Page 83 of The Wolf in My Tavern

She sets me away just as quickly. Her smile has an infectious quality and is steeped with mischief. This is the woman Gray searched for, his former promised mate, who escaped the orcs all on her own, well, with the help of Gray’s younger brother, Arlo.

“Drake is with Gray up top, talking to your other mate, Callum. I decided to sneak in. Make sure you were alright. Locking a lass up is bollocks. I told Drake as much when he said I could not visit you until Gray had pulled his head out of his ass.” Her grin turns to a grimace, and she lifts her pert nose. “Gray is an overbearing male.” She rolls her eyes dramatically. “Drake is not much better, but at least he has a sense of humor.”

My lips twitch. How did Gray not fall instantly in love with this lass?

“He really is overbearing,” I agree. “And more often scowls.” Although I quite like his intensity now that I think about it, and the way it makes my belly flutter when he directs it at me… my brows pinch together. “What is ‘bollocks’?”

“A multi-purpose cursing word. When a male pisses you off, well, that is bollocks. When he locks you in your cabin so he can rut you day and night, that is bollocks too.”

My lips form a silence ‘O’. There has been a lot of bollocks in my short life.

“I heard he’s had Callum chained up in here,” she continues, her voice lowering to a conspiring whisper. “Forcing him to watch.” She gives a pointed look in the direction of the bedding nook. “While he ruts you.”

Heat creeps up my cheeks.

“His wolf is very dominant,” she adds, not waiting for me to confirm or deny her speculation. “He will not like that Callum will likely better him.”

I frown. “Callum?”

She nods. “Aye, didn’t you know?”

“Know what?” I say, shaking my head slowly.

She chuckles and rubs her hands together in glee. “Oh my. Happen, Gray will get his comeuppance when he finally reveals.”

“When who reveals what?” I demand to know.

Her smile drops, and she arches one delicate brow. “You really don’t know?”

“Please speak plainly,” I say, getting impatient.

“You’re an omega,” she says, grinning once again.

My mind is moving slowly at this news. She said when he reveals, but then she said I was an omega…

“Not a shifter omega, like me. There are subtle differences between humans and shifter omegas, the shifter kind being more common for a start.”

“But I can’t be an omega.” Why do I feel like I am not getting the full story? “My father was a beta.” And a mean one at that.

I swallow thickly, thinking about the soft blankets I indulged in on my bed. Nesting.

Goddess, can I be an omega?

“Human omegas are special,” she continues as I struggle to accept this news. “They are coveted. Many don’t even reveal unless triggered by the presence of an alpha. Gray’s wolf would have recognized you straight away, even if the man was being dense about it. His scent would have acted upon you, as would that of your mate, Callum.”

That is the second time she has called Callum my mate. Is that what he is? I have already acknowledged his knot and how that makes him an alpha. Alphas take mates rather than marry, now I think about it. It would seem that neither of us is what we appeared to be.

“No ordinary beta lass would take an alpha wolf rutting her,” she says, knowingly. “Not without a great deal of training. Omegas are different,” —she gestures toward my intimate place— “down there.”

My cheeks grow very hot as I consider how I took him, all of him, and his knot. I was only a little sore. Given how monstrously huge he is there, it ought to have been a greater challenge…. “I need to sit down,” I say weakly.

I take the few steps to the bed and sit-collapse on the side.

There are no damn chairs after Gray removed them. Maybe worrying that I would stand on one to reach the bolt he slots at the top of the cabin door, trying to sneak out on him in the middle of the night. Which is ridiculous when he sprawls all over me in sleep, half smothering me, with his teeth nipping against my throat. Now is not the time to think about the tingle when he does that… Nor how I often crave that I had Callum’s warmth against me as well, squishing me tight and safe from the other side.

Lizbeth comes and sits beside me, puts her arm around my shoulders, and gives me a hug.

It is nice, and companionable; I feel like I have made an ally.

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