Page 18 of Untamed Omega

“How is the tea blend coming along?” I asked. Sam was working on a tea to help with his anxiety and maybe the anxiety of others. It included chamomile, valerian, and lemongrass, but he constantly read about and explored more things to make it better. He was a fast learner and wanted to be of real help to our community.

“I think it’s going well. I gave some to Kellan, and he said it helped him to get to sleep faster. Of course, I won’t be able to try it myself until our little one comes along.”

I reached over to rub circles along his belly. Our little one was kicking on and off but kicked the most when his omega daddy was trying to get some sleep at night. I was thankful Sam had only gotten a touch of food aversion and in the meantime, there were plenty of nourishing things he could eat.

Sometimes, I looked at him and couldn’t believe my luck. Maybe, somewhere along the line, I’d done something to have Fate smile on me once more. I didn’t appreciate the way it happened, but we were stronger for it. Mostly my Sam. He was the strongest person I knew.

“That and the milk tea,” I said.

“Yes, that too. I should be doing more research but I’m tired today.” He leaned over, having finished his snacks.

“We have about an hour before lunch, and you’ve done a lot today. How about you take a nap?”

He groaned. Nap was once his favorite word but, somewhere along the line, he’d equated it with being lazy. “Not a nap.”

“Omega mine, you have to keep your strength up for our baby and yourself. Believe it or not, you’re still very much healing. I feel so guilty that you got pregnant while you were still getting better.”

“You weren’t the only one there, Markus. You have a habit of blaming yourself for everything.”

“Me?” I laughed. “Never.”

“Right.” Sam sighed. “I’m actually not going to argue any more. I could really use a nap.”

I walked with him to the bed, and it took everything in me not to join him. But I had things to do. We had a new person coming in almost every week. Our supplies had to always be stocked. We were always ready. Locke wanted everyone who came here to be safe and well taken care of. And the last two that did were two of our mates. That made our mission that more important to all of us.

“Stay with me,” Sam said, his lovely lip pouted out.

“I have things to do, mate.”

“We lost so much time, Markus. Please. I want to spend every moment with you that I can. Just thirty minutes, I promise.”

How could I say no? I couldn’t.

I climbed into the bed behind him and wrapped him up in my arms. Holding him here, where he was safe and sound, was the best place in the world. When we found each other again, I thought maybe he would want to leave—to find a new place of our own, but he’d also found a home here and with me.

There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t offer my thanks to the Goddess. Finding my omega again was a blessing I didn’t deserve, but I sure as hell would try.

Chapter Eighteen

Sam

Time passed so differently at the sanctuary than it had in the labs. There, I hadn’t known what time of day it was or day or the week or even the month. There was no difference between day and night in my world. Those rare glimpses at someone’s watch were not enough to help me to establish an internal clock. Even things like meals were not regular enough to count on. And showers? As best I could guess, they were every three or four days.

At the time, I called it neglect, but now I wondered if it hadn’t been part of the experimentation to disorient me. It was even crueler than the drugs—or at least so I believed. I might never know what they had put into my body. All I could do was watch for problems and attempt to move forward.

As a result of my confinement, since I arrived at the sanctuary, I’d been a bit obsessive about watching the clock. Seven o’clock, breakfast. Noon, lunch. Six o’clock suppertime. Eleven p.m. bed. Markus, bless him, did not argue when I announced that laundry would be Thursday afternoon and sheets would be changed every Wednesday. He seemed to understand how important it was to me to be able to anticipate when things would happen.

At first, I was so rigid about my schedule and upset if anything made it change, but as my pregnancy progressed and my body changed, so did I.

“Omega,” Markus said, finding me sitting on the sofa reading a book. “It’s noon.” He’d been in a meeting at the alpha house and just returned.

“Is it?” I’d been nibbling honey-roasted nuts while reading all morning and wasn’t the least bit hungry. “Okay.”

“Sam, it’s lunchtime.” He leaned down and looked at me. “Noon.”

“Uh-huh. Are you hungry?”

“No. I left the meeting so I could be here for lunch with you.”

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