"Leo was working on it," I reminded him.
"Not fast enough."
"What do you want him to do, Alpha? Make it himself?"
"Bran," he warned, and I knew I was out of line. But everything about James was rubbing me wrong today, and I couldn't help but let my displeasure slip out. He gritted his teeth as he walked through the house. "The whole place is absolutely spotless. Where is the little omega?"
"I don't know." I looked around, stopping to listen for our girl but only came up with the sound of the washing machine, swishing away as the dryer tumbled a load dry.
James led the way down the hall, opening doors as he went, but we didn't see her. Our home wasn't big, but it was perfect for us. There weren't many places she could hide, unless...
"Did you check our room?"
"She's forbidden from going inside there," he reminded me. "It's an embarrassing mess which we need to really make time for."
"Forbidden or not, did you check?"
"Did you see me check?" He shot back, clearly still as grumpy as he was earlier.
"No," I sighed, before stepping past him and turning the knob.
The moment I pushed open the door, I knew things had changed. It wasn't just her sweet and tart scent that drove me mad as it slammed into me that alerted me to our omega was not following orders. It was the fact that nothing obstructed the door from opening. Nothing was on the floor. The dresser, which normally was cluttered, was now neat and tidy, and I could only guess that if I entered the master bathroom, that too would be spotless. And there, lying in the center of our bed, fast asleep with her orange kitten at her side, was our omega looking so damn perfect and innocent curled up on our bed.
I thought the mere sight of the omega in our space, on our sleeping pallet, would send our alpha into a fit of rage. He resisted her so much, denied her very existence when it came to our unit, and now... he looked upon her with such fondness, I didn't know what to think. Why did he fight so hard against what he clearly wanted?
He turned to me, his voice soft when he spoke. "The omega cleaned until she passed out."
"Do you blame her? She'd worked hard in this place."
He put his hands on his hips, watching her. A million emotions crossed his face before a scowl finally appeared again. "She shouldn't have cleaned in here. It was our mess to take care of."
I wanted to ask him when? When would we have done it if we hadn't already? When would we have found time for doing all that laundry when there were always cattle hungry, vegetables to pick, fields to attend? We could say we'd do it, and maybe we would, but when?
"She did it of her own will," I reminded him.
He dropped his hands from his hips, letting them dangle at his side. "Let her sleep and we'll shower. We'll wake her after."
He didn't wait for a response; instead, he turned, storming into the adjacent bathroom, leaving me to follow.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
LEO
The rain was pouring down by the time I made it up the muddy dirt road of our property. The supply pick up was a shitshow. Despite the fact that they had called me to collect it early, they still somehow had misplaced it. How did you misplace a four thousand dollar supply order in the span of a few hours? I had no fucking idea, but it apparently was easier than I thought.
It took more than an hour for our product to be located, apparently loaded onto another farmer's truck, who then had to turn around and return the supplies. It was a fucking mess. A time-consuming mess that put me in a sour mood that I was sure nothing could fix.
Normally, I'd unload the truck the moment I got home, but it was dark and pouring, and there was nothing I wanted to do more than strip off my clothing and fall into my warm bed, with Bran and James beside me. I wasn't needy, at least not often. But occasionally there were days that their mere existence by my side made living on this wasteland of an earth marginally more bearable.
I parked in the barn, making sure to secure the doors closed tightly to prevent any water from touching the feed. Then I walked through the mud and rain, taking the steps as quickly as possible until I was under the shelter of the porch. The house was dark, which was odd, considering most nights we didn't tumble into bed until close to midnight, and it was eight.
I opened the unlocked door, flicking on the light and looked around. Clean. Not like it was ever dirty, but it was spotless. Everything. The light shades, the floor, the couches. The house clearly got a deep cleaning we'd been neglecting. I wasn't naïve. I knew we left the omega alone today. Knew we made excuses to be away from her, giving her time she needed to herself to process whatever it was she needed to without the suppressants. I just hadn't thought she would go through the house and clean it spotless in our time away.
Aww, our omega is nesting already.I ignored my delta's smug taunts as I hung my keys on the hook and removed my muddy shoes. If the omega went through all this trouble to clean, I wasn't going to be an asshole and destroy her work with mud prints running over her clean floor.
I didn't bother looking at the rest of the home; I just wanted my bed. Walking down the hall, I passed the omega's room, stopping only long enough to inhale deeply, taking the scent that seemed to gather by her door into my lungs, before I continued to our bedroom. The door was ajar, which was rare, but I didn't think much of it since we rarely shut our door before the omega arrived.
