Omega Revealed

by Tanya Chris

  Annoyingly, tears started running down his face, flowing over no matter how hard he tried to hold them back. He’d almost thought Ryker would be worth living in wolf territory for, but no. He couldn’t. He really couldn’t.

  “Oh, Great Moon,” Carmen huffed. “Don’t cry. I swear, you’re sensitive enough to be an omega.”

  That only made him cry harder. Eventually he cried hard enough to stop Carmen’s ranting and trigger her nurturing instinct. She came over and sat down next to him on the bed and ran her hand up his arm.

  “Come on, now. You know I love you. You’re my brother, whether omega or beta or cheeseburger.” She laughed, but he couldn’t bring himself to laugh with her. “It really doesn’t matter what label you put on it. We should all just be able to be whoever. You can teach kids and I can be a doctor. You can find a nice alpha to play house with and I shouldn’t have to if I don’t want to. It shouldn’t make a difference what caste we were born into. I’m on your side about that, OK?”

  She rubbed and petted and soothed, but she still didn’t get it and he was exhausted with trying to explain it.

  He stopped crying, which she took as a sign that he was no longer unhappy, because only Ryker ever seemed to notice when he was unhappy without him making a production out of it. He helped her get the rest of her belongings corralled into her backpack and then he led them towards where he’d left Ryker, his footsteps dragging. He’d had a lovely few days on the road pretending like he and Ryker could live that way forever, but Carmen reminded him of the truth.

  Ryker was on his feet as they approached, pacing along the line of shrubs that marked the border between human and wolf territory, no longer sprawled in idle contentment. He grabbed Gage as soon as Gage got into grabbing range and pulled him against his body, stuffing Gage’s face into that valley between his pecs. Gage didn’t waste breath asking why. He just inhaled.

  “What’s wrong?” Ryker asked. “I could smell you coming before I could even see you. Who got you upset?”

  “I guess that would be me,” Carmen said. “Why’s that guy groping at you like he owns you?” she asked Gage.

  “This is Alpha Ryker.” Gage tried to pull himself away from Ryker so he could make the introduction, but he didn’t get very far. “That’s my sister, Carmen,” he mumbled into Ryker’s chest.

  “I figured. What’d she do to you?”

  “You didn’t explain why you’re groping him.”

  “He’s my omega.”

  “He’s not anyone’s omega, and he’s not your anything.”

  Ryker growled. Gage patted Ryker’s chest to calm him down.

  “It’s a temporary thing,” Gage told his sister. “He’s taking care of me. And Carmen didn’t mean to upset me, OK? We got off on the wrong foot here. Let’s do this again.” He managed to push himself out of Ryker’s arms. “Ryker, this is my sister, Carmen. Carmen, this is Alpha Ryker who courteously agreed to escort us to North Leland.”

  “Welcome to Northern Pack territory,” Ryker said in a stiltedly formal voice nothing like the one he’d used to welcome Gage. “It’s our pleasure to extend an offer of citizenship to you.”

  Carmen gave Gage a look like she was asking if Ryker was for real, but she shook Ryker’s hand and said, “Sounds like a great place to live. Now could we please fucking shift already?”

  The trip back went a lot quicker than the trip out. There weren’t any sex breaks, for one thing, or fires either. They remained in wolf form the first night, all three of them curling together for warmth. Ryker kept them moving past dusk on the second day, and before the moon had fully risen, they burst out of the forest into North Leland. It seemed Ryker really did know the direct path if he was sufficiently motivated.

  The three of them padded across the empty market space by moonlight, not shifting until they reached Ryker’s front door. A nice thing about being wolves was you didn’t have to talk. Once they were all back in human form, staring at each other across Ryker’s mostly-empty living room, not talking became awkward.

  “There’s only the one bedroom,” Ryker said. He scratched his neck and looked between him and Carmen. Ryker had been a good head wolf on their journey—making sure everyone kept up and that both of his charges caught enough to eat—but now that he was back in human form, his initial hostility to Carmen seemed to have re-surfaced.

