Starry Skies for My Omega

by Marianna Forrest

  Lukas gripped Owen’s shirt hard, tucking his head under the alpha’s chin. Owen growled low in his throat before releasing Lukas and calming himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

  “It’s getting everywhere,” Lukas whispered.

  Owen cracked open his eyes, glancing warily.

  “Your batter. Fruit of your loi–” Lukas cleared his throat. “–labor,” he smiled innocently.

  Before Owen could reply, the doorbell rang again, and again, before finally, it became a continuous string of noise.

  “Eliseo, I’ll be there in a minute, for Pete’s sake!” Lukas yelled over the chimes.

  A muffled voice came from the other side of the door, “You know–”

  Lukas pulled open the door, allowing the full force of Eliseo’s voice to pierce the house.

  “– how I feel about Pete, Lukas!” Eliseo grinned as he fell forward through the doorway dramatically, languidly draping his arms over Lukas’ shoulders to balance himself.

  His grin was short-lived. A yelp escaped his lips as a young Asian man cuffed him lightly over the head.

  “You’re too loud, Eliseo. I swear, one day, that mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble.”

  “Why’re you like that, Sawyer? I’ll have you know, my mouth has made a lot of people happy.” Eliseo stuck out his tongue at the passing man, arms crossed.

  Sawyer cringed, turning to face Eliseo with a look of shock.

  “Get your mind out of the gutter,” Eliseo laughed. “Anyway, we have brought offerings.” He turned to Lukas.

  “Offerings? What for?” Lukas asked, peeking in the bags and boxes Sawyer was hauling in.

  Owen rushed off to help as Eliseo gaped.

  “You’re joking, right? Nobody told you?”

  “Oh, you’re right. It completely slipped my mind. I forgot today was the annual sacrifice to the ancestors of Purrgak-ron, The Seventh! Why, I should be publicly whipped and shamed for that slight!”

  “Okay, I don’t know what sort of stuff you and Owen are into, but it’s nothing like that.” Sawyer gave a wary side-look, then stepped back into the house. “By the way, look who we found creeping around outside.” Sawyer motioned with his head back toward the door.

  “Greetings to the happy couple.” Archer stepped halfway through the doorway, waving. “I have brought company, and we both brought food. You may thank us now.” Archer bowed quickly.

  Turning back, Archer dragged Mr. Yorke into the house, barely giving the man time to exchange pleasantries with Lukas and Eliseo. Mimosa followed the two men closely, sticking close to Mr. Yorke.

  “Now, have we got a treat for you two.” Archer clapped his hands together. “But first, introducing the lovely Sienna, and her peppy teenybopper, Hazel!”

  Hazel bounded into the house, zooming past Archer and Eliseo to hug Lukas. A soft wheeze drifted from his mouth as something hard dug into his side. He looked down and saw the face of the Merida doll squished between Hazel and him.

  “Hazel, manners, sweetie! Don’t go rushing around when there are so many people walking!” Sienna called out, dropping some bags off in the living room.

  “Don’t forget us! Dahlia Debonair and Andre Affable!” a woman’s voice cackled over the ruckus of the living room. Hazel released her grip on Lukas and ran to greet her grandparents.

  Archer gasped, placing both hands on his face. “She outdid me in the name game. I am not worthy.”

  The man quickly scampered over to Dahlia, kowtowing before her.

  “Teach me your ways, Mistress of the Gift of Gab.”

  The once silent house was filled with voices and chatter. In the fuss, Owen had managed to squeeze through everyone to stand next to Lukas.

  “I’m gonna cowbell them,” Lukas whispered just loud enough so Owen could hear.

  “What? Now is not the time to be dirty.”

  “No, I’m literally gonna.” Lukas snuck off to the kitchen and returned with an item cradled delicately in his hands so it wouldn’t make noise prematurely.

  “No way.” Owen grinned widely. “Do it. Do it now.”

  Lukas swung the cowbell with all his might and cringed at the deafening noise that came from it. The chatter in the living room died down instantly, and everyone stared in shock at the couple.

  Lukas’ giggles died down as he said, “I know we invited everyone over to help prepare for the Heated Hullabaloo, and I’m so glad you all are here, but what is all of this?” His eyes flitted across the pile of gifts in the corner of the living room and the boxes of decorations in the entryway.

