Page 74 of Generation Omega: Revealed
I’ve read it before in one of the scrolls, but I never imagined how literal it is. I’d assumed it meant that all the alphas existed to protect the omega’s heart, not that all of them would actually share the cadence of their omega’s heartbeat. No matter where I go or what I do, I will be tied to her and our pack. It’s so extraordinarily amazing and horrifying.
They felt it. They all felt it. The alphas of the past felt the last heartbeats of their omegas. Did they die with them, their hearts collapsing along with their wills to continue? Or did they survive as husks whose every disjointed heartbeat was a reminder that the only home they had in this life was gone?
I shudder and she doesn’t demand an explanation, only holds me tighter, her fingers digging into my back to remind me that I’m well and truly caught in her delicious web. I didn’t know the extent that I craved this connection until now when it’s inescapable. Even my heart finally accepts its place and joins the rhythm of my packmates.
Her answering sigh is the most captivating sound I’ve ever heard. I lean down, touching my cheek against her hair, while Gideon does the same on the other side of her head. I don’t know how long we remain like that, breathing with each other, our hearts synchronized, but however long it is, it’s not long enough.
A nervous giggle emerges from my omega. “I can’t seem to keep my clothes on.”
“Doesn’t sound like a problem to me, baby girl,” Gideon says, his voice gentle.
She scoffs but doesn’t pull away. “You say that, but eventually, we’ll have to go outside.”
As tenderly and not professorially as I can manage, I explain, “Yourrevealis occurring in stages. That’s new and less civilized than the histories suggest, but I’m beginning to think much was concealed. For you, it’s presenting in frantic bursts of need, forcing you to override your natural impulse to control your connections. It’s almost as though the omega legacy won’t let us fail. It’s going to force us to do what needs to be done to fully becomepack.” I dare to kiss her head. “For what it’s worth, I’m grateful to the legacy for giving us this asset.”
“Okay, well,” she hedges, “one thing, since you both have seen me naked.” Without warning, her hand brushes against the erection I hoped she hadn’t noticed. “I’m going to need your knot to be amazing, just to be clear.”
I step back and groan as my body responds to her teasing suggestion, the knot I never had coming to life with tingling, pulsing, and a little pain. “Oh, my… did you know you had that power?”
She grins up at me, her blue-grey eyes shimmering with mirth. “Yup, and it’s only fair, since you still don’t know my name,alpha.”
Gideon chuckles as he grabs her shirt and helps her back into it. “Nice move.” He kisses her head, pausing to inhale the scent that’s all around us, but best directly from its source.
She turns back toward me, extending her hand. I immediately surround her tiny hand with mine.
“I’m Gwendolyn…FancyPants. It’s nice to meet you.” She devolves into laughter, while Gideon chuckles along with her. She leans against him and then meets his adoring gaze. “I was trying to hold it together, but I just couldn’t.”
“Maybe you’ll manage with the next alpha, butFancyPantsisn’t exactly subtle.”
She’s still laughing as she says, “Or accurate. Maybe I should be GwendolynNoPants.”
I don’t mean to shatter their amusement, but my hands clench into fists again, which Gideon notices immediately. His eyebrows raise in challenge, and I breathe through the compulsion to react poorly. “Please, tell me your name.”
Her posture is rigid now and there’s a calculation in her eyes. She’s sizing me up in a new way and the results of her assessment are a mystery. She doesn’t extend her hand this time. “My name is Tillie Marie Harrison.”
A piece inside me moves into place, like the last one needed to start an engine, or possibly a bomb.
I extend my hand to her and hold it there while she decides whether she’ll touch me. She won’t always have the choice, just as I won’t, but it still means something when she places her hand in mine. “I’m Thatcher,Thatchif you like.”
Her smile is now shy. “I do like, but nothing as much as your hair. I hope you like having it tugged on, because I’m already fighting the urge to grab it again and I’m not even close to my heat—am I?” Her uncertainty is clear, even if I couldn’t feel her heart skip a beat.
“No, not yet, but it may be sudden, with how intense things are between you and your alphas. No bond is complete before your first heat concludes. But, if the legacy holds true, you can’t go into heat until your pack is fully formed.”
“Well, we’ve now got two of the three we know about, so things are moving along.”
That surprises me. “You know your third alpha?”
She grumbles, “Yeah, not a fan, but I’m staying in denial until the legacy forces me out of it.”
“Do you know how many alphas you have?”
“Five.” There’s no doubt in her. “There have been five holes in my heart since I was a kid. I know which one is Gideon’s and which one is yours, and I have an idea aboutMr. Crappy Third Alpha.”
“The other two?”
“No idea.” She turns to Gideon and winks. “Time for ourknot revealparty?”
Wait… what?!
