Secret Omega Page 5

The omega had to say it was nice to have someone to wrangle the pup away. He could focus on the cooking, prepping the meats, making the jam, and everything else. He was getting a lot of preserving done this time around. Plenty to keep the pack fed for mid-day meals for a few weeks to come.

  Of course, there was also the matter of clean up.

  Making pots and jars wasn't easy. They only dared gather enough heat to make a kiln every so often. Doing the preservation wasn't exactly something cleanly done. So that meant washing.

  A whole lot of washing.

  It was Peregwin's most dreaded chore. He rolled up his sleeves and wet a cloth in his basin of water. With another sigh, he got to work. He was going to be sore by the end of this. What he didn't expect was for Stone to be standing beside him, grabbing another cloth, and joining him in the task.

  "What are you doing?" Peregwin asked.

  "Helping you."

  "You don't have to do that."

  "You've fed me and housed me, not to mention healed me. This is a very small repayment for all your favors."

  The omega didn't know how to look at this. Stone wasn't doing anything wrong, scrubbing the remnants of jam off the sides of a jar, making pristine as it ever was.

  "Go on. Go take a rest," the alpha said. "You look terrible. I mean, you're still absolutely beautiful, but you look terrible at the same time if you know what I mean."

  Peregwin opened his mouth to protest, but Stone cut him off. “That was an order—rest.”

  Peregwin blushed. Well, if it had been an order, who was he to say no?

  Ollas scrambled up to the tub and splashed a hand in the warm water.

  "You wanna help too, pup?" Stone tossed a cloth at Ollas, who dunked it in the water before sucking on it.

  Peregwin could only smile at the two of them working together, how Stone guided Ollas despite the fact that he only made the task more challenging. Peregwin liked Stone. He liked him way too much.

  He really shouldn't have mated with him though. That was stupid. Reckless. Just the sounds of their tryst alone might have blown their cover.

  Risking getting pregnant too. By the moon, he'd expressed concerns over Briar's pregnancy, but everything he said there applied to him too. The pack was struggling, and it wasn't just a matter of food. With all the work that survival required, giving Ollas the attention he deserved was nearly impossible.

  Could he really even handle another child?

  Maybe if he had Stone's help he could.

  Peregwin shook his head, sitting down on the bed. What a foolish thought. As soon as that wound healed, Stone would be gone. If even he had gotten pregnant... he didn't want to think of what would happen to his unborn child when his alpha was running across the wastes again.

  But that wouldn’t happen. They had never needed to control pregnancy in their pack, but the tincture Briar had invented would suppress Peregwin’s heat, and that should prevent getting pregnant. He hoped. He shook his head. The last thing he needed was to stress over made up scenarios.

  It felt so good to rest his aching feet as he watched Stone and Ollas clean the dishes. Stone splashed at Ollas, which made him bubble with laughter before tossing his rag in Stone’s face. Ollas had really taken to him. Yet all Peregwin could do was worry. Would Ollas just be heartbroken when Stone left?

  If only Stone didn't have to leave. If only Peregwin could have him...

  He shut down the thoughts. When he'd escaped the Bloody Fang, he made one promise to himself, and that was to never fall for an alpha again. Ollas's sire... Peregwin hated even thinking that the monster had any contribution to his pup's existence.

  The omega had to get in control of himself. He couldn't fall for Stone, or any alpha, ever again.

  He laid down on the bed. Briar, Stone, the others were right. He really was exhausted from doing everything at once. Being a father, lover, provider, all at the same time.

  It was what was necessary to survive.

  ***

  Days passed. His duties went on. His exhaustion also went on.

  Still, he couldn't stay in bed all day.

  He had his satchel prepared, filled with packets of nutes, vegetables and cooked meat. One of his many duties was making sure that the hunters and foragers had their mid-day meal so that they could spend the last hours of sunlight pushing themselves hard for the pack.

