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I didn’t know how much time passed before a gentle sound pulled me from my trance.
The ache in my knees and back told me it had been too long since I’d moved. That sound, a purr, pulled at my attention again. I fought to focus my gaze and found Ethan sitting in front of me, mirroring my pose, and purring for me, again. The vibration of his purr couldn’t mend the jagged pieces that were the fractured bits of my soul, but it wrapped around them. Made the weight of all my fear and despair somehow less.
“Miles, you are going to come with me. We’re going to Drake House to be with the others. You’re going to eat and rest in the barracks. Because we’re—” his soft voice broke before he steeled himself. “We’re getting Shae back and you can’t break. They’ll need you.”
I nodded and heard a shaking exhale behind him. I noticed all three of my parents there. Mom crying softly, with Dad’s arms wrapped around her, and Pop holding her hand with a distraught look on his face. My voice croaked out of me.
“Sorry.”
Mom shook her head and made to move towards me, but my dad held her to him, and spoke to me, voice calm though my world was falling apart.
“We’ll drive you both back in, then I’ll stay, but Mom and Pop will go home.”
I stood and grunted when my muscles protested the movement. Ethan gripped my elbow to steady me, keeping up his purr and the heady relief it offered me.
The days after that were a blur of despair and hope and fear. I’d only functioned when Ethan came into my space in the barracks to make me eat and shower and update me on their progress. If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have made it. That week had changed so many things about me, not least how I viewed Ethan. He had already become a friend before, but his care and devotion to Shae, our pack, and me, had opened the door for me to see him as potentially more.
I didn’t love Ethan and I didn’t feel any kind of attraction to him really. I’d wanted to hug him when we were home that first night with Shae. I was grateful when he’d asked if we could all be in the nest together because having them both with me settled something deep within my soul. I didn’t know if I would be able to talk to Ethan about it all yet. Part of me worried that my feelings were influenced by Shae’s through our bond and another part of me recognized that Ethan was exactly the right Omega for us and that my feelings were the result of actually getting to know him as the incredible person he was.
The chatter of people around me increased as classes ended, and broke me from my thoughts. I cursed myself for getting so lost in memories that I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings. It was only another minute or so before Ethan appeared, walking with another student. The guy was handsome, a mop of light brown hair, the kind of bone structure people paid money for, and dark eyes that were currently trained, in a look of pure longing, on an oblivious Ethan. I smiled to myself and thanked our lucky stars that Theo hadn’t been the one to see that, because the poor Beta would have quickly learned to never look at Ethan like that again.
Standing from my spot across the courtyard, I walked toward them and noticed Ethan’s nostrils flare before he looked toward me and smiled. I returned the grin and stepped up to them, taking Ethan’s bag from his shoulders and slipping it on to mine.
“I’ll just, um, catch up with you later then, Ethan?”
“Huh? Oh shit, sorry, Will. This is Miles. Miles, my friend Will.”
I reached out to shake the Beta’s hand. He shook it quickly then waved as he backed away. I turned my attention back to Ethan, who still had a smile on his face, but it had turned a little shy.
“So, what’s the plan?”
I put a hand on the small of his back to guide him toward the lot with my car in it, not hating the way the gesture made his perfume spike subtly.
“It’s a surprise.”
When I parked at the public access lot for the pier, Ethan’s wide smile was infectious, and I felt the muscles of my cheeks pull in an answering grin. The drive over had been good, not uncomfortable like I’d worried about without Shae’s presence as a buffer. He’d filled the time by asking me about projects that I’d been working on, and showing me a picture he’d taken of the exterior windows at the restored and reimagined building his mom and sister had moved into. I explained that a friend of mine was the architect behind that project and my pride swelled when he asked me all kinds of thoughtful questions about my work. It wasn’t that Shae or the others weren’t interested, but I’d assumed he would want to talk about other things than the inspiration for using pieces of old machinery as communal tables in the brewery that I’d renovated. Apparently, Theo had taken him one night and he’d loved it.
After snagging the blanket out of the back seat, we walked around until we found a place that sold New York style pizza by the slice. Our order came up quickly since the beach and the pier weren’t too crowded with tourists this time of year. We took it to a spot in the sand, laying out the blanket and tearing into the delicious slices.
“How was your day? I probably should have asked that before now.”
Ethan chuckled and made a so-so motion with his head before digging his toes in the sand in a gesture that was both adorable and youthful. It reminded me that, though there were only six years difference between us, he had been sheltered, and twenty-three was a very different place in life than almost thirty.
“The meeting with my advisor went about as well as it could have, I guess. She let me know that the university couldn’t give me any more extensions beyond the one week after everyone else’s finals. I knew they weren’t extending it very far, but that doesn’t leave me much time to do that and work with everyone in the BullPen as often as I’d like to.”
“Could you work on your final projects from the BullPen? Then, if they needed your help, you’d be there.”
“Wouldn’t I be in the way?”
“Ethan, your Alphas would probably throw someone out of a window if they implied you were in the way. I’m sure there’s space for you to work on your school things.”
His cheeks darkened and he pressed his mouth to his knees as he wrapped his arms around his shins. Like that would hide his grin or the spike in his scent that gave away exactly how the little Omega felt about the prospect of his Alphas doing just that. We sat there for a while longer, just soaking in the sound of the waves and letting it soothe us. The sun was sinking towards the horizon by the time we finished our pizza and, though Shae was calm in our bond, I imagined the others were anxious for us to get home. I stood and brushed some sand from my legs before reaching a hand down to Ethan without giving it a thought.
His warm, soft palm slid into my rougher one and my fingers tightened around his as I tugged him to stand. The movement brought us closer together, though we didn’t touch anywhere but our hands. The slightest little gasp slipped from his parted lips and butterflies erupted in my stomach. I wanted to kiss this man. Holy shit. A burst of excitement ran through the bond, and I realized that Shae had picked up on my sudden desires and was practically crowing with delight. The combination of the surprise of my feelings and Shae’s near commentary on them made me self-conscious and I dropped Ethan’s hand.
He flushed with embarrassment and mumbled what I thought might have been an apology before bending to pick up the trash. I scrubbed a hand down my face then shook out the blanket, kicking myself for making him feel like he’d done something wrong. I didn’t really have the words to reassure him either because I didn’t know if my feelings were just a reaction to him as an Omega or if they were real. Come on, Miles. You didn’t react like that to him before, don’t start lying to yourself.
We’d started to walk back to the car, shoes in hand, and I was about to tell him about my embarrassing confusion over my own feelings, when Ethan’s phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and frowned at the screen, making my hackles rise so that I stepped closer to him.
