Taming the Omega (The Rogue Pack Book 4) Read online

  Taming the Omega

  Copyright 2017 Samantha Cayto

  Published by Samantha Cayto

  Cover Art by Syneca Featherstone

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  “Get out of my way!”

  “Sorry, Liam, no can do.” Caleb was careful to keep his tone light and his expression cheerful. He knew it would piss Liam off, which was the whole point. Better for the gamma to keep his focus and irritation on Caleb rather than on what was happening behind the closed door.

  Liam made a sudden feint to his right, and Caleb countered the move in a millisecond to continue to block him. They’d been doing this particular dance for the better part of fifteen minutes.

  With his fists balled tight, Liam lunged into Caleb’s face, letting his fangs shift into place. He bared his wolf teeth and growled. “That’s my mate in there.”

  Caleb flashed a smile in return. “Yup.”

  The gamma’s eyes grew wide and a slight sheen showed in the pupils. “He’s in pain.”

  Caleb nodded slowly. “Yeah, I hear that labor is the worst kind there is.”

  His breezy reply was deliberate. The alpha had commanded him to keep the expectant sire out of the newly-created whelping room at all costs. He figured the best way was to distract Liam by making himself a target. It might help everyone concerned if he and Liam ended up rolling around the back in their wolf form while poor Joey got on with the excruciating task of whelping his and Liam’s pup.

  A particularly loud cry caused them both to freeze for a moment before with a roar, Liam rammed into Caleb. Being a little bigger and a lot more cool-headed, Caleb absorbed the blow and held the line. Then, he used his size advantage to herd the other gamma across the hall and up against the opposite wall. Liam was no pushover, however. He resisted with admirable strength, partially shifting to the point where claws raked Caleb’s chest, shoulders and arms with frantic swipes.

  He took the attack and the pain that went with it. While he couldn’t truly imagine how hard it would be to hear your mate going through so much agony, a part of him flinched in empathy. It hadn’t been that long ago when he’d stood terrified with his own sire, listening with impotent fear to his dam’s labor cries. He remembered, too, the sorrow at learning that it had ended in bloody death for her and his baby brother. His sire had never recovered from the loss, and Caleb had chosen to bury the feelings as much as possible.

  Normally, he stayed far away when a pack member whelped. In the Rogue Pack, though, there was nowhere to go. Everyone had to stick to the daily rotation of chores, and damn him that Joey’s labor had started right as Caleb’s turn on the perimeter had ended. Lorcan had tasked him with this job of containing Liam, and what was he supposed to do—say no to the alpha? Why, because a whelping shifter brought up old pain? Fuck him, he was a gamma. Gammas didn’t flinch from anything.

  And, shit, he was still in his probation period with this pack. Even if he were the type of shifter to put himself first or buck orders, he didn’t want to do anything to ruin his chances at staying. He liked this pack and its alpha.

  His patience knew limits, however. Fisting Liam’s shirt, he hauled the other man in close and bared his own teeth. “You want to take this outside?”

  The gleam in Liam’s eyes was all the answer he needed. But, just as he was about to drag them both down the hall before they shifted and clawed up the nice walls, a squalling sound washed over them. Once again, they both froze. The lusty cry of a pup permeated the miasma of testosterone, and just like that, the fight fled from Liam. The wolf parts disappeared, leaving a man who sagged against Caleb’s chest.

  Feeling way out of his depth, Caleb awkwardly patted the new sire and ignored the suspicious wetness now seeping into his collar. He was much better at handling anger than softer emotions. He glanced desperately around the hallway, hoping that someone, anyone, would come to his rescue. Thankfully, the door to the room opened a few seconds later. Liam sent Caleb staggering a step or two in an effort to race over to where Andrea stood. The healer was smiling, so that was a good sign all was well. Relief coursed through Caleb, leaving him drained. He leaned against the wall.

  “Joey?” The one word, uttered by Liam in a choked voice, was accompanied by the gamma wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand.

