Omega Blues (Gay Romance)

Chapter Eight: Tattoos and Markings

Matt

I woke up when Bren was getting out of bed. His hair was short and dark once again and the stretch of his back was smooth and hairless.

"Good morning, human-person," I mumbled.

Bren didn't say anything. But when I reached out and touched his back, he turned into my hand and lay down beside me. "Good morning, human."

"Are you trying to sneak out of bed the morning after?"

"The morning after what? It's not morning."

He just lay there, innocent as if he hadn't sucked me off. I hid my smile in his bare shoulder and said, "You're right. It's not morning. Are you sneaking out to make me lunch?"

"I wanted to take Aspen out for a ride. I'm the only one who rides her so she hasn't been out in days." After a beat he said, "But how do you feel about duck sandwiches for lunch?"

"Yummy! We could—oh no!" I yelped, my voice strangling in my throat.

"What? What's wrong?" Bren's huge body crumpled up as he squished himself into the protective ball I'd seen at the vet, his eyes fixed on the door like he expected an ax murderer to burst in.

He was trying to look out for me, but crouching like that just made his tattoos more obvious.

It was the first time I'd seen his, legs bare and not covered in fur. So it was my first time seeing the tattoos: savage slashes of black ink making the shapes of snarling wolves.

Bren was still looking keenly at the door, so I patted his arm to let him know he could calm down. "Scary tattoos."

"Oh." His fear turned to confusion then pain.

"I just never knew you had tattoos," I said quickly. "They're nice, though."

I could tell he didn't believe me, so I wiggled closer and put my face near his leg. "These look good. Scary but good." There was something familiar in those bold, dark slashes. But maybe all tattoos looked similar—I didn't go around looking at many.

"They're by Dave."

"Dave?"

"Dave Flight. My nephew. Will's brother?"

"Oh, yeah!" I'd had a crush on Will as soon as we'd met—who wouldn't? The guy is beautiful!—but it had lasted all of two days, until I'd seen the way he and Connor looked at each other. I'd only met Will's brother a couple of times, but he'd come as a shock because he didn't look much like Will.

Meeting Bren felt like seeing Will for the first time, all over again. Bren was just like an older, bigger Will, from the effortlessly perfect hair to the kind eyes. Except that Will had a way of grabbing attention wherever he was and whatever he was doing, and Bren just kind of blended into the background. He didn't stand out so it wasn't as obvious how awesome he was.

But then I'd gotten to know him and I'd realized how totally cool he was. Despite being a werewolf, he was always nice and I'd never seen him being mean. Having a tattoo of fierce, snarling wolves didn't change that.

So I took a deep breath and reminded myself that this was nice, non-wolflike Bren and I was hurting his feelings by being freaked out over his tattoos. "Didn't Dave do Will's tattoos as well?"

"And Connor's."

"Is it a pack thing? Should I get tattoos, too?"

It was obviously the wrong thing to say because Bren looked more miserable than ever.