Runaway Omega (The Wolves of Rocky Ridge Book 1) Read online

  Logan rolled his eyes at the tears I shed when I saw them, but they’d been important to me. I had bought them with one of my first paychecks I'd ever earned, and the leather had been smooth and soft as butter. Logan slung an arm around my neck and told me he’d buy me another pair after the baby came, but that so wasn’t the point. I didn’t want boots that he’d bought me. I wanted the ones I’d bought myself. All my independence was slipping away, day by day, and I was turning into a person I didn’t know anymore. One I didn’t want to know.

  The first day he left to go back to work, I cleaned the house, and he came home at lunch and caught me at it. I got put to bed to “relax” for the rest of the day and told in no uncertain terms to stay off my feet except to go to the bathroom. Logan had been with me to my first doctor’s appointment, and the doctor said I was “old” for an omega to be having my first baby. Old at twenty-five. He designated mine as a high-risk pregnancy because of my low hormone levels. He gave me a prescription and said everything looked okay for now, but he wanted me to do pretty much nothing for the duration of my pregnancy. I didn’t have long left, but still.

  “So, I’m just like a big, fat housecat now, huh?” I grumbled on the way home from the doctor’s office. “I just have to lie around and sleep all day?”

  “A housecat huh? Never thought of that. You don’t have fleas, do you?” We had reached the driveway at the lodge, and we got out and began walking toward the porch. “You could wear one of those little collars,” he said, not giving up the joke. “And maybe I could do what Brad Paisley says in his country song, and I could check you for ticks.”

  “W-what?” I frowned at him and started walking faster to get away from him. He was in one of his playful moods and that usually meant he wanted to mess with me. He stalked slowly behind me, crooking his finger at me. “Here, kitty, kitty. My wolf likes to chase cats.”

  “This isn’t funny, Logan,” I said, turning towards him and then backing away to the stairs as he came near me. He kept coming with a little smile quirking up his lips. “It’s not funny, I said!” pointing a finger at him. “Do not tickle me!”

  My nerve finally broke and I turned to run, but he swept me up off my feet and carried me up the stairs to his room. He put me down in the hall, and I turned to hurry inside, but before I could go more than a step or two, he caught me and crowded me against the wall. “Logan, stop joking!”

  “Oh, it’s not a joke. As your alpha, I think it’s my duty to be very thorough with you. Let's get started.” He picked me up and carried me farther inside his room. Then he put me on the couch and started tickling my sides a little and I writhed with laughter. “I need to check all your little cracks and crevices.” He glanced down at his watch. “I think I could spare a half hour or so to make sure I do a really good job.”

  Chapter Six

  A week or so after we got back, Logan came home from work early one day. I was lying in bed, feeling like I'd swallowed a watermelon, and he came to stand over me.

  “Why don’t you get up and get dressed? The pack is having a Midwinter party downstairs, and we have to be there, of course.”

  I raised up on my elbows and looked at him with horror. “A party? Here in the lodge? Oh, hell no! I don’t even have any shoes!”

  “That's good, because we won't be going outside.” He laughed. “Don't give me that look. Wear those new tennis shoes I bought you then.” I'd have to wear the cheap tennis shoes because at this time of night, the others didn't fit. My feet were too swollen.

  “The ones that look like you got them from Bozo the Clown’s closet?” Logan had come home one day with what looked to me like the ugliest, biggest monstrosities Walmart had to offer.

  “Just put them on. I think you look cute in them. Or go barefoot if you want. It's warm downstairs.”

  I was horrified by the idea of being barefoot and pregnant. And there was nothing cute about those shoes. I did put them on, but I wasn’t happy about it. I knew I had to go and make an appearance. The pack had actually been really welcoming since I got back, but I'd seen the occasional sidelong look when they thought I wasn't watching. I'd caught a few smirks when I held my back or couldn't bend over to tie my shoe. One of the other betas, Norton, who had never been one of my admirers, had really carried the smirking too far. He'd always wanted my job and now he was thrilled to finally have a chance to get it. I'd protested when Logan told me he was considering a new beta and told him I could still do my job, but he just shook his head, being all patient with me. I hated that. I decided to bring up the topic with him again, before heading to the party, knowing I was going to see Norton and it just riled me up again.

