Page 5 of Fractured Fang: Omega

Yes,I assured him.I see.

This omega Gabriel, Phillip and Edith’s youngest son, was my mate. It took all I could do not to run to him, bear my neck, and let him know that I was his. I did none of those things. My wolf had enough sense to let the man get his wits about him before we pounced.

Gabriel smiled brightly at his parents, though there was a sadness in his eyes and a hesitation that I picked up on right away. His eyes met mine, and he gave a slight pause. Did he scent me too? The wind wasn’t in the right direction, so it was difficult to tell. If that sadness was from my scent, I wasn’t sure I could handle it. As it was, I wasn’t sure I could handle any of this.

“Hi, everyone,” he said. His gaze never left mine. He gave a slight shake of his head as if to tell me no, don’t say anything. My wolf whined at the rejection. But it was almost as if it wasn’t quite that. It was not a rejection. Just keep it quiet for now. And so I did.

And really, wasn’t I doing the same thing? I didn’t act immediately, instead feigning that nothing was happening. Had he been anyone else in any other setting, I wouldn’t have responded this way. But he was Edith and Phillip’s kid, and that somehow made all of this different.

Gabriel hugged his mom and dad. They introduced him to Wilder and Franklin. Then it was my turn. I shook his hand and had to resist the urge to rub myself all over his body, to mark him with my scent. As it was, I held his hand a bit too long, not wanting to let him go.

“Come on in; let us show you the house,” Phillip said. “We can show you where you’ll be staying. We’re a pretty small pack still.” He indicated the smaller structures. “The house might be more comfortable than one of the cabins, but you’re welcome to stay wherever you’d like while you’re here.”

“Technically, there’s one cabin open because this guy,” Perry, the other beta of the pack, held his daughter in one hand and jerked his thumb toward me with the other, “hasn’t moved in yet. So if you need your own space, you’re welcome to stay there.”

Perry didn’t need to tell him it was mine. Automatically, that would have him uncomfortable with it, not wanting to take it from me or anyone else. At least, that was how I would feel.

Gabe’s eyes widened. “I’m sure I’ll be fine in the house. Thank you so much for allowing me to stay. I am happy to contribute to your pack in whatever way I can while I am here.” He looked directly at Wilder, honoring the Alpha of the pack with his gratitude.

“Of course,” Wilder said. “We are happy to have you here. Your parents have become family, and we hope you feel welcome here.”

“Oh, we’ll put you to work. There are definitely things around here you can do, son,” Phillip was quick to point out. My wolf was not impressed, pushing me to do something about it.

Had we been mated or at least announced that we were mates, I’d have stepped in the middle. But right now, it was family business, and I was just a pack member. I needed to chill.

“Great,” Gabe said with a tight smile. “Can’t wait.”

Phillip urged him toward the house, and I stayed there, staring.

“You going to get the hay out of my chicken coop for me today?” Franklin asked, giving me an odd look.

I had stored some of the extra hay in the storage area we’d added to his coop. It was making for a tight space for him to work in. “Yeah,” I said. “I’ll get that moved for the cattle.”

“Tread carefully,” Franklin said.

I faced him. “In the coop?”

“In general,” he said, then he took off toward the house, following the group giving Gabe a tour.

Did he know? It was totally possible. Being a witch with a gift of sight, Franklin had visions of things sometimes. He called it “seeing what isn’t always seen.” Whatever the hell that meant. Either way, I trusted him not to shout whatever he knew from the rooftops. Franklin could keep a secret.

I had to force myself to return to work. There were things I needed to get done, and I couldn’t let them go to the wayside just because I’d met my mate and desperately wanted to get him alone so I could talk to him. Animals didn’t stop needing food just because I didn’t want to do it right then.

My chores with the animals took up a good chunk of time, and I didn’t get to see Gabriel again until dinner that night. My wolf was not impressed that we’d worked all day and still knew very little about our mate. He was less impressed we hadn’t made ourselves known.

We all sat around the table. Phillip had cooked what I was told was Gabe’s absolute favorite meal. That had me a bit more at ease. The comments about work were starting to sit with me far longer than they should.

“Thanks, dad,” Gabe said. “This is great.”

The table we ate at was quite long. Which meant I was further from my mate than I wanted to be. Not that being next to him wouldn’t have the same fault. I wanted him touching me, his scent completely wrapped around me like a hug. This was probably better. At least it allowed me to be less distracted by his scent. A least a little bit.

Thankfully, the redesign of the house included a massive dining room, though eventually, we would be moving our pack dinners out to the newly constructed pavilion area, weather permitting.

“The house is very nice. Dad told me there was a fire. I’m sorry to hear that,” Gabe spoke generally, though he faced Wilder and Franklin.

“Thank you,” Franklin said. “It was a very unfortunate event. Luckily we were all safe, thanks to Troy.”

Troy ducked his head. He didn’t enjoy the praise, but his actions had saved Franklin and the triplets from potentially dying in the fire that had destroyed the house. He deserved the credit, and I didn’t see any of us not giving it to him any chance that arose. He saved our pack that day. We wouldn’t have survived if we had lost the Alpha family. It would’ve been too much for us.

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