Page 10 of Omega Shattered
Stalking downstairs, I found Archer still on the sofa, tapping away on his phone. Orion and Kade were nowhere to be found, but the omega was curled up in the armchair, her sleepy eyes on the fire. It was a peaceful scene, but I noted that she was still wearing the ridiculous sandals and plastic bags on her feet.
"Take those ridiculous things off," I snapped, pointing at her feet.
The omega jumped, like she hadn't noticed me come in. She sat up in the chair, suddenly on alert, wide grey eyes on me.
"You're going to get foot rot."
When she didn't move, I stalked to her and grabbed her leg, pulling her foot up to my thigh where I rested it as I shucked off the disgusting sandal. It was covered in mold and grime. Wrinkling my nose, I tossed it into the fireplace.
"Hey! Those are my shoes!"
"You don't need shoes, remember?" I knew very well that the ORC didn't allow omegas footwear. Probably because they'd take off like this if they had the chance.
She glared a fiery hole in my face as I tore off the bag and then unwrapped the strips of damp cloth from her feet. Underneath, the skin was wrinkled, the stench of the overly soaked skin an assault to my nose. I repeated my actions with her other foot and dropped her legs.
"Now you won't end up losing your feet. Even second-rate packs don't want an omega with no feet," I told her.
Archer grunted behind me and I turned my gaze to him. The man was pretending to scroll on his phone, but I gave him a death glare anyway.
"And when we leave?" the omega's voice was quiet, but defiant.
"Then I'll carry you to the car and then into the center."
She dropped her gaze to the fire again, obviously unhappy at the thought of returning to the center. Something twinged inside me as her scent turned sharper, more acidic.
Ignoring my wayward biology, I sank down on the sofa and nodded to Archer. "You can take off now. I've got it from here."
"I'm good. Just updating the terms of service on our website. Stuff I keep meaning to do and never get around to." He glanced up at me, dark eyes warm. "Why don't you go grab some food? I think we're all getting kinda hungry."
"Fine." I jumped to my feet and headed to the kitchen to see what they had in the fridge.
The cupboards were filled with most junk food and the fridge had slim pickings. Finally, I decided on fried egg sandwiches for everyone but Kade. He had a stockpile of his favorite Ceaser salads with chicken filling one shelf in the fridge.
Cooking calmed me. I wasn't the best chef but when we'd formed the pack, we'd all agreed we would share the responsibilities so no one person got stuck with the same chores all the time. Some of us were better cooks than others, but I could fry an egg very well.
Slathering the toasted bread with mayo and topping it with the fried eggs, then slices of tomato and some lettuce, I cut all the sandwiches diagonally and stacked them on a plate.
"LUNCH!" I bellowed, carrying the plate out into the living room.
"I'm right here, dude," Archer muttered, setting his phone aside. "Napkins?"
Rolling my eyes, I set the plate of sandwiches on the coffee table and headed back to the kitchen. "There are no napkins. You're getting paper towel," I told him, returning with the roll.
Orion came padding down the stairs, throwing himself down on the sofa, leaving me with the remaining armchair or squeezing between the two alphas on the sofa. I picked the chair.
We all grabbed sandwiches and Orion turned on the television over the fireplace, clicking around until he found a news channel reporting on the blizzard outside. According to the chipper weatherwoman on-screen, we were looking at another two to three days of whiteout conditions.
"This is ridiculous," I growled, glaring at the omega.
She was sitting in the chair with her legs pulled to her chest, eyes scanning us all. She looked very uncomfortable with so many alphas in the room and her posture only stiffened when Kade wandered in from the kitchen with his salad in hand.
Kade scanned the room, then smirked at me and went to perch on the arm of the omega's chair.
Her eyes widened and she shrunk away from the big, white-haired alpha. He was terrifying if you didn't know him and she was obviously terrified.
Part of me chortled at the sight of her fear, but then the alpha in me kicked in and I just wanted to growl at Kade and scoop the little alpha up in my arms. That did make me growl, but out of anger at myself for being even slightly tempted to protect the omega. She'd done just fine on her own, she'd make it until we got her back to ORC. I just hoped I would make it unscathed.
Chapter 7