  “I’ll sleep out here,” Carmen offered, “since you two obviously want to get it on, which, by the way, Gage, you wouldn’t be able to do if you weren’t a beta. Just FYI, fucking around is one of those beta privileges you’re so eager to give up.”

  “In North Leland, omegas can fuck around all they want,” Ryker said. “We changed the law. They can fuck, knot, whatever, and they don’t have to accept a claim if they don’t want to. So it’s not a problem for me and Gage to sleep together.”

  “Wouldn’t be a problem anyway, ’cause he’s not an omega.”

  “As an omega, Gage can—”

  “Except he’s not an omega,” Carmen interrupted.

  A low growl ripped from Ryker’s chest. “As an omega,” he repeated, enunciating every word, “Gage can fuck whoever he wants. And as a guest in my home, you’re going to respect him.”

  “Ryker.” He tugged on Ryker’s arm. As heart-warming as it was to have someone defend him for the first time ever, he couldn’t really allow his sister to be put out on the streets of a strange town. Ryker didn’t pay him any mind though. He just advanced on Carmen with an alpha scowl until she backed down.

  “Fine,” she said, all huff and no remorse. “As an omega, Gage can fuck whoever he wants.” She flounced over to the couch and dropped down on it with her back to them and her arms crossed.

  “Gage will get you some blankets.”

  Ryker stalked regally into his bedroom, leaving Gage standing in the middle of the living room with no idea where extra blankets might be. Well, it was a small house. He’d find them. And Ryker was so going to get laid that night.

  Chapter 6 Ryker

  Ryker kept his arm firmly around Gage as they crossed the square on their way to the Immigration Office the next morning. Carmen stomped petulantly along on Gage’s other side. Breakfast with Carmen hadn’t been as fun as when he’d handfed Gage naked at his feet, but it’d been nice having a wide, soft bed to screw around in last night and he hadn’t had to worry about Gage getting cold in his sleep.

  He could tell that Gage was cold now, despite being fully dressed in comparison to his mostly-naked self. There wasn’t enough meat on Gage. He ran a hand up and down Gage’s arm, feeling the fabric slide along his soft flesh. The frosts would be coming soon. They needed to get him a coat.

  Except he wouldn’t be staying, he reminded himself. Gage was only his temporarily.

  He pulled Gage harder into his side because he didn’t like that thought. Gage turned his face up in question and he leaned down and kissed him lightly without breaking stride. Gage had said he had to be back to work in two weeks. That meant he had ten days left to figure out how to make it OK for Gage to stay. Or make up his mind to go with him.

  When they got to the Immigration Office, he deposited Carmen in the reception area so Macy could deal with the disrespectful brat, then dragged Gage into his office so they could act out one of those omega porn scenarios he had in his DVD collection.

  He sat down at his desk and stuffed Gage into the knee cubby beneath it. Gage didn’t even need instructions. He went right for Ryker’s cock with his eager little hands.

  “I’ve got some calls to make,” Ryker lied. In a porno, there’d be someone in the guest chair watching him pretend he wasn’t being blown, but someone on the other end of the phone would do as well. He dialed a co-worker in the Mayor’s office as Gage’s mouth descended over the head of his cock and down his thickening shaft.

  It was a good thing he didn’t really have anything important to cover with Alpha Tage because talking while getting a blowjob was way harder than the actors in those videos made it
look. Or maybe Gage was just way better at sucking cock, because Ryker found himself saying um a whole lot and the ums started sounding more and more like moans and were surrounded less and less by other coherent syllables.

  “If now’s not a good time …” Alpha Tage drawled, like he had an idea what was going on. Ryker was maybe not the only one who’d had this fantasy.

  “Yeah, I should go,” he said quickly. He hung up the phone and then pretended to call someone else, but he was a bad pretender because he couldn’t stop himself from saying things like “you suck it so good” and “take it all, little one” in between fake business-like comments, plus he had both hands under the desk, guiding and controlling Gage’s mouth, but Gage went right on sucking no matter how bad his pretending got.

