by Tanya Chris
She tugged him up to his feet, holding his hand warmly between hers. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”
“I regret that our houses won’t be joined, and I’m sure my father would want me to extend his regrets as well.”
“I don’t give a fig about the politics of it, Owen. You’re a person, not a political property, and my son has treated you disgracefully. If I’d realized he was in talks with your father, I’d have interceded before you were ever brought here.”
Her apology made Owen feel a little better. Maybe it was Head Alpha Marta’s fault he was being rejected. Maybe she’d forbidden Prince Devin from taking a non-child bearing mate and that was the true reason Prince Devin refused to claim him, not because he’d been a disappointment.
Once Owen had gotten free from Marta, Prince Angel introduced him to the wolves who were going to be his companions for the next three weeks. The alpha was named Fortis. He nodded in response to Owen’s timid greeting, holding himself aloof with his arms crossed in front of him. The beta’s name was Keesh, and the warmth of his smile made up for the menacing air the patch gave him.
“Excited?” Keesh asked.
“Excited?” Owen repeated. He’d been excited on the way out. Not now.
“Yeah, excited. We’re going to have fun. Rabbits, campfires, fresh air. I made Fortis bring marshmallows.” Keesh nudged the alpha, who gave a little growl in response. Owen didn’t know what marshmallows were, but they seemed to make Fortis angry. Maybe they were heavy.
“I could carry them,” he offered. He was dependent on this alpha for the next three thousand miles and wanted to keep him happy, but Keesh laughed.
“I think Fortis can manage. That pack’s not too big for you?”
“It’s fine.” When he hitched it up higher on his shoulders, Keesh came around behind him and fiddled with the straps until it sat more firmly over his hip bones.
Betas were so nice. Maybe when Owen got back to Pertha, his father could find him a beta to mate with. A beta might not mind that he’d foolishly squandered the only thing that made him worth having.
Keesh
The omega was so adorable. And afraid. And brave. If ever a wolf needed a good cuddling, it was this one, with his gorgeous eyes as dark as coal and that long braid perfectly bound back even though Keesh could see how his hands trembled.
When Fortis had asked for help escorting Owen back to Western Pack territory, Keesh had been quick to say yes. He’d do anything for Fortis, first of all, and the trip sounded like a lark besides. Fortis traveled all the time, but Keesh hadn’t been out of Northern Pack territory in ages, not since they’d stopped their omega rescue operation.
But the most important reason for going was to make sure Owen would be comfortable. Fortis would keep Owen safe, no doubt, but Fortis could come across as intimidating to people who didn’t know him because he was all scowly and silent on the outside even though he was a hundred percent gooey goodness on the inside. Like how he gave Keesh grief for eating marshmallows when the only reason Keesh had marshmallows to eat was because Fortis brought them back from human territory for him. Regularly. Without being asked. Because Fortis loved him.
Just not like that.
Keesh squelched that part of his brain that wanted him to feel sorry for himself—the one trying to tell him that Owen was a rival, not a friend. A pretty, delicate omega like this? With slim wrists and ankles and that dainty nose and the sweetest scent as if he’d never broken a sweat in his life? Fortis was bound to find Owen attractive. And Owen was available, so…
So that was none of Keesh’s business. Fortis wanted an omega, which meant he didn’t want Keesh. Which meant the little stories he told himself about how happy the two of them could be together were nothing except wishful thinking and fortified delusion. Really, it would be good if Fortis found an omega to claim. Then maybe Keesh would finally get over him. Pick a nice beta to settle down with.
If only.
Betas were… nice. He was one himself, after all. But they didn’t scramble his pulse the way alphas did. Didn’t get his dick hard and his mouth hungry. Even an omega would be preferable—someone Keesh could coddle and fuck. Like this little thing here. Looking at Owen, Keesh had no trouble understanding why Fortis would want an omega. So did he. Betas were just… middle of the road. Ordinary. Neither this nor that. Handy to have around, easy to get along with, and boring.
Both Owen and Fortis could do better than a beta.
