Sarah clings to my side as we make our way to the front door, and I’ve already ascertained it’s not from the cold. Her fingers intertwine with mine in a death grip, and it’s so strange to see my feisty girl off-kilter. Other than that first day, she always seems to have her life handled. I know there are a few things that bother her, and she seemed trepidatious about this trip, but I didn’t expect the complete personality shift. She whines low in her throat when I untangle our fingers and pull her against me in a tight hug. I debate picking her up and heading back to the car. Yeah, it took us a while to get here, but I’ll gladly take her right back to campus and we can cuddle up in her nest. I know her bunny would be upset if he was stuck for that long, but we can fold all the seats down and she can hang out back there with him while he gets some of his wiggles out.
Instead, she squeezes me back with one arm and steps away, looking into his carrier at his surly expression. Yeah, Shaggbutt is not a fan of long car trips. She squares her shoulders and takes a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “Come on, Shaggy has a long rabbit run set up in my room, unless they’ve putsomebody else in there for the night. Poor little dude needs to stretch.”
She doesn’t bother knocking on the door, just opening it and going in. My parents would freak out if someone just came into the house without knocking, so now I’m the one staying close to her as she walks down the front hall and past a living room on one side. It’s packed with people, but everyone seems so engrossed in their own conversations that they don’t notice us. Unfortunately, when we pass the kitchen on the other side, there’s a loud shriek and then Sarah is engulfed in people. They jostle her and Shaggy, and I wonder briefly about stepping into the herd of stampeding omegas to rescue my girl and her rabbit.
Before I can make a decision, a heavy hand falls on my shoulder. It looks like the commotion has called out some of the people we passed earlier, and three big alphas are standing behind me, glowering between me and Sarah. A rough growl rumbles from the scowling man with his hand on my shoulder. “So, you’re the beta that followed our baby sister home, huh?”
Oh great, brothers.
Overprotective asshole brothers.
Fun fun.
Before I can say anything, Sarah is there snarling up at the one touching me. “Jacob, remove the hand or lose it, only warning.” I don’t even try to hide my smile. I’m glad that she’s back to feeling feisty, but all three alphas break into wide grins. The bigger one drops his hand, but then passes me, scooping Sarah up into a hug before taking Shaggy’s carrier and handing it to me.
“I missed you, Pipara! How are you? You look like shit.” Sarah gets passed back and forth between her brothers, huffing indignantly at their ribbing. I try to catch her eye to see if she needs rescuing, but I’m pretty sure she could take them if she had to. None of the alphas are huge. About my height, but broad-shouldered and muscular, as alphas tend to naturally be. But Sarah fights dirty, at least she says she does. I haven’t actually seen it yet, but I hope her brothers won’t go far enough to actually upset her.
After a few minutes, my omega is set back on the ground next to me. The big one from before, Jacob, ignores me to talk to her. “So, a beta, huh? Well, he’s not tiny like we expected. We thought you’d finally found someone your own size.” The two guys behind him chuckle good-naturedly, but Sarah looks like she’s about to go off on somebody. Shaggy takes the pause in conversation to try to thump in his carrier and the whole thing shakes, drawing Sarah’s attention.
“You three are assholes. We’ll discuss this later. I need to go let Shaggy out for a break. Has anybody been stuck in my room, or is he still good to run loose in there?” The three alphas guffaw at her serious expression, but straighten quickly when an older omega approaches from the group behind us.
“Oh, come here, Nieta. Hugs! Hugs!” The woman is even shorter than Sarah as she wraps her arms around my girl and holds her close. Sarah’s face is pulled into a tight smile as she hugs the woman back. Her body leans into the embrace, but her shoulders look stiff and uncomfortable as she pulls away.
“Sorry, Abuela, I need to go let Shaggbutt out to run loose. I’ll be back in just a minute, ok?” Her voice is higher, taking on a falsely pleasant tone that sets my teeth on edge. I know Sarah doesn’t talk to many people around campus, but she never seems this tense.
“Oh, of course, of course! Go let the little conejo out to run. The poor thing has probably been cooped up for too long. Did you stop and give him any playtime on the way here?” Sarah just mumbles under her breath, grabbing my hand and dragging me further into the house and up the stairs at the end of the hallway. And now I feel like an asshole for not thinking about stopping tolet the damned rabbit out to exercise on the trip. I thought we just wanted to get here as fast as we could so he could get out of the carrier for the night. Fuck my life.
