by Tanya Chris
So he knew Gage was a beta, but there was obviously something he didn’t understand, and Gage’s stricken expression told him that understanding it was really important—that if he didn’t understand it he might lose this whole sexy, ego-affirming thing they had going on, so he didn’t say any of what he’d just thought.
Instead he said, “OK.”
Chapter 5 Gage
“OK.”
Gage waited for what came next—for the questions, the corrections, the condemnation, for Ryker to laugh or tell him not to be ridiculous or ask him what that even meant—but all Ryker said was OK. His hand rested lightly on the back of Gage’s head, encouraging Gage’s nose forward into his sack like he was exactly the omega he’d just declared himself to be.
He opened his mouth and let the words pour out—telling Ryker how he’d always known he was an omega, how from the moment he’d learned that he was a beta and what that meant, he’d known it wasn’t true. He told Ryker how much it hurt to be misidentified, how he’d left pack land because he couldn’t stand the way he disappointed people by not being a good beta and the way they disappointed him by not treating him like an omega. He told Ryker about his dreams of being claimed by an alpha like him, of how he could never have those dreams, of how the last twelve hours had been the most wonderful hours of his life.
At some point he started crying, not out of sadness really, though it hurt to relive some of the memories he shared, but more out of the relief that came from letting it all out, from saying it all the way through without interruption or disbelief. He’d tried to explain himself to a few people before—his mother, his sister, his best friend from school—but he’d never gotten far before being derailed, corrected, questioned into giving up on trying to get them to understand.
He’d started his confession by talking into Ryker’s groin, because Ryker’s balls smelled like safety and talking to his crotch was easier than meeting his eyes, but at some point Ryker had picked him up like he was a puppy and curled him into his lap, so he finished by talking into Ryker’s neck, which smelled almost as good as his balls.
The words dried up, his tears drying up with them. Ryker pressed a kiss into his hair, his arms still strong around him, and they rocked silently together.
“OK.”
“OK?” Gage questioned. “What does that mean?”
“It means I get it. You’re an omega. I think I already knew that, really. I knotted you, didn’t I? I never knotted any of the real—the other omegas I fucked. Never knotted anyone.”
“Never?” It’d been Gage’s first time too. He loved that they’d shared that with each other.
“Never,” Ryker repeated. “So where did the knot come from if my body didn’t know you were an omega? And the pheromones, too. I emit like crazy when I’m with you. It’s like I knew your omega was in there, only it was behind a shell, like.”
A shell.
“Now that you’ve cracked the shell, I see it. I see you.”
Gage burst into tears again, happy ones this time. Ryker saw him. Ryker saw his omega. It was the most wonderful, glorious, affirming, loving thing anyone had ever said to him. Ryker must have understood where these tears came from, because he didn’t try to stop them, only kept Gage close until he was limp and snuffling against Ryker’s chest.
He was covered in tears and snot and they were both naked without a single tissue at hand, not even a sleeve to use as one, so Ryker licked him clean—tears and snot both. It should have been gross, but it was a very wolfy gesture, and for a change Gage wasn’t at war with being a wolf. He was his alpha’s little omega—cared for and safe.
“And that’s why you don’t want to live on pack land,” Ryker said, the regret evident in his voice. “I was hoping, but … I guess not, huh?”
Gage couldn’t contradict him. He really, really liked being on Ryker’s lap, but he didn’t couldn’t live on there.
“But as long you are here, will you be my omega?”
Gage nodded enthusiastically.
“Then it’s OK if I knot you again, right? Like, every time actually, because I’m going to want to do that every time. That’s OK, right?”
Gage nodded even more enthusiastically. He squirmed around in Ryker’s arms until he straddled him. “Now?”
“No, not now.” Ryker held him back with one hand when he tried to squirm closer. “You were going to get fucked after breakfast, but now we’re behind schedule.”
He tried to crawl back down between Ryker’s legs to get at his cock, which was full and hard and totally on board with his plan to fuck before they left—what was the rush?—but Ryker pulled him to his feet with a harsh hand in his hair.
