Page 65 of Switch Heater

Making my way over to my family, I snatch Ripley out of Nico’s lap before he even knows what’s happened and pull her into mine as I sit in the only other empty chair beside him, giving him a shit-eating grin. Ripley giggles and snuggles further down into my lap, content.

“Hey! What the fuck, man! I had her first.” He complains with a growl.

“Yeah? Well, I just took her, so now she’s mine.” I laugh, sticking my tongue out at him childishly.

“Now, now, children. Behave and share or I’ll be forced to put you both in a time-out.” Syn teases, wagging a finger in our direction.

“Oooh. Better listen to what she says, boys, or you’re gonna be in big trouble,” Ripley singsongs in between her laughter.

“He started it, Kitten. Fucking thief!” Nico glares at me over Ripley’s head.

River gets up from his spot and sits in Nico’s now empty lap, wrapping his arms around his neck, and quickly gripping his attention and distracting him. Nico gives him the same lovesick look he wears when Ripley is around, all of his focus going to the omega now in his lap. Nothing has changed with them, or any of us with River. We’re just making more room to love one more person.

“Come on, big man. You can cuddle with me. Give Knight time with our omega. If I have to learn to share her, then so do you.” River tells the alpha placatingly, twisting his fingers in Nico’s hair at the base of his skull.

Ripley giggles and when I look at her, I see she’s staring at the other three men at the table. They’re watching our interaction with a bit of confusion marring their otherwise stoic expressions. Personally, I’ve never been one to really care what others thought about me or my life. I know we’re going to get some people that won’t understand. That’s okay, because there’s nothing for anyone to understand. This is just us.

“So, how does this work?” The redhead blurts out curiously.

“Zeke!” Ripley admonishes him as we all turn to look at the fiery-haired giant.

“What?” Zeke asks defensively as he’s clipped on the side of the head by the man that looks like one of Ripley’s dads. Only it comes out sounding like ‘whit’ from his accent. The one that smacked him must be Ridge.

“You can’t just ask questions like that, dumbass. Boundaries. Besides, that’s my fucking sister. There are some things brothers don’t need to know.” He looks at his pack mate with disgust, curling his lip.

“Mate, dinnae tell me ye aren’t curious! Two omegas together, an’ sharin’ alphas! Manny, ye know yer freaky wee mind is curious as feck. I can see it. Yer prolly wonderin’ if we could handle two. News flash, mate, we so fecking could,” He ribs the man on his other side, laughing cockily.

“Fuck’s sake,” Ripley groans, covering her face with her palm.

River grins mischievously, and I catch the eyes of my pack mates as they all try to hold back their amusement. He leans across the table and Nico groans as he wiggles in his lap, biting his lip while grabbing a quick look at River’s ass as he’s bent over the table slightly.

“You think you can handle two of us?” River’s eyes are full of mirth as he questions the big alpha. “That’s twice the omega hormones, which means all the moodiness, sexual cravings, the whole shebang is doubled. And let’s not forget that there are now two heats. One heat can be exhausting, even for a pack. Imagine going through two of them. There’s also a chance the omega’s heats will sync up, so how crazy do you think that’d be? I’d imagine whoever is crazy enough to try taking something like that on has their work cut out for them. And that’s only if you can even find two omegas that don’t want to rip each other to pieces for touching what’s theirs.”

I hadn’t thought of that. The possibility that they could have a joint heat. River is a handful already when he’s in heat. I don’t know what Ripley is like in heat, but I’d imagine she’s as needy as River is. We’re going to be wrung out if their heats sync.

“Oh, my Gods,” Ripley whines. “River, don’t encourage him!”

“Yeah, for once I agree with my baby sister. Please, don’t encourage the massive man child. He wouldn’t know what to do with two omegas, anyway. Honestly, I think you guys are fucking nuts, but to each their own.”

“Hey! It’s not that bad, right guys?” Ripley turns and eyes us all. When no one answers, River huffs and turns to eye us all, too.

With both omegas watching and waiting for a response, we glance at each other. It hasn’t been so bad. But the few times the two have gotten into it, it hasn’t been the easiest. Mostly because they’re both miserable when they fight. It’s rough watching two miserable omegas if we are powerless to fix the problem. They always make up, but the time between waiting on those makeups is tension filled. Thank fuck it hasn’t happened often, and it’s always over something small, so they tend to kiss and makeup fairly quickly. I can’t imagine how rough it would be if they ever had a big blow-out.

“River, I don’t like their non answers. Do you?” Ripley and River look at each other, their eyes narrowed.

“No, I don’t, Little Bird. Their silence implies that us being together has, in fact, not been easy, and I don’t think we’ve been that bad.” He sniffs and glares at us.

“I concur. I’m feeling very unwanted right now. You?”

“Also unappreciated and unloved. We should go hang out somewhere else. By ourselves,” River tells her, holding his hand out for her to take.

They’re up and out of our laps, hands clasped together as they glare at us again, and leaving before we can even say anything. They’re so fucking cute when they’re trying to be mad at us.

“Ten bucks says they’re going to fe- oomph.” Ridge punches Zeke in the stomach, stopping him from completing his sentence.

We all laugh as he scowls and rubs his stomach. “That fecking hurt, ye bastart. No need to be so testy.”

“That’s my sister, you knothead. And she’s practically yours, too.”

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