  “So, did you give any thought to me continuing to be your beta?” I asked Logan.

  “No, you can't. You're an omega now and having a baby and you don't feel well a lot of the time. After the baby comes, are you really going to be happy leaving it in the pack nursery? With all the other babies with their sniffly noses and dirty little hands?”

  Well, when he put it like that...

  “All right! But I hate for the pack to see me like this. They used to think of me as strong and capable. Now I'm just one of the omegas.”

  “You're my omega, and no one here thinks badly of any of our omegas. Without them we wouldn't have our children and new blood to keep our pack strong.” The words were sweet, but really not accurate. Yes, omegas were important, as long as they knew their place and stayed in it. Any “deviations” from that place in wolf society simply weren't accepted. It was one reason I'd been so horrified to discover I was an omega. To go from being a powerful beta to an omega in a heartbeat had been devastating. I didn't know if I'd ever get over it.

  “You're carrying the baby who may be the head beta one day. You couldn't be any more important. Oh yeah, by the way, I had to go to city hall today in town, so while I was there, I filled out the paperwork to make you my spouse. Technically, you’re Kade Grady now.”

  I turned over to sit up and goggle at him. “What? You signed the paperwork without even telling me?”

  “There was no need for you to traipse all the way downtown. I just had to pay the fee. I thought after the baby’s born, we could plan an actual mating ceremony under the moon, which will mean more than any human standing over us to say meaningless words. Maybe we'll have one of those where we go up to the mountaintop at sunset and wait for the moon to rise. Would you like that?”

  “So, in other words, you paid for a license and bought me today. Like you’d buy a car?”

  “A little like that, yeah,” he said, grinning at me. “Now move your little ass and get showered and dressed. Wear the blue shirt I got you, because it looks good with all that black hair.” He turned and went cheerfully to the closet to take out his own clothes to change into, while I glared daggers at his back.

  “Why are you so cheerful?”

  “I guess I’m just happy,” he replied. “I like parties. And I like showing you off.”

  Why the hell did he say things like that if all he wanted was to be friends? “Showing me off? Because I look like a big old hog?”

  “What is it with you and all these animal analogies? You look like my pregnant omega and that’s all. Now put on your new clothes and let’s go have a nice time.”

  “I thought we were going to the Midwinter party.”

  “Oh, funny. Come on, Kade. It won’t be so bad.”

  “If you say so,” I grumbled, but I got out of bed and took a quick shower, before putting on the hated, ugly jeans and yellow, pleated shirt. My baby bump had morphed even more in the last weeks and now it looked like I’d swallowed a beachball. A big one. The shirt helped to hide it, but I still felt self-conscious. I was staring in the mirror, trying to fluff my hair when Logan showed up behind me.

  “Here’s some of that stuff you like to put in your hair,” he said, handing me a huge tube of some hair putty I used to use. “I was at the mall and thought I’d pick you some up. I know you like that brand.”<
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  I turned to look at him, my eyes shining with tears. He killed me when he did things like this, and he did them all the time. He’d already replaced my laptop and my cell phone and even my tablet. I opened my mouth to thank him but didn’t think I could get through it without crying all over him, so I tried to change the subject.

  “What were you doing at the mall?”

  “Buying you this,” he said and held up a wide gold band. I looked up at him, speechless, and he shrugged. “I don’t want you going around without a ring on your finger. People might think you don’t have an alpha.”

  I slipped it on my finger, and it was a little tight, but I was retaining fluids again. My ankles were nice and puffy too. I was thrilled over the ring, but I couldn’t help feeling a little pang in my chest at the idea that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. I’d never thought much about getting married, but if I had, it had always been a traditional mating ceremony in my imagination, and the man who gave me the ring would have been in love with me. We would stand together in front of the pack and say our vows to each other. He would slip a ring on my finger and we’d smile up into each other’s eyes.

