Page 7 of The Omega's Bloodline: Part One

Dog shifters. We wandered into the wrong territory. Caden had been doing his once-every-five-years check-in to make sure I’m still alive. Got caught up in it.

“You don’t hang out together normally?”

We used to. Things are complicated.

“What are you to each other?”

Seth stared down at his paws and licked one vigorously rather than look at me.Brothers. Caden raised me after our parents died. We split off a few years after that.

There were lots of reasons siblings would part ways, especially as adults. I’d wait until they were more comfortable here before I pried into their past. I ruminated on the information and revelations of the evening, finishing up my kitten duties before wandering out to check on dinner. Caden was busy at the stove, looking like an absolute snack.

I wasdefinitelydoomed.

He turned. “Hungry?”

Gods, yes. And for more than just food.

The thought of offering myself up for dessert passed through my mind.

“Yes,” I squeaked out.

Caden drained noodles out of a pot of boiling water and ladled a scoop of his arrabbiata sauce overtop. He’d obviously already made himself at home in my kitchen.

“Good. Hunger means I can satisfy it.”

He winked and set the bowl on the counter for me.

Sweet fuck.

It wasn’t fair for him to look like that. Especially not while saying those words and cooking me dinner. It was only spaghetti butmy gods.

I tried to keep myself together long enough to open a can of wet food for Seth’s dinner before taking my bowl to sit down at the table. Caden joined me a moment later. He kept watching me with those wicked hazel eyes.

It took all my willpower not to squirm in my seat. My body wanted me to climb right into his lap, but that would probably make me appear desperate. Maybe desperate was a poor choice of words. I could get an orgasm from my battery-operated friends in my bedside table—that I thankfully hadn’t used in the few days since Caden and Seth had started sleeping in my bed—but those didn’t set my blood on fire like his eyes did. I craved giving into my wild desires and letting myself burn.

I kept the thought to myself as we ate our spaghetti. The sauce was perfect—spicy, decadent, and all the better because I hadn’t had to make it.

“This is so damn good. Did you cook a lot before this?”

“Off and on. I’ve been living primarily as a cat the last few years.”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“A few reasons. Shifter culture is pretty hierarchical and I don’t love that. It’s a lot easier to avoid when you’re in an easily ignored animal form. Plus, it’s cheap. Don’t have to have a home, buy groceries, get a job, and all that when you’ve got paws.” Hecringed. “I guess that doesn’t sound great. I’m not anti-roots and responsibilities or anything.”

“Listeeen,” I said, patting his hand, “if I had the opportunity to be a cat instead of a person I would one hundred percent take it. So much easier to tell capitalism to fuck it when you can snatch your dinner out of the air and sleep in sunbeams.”

“Sunbeamsarepretty great,” he conceded.

After dinner I wasn’t sure what else to do with him, so we put on a movie. I paid zero attention to it. Every nerve was busy focusing on the too-beautiful man sitting next to me on the couch. I didn’t really know what him being an alpha meant for me, but if he was going to live with me I’d find out sooner rather than later.

I was certain I had to be wafting an absurd amount of pheromones or whatever in his direction. He had a throw pillow on his lap. Whether that was to protect his modesty or not was a mystery I wanted to solve.

“Question.”

Caden turned to me. “Hmm?”

“What’s, like…the protocol for shifters with, ya know, dating and…stuff.”

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