We make it to the top of the stairs, and Sarah turns right, taking the third door on the left, almost at the end of the hallway. I follow close behind, Shaggy rattling in his carrier, and I feel like I should be apologizing to him now for leaving him in there. She quickly takes it from my hand and sits it inside a long wooden pen that takes up half the room. Not that the room is huge. There’s enough space left for a full-sized bed with a set of dresser drawers at the end of it. A pretty turquoise runner is lying across the top, covered in nicknacks.
Sarah starts talking quietly to Shaggy as he hops out of the carrier and thumps a few times before taking in his new surroundings. I’m sure he’s been here before, but I don’t know how well he remembers the space. I take this moment to look around the room, absorbing everything I can about my omega, and trying to piece together what I know about the fiery girl I’ve been living with for the last month with the frills and flowers I’m seeing around me.
There’s a quiet whomp noise as she falls face first onto the bed, and her voice is muffled by the blankets and piles of pillows. “I’ll go get his stuff out of the car in a minute. I just need…I just need a little time before I face them all again.”
I crawl onto the bed next to her, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her body against mine. “Do you want me to go get it? They don’t know me, so they probably won’t say anything, and it would give you a few minutes to decompress. Besides, you know I can talk to anybody, so if they try, I won’t embarrass you too much. Or, alternatively, we can set up in here and hide away for the entire week, sneaking out only at night to gather food and bottles of water…which we will then have to useas waste containers because I don’t see a bathroom attached to this place.”
It’s frustrating that I don’t even get a smile from that. Instead, she scoffs at my statement, turning her face towards me, one eyebrow raised in skepticism. “I’m not worried about you embarrassing me. I’m worried about my family eating you for breakfast without me there as a buffer, telling you embarrassing stories about my childhood, or Mamá finding you and asking when you plan to impregnate me.”
My laugh bubbles free at her last statement, and she just stares at me until I realize that wasn’t a joke. Shit. Ok, well…I’m not opposed to kids, but that seems kind of sudden. Her voice is muffled again as she turns her face back into the blanket. “So yeah, just give me a few minutes, and you can keep an eye on Shaggy while I brave the insanity.”
Chapter 15
Ilie there for a few more minutes, willing my body to move. It’s not until Shaggy starts grumbling at me and thumping that I manage to make myself get up. “Sorry, baby. I’ll go get your food and some fresh litter for you. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but Greg will be right here if you need anything.” My beta smiles up at me from where he’s still lying on my bed. Then he gets up and goes over to Shaggy’s run and starts trying to figure out the latch. It’s not complicated, and I have no doubt that my bun will be loose by the time I get back. I just hope he doesn’t leave a bunch of poop all over my room in retaliation for the car trip. Bunny bombs are not something I want to deal with right now.
Making my way downstairs, I walk as quietly as I can down the hallway, hoping to sneak past my family, or at least the women in my family. My dads and brothers don’t usually get tooinvasive about my love life, but Mamá…well, there’s a reason I wanted poor Greg to stay safely hidden away. The shit she says is awkward enough for me, I don’t want him to have to deal with it. Sadly, my sneaking only works so well when my niece Arya pops out into the hallway. The loud shriek of delight makes me smile and cringe at the same time, and I open my arms as she pelts down the hallway full tilt, springing into the air to wrap me in a hug.
She got her dad’s genetics, so she’s already almost chest-high on me, big for her age, and heavy as she slams face first into my boobs. I catch her to keep her from taking us both down, but still stagger a bit into the wall. “Oof, you’re getting so big, Killer. What did your mom say about throwing yourself at people?” I’m trying for a stern look, but fail miserably as she grins up at me. She’s missing her two top front teeth, and her voice comes out with a lisp.
“Mommy thays that I’m not thupposed to run in the houth, and ethpethially not jump on grammy…but it’th fine to jump on you.” I can feel my eyebrows go up in speculation, then I remember that Shelly is still mad about the whole name thing.
Meh, not my problem.
I hug Arya tighter before I let her slide down me until her feet touch the floor. This kid is gonna be taller than me in a couple of years and I wonder if she’s going to take after our baby sister and be one of the rare female alphas or just a really big beta. It’s still possible she could be an omega—built like Teddy, probably—but I have my doubts.
“Mija! My sweet girl, there you are!” My mom’s voice echoes down the hallway and I wince slightly before plastering a smile onto my face.
“Mamá, hi—” I don’t get any more out before her hands come down on my shoulders, holding me at arm’s length to look me over.
“Mija, I told you, you won’t get any mates like this. You have to stop with the muscles. Why all the muscles? Every time I see you. It’s like you’re trying to make yourself too manly. You will never give me more grandchildren like this.”
