Page 34 of Knot Our Omega

The drive to town, under a bright sun, was cheerful. We were about to enter an intense phase of our relationship, but for now, we were deciding what to buy to eat, what would be easy and fast.

“Sandwiches,” Rumor said. “I had to cook so many meals before I came here, and after hours and hours of cooking, I only wanted sandwiches. I couldn’t face the things they made me cook.”

“Why?” Wilder asked. “Was it something disgusting? Like snails?”

She giggled. “Snails are a delicacy, or so I’m told. But, no. It wasn’t that. It was just that after cooking several different meals in one day to please a bunch of ungrateful people who do nothing but complain, I didn’t have any interest in eating any of it.”

“They complained? After all your hard work?” I was outraged. “You must have wanted to throw it in their faces.”

“I wanted to do a lot of things.” She looked out the passenger side window of the truck. “But I didn’t because what would I do if they threw me out?”

“They never would have,” Penn said from the back seat. “You were worth a lot of money to them.”

“But I didn’t know.” She sighed. “If I had, it would have been different. Nobody told me.”

“I forgot,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I was shocked at first, but when you came for me, I was so relieved. Even though I was thinking that you’d want me to be basically a servant, submissive, and sex toy.”

I hated so much that she thought that. What must it be like to feel so entirely out of control of your own life? Your future? “If we ever make you feel like any of those things, you call us out on it. We do not live that way.”

“I know.” She patted my hand on the steering wheel. “It didn’t take long to figure that out. I’m so happy here with the three of you, and soon I’ll be marked and we’ll really be mated.”

“We’re mated now,” Wilder asserted. “But I can’t lie and say I’m not looking forward to marking this pretty neck.”

She gave a little shiver. “I’m a little uneasy about the heat. It sounds like it spirals out of control.”

“Not with us.” I stroked her hair and returned my attention to the road. “We won’t let that happen to you. Our fathers taught us long ago that omegas are not less than alphas, just different. After all, how would we have children without you.”

Penn poked me. “You make her sound like a brood mare.”

“That’s not what I meant—”

Rumor pushed his hand away from me. “No, I understand, and I appreciate it. You treat me like a person, which means more than you might think.”

As we arrived in town, I circled a couple of blocks before finding a good parking space. We all trooped over the grocery store. Rumor had put the list of things we decided on in her phone, and, as we pushed the cart up and down the aisles, she directed us to the various items we needed.

“Frozen lasagna,” she said. “And enchiladas. Ice cream.” The freezer section was key to our plan, as were sandwich makings and ramen cups. Premade salad. A rotisserie chicken. Usually our food was scratch made, but under these circumstances, we’d be too distracted to do much cooking.

We piled the cart high, checking out and heading for the truck with armloads of bags. “I think we have enough,” Penn said. “After we load all this in the truck, I want to make a quick stop at the bakery.”

“And I need something from the hardware store,” Wilder added. “Vargas, come with me?”

“Deal.”

“Would it be all right if I picked up some things from the bath store?” Rumor asked. “I feel the urge for girly supplies.”

We looked at one another. That wasn’t the plan. We were supposed to be sticking together to keep our omega safe.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Why not?” Penn asked. “Rumor, we’ll walk you right to the bath store, and you don’t come out until one or more of us returns for you. Does that work for you?”

“Yes!” Her cheeks reddened. “If we’re going to be handling my heat, I want to at least start out looking and smelling my prettiest.”

We finished loading our groceries and other supplies, and the three of us walked her to the bath store and watched her go in before splitting up to run our other errands.

Chapter Twenty-Two

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