  Sawyer carefully carried a vase of flowers in his arms, gingerly placing it on the coffee table in the living room.

  “Well, take a look at this. Notice the lisianthus, it’s a symbol of an everlasting bond. Next, the stock flowers, which symbolize a happy life. And need I point out the filler flowers?

  “Baby’s breath?” Lukas asked.

  “Well, we heard a certain someone was expecting. It would be a sin to not include such simple, meaningful flowers,” Sawyer casually mentioned. He stooped down to pet Miss Mulberry, who was rubbing against his leg.

  Owen chuckled, wrapping his arm around Lukas’ waist. He cast a glance at Sienna, who was still standing in the entryway. “My, word travels fast.”

  Sienna glared at Owen, “Why must you assume it was me? You wound me, for the true culprit is–”

  “Me!”

  Archer choked, almost dropping his water bottle on the floor. He gasped, “Surely not!”

  Hazel had her arm raised high as she skittered about the living room, “I told Eliseo! Mama and I met him at the store a few days ago. He made a new dress for my doll.”

  “So, Eliseo is the true culprit.” Lukas sighed.

  Eliseo looked sheepish, shrugging with a grin. “Um, surprise?”

  Rubbing his hands together, Mr. Yorke stepped forward.

  “We have discovered that there is a miscreant in our midst, but there is a more urgent situation at hand.”

  With a charming smile, he motioned to the bare living room.

  “I see a spacious room that is in dire need of some fitting decorations for this upcoming event. At this moment, I feel that young Hazel, Sawyer, Eliseo, and Andre would be most proficient at creating a homely venue for our ceremony.”

  “And what about the rest of us, Master?” Archer taunted, arching his eyebrow.

  Mr. Yorke thought for a moment. “Well, I was going to say the rest of us will handle the cooking for now, but your lip has just landed you on decorating duty.”

  The bartender clapped his hand on Archer’s back, laughing, before he led Lukas, Owen, Dahlia, and Sienna to the kitchen.

  “Godspeed, my friend.”

  Archer shouted after the group, “Lukas? Sienna? Are you two just gonna leave me out here? No, wait, wait…”

  Archer cleared his throat. “Surely, you jest?” he asked, butchering Mr. Yorke’s accent. The man threw his patented puppy eyes at his employees, as if he was hoping they weren’t numb to his antics after their years in his service.

  Sienna stopped for a moment, turning slightly to face Archer. If the man had a tail, it would have been wagging like mad.

  “Oh, Sienna, you do have a heart.” Archer grinned widely, making eye contact with Mr. Yorke.

  A flash of fire appeared in Sienna’s dark eyes, silencing Archer. The woman cracked a smile, calling out, “Hazel, dear, please keep an eye on Archer. He’ll be absolutely lost without us, and he may need some help.”

  Hazel giggled, grabbing Archer’s arm as the man stood in shock. “Come on, we got stuff to do!”

  * * *

  I must have been high or something. He must have been. How could he have been naïve enough to believe he could cook everything for the diner-bar combo booth himself?

  He felt sweat run down the nape of his neck before he reached over and pulled open the small window in front of him, then he continued to cube the meat. He felt people rushing
to and fro behind him, each working hard to complete their tasks.

  Owen was to his right, trying to keep up with the piles of dishes and utensils heading his way. At the same time, Sienna and Dahlia focused on the stove, each working on a separate dish. Mr. Yorke was currently out, dropping off completed dishes at his bar to hold until the fair.

  “Okay, so now we need to get all this caramel popcorn bagged!” Lukas called out to whoever was available. After dicing up the last of the meat, he quickly grabbed a new cutting board from the drain rack and began chopping up vegetables.

  “On it,” Sienna confirmed. “Mom, could you keep stirring this glaze, please?”

  “Sure thing, kiddo.” The old woman wielded dual wooden spoons like a champ, singing an old folk song as she tapped her foot in time.

  “And then we need to get the meat for the skewers marinatin’. Ain’t nothin’ worse than bland, tough meat!” Lukas drawled, focusing on slicing the vegetables for the skewers.