  I had always been a sucker for romance. When I was a kid, I used to watch all the old movies on TV and still did whenever I got a chance and nobody was looking. Sometimes, late at night, when Logan was asleep and I couldn't get comfortable, I'd get up and find one on the set in the other room. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall—all the old greats. Most people didn't even know who they were anymore, but I loved their old movies. So much romance.

  I looked down at the ring and tried to think of it as a symbol of my marriage to Logan. Okay, so, that's exactly what it was, but in my mind, it was also a symbol of him being trapped in a loveless marriage. He was really the man of my dreams and the one I thought I’d never get to be with. Maybe he wasn’t in love with me, but if I tried hard enough, I could make it work. Couldn't I?

  “It’s perfect,” I said, and he nodded, looking pleased.

  “Now put on your clown shoes and let’s get out of here. We’re going to be late as it is.”

  So much for romance.

  The party was already in full swing when we got downstairs, with pack members lounging all over the big main room of the lodge and others standing around near the fireplace and the kitchen area. Everything was decorated to perfection. The big evergreen tree stood in front of the window and a fire was roaring in the fireplace--just like I had dreamed it would be back in that little attic room. My dad smiled and waved at me, then went back to talking to his friends. Logan got pulled away almost as soon as we got there.

  Human holiday music was playing on the sound system and people were hanging out all over the place, even on the front porch, though the night air was way too chilly for that. The rest of the guests were gathered on the back deck, where sounds of people talking and laughing were drifting on the night air, along with fragrant plumes of smoke from a charcoal grill. A lot of the guys were clustered around a TV that Norton had brought out, so they could watch the college teams play football.

  It was pretty late in the year to be grilling outside, but with its usual unpredictability, the weather was surprisingly good for December. Logan had bought us a few of those tall, outside heaters to put out on the deck, as well as those little outdoor fire pits like you buy at Lowe’s or Home Depot that were spread out among the yard. All the trees in the backyard were decorated in white lights and one big holly was decked out with lights of all colors, with a flashing blue star on top. Cute.

  All the nausea was gone now, and I wanted to eat all the time. My doctor had forbidden me to put on any more weight, though I had no idea how he expected me to do that. The hamburgers, hot dogs, and ribs smelled so good I was practically salivating, but Logan would kill me if he saw me eating salty stuff. It made me retain even more fluid, and my ankles already resembled small tree trunks. I guess I’d have to make do with a salad.

  Logan appeared at my elbow as he saw me looking at the food. “You can have a hamburger with no bun. I told them to buy extra lean steak and have it ground. Just one though, with no salt.” He made me look up at him. “I mean it.”

  I sighed and said okay. One hamburger, no bun. Lucky me.

  As we walked out on the back deck together, a lot of people there called out a greeting to both of us, and I was pleasantly surprised when hardly any of them smirked at me or made any comments. That all changed, of course, when Norton got his first look at me.

  “Well, Kade, look at you! I haven't had more than an occasional glimpse of you since you got back. Good to see you. Logan has been keeping you to himself since he found you.” He reached out and patted my stomach, and it was all I could do not to take his arm off. “That’s quite a little belly you got there, Martin, or are you having twins? Maybe triplets?”

  He laughed uproariously at his own stupid joke and reached out to pat my stomach again. I felt my lips draw back from my teeth in a snarl, and I pulled my arm back to deck him, when Logan stepped between us and grabbed his hand to throw it off me.

  “Good one, Norton. Now lay off him. And don’t ever touch Kade again, by the way. He belongs to me now, and by the way, his last name is Grady, now, not Martin.”

  For about ten seconds, you could have heard a pin drop, then Norton, whose face had turned pale, gave a nervous little laugh. The pack all began to murmur softly, and I saw my dad rise and stand with his eyes looking grim.