“Be a good boy,” he ordered. “Go get dressed. We’ll shift when we get across town. I can’t wait to see my little omega wolf.”
“But you said if I was good …” His wheedling was interrupted by a hearty growl.
“What did I just tell you to do?”
“Get dressed.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“Get dressed.” He stomped off to the bedroom to find his clothes, his hard-on not the least bit dampened by that show of dominance. He liked being told what to do, but he’d much rather be told to get naked than told to get dressed.
He’d barely cleared the doorway before a blur of muscle and teeth tackled him onto the bed.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,” Ryker said as he nipped Gage’s startled shriek into submission.
“What?”
“Shaking that hot ass at me.”
He craned his neck, trying to peer over his shoulder at his ass to verify that it was hot, but his ass was thoroughly covered in Ryker.
“This what you want?” Ryker poked his cock between Gage’s ass cheeks so the head of it bumped up against his hole seeking entrance. “I’m not going easy on you,” he warned, even as he leaned over to snag the lube from the floor where he’d dropped it the night before.
Gage heard Ryker give himself a quick coat of lube, but Ryker didn’t finger him open. He was still loose from the night before, slightly slick with lube and Ryker’s load, and the burn of entry was exactly right.
Ryker moved fast, just like he’d promise. Gage’s cock chafed against the mattress until Ryker’s hand found him.
“Oh, please,” he begged, twisting into it, pushing back and fucking down all at the same time.
“Give it to me, little one.” Ryker sank himself to the hilt and stilled, his knot forming a slight distension at the base of his cock. “Give me everything you got.”
Ryker pumped once and Gage came with a scream. His orgasm triggered Ryker’s, causing his knot to swell to full-size in an instant. The sudden pressure against Gage’s prostate prolonged his orgasm so that it seemed to last forever, his cock trickling its release into Ryker’s hand as Ryker’s cock pumped him full of come.
“Happy now?” Ryker asked. “Now we’re stuck here.”
He was happy now, and the warm press of Ryker’s lips against his throat told him Ryker was happy too. What was another fifteen minutes? His sister was waiting for him to return, that was true, and he’d only taken a two week leave from work, most of which he’d burned just getting to North Leland, but he’d call and extend it.
More time off without pay wouldn’t do his bills any good, but the financial loss would be worth it. He couldn’t just drop Carmen off and run. That would be rude. And later, when he was back in human territory alone in his apartment or beneath some human who couldn’t knot him even if he wanted to, he’d replay his time here, would relive every single beautiful moment of the days he’d belonged Ryker.
There really was no hurry.
~~~
The next few days passed way too fast. Shifting had been hard the first time—jerky and painful. He’d been momentarily afraid he wouldn’t make it, that he’d be stuck in a half-transformed state, but once he had all four paws on the ground, he was flooded with a sense of rightness.
Running through the woods with Ryker was fun. Ryker’s wolf was giant—much bigger than his own—and dark like midnight shadows. His eyes were as dark as his fur, startling in their intensity, hard like stone and ever-alert, but Gage caught the gleam of affection in them when he couldn’t keep himself from sniffing at every bush and bug, from leaping over fallen logs just to feel the power of his haunches or clawing at the few unmarked trees. His wolf loved being free again.
Ryker kept them moving most of the day, but there were breaks, which sometimes included sex. Gage had never had sex in his wolf form before and he loved it, loved how feral and unadorned it was. Wolf sex was perfect for quickies—no foreplay or fondling, just Ryker pouncing on him, tearing at him with claws and teeth until Gage rolled his belly up in submission, and then taking him, hard and fast, claws digging into his sides, teeth sunk into the thick fur along his neck. If only Ryker would bite him like that when they were in human form—if only Ryker would claim him—it would be perfect.