“We should hit the road,” Fortis said, shuffling his feet with an alpha’s impatience for small talk. “Got some mileage to cover today.”
“We’re not on a schedule, are we?” Keesh flashed Fortis a calming smile. He was worried about the omega whose feet were so small and soft Keesh wondered if he’d ever walked on them before. “We’ll have to go at Owen’s pace.”
“Of course,” Fortis said, even as Owen protested that he could keep up just fine. Owen had his shoulders halfway up to his ears, and he was still fiddling with the straps on his pack even though Keesh had adjusted them perfectly.
“Let’s see how it goes,” Keesh said, allowing Owen the pretense of being tough. “We’ll stop when Alpha thinks best.” He invoked the title of Alpha for Owen’s sake—to give him the comfort of authority—but also for Fortis’s sake—to give him the respect of acknowledging him as the leader. But saying Alpha out loud gave him a thrill too. He’d been wanting to call Fortis Alpha since he’d met him, since he’d looked into those crystal blue eyes and seen all the steely kindness behind them.
Owen nodded, mollified. If Alpha said it was time to stop, then obviously they’d stop. Fortis lost his edgy tension, drawing himself up taller with the confidence of his position. Fortis was relatively secure and relaxed as alphas went, but he was still an alpha. His inner wolf would be bristling with pride at being put in charge.
“You’re in good hands.” Angel shook hands with Owen, then Leo pulled Owen into a hug he seemed uncertain about being a part of, and the three travelers made their way out through the huge alabaster double doors and down the gleaming marble steps into the busy hustle of the town square.
Owen sidled closer to Fortis as the crowds surrounded them. The two of them made a striking pair, a study in contrasts. Owen small and dark where Fortis was big and fair; Fortis muscular and lean, Owen pleasingly round through the haunches.
Keesh hung back, the better to observe their beauty without marring it. He’d been born in the Central Pack where few wolves had the striking good looks of pure breeds. His wolf had the grey fur common to wolves indigenous to the territory, but his human form was browner, suggesting he had a mix of something besides Central Pack in him. He had a firm build for a beta, in part because he spent so much time running around with Fortis who sometimes forgot he wasn’t an alpha too. That was how little Fortis considered him mate material. They were friends. Best friends. Practically a pair in most people’s minds. Fortis and Keesh. Always together.
But never like that.
“What route are we taking?”
“I figured we’d keep north,” Fortis said. “Stick to forest the whole way.”
“Sounds good.” If they went through human territory, they could use motorized transportation to make better time, but then they’d have to put clothes on, and it would be a shame to cover up such impressive specimens of the species. “You ever been to a human city?” he asked Owen.
“I’ve never been anywhere except Pertha and here.”
“And everywhere in between. Which way did you come?”
Owen shook his head. “I was in this thing. Like a wagon, except it didn’t have wheels. And it was all covered up so no one could see me.”
Keesh whistled. “I didn’t realize they were that strict about omegas in the Western Pack.”
“Owen’s royalty,” Fortis pointed out. “Are we supposed to be calling you Prince Owen?”
Owen winced like Fortis was making fun of him. “They only give titles to alphas.”
<
br /> Keesh caught up to Owen and hooked an arm around his shoulder. “We’re all just folks in North Leland. Very casual. Except for him.”
“And we all think he’s a dickweed,” Fortis put in. “So you can say whatever you want about him.”
“I don’t have anything bad to say about Prince Devin.”
“Well, you ought to.” Keesh gave Owen a gentle hug that caused him to break stride. “I’ve never met an omega who didn’t hate him. At least, eventually. He makes a good first impression, I’ll admit, but then you get to know him.”
Despite Keesh’s instinctive admiration for the big and bold and beautiful, he’d never found Prince Devin anything except reprehensible. But then he wasn’t as susceptible to alpha pheromones as an omega would be. He could smell them—could definitely enjoy them—but they didn’t trigger a reaction on a hormonal level. Fortis smelled like forest, like something both familiar and wild, and the way Fortis’s scent kept him low-level aroused whenever they were together was just something he’d gotten used to. No amount of jerking off ever made it go away. Owen smelled like something edible. Keesh took a surreptitious sniff.
