Page 3 of The Feisty Omega
I feel peaceful, like I belong, like I’ve come home. My neck softens, my head droops over his leg, the hardwood floor cool and slippery against the tip of my muzzle, contrasting with the warmth of the thigh beneath me, and the fading heat of the early summer’s day. The room is quiet except for the occasionalcrick-ing of a cricket lost inside, the rhythmic petting of his big, strong hand, and the pounding of my heart.
???
Squeals and shrieks dragged me into consciousness, along with theclip-clip-clipof light footsteps across floorboards, as a half dozen children of varying size and age came charging into the room heading straight for the stockings hanging by the hearth. Nothing could distract them from their mission, not even the sight of two wolves curled up against each other under the Christmas tree. Sometime in the night, he’d shifted, and our wolves had nestled close together for warmth.
Other footsteps clacked across the room in their heavy shoes and the clatter of curtain rings was the only warning we had before the day burst into the room in a blaze of light. Outside the paned wall-to-ceiling windows, the sun was already high enough to send shafts of golden light lancing through the treetops. I blinked my eyes at the sudden sensory bombardment.
The children were sprawled on the floor, tipping their stockings upside down. Sweets and chocolates and tiny toys and glittery stars tumbled to the floor and grabby hands chased after them, accompanied by squeals of delight and excitement. Children crawled across each other to get the sweets that rolled away before someone else could snatch them up. There was squabbling and the adults intervened.
A heavy weight pressed against my shoulder giving me a nudge. I understood implicitly and rose, the chaos of the morning allowing us to slip away unnoticed.
I followed him up the staircase that had squeaked so loudly last night. It was silent now, of course, since we weighed comparatively little like this, and we padded upstairs without anyone noticing. He trotted down a long corridor towards the end. His scent grew stronger as we approached an open doorway, and I guessed even before we entered that this must be his room.
Curiously, I followed him in. Once inside, he shifted back to his human form and shoved the door closed. Then he was yanking open the drawers of a large chest-of-drawers against the side wall, rummaging through the contents until he apparently found what he was looking for – blue denim jeans.
“Here, you can put these on. They’re probably too big but I think they’ll do. I’ve outgrown them. I hope you don’t mind going commando.”
His rumbly voice distracted me, all deep and alpha-y but breaking from time to time.
He held up a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and dropped them on the bed before going back to scratch around again. When he turned around, triumphantly holding up a beautiful purple sweater, I’d shifted and already had one leg in the jeans.
He blushed (Oh my Goddess, he’s an alpha, and he blushes, that’s so sweet! It’s not like nudity is a big deal amongst shifters, after all). And it wasn’t as if he was worried about being nude himself.
“Oops, sorry,” he said, turning away and giving me privacy. A red stain crept up his neck.
“That’s okay,” I told him, nearly falling over as I hopped around on one leg until I got the other one into the jeans and pulled the zip up. “I’m decent. And anyway, you know it doesn’t really matter. I’m Irian, by the way.”
“Um, I know, but I’m a bit older than you and we hadn’t met, so I didn’t want to assume.”
As he turned back to me, I was struck again by the intensity of those blue eyes. He could be the devil with eyes like that. A large mass of crazy fringe flopped over one eye, partly concealing it. His hair was wild, like he had permanent bed-hair, and it just made him look so freaking amazing. And he was tall. I’d thought it was just because I was a wolf when I saw him first, and omegas were smaller, but now we were both human, I saw he was quite a bit taller than me, and lean, like, not stick-thin, and everything he had was all muscle.
“I’m Tal.” He chuckled, a low rumble that seemed to start deep within then bubble over. “We kind of did that back to front, didn’t we? Slept together then introduced ourselves!”
My cheeks warmed uncomfortably. I hadn’t thought about things that way.
“Well, we didn’t… I didn’t…” I stammered, flustered. This was awkward. Tal was a handsome alpha, and though he clearly hadn’t passed fully into his majority - which I could tell from the puppy fat still in his cheeks and the fact he didn’t take the alpha honorific – he would have had to be every omega’s wet dream. He was certainly going to bethisomega’s wet dream. It kinda left me speechless, which totally sucked. I wanted to make a good impression but instead I was behaving like an impressionable kid.
“I’m kidding!” he said, laying a comforting hand on my shoulder, and strangely I felt the brush of alpha pheromones reassuring me. They really shouldn’t have affected me at all at this stage of my development, and yet…
“Let me toss some clothes on. The bathroom’s in there if you want to use it.” He pointed to a small doorway beside the bed, oblivious to my very omega-like reaction to his touch.
I nearly tripped over my feet getting there. I needed some time to calm down. I didn’t normally get so flustered; I was a friendly chilled sort of guy. It didn’t phase me whether I was talking to guys my own age, or adults,even hot young alphas,so I didn’t know what had come over me. Maybe it was being in a new house on what was normally a quiet family holiday. I’d snuck off to lay under the tree last night because I wanted to immerse myself in the peace and magic of Christmas, only now I’d met the most interesting guy of my life. I didn’t know why I was so fascinated, but I couldn’t help hoping he'd keep letting me hang around with him. Older – adolescent - guys didn’t usually let us younger ones tag along. Ugh, I hoped he didn’t look on me like a younger brother.Tolerateme. That would totally suck. I wanted to be an equal.
The bathroom was calming. The air was cool on my face, the tiles were cold underfoot. I splashed my face with icy water and looked at myself in the mirror hanging over the basin. I was scruffy this morning, my hair - short strands of blonde hair that would darken to brown as I aged, just like my alpha dad - sticking up all over the place, cheeks flushed, pupils large. I shook my head, splashed my face again and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to settle it.
When I emerged from the bathroom, Tal was fully clothed, wearing dark distressed jeans and a t-shirt. He was sitting on his bed, legs crossed beneath him, obviously in no great hurry to go downstairs and join the family.
“Hi,” I said nervously. I was excited and flustered again and I didn’t understand it. I was really hoping he wasn’t about to send me away.
Tal patted the mattress next to him.
“We don’t have to go downstairs yet. The kids will be going crazy down there for a while. Unless you want to get caught up in that…”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not sure it’s safe out there.”
Tal chuckled. “They’re okay. They’ll just be a little wild until the sugar wears off.”
“Are they all your family?”