Page 56 of Omega Chattel
“Hey!” Oren shaded his eyes with one hand. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Alli said.
I nodded in greeting.
“So. I see it’s you two. That’s great. Congrats.” He didn’t make a big drama. He didn’t appear jealous or shy about it at all.
“Thanks,” Alli said, glancing quickly up at me.
“Yes,” I replied.
“So are you getting your own garden?” Oren asked Alli.
The slight tension was broken just like that. Alli jumped forward. “Yes! I am! Right here! See? And I’m going to have tomatoes and cucumbers, and well, just everything!”
“Wonderful. They will be the best, too, and I hope you’ll share.”
“Oh, I will!” Alli sat back on his haunches beside the area we’d staked for the garden bed.
I crossed my arms and watched the two Omegas interact. They were beautiful. All my wards were, but none had affected me so deeply, with an actual automatic bonding link occurring, until Alli. Not even Kee.
And it had happened so quickly.
My entire body craved him now. All I could think of when I looked at him was that I wanted to touch him all over without the barrier of clothes. I wanted to see him naked all the time.
It wasn’t like me at all, but I couldn’t help it. Already in my fifties and I’d never experienced a bond before.
Fate would say I’d been waiting for my mate. He simply hadn’t been born yet when I was an adult. In fact, he had not yet come of age until four days ago, the day after we’d met.
Such a baby.
After a while, we all walked back into the house.
In the afternoon, with the windows open and the breezes filling up all the rooms, we talked away the hours.
Oren, polite as ever, left us alone after a while. Tev and Farrell were never much for socializing other than on movie nights, so they kept to themselves.
I loved listening to Alli talk. He had a low sweet voice, a sound that seemed to enter my body, my veins, my mind, and plummet me into a solace I had craved my whole life but wasn’t sure what to call it.
I felt whole with him at my side. This almost-child, this newly blooming man had a piece of me inside him all along, or at least some compatible essence my mind recognized now as everything I yearned for.
We sat on the living room couch, me at the end, Alli on his back with his head in my lap. I couldn’t keep my hands from his hair. I wanted to hold his lithe body against mine again, skin to skin.
My body remained hot all day.
I leaned down to kiss his forehead.
He took in a sharp breath.
“Take me upstairs,” he begged.
I lifted him in my arms. He weighed nothing to me. Would he let me carry him all the way up to my room?
“We’re going to have to move your things into my room,” I said as he wrapped his arms around my neck and his legs about my waist.
“Yes, please,” he replied. “But not now.”
No, not now.
