When my eyes finally stop watering, I walk back into the dining room, giving Sam the hard glare he so justly deserves. Instead of responding to me, or even acknowledging my returnhe gives Vee a hard look. “And that, little boy, is why we use a recipe. I don’t care if you pull the fucking thing off the internet. Don’t go throwing random ingredients you find into a bowl and call it cooking. Maybe after a few years of experience with it, you’ll have enough of an idea of what works to try that. But for now, stay the fuck outta my damned kitchen.” Sam shoves another bit of fluffy pancake into his mouth, chewing purposefully.
Vee's devastated gaze turns to me, he looks like he’s about to cry as he pushes away from the table and mopes to the kitchen with his still mostly full plate. Sam meets my hard glare now but doesn’t let me start talking. “Your boy there wanted to make you pancakes. Don’t worry, I checked what he put in; flour, water, baking soda, and some vanilla. Thankfully, he left out the eggs...but also the sugar. He was also only making them for you, so there wasn’t too much batter. Still, if he’s plannin’ on sticking around, you might want to work on his attitude. If he’s gonna be part of this pack, it’s the whole pack. He doesn’t get to exclude people he doesn’t like.”
Sam shoves a last bit of pancake into his mouth and stands up before I can reply. I don’t want to defend Vee. Not exactly. That was awful, but he looked so upset. Still, I’m both shocked by Sam’s offer to let him stay and understand his point of view about all of us working together. Garret and Kelly are the only ones left with me at the table, and Kelly gives me an encouraging smile while Garret continues to stare longingly at her. Seriously, it’s actually kind of creepy now.
When I just sit there staring, she grows impatient and gestures with her fork in kind of a ‘go on’ motion. I realize her other hand is being held captive by Garret. Heaving a heavy sigh I stand up, the good pancakes have already soaked up all the syrup on my plate, and gotten cold, but I’m tempted to sit here and eat the damned things anyway.
Shit.
Taking my plate with me, I walk into the kitchen. Sam stands at the sink rinsing off his plate while Vee is by the stove, his shoulders slumped and looking defeated. I’m torn between wanting to go to him—he’s mine, he’s been mine since we were kids—and thinking he deserves to feel like shit after everything he put me through.
I don’t get a chance to anyway before Sam turns and wraps him in a hug, tucking Vee’s head under his chin. “I’m not tryin’ to be an asshole here, Kid. I just need you to learn that your actions have consequences. Embarrassin’ yourself at breakfast is a small consequence in the grand scheme of things. What you did to Teddy, rejecting him. That’s gonna have some big fuckin’ consequences. You gonna man up and accept ’em? Try to make it right? No more of this half-assed bullshit?”
As I watch, Vee nuzzles into Sam’s neck, his shoulders relaxing by increments against the larger man. I must make some noise, because Sam turns his head to look at me. He shakes it once and I think he’s trying to let Vee have some semblance of privacy. Turning as silently as I can, I walk back to the dining room, put my plate down on the table, and head to my room to get a shower and try to figure out the weird swirl of conflicting emotions in my chest.
Chapter 41
Why do I feel like I’m adopting puppies? Two of them; one who skitters across the floor pissing everywhere, that nips and growls every time I try to get close. And the other who just wants to lick everyone, trying desperately to get attention. Fuck my life.
Steve helps me finish loading the dishwasher and cleaning up the mess from breakfast, dutifully collecting all the condiments he took out to try to prove that he knows Teddy better and storing them away in the fridge and pantry. The kid seems like he wants to apologize and try to get back in Teddy’s good graces. But he’s acting more like a teenager with a first crush than a grown alpha, and I briefly wonder again about their upbringing and what kinda family they had that would deny them a life with an omega they were already involved with. Ok, Steve was involved with, Garret vehemently denies any attraction to men and has become obsessed with Kelly. Once again, as long as that’s what she wants, and she’s happy, that’s all I care about.
Once everything is cleaned and put away, we retire to the living room. Kelly is already on the couch, sandwiched betweenGarret and Jake, but she looks up at me excitedly. “How can I help with the nest today? Are we gonna get more work done? When can we paint it? Oh, I can help Teddy pick out paint colors! Do you think he’d be ok with that?” Her questions are rapid fire, and I smile at how excited she is over making a nest for our omega.
