Page 8 of Fractured Fang: Omega

I appreciated the space he gave me to open up in my own time more than he could possibly know. I wanted to tell him everything but now wasn’t the time. Too much was happening in my life all at once.

“You don’t mind if we take things a little slow?” Because if he did, I’d push ahead.

“Absolutely not,” Macs said. “Just talk to me. Before we make any rash decisions, we can work out how to talk with your parents about what you need.”

He wasn’t asking me not to do anything, just to make sure I kept him in the loop. Once again, Macs was showing me that he was an alpha of worth. I wished I could show him the same about myself, that I was an omega of worth. But until I worked things out for Levi, I wasn’t. He had to come first now and always. I was all he had.

“I’ll be by your side,” he assured me.

Hope blossomed in my chest for the first time in a long time. I’d spent so much time healing from the hurts of the world at Asilo; now, it was like I was living again. In this very brief moment here with my mate, I could truly believe that things were going to be all right.

“Thank you, Macs.” I stepped forward, planted a hand on his chest, and kissed his lips.

Chapter 5

Macs

Kissingmymatesparkeda fire in me like no other and not just lust, though there was a heavy dose of that. I was determined now more than ever to make this territory feel like home again. I was already halfway there, knowing my mate was here, but I needed it to feel like home for him too. This wasn’t just about me—it was about us and our future together.

Making this place feel like home for him wasn’t going to be easy. First, we needed to mend his relationship with his parents and find a way to make the pack see that he was an important piece of our life no matter what skill set he brought to us.

And if, for some reason, that wasn’t doable, I meant it when I said I would go anywhere with him. If he told me he wanted to go back to the human world to create his art because that was where he belonged, I’d make it happen. I didn’t want to leave Fractured Fang, but if this wasn’t where we were meant to be, so be it.

I closed the tailgate on the truck and nodded for Phillip to hop in. He was coming with me to go pick up some sheep. At least, that was my plan. I needed to see them in real life before I decided for sure. Sheep were the next logical step for our growing farm, though, and I was hoping this would work.

The person I wanted to take was Gabriel. But there was no way to just have the new guy come without raising questions that it wasn’t time to answer. And really, being in a closed truck with my mate before we completed our mating bond would have a good chance of causing an accident. His scent was quite distracting.

“What have you got in your head that we’re purchasing now?” Phillip said once we were settled in.

I had the livestock trailer attached to the back of the three-quarter-ton pickup. There was no way to hide that my “errand” involved getting us some new animals. Not that I wanted to hide it. It just hadn’t come up when I asked him if he could help me on this errand. I’d asked him before I met my mate, and taking it back to avoid any self-imposed awkwardness didn’t seem like the best of ideas.

Phillip had put a couple of pot roasts in the slow cookers in the middle of the night. Even from my spot outside, I could scent the delicious aroma before I woke up, incorporating it into my dreams, dreams that had until that time been focused on my mate and not a meal.

“Sheep,” I said.

“Sheep? Seriously? I was hoping you’d give that up. I don’t like lamb.” Of course, he went straight to the culinary uses.

I snorted. “We aren’t eating them. We’ll sheer their wool and use it. Wool has a ton of uses, and we can sell or barter with it.” And eventually, we would eat them, but he’d just have to deal with that then. There was no point in wasting their meat due to preference. But then again, maybe we could sell it too. There were so many possibilities.

“What? We can make yarn and shit?” he asked.

“Yeah. And the yarn could be dyed to be artisan and make more money, or we could even put together felting kits. There’s a lot that can be done with it; depending on how motivated we are, it could bring in a bunch of money.”

I’d spent hours researching different kinds of wool yarn and various price points. Just dying it ourselves would add significant profit but would also take time. There was still a great deal to consider on that front.

“Nope,” Phillip said. “I’m not spinning yarn.”

For someone who was all about being productive, he sure was being a bit of a brat. It wasn’t as if I even asked him to do the spinning. I said nothing of the sort. Had this been any other day, I’d have told him exactly what I was thinking. But with finding my mate and seeing how stressful his relationship with his parents was, I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t overreacting because of already being pissy at him over that. And for that reason, I wasn’t going to buy trouble.

“Fine. I bet Edith will,” I said, knowing full well she wouldn’t want to do it either.

Phillip snorted.

“Hey, you’re the one who got Franklin and Allistaire into sewing,” I reminded him. “Now Allistaire wants to try out this knitting stuff. He’s been researching a lot about making your own wool, yarn, and the whole nine yards.” He was the one who got me thinking in that direction in the first place. “But first, we have to get the sheep.”

“Ohh, for crying out loud.” And now he was just being ornery because he could.

“If it will make you feel better, we’re also picking up two more hogs.” Because bacon. Ham too, but I was there to try some new curing recipes and techniques for the bacon.

---