Gage rarely came when they fucked as wolves. There were no hands to help his eager cock along, no soft sheets to rub it against, and Ryker was quick to come himself—all fuck and no foreplay. Afterwards, he’d surround Gage’s cock with his mouth, fangs nipping carefully but much too closely, and shake it side-to-side while Gage held his breath. Then he’d move away, barking at Gage to follow. He did it to show that he knew Gage hadn’t come and that he didn’t give a fuck and Gage secretly loved it, even if he did make whiny complaining sounds in the back of his throat. The denial made him come so much harder the next time.
At night they hunted. Gage could catch game as well as any wolf, but sometimes Ryker dropped a squirrel at his feet anyway. It reminded him of how Ryker had looked coming through the door at his house that night—magnificently naked, reeking of adrenalin, traces of blood smeared across his mouth, with his catch in hand. Sometimes Gage was slower to catch his own prey than he could have been.
After dinner, they’d shift into human form and Ryker would build a fire to keep their skin warm. That was when the good sex happened, complete with knotting thanks to Gage’s foresight in tucking the bottle of lube into one of the side pockets of his backpack. Knotting never got old and it wasn’t like there was a lot to do out in the woods after dark. Lying together, joined by Ryker’s knot, pleasure ricocheting between them while they gazed into the fire—it was all the entertainment they needed.
It took them almost four days to reach the edge of pack land, so either Ryker didn’t really know the most direct route or he’d been purposely following an indirect one. Gage got dressed with slow precision while Ryker lay stretched out naked on the grass, preening for the humans who walked the edge of wolf territory hoping to catch sight of a naked wolf.
Ryker hadn’t packed any clothes for himself, so Gage went into town to fetch his sister alone. A short walk brought him to the hotel he’d stashed her in. She must have smelled him coming because he’d barely touched the door before she jerked it open.
“Jeez, Carmen. You can’t open the door naked.”
Wolves fresh out of pack territory had no sense of human decorum, not that he was a great model of humanity himself at the moment. He hadn’t showered since Ryker’s house, and his clothes looked like they’d been crammed into a backpack, which they had been. His hair was scraggly, and he knew he must smell like sweat and Ryker and come.
He pushed Carmen back and got the door closed behind him. She wasn’t completely naked, he noticed. She was, for some reason, wearing socks—green striped knee socks that looked very fetching against her copper-colored skin. That was wolves for you. They dressed for ornament, not for function or modesty.
He could only hope she hadn’t been walking around town like that, but the way she paced while he hopped in and out of the shower told him she probably hadn’t left the room at all, which made him feel guilty over how long he’d been gone and how much fun he’d had while he was away. He remembered his own loneliness and fear when he’d first joined the human world. Everyone was so cold and distant, and their customs were so foreign.
Once he’d gotten re-dressed—because he’d spent enough time amongst humans now that being nude was an uncomfortable mix of sexy and embarrassing—he sidled up to Carmen and nosed into her hair. They were just about the same height with similar falls of reddish-brown hair, though Carmen’s fell all the way to her waist and his stopped just below his shoulders.
Carmen nosed back and they worked their way into a sprawling wolfy hug on the ground, soaking up each other’s scents and expressing without words that they were happy to be reunited. Carmen smelled like home. She’d grown taller in the years he’d been away—and a lot more stubborn—but she still smelled the same.
When they’d finished snuffling their hellos, Gage filled his sister in on what he’d learned about North Leland.
“They won’t send me back to Rio Verde?” she asked.
“They say they won’t. The Immigration Officer—he’s a very nice alpha—he says they don’t extradite to packs who haven’t joined the Omega Rights Coalition, which our pack hasn’t.”
“Alphas, though,” Carmen said. “They’ll say anything to get an omega to do what they want.”
Gage didn’t blame her for feeling that way. Their father was a pretty good example of an alpha who considered honesty secondary to dominance.
“I trust this one,” he told her. “He’s waiting for us. He came with me so he can provide an escort back.”
“Why can’t you escort me?”
“You know how I feel about doing beta things.”
“Great Moon, Gage. Are you still on that? I thought living in human territory was going to help you feel better about yourself.”
