Manix by Grace McGinty

9

Gatlin

Ihated Wilkie. He was everything that was wrong with Manix society. A purist, and an asshole to boot. He believed Omegas were made to breed with and that was all. I knew he’d made a move for Raiden back when he was selecting a Pack, but Raiden wasn’t a fool. He knew that Wilkie was a sadist. He was also high up in the echelons of the Manix army, but so was Raiden’s father. When Raiden’s sister had bonded into Wilkie’s Pack instead, Raiden had been devastated. Me? Not so much. Raiden loved his sister, but she was a fucking bitch. Wilkie and Susannah were a good match in my opinion.

When we pulled up to Naja’s house, something like panic hit me. We were so close to having everything. I didn’t want to pressure Naja, but she wasn’t safe here by herself. I hated that she wasn’t in our nest where we could protect her and Raiden. I hated that they were so vulnerable.

So many things I hated right now, and it was driving my instincts wild. I wanted to bundle her up and drive her up to my mountain. Show her the amazing nests that Raiden had created around the big house. Show her the kitchen and the group shower. We could convert a room into a nursery, first for Luisa, and then for all our young. I was getting ahead of myself, but it was hard not to rush ahead.

I hit the garage remote and pulled inside, closing it behind us straight away. At least I could secure her here. She wouldn’t be in the open. But her scent was insane. Wilkie wasn’t going to be the only one. More would come for her, and I didn’t know what to do. I slammed out of the car, breathing deeply through the possessive rage.

Raiden came up and wrapped his arms around my waist, infusing me with his calm. “We’ll figure this out, Gatlin. Our happily ever after is within reach. Don’t lose it now.”

I turned, grabbing him up into my arms, kissing him hard. He kissed me back, his hands gripping my shirt. He was feeling it too; I knew we all were. He was right though—I needed to keep my shit together. “I’m so thankful that you didn’t choose Wilkie.”

Raiden made a rude noise. “Not even if hell froze over. Overbearing asshole.”

Finlo had bundled Naja and Luisa inside, and I could scent our Betas on the wind. We could hunker down here for a couple of days if Naja permitted it. It wasn’t as good as the Pack house, but it would do.

I grabbed Raiden’s hand and led him inside after Finlo and Naja. I let the Betas in the front door on the way past, and Seven locked it behind them. I found Finlo and Naja in the living room, Luisa playing at her feet.

Seven paced around the room. “We should be up in our own territory. Fucking Wilkie prowling around is like ants crawling across my skin.”

I clapped him on the back as he strode past again, my eyes flicking between the Beta and Naja. “Wilkie being here is a problem, but we can protect this place enough to get through the heat. Unless Naja okays returning to our territory with us? I promise you’ll be safe there. We have everything you’ll need.” Before I even finished, Naja was shaking her head. I couldn’t blame her really. What we were offering was an impossibility to her. I could see the fear in her eyes, and knew that she’d been hurt in the past. My Beast knew too, could sense the injuries that festered inside her. I ached to make them better.

“No. I’m not leaving. I don’t know you guys any better than I know that fucking Monolith that was pretending to be a human.”

“Manix,” Ellar corrected softly, coming to wrap his arms around her once more, dragged toward her by her pain. I envied him the ability to take her in his arms without feeling threatening. Never thought I’d want to swap with a Beta till now.

She rested her face on his chest, and exhaled. I saw the tension run from her body, and spotted Raiden stroking her back. Ellar and Raiden together were like a drug, but one that made you chilled out and happy. I was glad they were turning that effect onto the strung-out Omega female.

“I realize that we are still strangers to you, and that you only have our word telling you that we are nothing like Wilkie, but what does your gut say?” Finlo asked softly, and she sighed again.

“My gut lies. It doesn’t warn me people are evil until it's too late.” There went the trauma of her past again. One day I’d get to the bottom of what happened, but we’d deal with the problems at hand first. Her heat was a day away, two max, and then we’d all be in a rut. No one would have our backs and we couldn’t lock this place down tight enough to satisfy me. Wilkie wouldn’t leave town now he knew there was an Omega female here.

Couldn’t take her home. Couldn’t stay.

We were fucked.

“It’s fine, we’ll figure something out,” I said softly to the room. “Will you allow us to stay? We can protect you better if we are here.”

She only hesitated briefly before nodding. I could see Ellar’s smile widen as he looked around the room at us all. His eyes said, See, we’re making progress. Just a little further and she’ll be ours forever.