  He closed his eyes and imagined there was someone in his guest chair and, fuck, his imaginary guest could just watch him get a blowjob. He didn’t have to be all professional about it. He spread his legs wider and pushed back from his desk so his guest could see Gage’s head bob up and down. Certainly, his guest could hear Gage—the choked whimpers and the happy humming. Probably smell him too.

  Ryker took a deep breath of turned-on Gage scent. Alphas always claimed the best smell in the world was omega in heat, but he’d smelled omega in heat before and it wasn’t half as good as turned-on Gage. He liked making Gage come, liked the silly screwed-up face he made while he did it, and liked that satisfied smell on him afterwards, but it wasn’t as good as Gage turned on. Fucking glorious.

  The smell alone could make him come, but the smell plus the fantasy plus—ok, mostly—Gage’s hot, hungry mouth sucking and licking and nipping and making those sounds—there was no resisting his orgasm. Every time Gage made him come, it broke a new barrier, set a new high.

  “So good, little one.” He stroked the top of Gage’s head in reward as Gage licked him clean. “You’re my good boy.”

  He was considering what other fake thing he could do at his desk when the door opened and Prince Angel’s head popped through.

  “Done?” Angel didn’t wait for an answer, just invited himself right in. “Macy asked Leo to give Omega Carmen a tour, so I figured I’d stop in with him.”

  Ryker pulled Gage up by the scruff so he could introduce him to Prince Angel. He should’ve gotten Gage naked before he’d started this little fantasy, he realized. He could smell Gage’s arousal easily enough, but it was harder to see through his clothes, and he sort of wanted to parade it in front of Angel.

  “Gage, this is Head Alpha Marta’s son, Prince Angel.”

  “Oh, just Angel. You know I don’t use my title.”

  “And this is Omega Gage.”

  “Omega—?”

  Ryker cut Angel off before he could finish the question he’d been about to ask. “My omega,” he said with a rumbled growl of warning.

  “OK,” Angel drawled. “Not going to fight you for him.” He shook Gage’s hand warmly. “Welcome to North Leland, Omega Gage.”

  Ryker felt a flush of pride that he lived in a place like North Leland run by people like Prince Angel. Head Alpha Marta had been working to make their society more omega-friendly for years, but things had started moving faster once Prince Angel and his mate—no, not mate; husband—had moved back to town. Angel and Leo were married according to human law, Ryker reminded himself. They wore matching wedding bands instead of claiming bites.

  “Are you immigrating as well?” Angel asked Gage.

  Gage shook his head, which lowered Ryker’s spirits again. As far as North Leland had progressed, it still wasn’t enough for Gage. And he couldn’t be enough either. He could keep Gage warm, hunt for him, growl at people who misidentified him, but he couldn’t change wolf culture, couldn’t prevent introductions like this one from happening over and over.

  In fact, they still had to introduce Gage to Leo who was hanging out in the lobby with Macy and Carmen. Angel took the lead on that one and Leo followed it smoothly, the way strong mates did with each other. Or husbands. Whatever they were, it worked for them.

  “I’d rather Macy took me,” Carmen complained when they tried to get her to leave for her tour with Leo. “Macy’s been telling me all about North Leland and she knows so much. I’m sure she knows everything.”

  “Leo came here specifically to give you a tour,” Gage said. “Wouldn’t you rather get an omega’s point of view?”

  “I’d rather get Macy’s point of view,” Carmen insisted. She wore a long knitted scarf swirled dramatically around her neck and torso, and she was half-sprawled on the chest-height counter that separated Macy’s desk from the reception room, as though she wanted to crawl across it.

  Ryker didn’t understand the fascination. Macy would give a very dry tour—all facts and figures—but this was his chance to do Carmen a favor, maybe ease some of the tension between them, so why not?

  “I can watch the shop,” he offered, giving Macy a nod of agreement. “Go ahead and show Carmen around. Maybe she could spend the night at one of the omega houses, see how she likes it.”

  Carmen’s quick glance in his direction told him he wasn’t being as subtle about wanting her out of the house as he thought he was, but she turned back to Macy with a smile and watched with rapt fascination while Macy shut down her workstation and packed up her desk. Carmen’s admiring gaze changed to one of surprise when Macy came around from behind the counter.

