Page 3 of Knot Our Omega

“Did something happen to the honey?” Wilder came from the side of the house. There were wood shavings on his T-shirt, and his collar and back were soaked with sweat.

“Nothing happened to the honey.” Penn let that relief settle before he continued. “I heard something when I was in town. At the store.”

We tried to be as self-reliant as we could, but there were things we couldn’t produce on the farm. Flour. Sugar. Yeast. And I’d be damned if I was making my own pasta. Rice. The basics.

“What did you hear?” Wilder made his way to the back of the truck where he let down the tailgate and threw a few sacks of sugar over his shoulder.

“Put that down. Just listen. Please.”

Whatever Penn had heard in town, it rattled him.

“Go on, then. Don’t keep us in suspense.” I fucking hated suspense. And surprises. Anything that came at me and my life out of left field.

“The Bronson pack has an omega.”

Everyone had heard of the Bronson pack. They were powerful, and their offspring were always alpha, even the females. “The pack or the family?”

“The family. One of the twins. They were raised as alphas, but one of them presented as an omega when she turned eighteen.”

Wilder shook his head. “And they’re selling her? Like a plate lunch?”

Penn nodded. “The people who were talking…made it sound like they are trying to get rid of her.”

“That can’t be all that messed with you. What are you thinking, Penn?”

He nailed me with those intense eyes of his. “We don’t really meet a lot of omegas out here. And most of them don’t want us because…well because of who we are.”

“You want to buy an omega?” Wilder asked.

“I want us to talk about it as a pack.”

We all sighed.

“We need to do more than talk,” I said. “Wilder, can you get on the computer and find out what you can on social media. I’m sure this rumor is hot in the shifter realm. Find out as much as you can. We need all the information before we even entertain this…idea.”

The fact was, we all had the same idea without any of the discussion. Who we were didn’t really have the omegas fighting over who could be ours. We didn’t go to any of the social events intended to show off omegas to potential packs.

What we did have was money. We took care of our assets and saved like the apocalypse was on its way.

It sounded so barbaric, buying a mate, especially a precious omega, but it was the way of shifters around us.

“Good idea. I’ll get on it as soon as we unpack.”

We got everything inside, and Penn helped me process some of the vegetables for canning and dehydrating. We wasted nothing around here.

I cooked dinner while Penn went to his office. Wilder was in there as well.

I couldn’t get too excited. Excitement gave us hope, and hope was not something we’d been able to afford before.

Chapter Three

Rumor

“Did we get everything?” I fisted the apron at my sides. Scanning the living room, I looked for anything out of place. Not because I gave a rat’s ass about order and perfect neatness but because my parents did and would use anything, even a speck of dust, as a reason to tear me down even further. Much more of their correcting, and I’d be level with the ground.

I turned to see Lily fretting just as much as I was. Her cheeks were red as she cracked her knuckles. “I think so. Should we go over everything once again—”

Her sentence was cut off by my mother’s footsteps coming down the stairs. My body froze, and everything inside me tightened in knots. “What are you two standing around for?” she asked. Gods, would it kill her to be my mother for once? I was only her daughter, it seemed, when I was good enough. Did enough. Worked myself to the bone enough. But even then, I was still an omega.

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