  “Sure thing, babe.” Owen quickly took the meat and dropped it into a large bowl and filled it with sauces and spices.

  “Finally, we need to glaze these cakes. Just imagine a beautiful, fragrant, fruit glaze dripping down the sides of the soft cake, topped with even more fresh fruit!”

  Lukas’ eyes had stars in them as he thought about the masterpiece. He felt like the head chef in a fancy Parisian kitchen, barking out where he needed people to be, what they needed to work on, and so forth.

  “This berry filling for them pies is gonna be great, sugar,” Dahlia called out from her spot at the stove where she was lightly stirring a berry mixture. “See? You treat your plants right, and they treat you right.”

  Grinning, Lukas dumped the chopped vegetables into a bowl for later. “I had hoped. Some good stuff happened in that garden.”

  Owen grinned widely as Lukas began to speak again.

  Lukas looked at Owen before adding, “Lots of fertilizer, care, and such went into it. And that was where Owen and I had our first real heart-to-heart,” Lukas smirked, hugging Owen from behind.

  “And thus, it was blessed!” Owen announced loudly with a smile, holding the hands that were resting on his stomach.

  “Aaaamen!” Dahlia whooped.

  “Does this mean you’re done cooking!? Archer is abusing me out here!” Eliseo’s voice echoed from the living room.

  “Not my fault you have delicate feelings!” Archer’s voice followed.

  “Lukas, you know I’m a very delicate individual! Send help!” Eliseo poked his head around the corner into the kitchen with Hazel right behind him. Mimosa bounded into the fray and sat next to Owen.

  “Come on, Lukas, you have gifts to open!” Hazel grinned eagerly.

  “It’ll be just a few minutes, Hazel,” Lukas said.

  A pout crossed Hazel’s usually happy face before she said, “I’ll just bring them here.” She ran off before anyone could stop her and returned carrying a scraggly box.

  “I wrapped this one myself. The ribbon didn’t want to work with me, though,” she said sullenly.

  She hastened back to the living room, returning with three small bags.

  “From Eliseo. But you should open mine first!”

  The group exiled to the living room slowly filled the kitchen doorway, eager to see what Lukas got. Miss Mulberry hopped up onto a free chair near Lukas, ready to snatch any ribbons or paper he neglected to put away.

  “Okay, okay. What do we have here?” Lukas took Hazel’s gift and sat down at the one clear spot at the table. He delicately untied the beautiful ribbon wrapped around the box, putting it to the side. He tore the wrapping paper away and opened the box. He froze for a moment, staring at the contents.

  “What’s wrong? Do you not like it?” Hazel asked quietly, looking up at him.

  Lukas lifted a stuffed elephant out of the box. He had seen it many times before. It was pale green, not at all fitting for an elephant, but still cute all the same. It was a little tattered with time, but the plush material was soft against his hands.

  “Hazel, this is… are you sure?”

  The girl nodded firmly. “Yeah, my daddy got it for me, but I wanted to give her to you. She’ll make your baby happy. I know it!”

  “Oh, Hazel, you and your heart.” Lukas felt his eyes burn as he gathered the girl into a hug. “The baby’ll love it.”

  “Well, this is good. Now you have the perfect test subject for my gift.”

  “What? Hold your horses, Dr. Frankenstein. I’m not going to be performing any crazy experiments on little Snerfie here.” Lukas gripped the stuffed elephant, watching as Hazel made evil eyes at Eliseo.

  “Oh, that did sound really ominous. I meant to say you have a practice model for my gift.”

  Lukas reached into the bags that Eliseo had brought and felt something soft. He carefully pulled out folded baby clothes, each piece picked out with care. Leave it to Eliseo to make sure the baby was fashionable.

  “I didn’t have enough time to make everything by hand as I would have liked, but if you turn your attention to the other bag…”

  Lukas peeked into the other bag and spied something vibrant. He pulled the fabric out of the bag, careful to keep a hold on the gifts sitting on his lap.

  It was a beautiful baby blanket with an elaborate menagerie of colorful animals covering the cloth. A soft ruffle lined the edges, and not a stitch was out of place.

  “How in the world did you make this in two days?” Lukas asked.

