He turned his attention to the doorway as Sebastian sleepily stumbled in to join them. “Hey,” Connor called to him. Logan stopped putting his shirt on long enough to kiss him.
Connor saw Sebastian look between them, but then he just shrugged, as if he’d decided that whatever he’d been thinking about didn’t actually matter all that much as he laid across the front of the bed nearby.
“Did I miss anything?” Sebastian asked.
Connor knew what Sebastian was asking, and he was glad that he heard no jealousy in his question. “We were trying to figure out how to convince Allen to ask for Alyssa to join his pack, and how to convince Joshua to give her up in exchange for me.”
“I have no idea,” Sebastian said with a small sigh.
Connor knew how he was probably feeling. He wished that he had all the answers too. Or, as he looked Sebastian over, that sex would fix everything. It would be so very easy to stay in their bedroom for the rest of the day and pretend that this could be their lives full-time and that nothing else had to matter.
But as much as he wanted to be with them, he didn’t have permission to stay with them long-term. They needed to come up with a plan, and quickly, before he had to go back to his pack. “I should be the one to call Allen,” Connor said again.
“I already said—”
But Sebastian cut Logan off. “He’s right. He’s an omega, and Allen is his alpha. The beta of another pack should not be calling to claim an alpha’s omega for himself.”
Connor raised his eyebrows at Logan, daring him to argue with that kind of sound logic, but he merely growled and flopped onto the bed with them. Connor made room for him, and found an arm slung over his chest and a hand on his thigh. It was good to be held by them, to be wanted by them.
“I should get dressed before I call him,” Connor decided. But he made no move to leave them, and neither of them let him go either.
“Let’s stay like this for a little while instead,” Sebastian suggested.
It was a good idea, and Connor moved toward both of them, not wanting to have any space between them. They couldn’t stay there for long, but an hour spent with them lazily stretched out over their big bed was time well spent in his opinion.
When their hour was up, Connor reluctantly rose from the bed and put on a pair of shorts from the closet. He didn’t know whose they were, but they fit, and neither of them said anything to him about borrowing them. “I’ll be right back,” he promised as he pulled his phone from his discarded pants from the night before. He never had gotten the information about Alyssa, but he figured that he could make her sound good enough without it.
Logan said nothing, but Sebastian let out a little whine. Connor nodded to him—he was worried too. But he was an omega, and fixing things was something he was supposed to be good at. He didn’t feel all that confident in his abilities right now, but he was hopeful at least.
Connor would have loved to be able to stay in the bedroom with them for a lot longer. But Logan and Sebastian were far too much of a distraction for him at the best of times. Right now he needed to be focused. He did leave the door open between them, though. He wouldn’t have secrets from them. That was no way to start the next phase of their relationship, one where they could hopefully find a way to stay together.
The thought of not being allowed to stay with them had his stomach clenching. He wasn’t okay with that possibility, so he tried not to think about it. But not thinking about, or more accurately dreading what Allen could do to their relationship if he didn’t approve of them all being together, had Connor nearly shaking as he stood there with his phone in his hand, staring down at his alpha’s number.
But then there was Logan, silently wrapping his arms around him from behind. “Whatever Allen decides, we’ll still make this work. Even if he decides that we can’t be together, we’ll figure something out. It’ll be okay. I promise.”
He couldn’t possibly know that, but Connor clung to his positive thoughts anyway. They gave him peace and helped settle him down as he decided to take that plunge and call Allen.
“Hey, Connor.” Allen answered the call right away. He sounded happy to hear him, and maybe a little surprised.
“Hey.” He leaned back into Logan’s embrace. He needed that support. Sebastian must have been in the shower. He heard the water running. “I need to talk to you about something, if you’ve got a minute.”
“It sounds serious.”
Connor took a deep breath. It helped calm him down some before he decided to try to speak again. “It is.”
“Well then, out with it. I’ve never known you to be shy or to hesitate about anything in your life.”
Connor wasn’t happy about Allen already sounding annoyed with him, but Allen was right, Connor wasn’t shy at all and he wasn’t someone who held back either. Not ever. He pursed his lips and dove right in. “I want to propose a trade. One where I’d stay here and in return you’d get a new pack member, Alyssa. She’s smart and she’s pretty and she’s a beta. I also think she’d be a really great new person for your pack, and she has been wanting to be closer to the city anyway, and—”
Allen cut him off. “Were you that unhappy with my pack? I thought we you well. You never lacked for anything.”
Connor didn’t want him to think that they hadn’t been good to him, because they most certainly had been. Allen was a good alpha. He’d always been nice to Connor. There was no reason that Allen should have ever had to question that, and Connor didn’t like that he’d been the source of any of Allen’s doubts. But he had to do this for himself. Or he had to try to at the very least.
“No, Allen, you were always very good to me.”
“Then what’s the issue? Is it Joshua? Did he put you up to this?”