“You ran around at home, didn’t you?” Fortis asked, returning to the subject of where Owen had been in his life.
“Not much. I wasn’t allowed out of the palace unless I had an escort, and my father was usually too busy. He’s head alpha, you know.”
“Yeah, I heard.” Fortis didn’t sound impressed. They were nearly at the edge of town where unsullied forest took over from less-vegetated streets. “You do know how to shift, right?”
“I know how to shift.” Owen did that thing where he drew his neck into his shoulders that made Keesh want to pet him. He stroked Owen’s arm. It was so plump and soft, hardly any hair on it.
“I couldn’t stand being cooped up inside all the time,” Fortis said with an impatient roll of his head.
“Well, that’s you. Maybe Owen’s an indoor omega who enjoys being pampered.”
Some omegas were kept like precious possessions. And some of them probably even liked it. Keesh could imagine pampering Owen—hunting for him and bringing him the best of what he’d caught, feeding it to him right before fucking him. He just couldn’t imagine having to be Owen’s keeper twenty-four hours a day. It felt like it would get boring. For both of them.
Fortis scowled at Owen, then at the shadowy stretch of woods in front of them. “Maybe we should talk to Angel about pulling together enough wolves to carry him back.”
“I don’t need to be carried,” Owen insisted. “I can do it. I can.”
“It’s instinctive,” Keesh assured him. “Wolves were made to run.”
“Just keep close to me then,” Fortis said, “and let me know when you need a break.”
Owen opened his mouth to argue, but Fortis hushed him with a stern look. He loomed over Owen, sending him cowering back against Keesh’s chest until Owen was sandwiched between them. Fortis intended his show of alpha dominance for the omega, but Keesh was being hit with it just as hard. His cock plumped between the soft swells of Owen’s ass cheeks.
“You’ll tell me if you need to stop,” Fortis said between sharp teeth. “Understand?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Keesh echoed unthinkingly.
“Good,” Fortis said with a smirk. “That’s good.” He dropped a kiss on top of Owen’s head. Then, with an expression Keesh couldn’t read, Fortis leaned over Owen to brush a kiss against his mouth. When Fortis stepped back, Keesh saw that both Fortis and Owen were hard, just like he was.
Not so surprising. An alpha/omega pheromone exchange had taken place, and though Keesh had been only a bystander, he’d picked up on both scents. No, it wasn’t surprising, but it was still a problem. Playing caretaker to an omega and submitting to the leadership of an alpha while keeping his emotional and physical responses to both of them in check was going to be a tricky business.
Fortis
He was in trouble. Fortis stretched back on his haunches, letting the kinks work themselves out. It always felt good to get into his wolf body, as if everything were snapping into place. No aches or limitations. He was strong, hard, ready. And in trouble.
In appearance, the little omega was too exactly like the fantasy his mind had conjured up. Gorgeous in human form and a little cub of a thing in wolf form—almost like a baby bear. So compact and furry, with the most adorable snout and huge eyes that shone even by daylight. Physically, Owen couldn’t be prettier.
But it wasn’t Owen’s appearance that had Fortis in trouble. It was his helplessness. Fortis’s practical human brain was rolling its eyes at the idea of a wolf who had to be carried through the woods, but his alpha brain was screaming protect, protect, protect. It had been put in charge of Owen and it liked being in charge of him, was full of demands and concerns.
Owen needed to learn how to run and hunt and become a fully actualized wolf who could take care of himself. But Owen also had to be kept safe and happy. He should never be allowed out of Fortis’s sight or asked to lift the slightest finger. So that even while Fortis hated Owen’s father and the entire Western Pack for keeping him isolated and weak, he dreamed of building a tightly enclosed, luxuriously furnished room and locking Owen up in it so that no one except him would ever have the privilege of seeing him.
And he’d just met the little guy. Omega pheromones were a fucking drug.
Fortis turned away from the black bundle of fur to check on Keesh. He was in trouble there too. He’d known Keesh five years without ever kissing him on the mouth, so what the hell had that been?