  One particular hunter often prowled the fringes of territory to hunt down the meat they so often went without. Peregwin worried about the omega, Locan, running into lurking alphas, but made it a point to make sure even he was fed. Peregwin treaded carefully as he walked through the trees, searching for Locan. The mountainside was covered in traps, but he was smarter than the beasts the hunters were trying to catch.

  "Locan, where are you?" Peregwin called out in a hushed tone, keeping his hand on his knife just in case someone invaded their territory again.

  There was a rustling in the bushes, and out popped Locan. "Do I smell food?"

  "Of course you do." Peregwin pulled a small packet bound by leaves out of his woven pouch. "You need to focus when you're this far out."

  Locan wasted no time taking the meal and delving into it, inhaling the mixture of nuts, berries, meat, and whatever else Peregwin had managed to scrape together in these lean times.

  Then, to Peregwin's surprise, he stopped. He wrinkled his nose. "Um... is this a new recipe?"

  "Um, uh," Peregwin blushed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, I must have botched my regular recipe."

  Of course, Peregwin took pride in his work. Only this time the work wasn't Peregwin's.

  Since he’d been so tired, Stone had really stepped up to make sure his duties were complete. This included preparing the meals for the pack.

  Peregwin was thankful. He didn't know how he could get everything done without Stone's help these past few days. He never had this much trouble before, but everyone has off days, Peregwin supposed.

  "It must be too much rosemary," Peregwin explained. "I'll make sure to get it right again."

  Locan shrugged. "It's edible. I'm not going to complain. You work hard, Peregwin."

  "Thank you." Peregwin let out a sigh. "You too. Hope you bring home something big I can cook up."

  "Doing my damndest."

  A pinching in Peregwin’s abdomen prevented him from responding. He grunted. "I'm —I'm going to get back to the village."

  "Stay safe, brother."

  Locan took off, shifting and nearly disappearing in front of Peregwin's eyes.

  With him gone, Peregwin turned back, almost running toward home. The pinching grew stronger with every step.

  A little bit of pain wouldn't bother him too much. He’d had more than his fair share of it.

  What scared him though was where the pain was coming from. A pinching in his abdomen. He had felt such a pain once before.

  Months before Ollas entered his world.

  "No," he whispered to himself. "No, no, this can't happen. I took the suppressant. It can't happen. It just can't."

  He was still rambling to himself as he made his way back, stopping every so often to cope with the stabbing pain.

  All the exhaustion—the nausea that he’d thought was from Stone's cooking—it was adding up. Cold panic pooled in Peregwin’s gut.

  His thoughts were stopped short when a howl pierced the air.

  The pack had come up with many cries to raise alarm within the village. There was one for fire, one for someone in need of a healer, one for lost pups.

  This howl was the scariest to Peregwin, and to many other omegas of pack, for good reason.

  It was a warning of a foreign alpha.

  Peregwin forgot about the pain in his belly and started running toward the howl. They'd found Stone His heart pounded as he thought of Stone being cornered and slaughtered right in front his eyes.

  Wincing, he powered through the pain, making it back to the village.

  A crowd of omegas was gathered. Peregwin pushed through t
hem, inhaling a gasp when he, saw Rohan with his foot on a whimpering creature’s neck.

  Wait…

  That alpha wasn’t Stone.

  Relief washed through Peregwin. The battered, bloody face wasn’t that of his own alpha.

  "When Locan set that pit trap, I thought he would get us dinner," Rohan sneered at the alpha under his foot. "Instead he caught a spy. My, I know a lot of alphas are dumb, but I never thought they would be so foolish as to trip into a hole in the ground."

  The captured alpha just gurgled under Rohan's foot.

  "Where you from, friend? You a rogue? Or you from somewhere else."

  "Ugh..." He was groaning, saying nothing of use.

  Rohan replied by putting more weight on his throat.

  "Bloody Fang," he managed to spit out.

  "You mean the scattered remnants of the Bloody Fang."

  The restrained alpha grunted in defiance.

  "Why are you here?"

  Rohan let his foot up enough to let him squeak out, "S-scouting… defenses..."

  Rohan stomped down on the alpha’s throat. Peregwin looked away, unable to stomach the violence, yet all the same, he couldn't blame Rohan for reacting with force. The pack's safety came above all.