  “He’s fine, Gamma,” the healer assured him. She stepped aside. “Come see for yourself and welcome your new son.”

  Liam’s face lit up. “It’s a boy?”

  Andrea nodded once. “And a big one at that. Poor Joey worked very hard pushing that pup through a very narrow channel, so you’ll need to be extra nice to your mate.”

  The gamma straightened and all traces of tears were gone. “I’d give him the world if I could.”

  An achy feeling pressed against Caleb’s chest. He rubbed at it absently as he watched Liam push the door all the way open and rush inside. Caleb caught a glimpse of an exhausted-looking Joey lounging against a mound of pillows. A naked pup lay on his chest, chubby legs already kicking. Liam slid to his knees beside the pallet and enveloped both mate and pup in his long arms.

  The family moment was too painful and intimate to watch. Caleb turned away to give them privacy. He tried not to envy Liam the joy he was experiencing and reminded himself that he could have all of that, too, if he only had the courage to seek it out. He didn’t want to dwell on that, however, so he didn’t. Instead, he straightened as Lorcan approached.

  Lorcan was the kind of alpha who took turning pups for the first time as the sacred duty it should be. It was only one of the reasons that Caleb liked and admired him. The big guy was already stripped naked to shift for the ceremony. There was no mistaking the authority and power he wielded as the alpha, yet Caleb had never seen or heard of him using it to do anything but protect his people.

  The alpha stopped in front of Caleb. “Looks like Liam gave you a hard time.”

  “Huh?” Caleb looked down at his own chest and saw the shredded remains of his T-shirt. Long, bloody gashes decorated his torso. Now that he saw them, they hurt like a bitch. “Oh, yeah, I guess so.” He gave his alpha a rueful smile. “They’re shallow. No big deal.”

  “Go take a run and see if you can mend them with a shift.” Putting a hand on Caleb’s shoulder, he added, “Thanks for doing such a good job.”

  Caleb squared his shoulders. “No need to thank me for doing my duty, sir.” In his old pack, a senior shifter thanking a junior one was unheard of. Even though he’d been on the receiving end of the alpha’s gratitude before, it still made him uncomfortable.

  Lorcan smiled. “We’ll just have to disagree on that point.” He jerked his chin. “Go. Take whatever time you need or want.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  He didn’t wait to see the alpha shift and join the new family. Instead, he hotfooted it down the hall. By the time he reached the kitchen, he’d already removed the tattered remains of his shirt. The kitchen sigmas were bustling to get dinner on the table. A couple of females gave him sly looks, which he ignored. Not that he didn’t appreciate the interest. It was simply a matter of not wanting to encourage any female in thinking he was mating material. Far better to stay aloof than to give them false hope.

  No one was on or near the back porch. So, he stripped all the way dow
n, folded his clothes and left them on one of the rocking chairs before leaping down the stairs. He shifted mid-jump, something he loved to do. It felt almost like flying. As soon as his massive paws hit the ground, he took off for the woods.

  Being a wolf was better than being a human in almost every way. Sure, he lost a little bit of sight, but made up for it in smell and hearing. Everything about him felt more alive and more connected to the world around him. His strength magnified and the few aches and pains he’d felt from his tussle with Liam disappeared. At the same time, his human brain still worked, enough for him to give a passing thought to how it wouldn’t take much for him to turn feral. If he somehow failed the Rogue Pack’s probation period, he knew he’d be fine with losing himself forever in the wild. As he raced past the perimeter of the longhouse, he picked up speed, pounding the ground with lengthening strides.

  Within a few seconds of entering the thicket of trees, he scented the intruder. The information overwhelmed his thoughts and kicked his more basic instincts into gear. A strange shifter had entered the pack lands, and as a gamma, his primary duty was to hunt it down and neutralize whatever threat the interloper presented. It took very little time to track the wolf to the pretty stream that gurgled nearby.