Now Allen no longer just sounded hurt. Now he was starting to get angry. Connor knew he wasn’t doing this very well. “No. I’m in a relationship now. I know it’s sudden and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I promise you that I’m sure about this.”
Allen was quiet for a long time, long enough that Connor was starting to get nervous about just how angry he was really going to be. “Is it Joshua? Did he seduce you?” Allen asked him after a few moments.
Connor couldn’t hold back his snort. “No, it’s Logan...and Sebastian.”
“Oh, well, that’s... Are you sure?”
He sounded shocked. Connor didn’t blame him for feeling that way one bit. “I know. I was really surprised too. But I really do care about them both.”
“Are you happy, though?”
Connor didn’t have to think about that answer at all. “Yes. I am.”
“I’ll have to meet with Joshua to discuss this. Pack member transfers aren’t all that common and omega transfers are very rare.”
Connor smiled. “I understand. Thank you.”
“I’m not happy about losing you, but I’m also not going to keep you tied to a pack when you don’t want to be with us. I do hope, however, that if we ever need you you’ll still come back to work out any pack issues, like you’ve done before.”
Connor had no problem with that at all. “Of course I’ll be there. I’m still an omega. I still want to help.”
“Then that’s settled. I’ll call Joshua later today.”
Connor wished that the three of them could have been in on that call too. “Are you angry with me?”
“I’m not happy, but no, I’m not angry. I’m going to try to be happy for you, and part of that is knowing that you’ll still be available to help with my pack. We’ll see what Joshua says, though. He may not be willing to give up Alyssa. He may not want another pack member to take care of, either.”
Connor knew Allen was right, but at least having the two alphas talking was a start in the right direction for the three of them. “Thank you. We’ll be here waiting for your call.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t be anxious sitting by the phone all afternoon. Joshua might be too b
usy to talk today. You never know. Why don’t you three go for a run or something? Go hunt a rabbit or go for a swim. Just get out of the house and away from your phones for a while.”
“A run...” Connor repeated, thinking about it himself.
Logan kissed the back of his neck. “A run sounds good. Sebastian?”
“I’m in,” he called from the bedroom.
“Yeah, we’ll do that. Thanks for the suggestion. So, I’ll talk to you later?” he asked Allen.
“You will. You three have a good afternoon.”
“You too.” Connor hung up on him and put his phone aside. He was still anxious, but a run did sound good. “So we’ll shift and get going?” he asked Logan without looking back at him.
Logan pulled away from him, and when Connor turned around he was already beginning his shift. Sebastian was slower about it. Connor watched him for a few moments as he gradually let his shift come over him. Then he joined them as well, holding his breath as he changed from a man to a wolf in the span of a few minutes. He was in no rush either. There was no need to hurry his shift. He simply let go of one form and became the next. Then, as the three of them came together, he followed behind Logan’s silent footsteps as they left the house and headed out to the empty pastures around them.
* * * *
Logan felt a little less stressed as they ran. The exercise was good, but just being his wolf and letting that part of himself out helped to dull the rest of the world. He didn’t know what would happen, but he wanted the three of them to be able to stay together just as they were right then, as they bounded through dry, brittle grass that was well over their heads.
Talking got in the way sometimes. It was so much easier and simpler to lay his head on Sebastian’s shoulder when they stopped to rest, or to lick Connor’s snout when he came up to bump along Logan’s side. Part of him wished that they could stay just like this, as wolves relaxing in the sun together, forever. There was nothing complicated or hard about life like this. They played when they wanted to, they ran when they were tired of lying there, and they found a creek to swim in when they got too hot.
But it wasn’t more than a few hours before Logan felt his alpha’s call. It was a gentle tugging in him, nothing that Sebastian and Connor could have felt, but he knew he was being called back to the pack. Silently, he dragged himself out of the water and started heading in that direction. Connor and Sebastian came with him, no longer playing together and nipping each other—like Logan, they’d grown silent.
He led them into the heart of the pack, where others stopped what they were doing to watch them. Something had to be going on, Logan knew, but they didn’t look angry so maybe Joshua wasn’t mad at the three of them. Maybe the three of them were just a curiosity and that’s why everyone was staring at them. Logan hadn’t expected word to get around about the three of them being together, but maybe he had underestimated just how quickly the gossip spread within the pack.
The office door was open and Alyssa was there waiting for them with three big blankets, which she instantly handed them as they shifted. Logan was the first to come back to himself as he wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. “Is he pissed?” he asked her.
Alyssa shrugged. “Maybe not anymore. I got a pretty good talking to. Something about how if I was so unhappy that I wanted to go to another pack, I should have come to him first instead of making some complicated deal on my own.”
Logan winced. He hadn’t expected her to get in trouble because of what he wanted. “I’m sorry.”