  "We—we need omegas. We need them to do what omegas are meant to do. It's a bloodbath. Packs are raiding one another just for a single one of them."

  "So you thought you'd follow the rumors of the omega pack here, huh? Think we would be easy pickings?"

  The invader nodded.

  "You're terribly wrong, friend. We've survived this long without scum like you, and we'll keep surviving."

  The invader spat. “You think you alone can fight us off?” Peregwin shook his head. This alpha thought it was only Rohan he had to worry about, not realizing that every member would fight to defend their home.

  "You're the second spy the scraps of the Bloody Fang has sent us."

  "First," Peregwin spoke up, almost automatically.

  Rohan looked his way. "What do you mean?"

  "The other alpha we caught recently wasn't a spy."

  "How do you know, Peregwin?"

  "I don’t,” he said quickly, but as the words came out, doubt crept in. What did Peregwin really know about Stone? He wouldn’t have been drawn to Stone if he meant any kind of harm, right? Peregwin chewed his lip. No, That proved nothing. Attraction all too often betrayed common sense.

  Where was Stone from? They had talked so much over the past week or so. Yet he didn't gain a terrible lot of insight about Stone. He was guarded. All while Peregwin had been an open book. Proudly telling Stone their pack's history. How Briar had become revered as pack master. How they divided labor. How they stored food.

  He’d thought all Stone’s questions were because he wanted to understand their ways. Peregwin’s throat went dry. Maybe Stone was more clever than the alpha who had Rohan's foot on his throat. This alpha wasn't very bright, but that didn't mean all alphas just thought with their cocks and bloodlust.

  Yet... it couldn't be that. He believed in Stone. He'd been so kind. He got on so well with Ollas. He wasn’t just a rogue alpha.

  That was what Peregwin wanted to believe anyways.

  Rohan’s growl shook him out of his thoughts. "What should we do with this one?."

  "We can't afford to take chances," Edrik spoke up. "End him. Send a message to the rest of those scoundrels."

  Peregwin’s stomach churned. Showing no mercy once would set a precedence.

  If they found Stone... there would be no pleading for his life, no matter how much influence Peregwin tried to use.

  "We are not murderers," Peregwin called out. "We shouldn't kill so freely. We are better than them."

  "They're a threat," Rohan growled pressing harder on the alpha’s throat.

  No, he couldn’t let this happen. His heart pounded as he scrambled for an idea that would prevent this death. "There has to be something more useful we can do with him. We can't just crush his throat and act like that's a good solution."

  "I don't know, it seems like a pretty good solution to me."

  "We should use him as a messenger. Send him back. Let whatever's left of the Bloody Fang know that we aren't all that defenseless."

  Rohan grumbled. "We're just going to keep letting these threats go free?"

  Peregwin shook his head. "We still don’t know that the last one meant us harm..” Was he saying that for Rohan’s benefit, or his own? “We can tell this one that the next invader will die. No more mercy."

  Rohan glanced around, taking stock of the feelings of the other omegas of the pack. With the exception of Edrik, no one seemed eager to see blood shed in their village. "Fine. That's how it'll be." Rohan let up his foot, and instead placed his meaty hand around the invader's throat, pulling him up. "You hear that, dog? You get to live. Run away. Never return. If you have any loyalty to your pack, you'll tell them to do the same. This mountain is far from defenseless."

  Then Rohan threw the invader toward the outside of the village. Injured in spirit and body, he wasted no time fleeing with his tail between his legs.

  Rohan sighed. "You’re too merciful. Why do you care so much what we do with invaders?"

  The omega didn't make eye contact, trying to think it through. "I just worry that we'll become as cruel as the other packs. We have to have some mercy, we just need to apply it wisely."

  Rohan took some time responding himself. "I can’t claim to understand your opinion, but I respect it."

  Peregwin was grateful for that, figuring it was the best he could hope for. The pack dispersed, returning to their various duties of cleaning, crafting, preparing, among other things.

