Page 1 of An Alpha's Commitment

Chapter 01

TALIUS

“Where’s Isca?”

Irian was whisking something in a metal bowl on the kitchen bench. His beautiful brown eyes deserted the bowl in favor of meeting mine. It sent a rush through me, a thrill that resulted in a pooling of warmth in my groin. My little omega, my cherished mate, was approaching his next heat. The golden flecks scattered like stars through the brown of his irises was an early warning signal.

Get ready. Eat well. Rest up. Keep him close. Protect.

A shifter’s instincts towards their mate were always close to the surface, but never more so than when they were about to enter heat. The urge to lock him up, keep him safe, was a snaking coil of unease in my gut. I ignored it, of course. I was not the sort of alpha to control my mate that way, and Irian was not the kind of omega to tolerate it in any case.

I shook my head and huffed to myself. I might be the alpha but I was pretty sure I knew who was in control in this relationship. Irian, my mate, who knew how to smile sweetly and take everything from me that he wanted… in the nicest possible way, of course. And gladly given.

It was only mildly concerning that Isca, my other mate, was almost certainly learning all the tricks from Irian. The two of them were practically inseparable, usually to be found in the kitchen baking together or often in bed playing, which made it all the more surprising that Isca was currently nowhere to be seen. It fitted with my purpose today, however.

“He’s gone into town to do the shopping,” Irian’s sparkling smile lit up his face. He and Isca were the most beautiful omegas on the planet (I hadn’t met them all but it was obvious to me that they were). Irian had been the most wonderful, unexpected Christmas present from the Goddess (or maybe Santa Wolf, I still wasn’t sure) years ago, and Isca had joined us in a triad after his bonded mate brutalized him and left him for dead in the forest a couple of months ago. Irian and I had loved him for some time before that, but would never have made a move on him if not for the attack. That had changed everything.

“That’s okay now, right? Agelius went with him.” A faint wrinkle of worry creased that sweet face and I realized I hadn’t followed up my original question. Hmm, Irian’s heat must be closer than I thought, if I was having this much trouble keeping my thoughts together around him. This was another reason to find out where Isca was.

“Yes, of course. It’s been nearly two months since Isca regained consciousness and there’s been no sign of his pack, so I think they’ve well and truly moved on. And it's good that he's feeling secure enough to leave the farm.” I sighed and added, “It was a blessing that he didn’t have the mind-bond with Zarbius.”

Irian grimaced when I said the name of Isca’s old mate. Isca had shared tales with us of what used to happen to him in his previous pack, and it wasn’t pretty. I was so proud of him, the way he’d learned to trust us – especially me, an alpha, when in the past those, who should have been the ones to protect him, had been the ones to hurt him. It had taken a while for him to get beyond the shame of what had happened to him, and to realize that none of that affected how we felt about him.

“I’m so glad about that too,” commented Irian. “Imagine if he had that in his head…. Euch... he’d never escape him.”

“No, he couldn’t. And I’m almost certain he would have been able to track him down. I know I could with you.”

“You just want the hot sex,” Irian batted his long lashes, a fake wide-eyed innocence plastered on his face.

“Naturally,” I replied, playing it cool. “But I happen to like having you around as well. By the way, your heat’s almost here.” It had to be, with the way Irian was so blatantly thinking about sex.

“I know,” he smirked. “Ready?”

“Always,” I assured him. “You know I’ll always do everything to please my omegas, even at great expense to myself.”

Irian snorted. Even that looked sexy on him. Sigh. I was so far gone.

“As if it’s a hardship,” he snickered.

“No hardship,” I agreed with a smug smile. “B-u-t that’s not why I’m here. I want to talk about something and I wanted to do it while Isca’s not here. Can you make time now?”

I peered into the bowl, sniffing the sweet smell of cinnamon and apple. “I don’t want to mess things up here.”

Irian shook his head, the strands of hair he was growing out flopping around weirdly.

“You won’t,” he said, wiping his hands on his apron and coming out to the lounge to sit with me. “What are you planning?”

He was smart, my Irian.

I leant across the distance between us, and with my index finger pushed the neck of his t-shirt out of the way to reveal the mating mark on his neck. The silvery scar consisted of two raised marks – barely noticeable to human eyes, but which delivered a clear message to a shifter.

Our eyes met, brown to blue. Irian’s eyebrows raised.

“I want your opinion,” I started cautiously, feeling my way. I was pretty sure I knew the answers, but I didn’t want to hurt Irian. “You know how we have our bond?”

The slow bobbing of his head told me Irian was listening.

“And I think you know I’d like to be able to share that with Isca too,” I chose my words particularly carefully. I wanted us to be a full triad, nothing less would do.

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