“It did.”
He pushed out of Carmen’s arms. Carmen loved him, he knew, but she’d never understood him. When she’d been small and he’d been like a surrogate parent to her, their relationship had been perfect. She’d never questioned his tendency to nurture, not when she’d been an eager recipient of it herself. But once she entered her teen years and became aware of her own caste, she started to develop opinions about his.
He’d tried to explain himself to her more than once. He wasn’t going to try again. Ryker was waiting for him less than a quarter mile away. And Ryker understood.
“Why don’t you get packed?” he suggested, climbing to his feet to put more distance between them. He’d see her settled in North Leland because he loved her enough to want her to be happy, even if she didn’t love him enough to want the same.
While he watched her pack up her odd assortment of clothes that didn’t cover anything worth covering and the collection of useless-but-pretty items she’d picked up before arriving on his doorstep, as though she were still the child he’d once carried on his hip, he used his phone to check in with work. A few half-truths eventually netted him an extension of his leave of absence until the end of the month, which was a reassuring two-plus weeks away. Plenty of time for Carmen to get settled and for him and Ryker to fuck each other blind.
“Is North Leland that far away?” Carmen asked when he hung up.
“I figured I’d stick around and make sure you were happy there,” he sort of lied. “The trip should only take us two or three days if we travel as wolves.”
“Oh, please, let’s travel as wolves,” she said with an exaggerated grimace. “I’ve been going stir crazy cooped up in this little room stuck in human form. Fucking clothes.” She pulled at the sweater she’d just put on like she was ready to rip it back off. “And nothing to do except look at that stupid thing.” She flung an accusatory finger at the flat-screen television hanging on the wall over the dresser. “I don’t know how humans stand it.”
He had to admit that he hadn’t missed either television or his phone. He’d much rather be with Ryker curled up post-sex or running between the trees than scroll through updates. Social media was the antidote to a loneliness he didn’t feel when he and Ryker were togeth
er.
“Never mind how humans stand it,” Carmen said, still flinging her belongings around haphazardly. “How do you stand it? Is being called ‘Beta Gage’ really so horrible that you’d give up pack life to live like this?”
“Yes.” He wished it wasn’t, because he’d like to stay with Ryker, assuming Ryker wanted him, but Ryker was only one wolf out of the hundreds who lived in North Leland—each one of whom would have an opinion about who Gage was.
“Well, that’s just stupid,” Carmen went on, “because you know what? Being an omega sucks. You really think you’d enjoy being mated to whatever alpha greased Dad’s hand the slickest? Conned by your own body into accepting a claim from someone you’d never look at twice if it weren’t for pheromones?”
Gage shrugged. No, he wouldn’t like that, and he didn’t want it for his sister either, but that wasn’t the point.
“I wanted to apprentice to our pack shaman,” she continued, oblivious to the effect her words were having on him, “but Dad wouldn’t let me. Why waste the time when I was destined to be some alpha’s bitch, to bear his pups and never have a say in my own future? You’re a beta, Gage. That means you can do whatever the fuck you want. Try to enjoy it instead of whining about it.”
“I wanted to teach little kids,” he reminded her. “And no, I wasn’t allowed to do that, because only omegas work with the little ones. Betas are supposed to teach math or science. And as for the rest of that, that’s why we’re taking you to North Leland. Not all alphas are like Dad. He’s just an asshole.”
“I don’t care how progressive the Northern Pack is, it’s not going to fix my biology. Some smelly alpha noses along at the right time and bang! I’m in heat and begging to be claimed. Trust me, Gage. You don’t want to be an omega. I don’t want to be an omega. I’d much rather be a beta.”
“But you’re not a beta.”
“And you’re not an omega.”
“I am. I should be. It’s … it’s different what you’re saying and what I’m feeling. I know that not everything about being an omega is roses. I know that. But it’s like you said—it’s what I am. I’m not weighing the pros and cons; it’s not about laws or roles. It’s just who I am.”
