Omega Blues (Gay Romance)

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Meeting

Bren

As an omega I act as a lightning rod for emotions. Will's unhappiness set my teeth on edge, like the van was thick with crackling sadness. It was a problem but I didn't know how to solve it.

Matt was the same. It was one of the reasons I'd always suspected he was an omega, too. But instead of being worried, he laughed and made jokes until the mood lifted and even Will was laughing along. By the time we reached my sister's old house, things were back to normal.

Liv unstrapped the wolf harness as we pulled off the road and into the trees surrounding the house. Leaf was the first one out the door, leaping from the van into the snow. By the time the rest of us left the van, she was already weaving in and out of the tree line.

"I know that feeling," Will said, laughing.

"Snowball fight?" Connor suggested.

"Way ahead of you!" Chop yelled.

Will's claws shot out as he jumped protectively in front of Connor. It was a sudden blur of movement which my eyes didn't have time to process, but my instinct did. I leapt to defend my alpha, just in time to take a snowball to the face.

"Oh." Chop paused partway through preparing a new snowball. "What just happened?"

"I think Will was defending me," Connor said. "Then Bren defended him."

Matt ran over and collapsed onto his side at my feet. "This is me defending you guys! My reflexes aren't as good yet, is all."

Will playfully knocked into me from behind, and I let myself be knocked over into the snow. I kept my arms out to catch my fall and build myself into a bridge over Matt's body.

"More cuddles!" he squealed.

I realized Connor must have tackled Will first, as all four of us were sprawled out in the snow. Leaf bounded over, her black fur sharply beautiful against the white landscape. A moment later Liv joined us in her forest camouflage wolf form, nosing into our jackets and licking at our exposed faces.

"Feels good to be home," Connor sighed.

"Do you feel that too?" I asked him quietly. "The pull to be in Jagged Rock?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "Sometimes it hurts. But college is awesome and I'm totally rocking it. Plus now we're home, and that's nice." He slung an arm around Liv's shoulders and mine. "We're all werewolves!"

"Oh really?" Chop said. "'Cause from here you look like sitting ducks!"

While we'd been capering, she'd prepared a stack of snowballs. And this time we were too squished and tangled up to protect each other, so we just had to cover our faces as Chop pelted us with her endless stream of snowballs.

"Quick troops," Will said through his laughter. "Defense isn't working. Counterattack!"

We all started scooping handfuls of snow to throw back at Chop, and at each other, until we were caught in a massive play fight with no rules or reason.

"Here's one thing people are better at than wolves!" Will gathered a sloppy snowball that broke all over Liv's fur and speckled her a premature gray.

Liv rolled to her side and used her paws to flick a constant stream of snow at Will.

Matt roared with laughter. "That's what you get for insulting wolves!" His eyes were squeezed shut with humor so he didn't notice the snowball Chop aimed at him. I was able to slide in front of him just in time.

"My hero," he said, wrapping his arms around me and dragging me backwards into the snow.

The fight went until we were all soaking wet and steaming with the cold and exercise. We collapsed together in a heap, watching the sunset fading to darkness. I found myself on the bottom of the pile, Will and Connor's heads on either side of my stomach, Chop's head on my shoulder, the wolves draped across my legs and Matt wrapped around my neck with his head nestled next to mine so his springy hair curled over my cheek and tickled at my nose.