  Caleb broke out into the relatively clear area by the gently sloping bed, his teeth already bared and a growl rising up from his throat. He stopped at the sight of the strange shifter, and while he didn’t exactly relax, he did throttle back some. The small, black wolf braced at the edge of the water had frozen at his sudden approach. Water dripped off the intruder’s muzzle as he stared back at Caleb. The little omega—and even at the far distance between them, Caleb could tell it was one—cowered in the presence of a gamma. Knowing that he faced such a vulnerable shifter, Caleb dialed his aggression all the way back. Outsider or not, an omega, even a male one, was not much of a threat to pack safety.

  Caleb sat on his haunches, tongue lolling from his exertion, and watched the omega. The poor thing was scrawny, testament that he’d probably been on his own for a while. Omegas weren’t known for their hunting skills because they weren’t supposed to have to take care of themselves. Caleb instinctively tried to reassure him that there was no attack coming and even sniffed around to see if the omega had a pup nearby.

  He caught no other scent than the usual woodland creatures, so he concentrated on the omega. The strange shifter lowered his head and whined loud enough for even human ears to pick up. His fear of Caleb was obvious, which only served to further encourage Caleb to protect even though this wasn’t a pack member. But, when Caleb stood on all fours and took a slow step forward, the omega raised his head and darted away.

  Caleb took up the chase, although he was careful not to get too close because he wasn’t trying to scare the poor wolf. He hadn’t really formed a plan of what to do, except maybe he could coax this omega to come back with him. Lorcan had formed his unusual pack by picking up strays and castaways. Surely this omega fell into that category no matter why he was roaming around the pack lands.

  Unfortunately, fear must have driven the omega to run pell-mell out of the Rogue’s territory because before Caleb knew it, he’d followed the shifter right past the boundaries of Lorcan’s pack. And, right into Haldon’s. The neighboring pack’s alpha had marked his lands well. Liam had run Caleb around the edges of the two packs’ territories so that he would know the scent of what was effectively Lorcan’s father-in-law. Too bad there was bad blood between them even though Lorcan’s mate, Kyle, should have been a natural bridge between the packs. Caleb knew Haldon was trouble. As soon as he realized he’d followed the omega too far, he turned and raced back over the invisible line.

  He stopped, and panting, tracked the omega’s movements by sight and smell for as long as he could. Some part of him wanted to head back into the foreign lands and keep after the vulnerable shifter. But, his human brain shut down that idea immediately. He wouldn’t serve his new pack well if he instigated a conflict with its uneasy neighbor. Besides, maybe the omega belonged to Haldon. Just because he looked almost feral, didn’t mean he was. He might have been returning home. No need for Caleb to worry.

  Still, he stood there until he could no longer detect any sign of the little shifter. With a strange reluctance, he forced himself to turn away and head home.

  ****

  Run!

  Lingering fear from crossing paths with the gamma drove the omega to run as fast as his short legs could manage even with hunger sapping his energy. He didn’t even try to reason out his decisions. The human part of him receded more with each passing day. Soon, he’d be nothing other than a lone wolf, packless and existing only on instinct.

  Seth. I am Seth. Hard as it was, he tried to keep hold of his identity and the thinking part of his brain. He wasn’t ready to succumb to the inevitable.

  His strength flagging, Seth loped through the trees, panting and with his thoughts scattered. A sweet scent caught his attention. He stopped and sniffed before picking up speed again. The injured squirrel stood no chance even against a tired, little omega. When Seth clamped his teeth over the poor things neck, he couldn’t feel sorry for it—only elation that he was going to get to eat that day.

  His attention was so taken by the tearing and consumption of the tasty flesh, he didn’t notice the two shifters approaching. They were on him with a sudden attack that made him drop the meal and skitter away. He barely escaped their snapping teeth. Or, more likely they let him avoid the bites. As he cowered with his rear end backed against a tree, they stood growling at him with obvious glee.

  These strange shifters weren’t nearly as big as the gamma had been, but they exuded a menace that he hadn’t detected in the other. His human part screamed at him to turn and run. But, that would be the end of him for sure. Even at full strength, he could never outrun these larger, stronger males. So, like any weak shifter, he reacted the only way he knew how—by dropping his gaze and lowering his body. He exposed a bit of his neck and whined piteously.