  Macy had on a shapeless sack of a dress that reached to about mid-thigh, below which the metal prosthesis on her lower leg was easily visible. She crossed over to their coat rack to put on her coat as Carmen gawked at her.

  “What happened?” Carmen asked, jumping right in where it wasn’t her business again, but Macy handled her nosiness with her usual aplomb.

  “I got my leg caught in a trap one day running around in human territory. I had to chew it off to get free.”

  “Would a hunter have killed you if he’d found you?”

  “Possibly. I shouldn’t have been in that stretch of woods. Full of traps. Our territory runs north of here for another fifty miles, but be sure you don’t go beyond that.”

  “I won’t,” Carmen promised. “I could never chew my own leg off.”

  “You could if you had to,” Macy told her. “What has to be done has to be done.”

  From what Ryker remembered of the form Gage had filled out, Carmen was twenty-two, only four years younger than Macy, but Macy was an adult whereas Carmen seemed a little … volatile. He was glad Macy was taking charge of her for the afternoon. Maybe he and Gage could even have the evening to themselves.

  “I’m sorry for the wasted trip,” he apologized to Leo when Macy and Carmen had cleared out.

  Leo shrugged. “I didn’t have anything going on. Would you like a tour, Omega Gage? Maybe we can convince you to stay with us too.”

  Gage looked up at him for direction and he pursed his lips in consideration. It would be sweet to spend the afternoon playing with Gage, but he’d just offered to hold down the fort. He should probably act as if there was something to be held down.

  “Go on,” he told Gage. “Have fun.” He gave Gage a possessive kiss and Angel gave Leo a more dignified one and they watched their omegas trot off together.

  “So,” Angel said, “what was all that ‘my omega’ posturing? You’re not mated and he’s not—”

  Ryker interrupted him again. Even if Gage wasn’t close enough to overhear, he didn’t want Angel to say that out loud. He explained about Gage’s smell being different from his true caste and about the temporary nature of their relationship.

  “I wish he was my omega,” he finished.

  “You don’t care about him … not smelling right?”

  “He smells perfect,” Ryker quarreled. “And no, I don’t care. But he does. That’s why he won’t stay here, and I hate the idea of moving back to human territory. I’m kind of useless there.”

  He was a typical alpha wolf—all brawn and survival skills and the urge to run and rut, none of
which was helpful in human territory. Truthfully, he wasn’t all that useful on pack land either. For all those grandiose dreams of being a hero he’d had in his youth, until Gage had come along, he’d never had any purpose at all.

  “I think we could register him as an omega,” Angel offered. “I’ll talk to Marta, but I can’t see her objecting. I guess part of giving omegas freedom should be giving them the freedom to be omegas.”

  “A checkbox on a form isn’t going to make the wolves he comes in contact with identify him correctly.”

  “No, but it’s a small town. In time, everyone will learn.”

  “And half of them will be assholes about it.”

  Angel acknowledged that with a grimace. Ryker paced back into his office and dropped down into the chair he’d been sitting in while Gage gave him that great blowjob, which now seemed forever ago. He couldn’t ask Gage to routinely endure the pain of misidentification just so he could get laid, even if screwing around with Gage took ‘getting laid’ to a whole new level, both physically and emotionally.

  “There might be another way,” Angel said. He followed Ryker into his office and helped himself to Ryker’s guest chair. “Leo had some trouble with his heats last year. He ended up in a human hospital where he met a doctor, an endocrinologist, who’s been working on heat suppressants. She’s a beta—originally from the Southern Pack actually. She moved here a few months ago so she’d have better access to test subjects.”

  “Gage doesn’t get heats.”

  “Right, I get it, but Dr. Petra knows more about omega biology than anyone on pack land. She developed this nasal spray that would’ve prevented Leo from smelling alpha pheromones, which—” Angel shuddered “—was a definite no, but if she could do that, maybe she can figure out how to make Gage smell more like an omega. Even smelling like nothing would be better, right?”

  Gage smelling like nothing wouldn’t better for Ryker, but if it was better for Gage, he’d live with it. Especially if it meant Gage would stay.