and they think my heat is nearly here. I just—it’s all happening fast, and it’s a lot,” I rambled, searching for the words.

  “Everything will be at your pace, baby girl,” Jonah said, the purr lingering in his tone. He stood and crossed the empty space, sinking down on the open cushion so that he was inches away from me. Not touching, but leaving me with all the effects. His head dipped close, and Seth kept a tight hold on me to prevent me from arching into the alpha. “No bonds till you say so. No mating. No marking. You choose us and you’ll have us wrapped around your finger from day one.”