Page 86 of Your Wild Omega

Lexi spreads her hands with a guilty smile. “But you brought your omega home for the first time. This is a special day.”

He chuckles and drops another kiss on her cheek. Coming back to my side, Rickon wraps an arm around my waist and the touch startles me out of my daze.

“Stop drooling, Red,” he teases, pulling a chair out for me on the long side of the table.

“Isn’t it the greatest compliment?” I ask, patting the edges of my lips to check he was only teasing.

Keeping one eye on Simon across the room, Zack settles into the chair beside me.

“I want to hear everything,” Aunt Lexi says as she sits at the head of the table. “How you met, what you like. Everything.”

I peek at her pack members through my lashes, but neither of them seem bothered by her choice of seats as they sit opposite us. In the movies, the head of the household sits at that place at the table, but maybe that only applies to mafia or nobility. Or only movies. Or maybe an omega is the pack leader here.

I lightly touch the rows of silverware. I’ve never sat at a long, formal table like this for a meal. We had round tables in the Omega Center cafeteria, where no one minded if we ate messily.

The uniformed attendant glides to Lexi’s side and offers a bottle of wine with an embroidered towel tucked around it. Lexi nods and the lady fills our tall glasses with pink wine.

I didn’t realize I was fisting my hand until Rickon strokes my tightened grip. His smile unwinds the unease in my belly. Right, this is Rickon’s family.

I run my finger over the silver rings holding my cloth napkin in a roll. Cloth? Do they get washed and reused, or thrown out like paper ones? My stories will be a bit foreign in this place of gold rimming on the plates, but if these people are truly family, they won’t look at me in disgust.

The hostess laces her fingers together. “So, how did you and Rickon meet?”

I dampen my lips with my tongue. “Aunt Lexi, I should warn you, I’m more crazy than sane, so some stories might shock you.”

She grins. “Even better. I’m not entirely sane myself, so I think we’ll all get along just fine.”

Well, she has a point. You’d have to be just a little bit crazy to live in a house this big and embroider your family name on the serving cloths.

I grin and toast her with my glass. “I think so, too.” After her eager welcome, I already decided I liked her, but now I’m really sold.

Her brows pop and she reaches for her glass. “And I should probably mention, this one’s non-alcoholic,” the omega says, tapping the glass with her nail. “It’s a little early in the day for me to start. Hope you don’t mind.”

“All the pleasure without the hangover?” I say, clinking our glasses together. “Sign me up.” Especially since I had a hangover just a few days ago that sucked hairy balls.

A door slams somewhere in the house, followed by footsteps. Lexi brightens. “Oh, here’s our last member.”

Heavy dread winds through my belly as the murmur in my head quiets. The door swings open.

“Mom, why is—?” Callisto cuts off as his gaze falls on us and his body twitches. Our gazes lock and the bottom drops out of my stomach.

He clears his throat, hand clenching around the door’s edge. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize others would join us.”

Lexi stands up. “I saidfamilydinner, Calli. No need to be like that.”

He embraces her, but with an unnatural stiffness in his shoulders, and his Adam’s apple bobs heavily. I lower my gaze to the fizzing pink drink, feeling like I’ve seen something I shouldn’t. I run my bottom lip through my teeth, but then smile to myself. What’s family dinner without drama, right? The awkwardness belongs here as much as Lexi’s warm welcome does. At least we don’t have any weird uncles to pinch my ass.

“I haven’t had both my boys under my roof for what seems like years. Sit down,” Aunt Lexi orders. “Rickon and Red were about to tell me how they met.”

“You know we were both here for Christmas dinner, Mom.” Callisto takes a seat at the far end of the table, looking pale. Dark shadows mar the skin under his eyes, suggesting he hasn’t been as okay as his texts with Rickon suggested.

“Well, that seems like a long time ago,” Lexi grumbles with a mischievous smile. “This is different.”

Callisto winces.

Fuck, what a mess.

Now I just have to sit through dinner with the alpha I rejected. And I’m not the only one who’s uneasy.

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