Alyssa waved him away. “It’s fine. Really. It’s not the first time he’s yelled at me about something and, if I don’t get approval to move, it won’t be the last either. I just don’t fit in very well here, and I think that’s caused a lot of strain for us over the years. But that’s enough about me and Joshua. You three should probably go in and see him and find what’s going on for yourselves.”
Logan was still watching her, so he caught the once over she gave Connor as he covered himself up. She looked up at him after and twitched her nose. Then she grinned at Logan, apparently giving him her silent approval. Not that he needed it, but it still felt good to have someone he considered a friend think that he’d made a good choice for a second lover.
Joshua was nearly double their age, but he looked even older when he was as angry as he was when Logan sat down in front of him. Connor sat as well, taking up the empty seat beside Logan, but Sebastian chose to stand. He’d done that in the past, and Logan figured it made him feel a little less uneasy if he could get up and leave without taking the extra time to get out of a chair, but before he’d always stood back and to the right of where Logan sat. Now he stood to the left of him, putting himself between Logan and Connor and directly across from Joshua.
Logan was pretty sure that Joshua hadn’t missed this change in him either, as he raised his eyebrows and looked between the three of them. “Sebastian, do you have something to say here?”
Logan had assumed that the question would be directed to him, since he was the highest-ranking member of the pack between the three of them. He’d even sort of figured out what he wanted to say, but all of that went out the window with Joshua’s firmly spoken question.
“I think that really depends on where you stand on the three of us being in a relationship. If you approve, then I don’t have anything to say but thank you,” Sebastian quietly replied.
Logan couldn’t hide his smile. Sebastian shouldn’t have spoken to their alpha with such force, but Logan was proud of him for doing so anyway. Besides, they were already in trouble. There wasn’t much more that could be done to them. The worst Joshua could do was throw them out of the pack, and Logan knew that they had an open invitation to go back to his uncle. He didn’t know if Connor would be permitted to keep seeing them then, but he had faith that they would be able to figure out a way to make it work regardless of what Allen said to them about it.
Joshua looked thoughtful for a moment, then he lifted his hand toward Alyssa. “Come on in here too, since this is your decision as well.”
She walked in with her head high and stood just a step closer to Joshua than where Logan was sitting. “I think you should let them be together, and I think you should let me go live with Allen.”
Joshua blinked up at her. “No one asked you a question yet. You’re all being insubordinate today and I have no idea where this is coming from. But fine, you want to go, then go.”
Logan flinched at his words, but Alyssa didn’t. Instead she was smiling. “You’re really not angry?”
Joshua sighed. “I’m not happy about it, but I will not keep someone in my pack who doesn’t want to be here. I like you. You always did your job and you always were nice to others. You’re a good addition to any pack and Allen will be lucky to have you. I’d rather see you happy over there than miserable here.” He turned his attention from her back to Logan, who perked up under his gaze. “And as for you three...” He pursed his lips and Logan waited for his verdict, but then Joshua looked to Connor.
“You’re still an omega. From the time you were born to the day you die, you’ll always be an omega. This relationship doesn’t get you out of those duties. If there’s a conflict in the pack, I expect you to be there to help calm everyone down. Not in an hour, not when you’re done with dinner—when I call you, you come. You may be with them, but you are still my omega if you are in this pack. I won’t ask you to do anything other than that. Do you understand?”
Connor gave him a small smile. “Do you understand that talking is the limit of what I do as an omega?”
Logan thought Joshua would be offended by the question, he didn’t expect his alpha to snort. “Allen told me all about how you won’t have sex with anyone as a way to fix things for their relationship. I get it already. And I wouldn’t want that from you anyway. If anyone tries to pull that with you, you tell me immediately and I’ll handle it. But omegas are a force for calm and good and there aren’t
enough of you in this world, so as long as we’re clear on the fact that you’re an omega regardless of what you are to the two of them, we won’t have any issues here. Do you agree?”
Connor nodded. “I do. So, can we go then?”
“Yes, I guess you can. You three take care. I expect an invitation for dinner this week. Logan, I will see you at work tomorrow morning.”
Logan let out a relieved breath. “Yes. Of course.” He hurriedly got up and took the two of them with him. He was happy, and relieved, and so excited to see what the next part of his life held now that he had found his two mates.
The End
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Disgraced Omega
Caitlin Ricci
Excerpt
I made it to the truck stop at just after sunrise. I was tired, cranky, and more than ready to be back with the rest of my pack and in my own bed. I was young for an alpha, at only twenty-three. I didn’t feel like I was in my early twenties as I pulled myself out of a car seat that had felt like it was slowly pulling me into it. I felt closer to double my age.
I smelled where Cassandra was, and I scented the strange new werewolf in the room beside hers. But when I knocked on the door, and she opened it for me, I saw him lying on the floor at the foot of her bed. I shot her a look. She should have known better.
“I felt bad for him, he insisted on the floor,” she explained. She yawned and covered her mouth, but only just barely.
I huffed at her. I was too tired to act like a human at that point.
Forbidden Omega Page 9