  There was no mercy in these males, however. They paced back and forth, increasing their growling and occasionally lunging toward him. Each sudden movement sent Seth’s heart racing and made him cower and whine more. They toyed with him for a while before getting serious. The first time one sunk his teeth into Seth’s flesh, his capacity to think winked out completely. He became a mindless animal, twisting, rolling and leaping to avoid the attacks.

  Pain flared throughout his body, but instead of draining his will, it goaded him to survive. He would not die so easily in this unknown land. With a spurt of energy born from a desperate need to remain alive, he snapped at a nearby leg. His teeth hit fur, then bone, and the sound of outrage encouraged him to fight more. His attackers pulled away at his unexpected defensive move, giving him an opening.

  He took it. He retained enough reason to know this was his chance to escape, and for once, being small worked to his advantage. He darted through the small space between the larger shifters and took off. Again, fear drove him to flee on fast legs. And, once more he ran to unknown territory, to lands claimed by a pack not his own.

  Back to where the massive gamma patrolled and maybe waited for him. This time, it didn’t feel as if he headed into danger. It felt almost as if he ran toward safety.

  Chapter Two

  By the time Caleb returned to the longhouse, the celebration over the new birth was in full swing. He’d lingered out in the forest longer than he’d needed, looking to see if the omega would return. Although he’d known the poor thing would be too frightened to face him again, he worried about the omega venturing into unfriendly lands. If he was a lone shifter, he wouldn’t receive a nice welcome by Haldon’s pack, not based on everything Caleb had heard about it.

  He changed to human form on the back porch near where he’d left his clothing. Although shifters were hardly modest by the nature of their species, he’d always felt a little shy around the females in particular. He wanted at least his pants back on before
he re-entered the house. Of course, his shirt had been ripped into so much scrap material he remembered as he held it up. Best to leave it and ask a sigma later if it was worth even washing. Fortunately, shifting had taken care of the minor scratches the expectant sire had given him. Other than worry about the omega in the woods, Caleb was cheerful and excited to meet Liam and Joey’s new pup and have something to eat.

  The moment he opened the back door to the kitchen, a ball of tawny fur draped in tattered cloth tried to streak past him. He was fast for his size and managed to block the escaping pup. He scooped her up with one hand and a chuckle.

  “Going somewhere, Annie?” He held her at eye level. The thwarted pup frowned back at him. He swore she did, which only made him laugh.

  Will came rushing in as fast as his growing belly would allow. He huffed when he saw Caleb. “Oh, thanks. She’s been an absolute terror all evening.” The omega stood with hands on his hips and frowned at his daughter. “I think it’s all the excitement over Little Craig. And, she’s ruined her pretty dress, too. It’s getting impossible to put her in clothing that doesn’t tear when she shifts.”

  When Will reached out for the pup, Caleb tucked her under his arm instead. “I’ve got her, now worries. So, Little Craig, huh?”

  Will smiled tiredly. “Thanks, and yeah, Liam wanted to name his son after his best friend and you know Joey can’t deny his mate anything.”

  Just like Liam can’t deny his omega anything, Caleb thought. The devotion his pack members showed their respective mates was touching. He had seen precious little of it in his old pack and knew Will would say the same.

  “How are you feeling?” The question came out of nowhere, and it wasn’t as if Will’s health was any of his business. Not really. It was just because they’d grown up in the same pack and had come into the Rogue Pack together, he felt a certain responsibility for the boy.

  He knew the answer anyway. Unlike during his first pregnancy, Will glowed with good-health. Finn, the omega’s mate, took excellent care of him. Anyone with eyes could see that, as well as how much they loved each other and Annie. There had been a time when Caleb had thought he’d be required to mate with Will. He would have done the duty gladly, but there was no denying that the omega had ended up with someone who was truly destined for him.