Garret and Steve are staring back and forth between the two of us, and soon Garret pipes up. “What’s she talking about Sam?” It’s strange that they’ve been here less than twenty-four hours and I’m already contemplating their joining the pack, but shit. The pack's only been together for four days, so what the hell?
I look around, realizing I’m going to either need to build or buy some new furniture. The single couch and coffee table were fine when it was just me and Jake. Even with Teddy and Kelly it would have been doable. But with three alphas, a giant omega, a beta, and an overgrown lap-dog, we need more places to sit.
Maybe I could bring up the chairs from the basement.
No, what if they wanna watch a movie?
Shit. It’s ok.
I take a seat on the stairs and Steve sits by my feet...weird. “Anybody seen Teddy, in case he wants to be in on this conversation too?”
The door opens down the hall and Teddy walks in. His hair is damp, and he smells like soap. “Sorry Sam, just needed a few minutes.”
I drag him over to me and pull him in for a hug before he can object. He looks around the room for a minute, then goes over and stares at Jake until the dog relents and hops down onto the floor, surrendering his seat next to Kelly. Teddy sits down, and she leans into him, offering her own hug.
Another downside to being pack alpha, I guess, I get to do the talking. “Been here less than a day and already kicked off my own couch. Damn boy, youdomove fast.” My attemptsat cutting the tension meet with massive failure as Garret pales slightly and stands up, shuffling away from the couch. Kelly looks exasperated for a moment, like she wants to say something, but then gives up and snuggles harder into Teddy.
“Christ, kid, I was tryin’ to lighten the mood, sit y’er ass down.” I wonder briefly again at these two’s upbringing as Garret shuffles back to the couch, not meeting my eyes.
“As you boys may or may not know, I met Kelly and Teddy this last weekend at a bonding ceremony...” Garret’s already heard part of this story, but I don’t know how new it’ll be to Steve. Relating the first few days with my pack, up to and including meeting them yesterday, takes longer than anticipated, and by the time I’m done, Kelly has curled up into Teddy’s lap, both of them snoring lightly. Jake took her spot on the couch and is leaning against them both, leaving Garret out in the cold again.
Taking in the twins—Garret stopped me to clarify their relationship when I got to the part about them running into Kelly at the store yesterday—I suggest we take a break before we hear their side of things. And I want Teddy to be awake for this. If Steve’s gonna try to get himself out of trouble, he needs to be able to come forward and explain to Teddy exactly what happened, and why it took him so long to come back for him.
Besides, I need to get back to work on the nest and, once I smooth out the joint compound, talk to Teddy about wall texture and paint. And windows, have to get the damned windows in before I can paint in this cold.
Stepping into the nest, I can understand why Teddy was so upset. The room doesn’t look like much now, but once I’m finished, it’ll be exactly what he wants. I pull out a bucket of drywall mud and start skimming the room. The sooner I can finish this place, the happier and more relaxed my omega will be. Plus, I can’t deny that Kelly’s excitement earlier wasadorable. I feel like such a shit for not already having had this done before he came into my life. But there was no way to know.
Hours have passed before I finally leave the room. My back aches, my shoulders are stiff, and I think my arms want to fall off from spreading mud around the room all day. Big fucking room—nests usually are—but I’m getting too old for this shit.
Looking over at the grandfather clock, it’s clear I missed lunch, and should have already started on dinner. What the hell are they up to that they let me disappear for this long? I wander through the downstairs, but nobody seems to be here. Opening the front door, all three automobiles seem to be in the same spots. Jake doesn’t come running when the door opens either, which is strange.
I trudge upstairs. Maybe they’re all in bed, without me. But no, the bed and bedrooms are all empty as well. Starting to feel concerned, I plod back down the stairs, gripping tightly to the railing because my legs feel like they’re about to unhinge, both from exhaustion and worry. I nearly fall and crash to the bottom when I hear a loud screech coming from the basement. Kelly’s voice raises high enough to carry to the living room. “No, stop. Don’t you dare!”
Scrambling down the steps, it takes my brain a few seconds to comprehend what I’m seeing. They’ve reconfigured the chairs into a semicircle around the television, and they each have a game controller. A go-kart game is split into four sections onthe television, and as I watch a blue turtle shell explodes across the screen, taking out the blonde princess on a pink motorcycle. Kelly throws a look past Teddy like she wants to string Steve up by his ankles and beat him to death.