  Peregwin’s footsteps were slow as he walked back to his hut. Stone couldn’t be a spy, could he? Even if Peregwin accepted such a horrible thought, what could he do about it?

  If he forced Stone to leave, he could return to his pack with information, that may very well doom everyone Peregwin cared about. Yet if Stone stayed, he might be killed despite his innocence.

  He had to approach this tenderly. If he discovered the truth and it didn't agree with him though, the next time Peregwin stabbed him it would be in his heart.

  No matter how much the nagging pain in his abdomen begged him not to.

  Chapter Seven

  Stone

  Stone paced the hut, putting his hand to the latch, only to draw it back. That howl, that commotion. Something had happened in the village.

  Yet he could do nothing.

  He didn't dare show himself. He hadn’t recovered enough for a fight, and he didn't want to create a disturbance in the pack anyway.

  The door pushed open, and was closed softly shortly after.

  Peregwin.

  It looked like the weight of the world had slammed him in the face.

  "What's going on out there?" Stone grabbed him by the shoulders.

  "We had another invader."

  "Another?"

  "Well, you're the first invader, aren't you?"

  Stone recoiled. He hated that it was the truth. He was a rogue. He didn't belong here... he didn't belong anywhere.

  "We're worried about spies, Stone." Peregwin took off Ollas's sling and sat it down on the table. "The Bloody Fang is still enough of a threat to us for us to be concerned."

  "I'm aware. It's pretty dire out there in the wilds right now."

  Peregwin wasn't looking him head on. He seemed fully distracted by other thoughts. "I'm going to ask you something. I want the truth. After all I've done for you, you owe me that much."

  "What's going on? What's bothering you, Pere?"

  His omega swallowed audibly. "Where are you from? Are you… are you a spy for the Bloody Fang?"

  The alpha hardly believed what he heard. "Of course not!"

  "How about any other packs? Who are you working for, Stone?"

  "No one!" He started pacing again. He didn't believe this was coming from Peregwin's luscious lips. "I'm free of any alleg
iance, Pere. I told you. I've never lied to you."

  "I want to believe you."

  "Then believe me. What's brought this up? Why are you suddenly so paranoid?"

  "Rohan caught a spy. I was reminded that we're a pack one mistake away from falling back into slavery. So I'm worried. That I've been so open with you, and you haven't been so with me."

  Stone approached his omega. His arms wrapped around him. Peregwin shuddered. "I told you. I was exiled for stealing food."

  "That's supposed to make me feel better?"

  "No, it was a moment of weakness brought by hunger."

  "What are you saying?"

  "It's hell out there, Pere. When there's so much chaos and uncertainty, food stores run low. And then it's the dry season of all things. By the moon, I wasn't the only one starving."

  Peregwin let out a long sigh. "I forget how savage it can be outside the mountain. I hate to think of the omegas still in such a terrible place. If the alphas weren't getting enough food, then..."

  "Yes. The omegas of my pack were lucky to get the scraps of the scraps."

  Peregwin shuddered. Stone began to realize that Peregwin had experienced all this. He’d been a Bloody Fang omega. His life must have been an endless procession of daily hell.

  Now? It wasn't an easy life, but it must be paradise in comparison. It was easy to see why he was so desperate to protect his new way of life.

  "You amaze me, Pere." His grip tightened, he pulled the omega closer. "You take your responsibility and your loyalty to your pack so seriously. Yet you still manage to be so kind."

  "Am I really?” He nestled his face into Stone’s chest. “Or am I just naive? Why do I want to trust you so badly?"

  "Because you feel what I feel what I feel. There was a connection between us from the night we met. I don't know what it is—maybe something in our scents."

  "You still reek of garlic."

  Stone laughed. "I do. Not what I'm getting at though. You saw something in me, Pere that even I don't see in myself."

  "Are you just telling me that to convince me to trust you?"

  "Are you denying it? You went out into the woods in the middle of the night to drag me back. You've been hiding me." Stone nipped the omega ear's playfully with his teeth. "Then we also shared something so special with one another."