Page 68 of These Bonds that Unite Us
Omen, Callisto, and Nexus walk in as I’m sliding the last dish of extra food onto the table. Her stomach growls loudly, bringing an intoxicating shade of red to her pale skin.
“Do you need help with anything else?” Callisto asks me. His shoulder-length hair is still damp from his shower, soaking the top of his shirt.
“Gotta grab drinks,” I grumble.
“Wine?”
“Sure. Rosé or a light white.” He nods and heads into the pantry to grab a bottle for us to share over dinner. I grab theglasses and bring them over. “Callisto is grabbing a bottle of wine, is that alright or would you like something else to drink?”
Omen blinks up at me, her light sea green eyes wide. “Oh, um, wine should be fine.”
Titan joins us a few minutes later after drinks have been poured. He presses a kiss to the top of her head before dropping into his seat. “Smells incredible, Neb,” he compliments.
Omen groans around her first bite. “It tastes better than incredible,” she mumbles. When she offers me a soft smile, I damn near melt on the spot. I’d forgotten food is one of her love languages. Maybe I can work with this after all.
When my phone rings after dinner, hope soars in my bonds, but disappointment follows when we realize it is only Brady calling.
“Hey, kid. I know this is last minute, but Primordial Covenant is booked to play a show in Buffalo this weekend. It’s a fundraiser for the victims rescued from the lab in New Hampshire.”
Running a hand through my short blonde hair, I hesitate to respond. Not because we don’t want to play, we do, but because of Omen. Will she be up for a trip to Buffalo? I don’t know if any of us could leave her behind right now. Nexus and I certainly couldn’t, not so soon after bonding her.
“Alright, I’ll let the others know. Send me the details, please.”
We end the call at the same time an email beeps through the speaker. Glancing it over, I start to make a plan. Our head of security, Lincoln, will help us keep our girl safe. Maybe she’d even want to take her camera and do some work of her own.
“We have a gig,” I announce as I walk into the living room, unintentionally interrupting their conversation. “Friday. In Buffalo.”
“Hell yeah,” Nexus cheers. “Ready to see us in action again, sweet girl?”
“You could bring your camera and photograph the show, if you want,” I offer.
“I don’t think I’d be up for so much physical activity,” she tells me with a shake of her head. “But I can watch from the wings.”
Calm wraps around my body hearing her quickly agree to attend with us. Having her nearby will help prevent the four of us from spending the whole performance worrying about her.
“This also means we will need to take some time this week to practice.” Nexus groans, but I hold up my hand to cut him off.
“Which we can do in the studio downstairs.”
They all seem to relax after that. I’m glad I had the forethought to turn the old office into a sound room. Leaving the house isn’t always going to be a possibility for our pack when we need to record or practice. Especially not close to our girl’s heats.
Sweat soaks my t-shirt, making the material stick miserably to my skin. Sitting my bass aside, I rip it up over my head and toss it into the corner. We’ve been practicing for well over an hour now.
It’s exhilarating performing in such a small space with Omen’s eyes on us. Titan pulled in one of the chairs from the library for her to curl up on, and she’s been entranced by our performance the entire time. She’s even mouthed along to the words, reminding all of us our music reached her long before we ever met.
Maybe we can use music to reach her again.
“Let’splay something new. Show our gorgeous girl what we’ve been working on,” Nexus tells us, throwing Omen a winkas he guzzles down half a bottle of water. She gives him a sleepy grin in return.
“This will be the last one,” I demand. “We all need some rest after this.” And our omega is going to wind up passing out in her chair, which may look soft and cozy but would still be painful to sleep on.
They all agree and Tee counts us in. The music takes over, flowing from my bass with barely a thought. It’s always been this way for me. As soon as I play one of Callisto’s songs twice, my body remembers the notes. I bang my head in time with the heavy drum beats from Titan behind me, excitement building as we get closer to the breakdown.
Nexus sings a long note, climbing in octaves over several seconds. He repeats the chorus again, the words spoken so they almost sound like he’s rapping, and then it comes: the vocal he’s been working on. My eyes are glued to Omen so I get to watch her reaction in real time. The way her jaw drops and she shoots upright. Her green eyes are wide and sparkling with surprise.
When the song comes to an end a few minutes later, Nexus beams at her. We all set aside our instruments to crowd around her. Titan and I hold back several steps from our other mates so we don’t completely overwhelm her.
“Was that–did you blegh?!” she asks.
