Page 23 of Golden Omega

An ache in my neck woke me up, and I stretched it, trying to relieve the discomfort. I moved my arms and legs, as I did every morning, trying to work out the kinks when I realized I wasn’t in my bed. With my eyes still closed, I felt my lips rise in a smile.

We were in Hema’s apartment. The ceiling above me was white, older, still had the flocking, and the ceiling fan had seen better days.

I didn’t know if it would ever happen, but I wished she would come to our home and live with us.

Speaking of our omega…

“She’s gone,” Sovann said, and I heard his rapid heartbeat. Through the bond, I felt his panic.

I sat up straight, processing the information. Her scent was here, but waning. She’d been gone for a while. “Let’s calm down.” I reached over to check my phone. “It’s after seven. The shop is open today. She probably needed to go to work.”

Sovann stood up and put his hands on his hips. “Yes. Yeah, that’s what happened. She had to go to work. Owning her own business. She can’t just stay here and sleep because we are. That has to be it.”

He spoke to himself more than me.

I got up and straightened myself as much as possible. My clothes were rumpled. There were blankets and pillows everywhere.

Altan was the last one up. “Let’s clean everything up before we go. We don’t want our mate thinking we are a mess. She’s got such a shit opinion of alphas. I want to prove her wrong. I want to prove to her that we’re nothing like the assholes who kicked her out for being an omega.”

“Can you believe,” Sovann started, “someone so precious and desired as an omega gets kicked out for being who she is. Hema’s a fucking treasure and they thought she was a burden. I’m glad they kicked her out. I hate that she’s hurt and has pain, but it brought her to us.”

“I hate that her pain brought her to us, but right now, I think we should go see her.” I paused as we were all folding things up and getting her apartment back in order. “I want to go see her this morning. Bring her coffee. Breakfast. Prove to her that we aren’t going anywhere.”

We cleaned up her apartment, put the mattress back on the bed, and made it up again. Sovann went the extra mile, vacuumed and did some light dusting.

On the way to the coffee shop and then to her flower shop, we discussed the night before. Feeding our omega with food we, or Sovann, prepared had been a great idea which we all gave him credit for.

It was part of courting. Showing her that we could provide for her even though she was fully capable of doing that herself.

With coffee and a hearty breakfast in hand, we went to the flower shop and, surprisingly, she asked us to wait in the back for her to get a lull in customers. She did so with a smile on her face.

“Did she get some new flowers?” I asked, walking around her back room. It was organized and clean. Tools hanging on a pegboard. Floors freshly swept. Handwritten to-do lists. I wished we could take some of that off her shoulders, but I knew less than jack shit about flowers and arranging them.

“Maybe. There’s a new smell in here. No. Not new but stronger.”

I didn’t think twice about it. The line was long and a ping on her open laptop told me how many emails were coming in. Her business was booming and I would bet those pings indicated even more business on the online segment of her business. She deserved all of it. The success. The income.

Our omega was a hard worker. Smart. Innovative. Kind and caring to customers. Focused.

It made me love her even more.

Love?

Yeah, it was time to admit it. I loved Hema. What was not to love?

“Hey,” she said, strolling into the back. She looked tired but moved as though she had all the energy in the world. “I’m sorry I left early.”

Sovann handed her the coffee and a loaded croissant sandwich. “That’s fine. You have a business to run.”

She looked down, and her shoulders sagged. “Actually, I left before the sun. I needed some space. Time to get my head on straight.”

The alarm bells rang out in my head. “Wanna talk about it?” Altan asked.

“This is moving so fast. One minute, I’ve sworn off all alphas and feeling pretty damned smug about my decision. And then I met you three, and it all crumbled through my fingers. Last night…”

“If we did anything to mess it up,” I started, readying my apology in my head.

She let out a small laugh. “You did everything right and I’ve realized I grew up with a shitty sampling of alphas. But Tawny and Karissa have such amazing packs and you three…you are what I didn’t know I wanted. I needed some time to work through it, untangle all the knots in my head.”