  “No shit. We just thought you were being nice to him because you messed up and got him pregnant. I never thought you actually liked him. For that matter, I never heard of an alpha with a male omega. They're okay to fuck, but not to mate! Come on, Logan. What will the other packs think of that?”

  “God, Norton, you're so stupid,” Logan said in a loud voice. “First of all, I don't give a flying fuck what they think. Second, you might have noticed that we're wolves and most of us have no preference when it comes to our sexuality. Though maybe you've seen that shit on television. It seems to me that every gay human in the world has probably had bigotry like yours shouted at them once or twice, maybe even while they’re being beaten up, or when some fucking homophobe like you was treating them like shit. But, you know, by all means, go ahead and talk about it some more. Be a big man and show off in front of the pack and get your laughs. But now you know what I think about it, and you’ve been warned. And the next time I hear you say shit like that, I’ll shove my fist so far down your ignorant throat that you’ll feel it in your ass. Then people can call you a faggot too.” He patted Norton’s cheek. “Now, beta boy, get me a beer.”

  Norton swallowed hard and passed one over silently, his face beet red, because Logan had not only shown him up in front of the whole damn pack, but I knew he was scared shitless of Logan. Why wouldn’t he be? Logan was six-feet-five inches of alpha muscle and brawn and Norton was five-feet-nine inches of scrawny asshole beta. And I had a feeling, just like everyone else who just watched that train wreck, that Norton had destroyed his chances of ever being Logan's beta.

  I forgot myself for a moment and laughed out loud at the look on Norton’s face, earning myself a dirty look. I reached for my own beer, but Logan took it right out of my hand. “Oh no, you don’t. Here. Drink this bottle of nice, cold water.”

  “Can’t I at least drink a Coke?”

  “No sodas. The doctor said you can’t have the caffeine. Come on, sit here by me and get off your feet. They’re swelled up like hams.”

  My good mood vanished, and I started to turn away and stomp over on my big ham feet to a deck chair to sit down, but Logan picked me up and put me down on a stool next to him. He patted my cheek and then turned to watch the game on television with one possessive hand on my thigh.

  I’d been sitting there about fifteen minutes, watching some of the pack kids running around chasing each other, when somebody sat down on the other side of me. I glanced up to see one of the young betas, Rick. I smiled at
him, and he came over.

  “Hi, it's good to see you again, Kade. How have you been? Everyone has been talking about you.”

  “I’ll just bet they have.”

  “Nothing bad, I swear,” he said, showing me his dimples. He was a cute guy, about my age, with blond hair and nice, even features. “You know, everyone is happy about you and Logan. A new baby will be great for the pack.”

  “What if he's not an alpha or beta?”

  “Then I guess you have another baby.”

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  “It kinda is, isn't it?”

  I shook my head. “No, not really. I’m just hoping I can deliver this one safely for now. I haven’t looked that far into the future.”

  “Jingle Bell Rock” started playing over the sound system and the music drifted over us. It was hard for me not to move to it, because even though it was old as the hills, it had always been one of my favorite holiday songs. Rick noticed me bouncing a little to the rhythm and held out a hand to me. “Would you like to dance?”

  “Dance?” I laughed. “I have a hard time walking right now.”

  “Ah, come on. It’ll do you good. You always had the best moves.”

  I shook my head. “Not anymore.”

  He stood up and held out his hand, but before I could tell him again that I couldn’t, Logan turned and put an arm around my waist.

  “What are you doing, babe?”

  Babe? He’d never called me babe before or any kind of endearment for that matter. What was going on with him? “Nothing much. Just enjoying the music and talking to Rick here.”

  Could he possibly be jealous of me talking to the handsome Rick? I couldn’t believe it, but he tightened his arm around my waist and smiled at him. It was that smile that didn’t touch his eyes though. “Hello, Rick. How are you doing?”

  “Fine, Alpha, thank you. I was just asking your omega here if he wanted to dance. If that's okay?”

  “Kade’s pregnancy is high risk, and he’s supposed to stay off his feet as much as possible. Dancing is not a good idea, but thanks for keeping him company.”