Power going to his head, that was all. Being head alpha of their pack of three had triggered something primal he’d thought he had better control of, because suddenly he wanted to order Keesh around too. That wasn’t how he and Keesh did things. They were equals, friends. And they didn’t kiss. They cuddled, because wolves were easy about touching each other, but for five years there’d been a barrier between them Fortis had known better than to cross and he’d gone and crossed it now.
Keesh’s wolf was a mix of greys, his fur luxuriously thick as if he came from a cold climate even though Central Pack territory never got nearly as cold as North Leland. Fortis always wanted to bury his snout in the dark grey ruff around Keesh’s neck, just to see just deep it went, and since he’d already gone too far today, he gave in to the temptation, first snuffling his nose into the folds of fur, then closing his teeth around a hank of flesh.
Keesh gave a whimper submissive enough to be an omega’s, and Fortis clamped his teeth tighter in response, almost piercing the flesh. Keesh rolled onto his back, offering up his belly which was coated in a layer of white fuzz. Fortis licked Keesh’s snout, accepting his act of submission, then turned his attention to Owen. Owen immediately mimicked Keesh’s posture, and Fortis spent a moment enjoying the sweet smell of omega as he tugged lightly on the cords of Owen’s neck. Then he stepped back and gave a woof, urging his pack to their feet.
He would’ve liked to release his pent-up energy with a good sprint, but he had to consider Owen’s capabilities, so he trotted off at a pace only barely faster than walking, threading his way between the stately trunks that graced their woods. The trees stretched up to a blue sky barely visible between their branches, and old leaves crunched under his paws as he moved without bothering to hush his steps.
Around him, little creatures scurried, hiding from the scent of predators in their midst even though it was unlikely Owen could catch anything and Keesh was more of a friend than a menace. Fortis had laughed at the sight of Keesh frolicking with his own personal gang of squirrels more than once, loving how his beta instincts superseded his predator instincts. Keesh wanted to be friends with everything.
As Fortis walked, he monitored the padding paws behind him. Owen hung close by his right flank, jumping whenever anything rustled, while Keesh guarded their rear. Keesh’s footsteps made only the lightest of crunches. Like Fortis, he wasn’t trying to con
ceal his passage, but also like Fortis, he had too many years of practice in moving stealthily to make a racket. Owen, on the other hand, sounded like he had ten paws instead of four and like every one of them was shod in steel.
When he gave a sharp yip, Fortis wheeled around with his teeth bared, braced to handle the threat. Which turned out to be a harmless rat snake hanging from a tree. The snake’s skin was as black as Owen’s fur, and its forked tongue tasted the air. Keesh nosed into Owen’s rear to get him moving again, and Fortis brushed up against his side in reassurance. Just a rat snake, he tried to communicate. It won’t hurt you.
This was why omegas shouldn’t be kept locked up, no matter how precious they were. They needed to be able to walk through the woods without freaking out every time a garden-variety snake slithered across their path. Not all snakes were harmless, but Owen didn’t know the difference between a copperhead and a rat snake and was as likely to jump himself into danger as to avoid it.
All of which meant Fortis needed to be more on guard, remembering at every juncture that his cargo was both fragile and naïve, unlike Keesh who would eventually catch up if Fortis outran him or find his own way home if Fortis lost him. So he slowed to a pace that practically killed him, channeling his focus into identifying possible threats so he could head them off before Owen reacted to them. Which meant that even though early-August days were almost endlessly long this far north, they didn’t make it very far before the sun started to sink.
He found a thick tangle of thornwood and burrowed beneath the branches to arrive at the open space in the middle. It was a good-sized clearing, plenty big enough for three, but his fellow travelers didn’t follow him into it. He stuck his snout back out to see Owen hesitating, a low whimper coming from his throat as he faced the gnarled branches. Fortis hooked his teeth into Owen’s scruff and dragged. With Keesh butting up against him from behind, they managed to get him into the clearing.
Once they were all back in human form, Fortis got in his face. “I told you to stick close to me.”