  “Let it be known that it took many bribes and many favors, but I stood victorious above the bolts of fabric by the end of it.” Eliseo gave a thumbs up, looking very proud of himself.

  Sawyer cleared his throat. “In other words, Rufio hooked him up.”

  “Hey, we all have a weakness. Mine just happens to be the sweet, sweet essence of the wakey-wakey bean,” Eliseo said.

  Hazel spoke up, interrupting the banter.

  “Open the rest of your gifts, Lukas.” The little girl smiled.

  “I think you’re more excited about this baby shower than you were about your birthday party.” Owen laughed. “Come on then, babe. You’ve got some unwrapping to do. Especially that gift over there.”

  Owen pointed to the corner of the living room where a gift that was as big as the couch sat.

  “When did that get there?” Lukas gasped.

  “Never underestimate the abilities of a cook scorned. I channeled all my rage into carrying that gift in here while you lot were in the fray.” Archer crossed his arms.

  Sienna snickered as she closed up the last bag of popcorn.

  “You wouldn’t dare, Sienna.” Archer glared.

  “You don’t know her as well as you think you do, son!” Dahlia cackled from the doorway.

  “Dad, thank you so much for helping Archer carry that in,” Sienna’s tone was playful.

  “Ain’t no thing, dearie. I’m just happy to see that old thing go to a good place.” Andre leaned back, relaxing into his spot on the couch.

  Dahlia shuffled into the living room, taking a spot on the couch next to her husband.

  “Save ours for last, darling. Archer looks like he’s about to burst from anticipation, and I would so love to see what an antici-plosion looks like.”

  Archer visibly deflated. “Why is everyone picking on me today? I just want to know what was so heavy.”

  Lukas chuckled, moving to sit down in an armchair in the living room. Hazel quickly began piling gifts on his lap, restricting his movement.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll find out soon enough, Boss.”

  * * *

  The dimming sunlight clued Lukas into how much time had passed before he even looked at the clock on his mantle. People would be out in full force on the roads fighting to get home by now.

  He sighed. He was completely overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the last few weeks. Parties, fairs, meeting his fated mate, a new pregnancy. It was a lot to handle. Boxes full of clothing, books, and toys sat at Luk
as’ feet as he sank into his armchair.

  Lukas’ eyes closed as he listened to the catchy tunes coming from the TV speakers. Andre and Dahlia had already gone home for the evening, but the most varied, energetic trio who were still there were currently playing Just Dance. Owen and Sawyer worked quickly to carry everything upstairs to get it out of the way of the gamers, dodging the frenzied dancing of Hazel, Eliseo, and Archer.

  “All the flailing in the world won’t make your score go any higher, old man!” Eliseo jeered over the song.

  “With age comes wisdom, my young friend,” Archer said calmly.

  “And wisdom is knowing that age is often detrimental to grace!” Eliseo retorted.

  Lukas snickered as he listened to his friends bicker. They were so busy fighting, they didn’t realize Hazel’s score was rising steadily. He silently cheered the girl on as the game came to an end, undoubtedly naming the girl as the true master of ‘Rasputin’.

  A loud scrape on the hardwood floor startled everyone in the room. Owen and Sawyer were trying hard to move a sturdy crib from the corner of the living room without much success.

  Sawyer grimaced. “Sorry, my noodly arms weren’t prepared for this.”

  “Let me help. I need to do something to heal my injured pride.” Archer stepped in to help.

  “Still can’t believe Andre made this himself. It’s a beautiful piece.” Sawyer’s voice trailed off as he marveled at the craftsmanship.

  Sienna smiled warmly, her face reliving every memory with that crib.

  “Yeah, he made this for Hazel before she was born. The moment he found out Lukas was expecting, he got it out of storage and spent hours polishing it. You should have seen his face light up!”

  Owen started backing up the steps, keeping a firm grip on the crib as Sienna followed behind, telling more stories about what her dad had made throughout the years.

  “It is one-hundred percent appreciated, for sure. Everything is. And Eliseo making that blanket in two days? I can see why everyone speaks so highly of his skills.”

  “I know. I’m pretty awesome, right?” Eliseo grinned.

  “What’s your middle name, Eliseo?” Sawyer asked quietly.