Page 10 of Fractured Fang: Omega

Chapter 6

Gabe

Ihadforgottenwhata joy it could be a round a larger pack. Asilo was small, with only a few permanent omegas, the rest of the omegas and children there seeking shelter. They largely kept to themselves except for during work times or therapy.

Admittedly, I’d only stayed for a few of the therapy sessions. I hoped I didn’t grow to regret that, but at the time, it was the best I could do.

Being around Fractured Fang was a bit different. No. Not a bit different. Night and day. They were just as protective of the omegas from what I’d seen, but no one kept to themselves; they all came together to make everything flow the way it needed to—to keep the pack thriving.

During the day, everyone was out and about. If they weren’t working actively, they were resting around other people. Wolves were social creatures, and though there were a few humans around—I really needed to understand that story there—they all hung out together and lounged on the patio or the front porch.

No one seemed to worry too much about who was doing what unless help was needed. There was no pressure to get more and more done, like when I was little. If anything, Fractured Fang thrived on spending time together, with chores being more of a means to that end instead of the focal point itself.

There was a lot of trust here that people would do their jobs and do them well. Everybody appeared to make it their mission that no one was working too hard. I appreciated that. I worried about my parents at the age they were. When they’d told me they were joining a young fledgling pack, I knew it would be work for them. But I knew there was no telling them no.

They didn’t like to think of themselves as getting up there in years, but they were. And as my brother and I both told them, it was far superior to the alternative, which was meeting the goddess up close and personal.

“Do you think we could get your dad to agree to spend less time in the kitchen?” Jasmine asked me. She and I and my brother were all sitting at the patio table. The three humans who acted like siblings but weren’t were working in the yard. The “Learning Garden,” May had called it.

They were currently weeding and sorting out some new plants.

“I think he will,” May chimed in. I wasn’t sure she was right. I had known my dad a long time, and slowing down wasn’t in his nature.

“I don’t see why he couldn’t. I mean, don’t take away the whole kitchen from him, but one day off wouldn’t hurt a person,” I said, though I knew my dad, and it might be a bigger fight than that. There was a big difference between couldn’t and wouldn’t.

Jasmine sighed. “I enjoy cooking, and I’m not terrible at it. I did pretty well in the kitchen rotations at the last pack we lived with.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, sweetheart; you’re a fantastic cook. Pop’s just a control freak,” Jacob said.

I laughed. “He is that.”

“Do you think you and I could talk to him?” Jacob asked me.

I balked at that. “Why the heck would he listen to me? He’s more likely to turn that around and say why don’t you have a job, Gabe? When’s the last time you contributed to a pack?”

Jacob sighed. “He’s not like that.”

And that was where Jacob was wrong. He’d always been the good son, the son who did as he was supposed to. He never experienced that side of my father the way I had.

“He’s a little bit like that,” I said. “If you want him to slow down or to allow Jasmine to help in the kitchen, why not talk to the alpha and mom and see if they can command that he take a day off.”

Not that mom was much better.

“I almost asked your mom to build us a full kitchen into our house so that we could make our meals there sometimes, but I knew your dad wouldn’t like that,” Jasmine said. “They don’t believe in slowing down. They worry that the pack won't think they are pulling their weight.”

I shook my head. We were silent for a little while, the sounds of the forest filling in the space between the lot of us.

“Do you think you’ll stay?” Jacob asked. The words rushed from him as if he were just waiting for an opportunity to ask.

I had only arrived the night before, yet I was surprised it took him that long to ask. I tensed, my thoughts immediately flying to Levi. He would love it here. The wide open spaces, the kids, all the things to see.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Where else do you have to go? Where have you been?” he asked, and I stiffened up, not wanting to go there.

“Jacob!” Jasmine scolded.

I knew I’d been the topic of several conversations amongst my family, and that pretty well confirmed it.

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