Yeah, except we had to make her like us enough to want to be with us for even a little while. I held myself tall as I said, “You won’t be able to go to work tonight.” I put a touch of Alpha into my voice, and she narrowed her gaze at me. Ellar gave me a ‘you’re fucking this up’expression, but it needed to be done.

“Obviously. I’m not an idiot,” she hissed. “I can’t ever go back to today’s job either. How would I explain nearly a dozen oversized fucking giants turning up at a damn flower market to fight over me? How am I meant to explain running out of there like I was some kind of damsel in distress? How am I going to explain any of that?”

Sweat was starting to bead on her brow, and her scent was going wild. Fear mixed with lust, mixed with the scent of the beginning of her heat-slick—it was all sending my Alpha insane. I looked helplessly at the Betas, because one look at Finlo told me he was no better off than me, and quite frankly, Raiden looked just as rough.

Ellar proved once again that just because he was physically the weakest member of our Pack, didn’t mean he was the weakest link. “Come on, Angel. I’ll run you a bath. You need to relax, little mama. You’re all stressed out and that heat is riding you, I can tell.” He scooped her up into his arms, his chest thrumming with the purr, and she nuzzled straight in. She wanted comfort—I could see it in every line of her body, but her brain wouldn’t let her take it.

Soon. Soon we could see to her needs.

She murmured something into his chest, and Ellar nodded. “Seven, grab Luisa. Naja would be more comfortable if she could see her cub.”

My chest cavity cracked open. She still didn’t trust us with the baby, but I got it. She didn’t know us. But it felt like we were beating ourselves black and blue on this brick wall that surrounded Naja.

Ellar’s eyes warned us all from commenting, and Seven scooped the baby into his arms, holding her high in the air. I could imagine the stubborn Beta with our young. He’d be a great father, that near Alpha stubbornness would make him protective, but the underlying Beta of his nature would make him a nurturer too. He just didn’t know how wonderful he was going to be yet.

Once they were out of the room, I turned to Finlo, squishing Raiden between us. It soothed the Alpha a little, protecting the Omega with our bodies, even if it wasn’t this Omega who had been in harm’s way.

“What do we do? We don’t have time to properly fortify this place for the mania of the rut—”

“Which she still hasn’t agreed to,” Raiden added.

“Indeed, which she still hasn’t agreed to. And with Wilkie and his Pack in town, we are sitting ducks, literally with our naked asses in the air for him to take a shot.”

I nuzzled into Raiden’s neck. “Maybe he’ll respect that the Omega has made her choice.”

Raiden growled low in his throat, making it vibrate against my nose pressed there. “When has Wilkie respected anything from anyone lower down on the food chain than himself?”

Raiden had a point. But I didn’t have any answers. “Outside of reinstating Plan A and abducting her back to our territory, we just have to do what we can. Maybe try and sit out this heat from the outside.”

They both groaned, and I didn’t blame them. It would be torture for us all, including Naja. We were hardly equipped to let her suffer, but I would if I had to, if that’s what she chose.

Finlo slapped my shoulder. “Let’s show her how easy we could make her life; that we’d make a good Pack for her and her young. As Ellar would say, we’ll woo the fuck out of her until she comes to the Pack house willingly. Then we can court her properly.”

I mean, it was a sound plan, but I didn’t think it would be that easy. I could already tell that Naja wasn’t going to be won over by cooking her food and giving her foot rubs. No, she had to decide we were worthy, and it was going to take some extreme trust building to get there. We could do it though; I knew it.

And the first step was food. I kissed Raiden softly. “Food is a good start. Raiden, work your culinary magic. Finlo and I will try and make this place as secure as possible so we can all rest a little easier.”

Raiden nodded, sliding from between us and moving deeper into the house. Where they’d taught us how to fight as Alphas, they’d taught Raiden how to cook, like he was just some wishy-washy Omega with nothing else better to do than to cook food and lay on his back. He’d proved the system wrong, but his love of cooking had endured.

Both Finlo and I watched him go. “I don’t like it, Gatlin.”

I nodded. “We can only do what we can.”

Finlo huffed. “Stealing her is back on the table.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Having met her, do you really think she’d be okay with that?”

Fin sighed. “You make a point. I’ll do the back of the house.”

I watched him go and then moved to the front, checking windows and reinforcing doors. We’d make this place as safe as possible and then we’d go back to wooing the Omega female. I found the house already had bolts on all the windows and doors, and it made me wonder once more where this pretty Omega female, this unicorn of the supernatural world, had actually come from, and what drove her to lock her house up like it was Fort Knox.