Page 132 of Broken Omega

I lay her down at his side and cover her with the sheets.

Then I step back out into the main room of the apartment and pick my shirt up off the floor.

“What’s the plan?” Donnie asks, making me stop and think.

It’s a good question, but the answer is complicated. The truth is I’m tired and I can barely think straight anymore. I didn’t get to mark Brooke like she wanted. It’s going to bother me until we get the chance to put that right.

“We’re going to have to hole up here until they’re awake,” I tell them. “Go buy some blankets and the biggest inflatable mattress you can carry. We need some clothes for Brooke, too, and get me a new shirt. I’m giving her this one. She’ll be in nesting mode and all she’s got in that bed through there is the other Alpha’s scent.”

“Get me a new shirt, too,” River tells him, handing me his.

“Okay, I’ll get us all new shirts. You’ll have to wait ‘til I get back to give her mine.”

He gets dressed quickly, not bothering with his socks.

I take the shirts through to the bedroom and lay them down on the bed over our sleeping mate.

I wish I could lay down beside her, but there isn’t space, and I doubt her other guy would like that.

Sighing, I head into the kitchen where River’s looking at the breakfast we brought in.

“Might as well eat it before it goes cold,” he tells me, shrugging.

I decide he has a point. Maybe if we’d insisted on eating first when Brooke decided she wanted to be claimed, I would have been able to please her without overwhelming her.

Looking after her needs should be the priority from now on.

That means more than just reacting to her heat.

“Put these aside,” I tell River as I go through the contents of the bag. “We can reheat this stuff in the microwave when they wake up.”

DONNIE

Fresh air is absolutely the best thing when you’re tired, and cardio helps, too. I get in my usual jog on my route into the center of the city, where the stores are. It’s still super early, but a few places are open twenty-four hours which is probably the single greatest thing about the city.

Oh, so you want to go shopping for pants at five a.m. and also pick up a toaster oven and some bagels afterward? No freaking problem. We’ll even toss in an ugly-ass lampshade and someone shopping in their pajamas for ya, because why the hell not?

Man, the things I’ve bought on the way home from work. Frost would so love to clear out my room of the faux-retro junk I stockpiled before I met him, but there’s no way in hell I’m getting rid of my gumball machine or my cheeseburger beanbag. I just need a Coke-can-shaped mini-fridge and my life will be complete.

At least, that’s all I was really looking for before we ran into Brooke.

One last piece of junk for my collection.

Now, everything’s going to change.

It’s a little scary, but it’s also thrilling.

I’ve been ready for something new for a while. Job-hopping used to feel like a hobby of mine. I’d start something fun, get bored, move on. Up until I met Frost, that’s what I was happy doing.

Then, I found out what having a true mate was like, and that settled me a bit. I didn’t need to keep switching up my life to feel good. Frost helped me see things differently, he helped me focus on the good parts of the work we were doing. It kept me interested for longer than usual, and I’m glad it did, because I wouldn’t have been there to help River if I’d moved on to something else.

That kept me going, but seeing River push himself to get into the same kind of work started to make me question it again. It’s not the right job for an Omega, and it’s definitely not what he wants. It’s what he thinks we want. Even Frost can see that.

There’s no denying the satisfaction we get from the work we do, but it’s also pretty full-on. I don’t see the EMT gig working out while Frost and I have two Omegas to care for. Even with Brooke’s Alpha in the mix, it would never work.

That conversation might not be on the cards yet, but it’s coming.

I find a female fashion ‘emporium’ that’s open and head inside.

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