Omega Blues (Gay Romance)

Chapter One: Full Moon Curse

Bren

My intestines were cutting themselves in half and my spine was trying to bend in different directions. I hate the full moon. As I locked the door to the operations room of my vet clinic, my mind was already on the mountains.

The full moon activated an internal clock, counting down to my transformation. With every tick of the clock, my symptoms got worse. My skin itched as the tiny hairs on my human body tried to thicken and lengthen. My teeth, muscles and bones ached from holding a shape they didn't want to. My stomach was leaden and heavy. That probably wasn't the result of werewolf biology—it was just pure dread.

Full moons are the worst.

But it was the end of the working day. In just a few minutes, I'd be walking out the front door and into my truck. Once I got into the forested foothills outside of town I could just pull off the road and give in to the need to shift.

I'd always hated the full moon. And it had only gotten worse in the last few months, when the full moon meant being surrounded by suddenly-hostile wolves instead of my werewolf pack. It also meant losing contact with Matt. My wolf form couldn't carry a phone, so I couldn't talk with Matt like I'd been doing every day for three months.

My nephew Will is an alpha, the strongest I've ever seen. He took over leadership of my pack, then promptly left to tour with his rock band.

I'd met Matt through Will. Matt is a human, one of Will's best friends and a member of his band. The band formed around Will like a true pack around their leader, and Will intended to bite them all and turn them to werewolves. Despite being a human, Matt displays distinct characteristics of an omega werewolf. As an omega myself, it's my responsibility to look out for Matt and teach him what his life might be like as an omega werewolf.

Or that was how it was meant to be. But Matt had started hanging around my clinic and helping out on the ranch that I operate for the pack. With time he'd changed from an associate to an assistant to my friend. Before he'd left I'd been accustomed to him driving up to visit me most weekends, but we still talked on the phone almost every night. His phone calls had been the bright lights in my dark and lonely Summer.

I tried to walk evenly as I left the clinic so no one could tell that I was hurting. I nodded at Carol, my coworker who covered for me when I shifted. She believed that I took the four or five days off every month to keep the ranch accounts in order.

"Good night," I called. "Don't work too late." She usually went home to be with her family and waited for an after-hours call, rather than lingering at the clinic. I didn't know why she was still here.

Carol winced and pointed over my shoulder. At the same time I became aware of footsteps: Someone was racing across the clinic atrium, moving so fast that they almost skipped in excitement.

That was a happy gait, one which I knew well. I heard those footsteps and started to smile.

I'd just been thinking about Matt. That's why I thought it was his footsteps behind me. I told myself it wasn't him—he was still on tour with his band. I prepared myself to turn around and not see him.

Then I turned around and saw him.

"Bren!" He was running at me. I opened my arms, and Matt jumped into them. He literally jumped off the ground, whooping in excitement. His lean musician's arms clutched at me and tightened around my shoulders and ribs. I grabbed onto him like he was a slippery fish that could slide through my bearish arms.

Suddenly my bad day was feeling a lot better.

"Your stupid assistant wouldn't let me back to visit you." Matt mumbled into my chest because he couldn't reach my ear.