First Time (Pure Omega Love Book 1) Page 2

  However, if he said something about the stranger, Michael would have that cloud hanging over his head the whole entire time. No, more than that, he might even refuse to leave and that would ruin everything. And while no one would blame Dell for being the bearer of the news, Dell would blame himself.

  “Who’s going to be in charge when you leave?” That was what he said instead, reaching desperately for another topic so it wouldn’t seem like he was hiding something. After all, he had seen the omega run off into the distance as if he wouldn’t be returning anytime soon. There really was no reason to bring it up now.

  Michael’s smile faded slightly. Though it didn’t really leave his face, his eyes were certainly frowning. “That would be Jefferson.”

  Jefferson was the deputy, so that was only natural. Of course, there was some contention about who the deputy should actually be. Much of the force believed that it should have been Dell. What they didn’t know was that, when offered the position, Dell turned it down. He hadn’t wanted the responsibility on his shoulders. Now, he sometimes regretted his refusal.

  “I see,” Dell said. “Have you told him that?”

  “Not yet. I was waiting until I left tomorrow. Meant to stop by the station on the way out. Though I’m sure he’s already figured that out on his own.”

  “And you’re sure it’s a good idea?”

  Michael tipped his head to one side. That was a habit of his that Dell hadn’t seen before. It must have come about during his relationship. “It’s not as if much can happen in a week. It’s not as if we live in Chicago or anything. There’s no crime in Eureka.”

  “Thanks to you.”

  “Thanks to all of us,” Michael growled. He looked over to the side, toward where Tim was being swarmed with people without his huge husband at his side to fend them off. “Are we done here then? I’d like to get back to Tim.”

  “Yes.” Dell nodded. “We’re done here. Here, take your daughter. I think Tim’d be pretty angry if you forgot about her.”

  Michael took his daughter and returned to his husband.

  Dell watched him go and shook his head slightly. Yes, they were done here. No reason to dig into it any further, although he felt that he might be doing a lot more perimeter patrols in the next few days. Just in case.

  Chapter 2

  The frightened omega collapsed on the shore of a lake so long and thin he would have mistaken it for a river if there was any sort of current at all. It was a placid thing instead, with waves that gently lapped against the sandy bank beneath his paws.

  Paws. Not hands.

  The little wolf shuddered and withdrew slightly from the water, though not before catching a glimpse of himself in the glass-smooth surface of the water. He was hideous. A monster. His eyes were like globes and his face was just a mash of fur and fangs. He was a thing that terrified women and ran through the nightmares of children.

  No, the creature thought confusedly. I’m not a wolf. I’m not. I don’t understand this. I’m a human.

  Panting now and not just from exhaustion, the wolf shifter struggled to recall his name. Ears flat against his skull, he wracked his brain for the word that had defined him for all 18 years of his life. The name that sent him spinning around and searching for a speaker even if it wasn’t he who was being addressed. That happened a lot when you had a pretty common name. But what was it?

  So damn hard to think when there was so much assaulting him from the outside. In this stupid nightmare body, he was aware of absolutely everything in a way that he just hadn’t been aware of things before. He hadn’t known that water had a smell, but this lake did. It smelled fresh and wet, the wetness somehow having a distinguishable essence. It smelled like water tasted. The grass crushed under his paws released fragrance up into the air with every step, to the point where he was almost afraid to move anymore. The pine trees littering the slopes leading down to the lake gave off a spicy smell; some were spicier than others, others had a tinge of sap and still more had a dusty edge. Was he scenting individual trees or the different species? Either option was frightening.

  And it wasn’t merely scent. He could hear everything all at once. The miniscule rustlings of ants trundling along somewhere, and the distant chirping of birds in one of those spicy pines. He heard the grass, the endless ocean of grass, every blade swaying in the breeze and brushing against its partners so that the sound was unceasingly outward and inward. Somewhere, tiny footsteps pushed against stones and sent them scattering. He heard each one land and could count them individually. Eight.

  And his eyesight was different. There weren’t as many colors as he was used to, but everything was clearer. When he looked in the direction of the rustling ants, he could easily pick up their black bodies amidst the dark soil and the shafts of grass blades.

  Shaking, the wolf plunged his head down and buried his face in the dirt and covered his eyes with his paws, flattening his ears against his skull. But now he was aware of the smell of the dirt, sun-warmed and fragrant, and somehow he knew it was a perfect mix and fertile. Any seed that landed in this spot would be well-fed and nourished greatly. He was aware of the smell of his own body, like a dog but wilder, with a tinge of fresh meat and blood and the scent of the wind in his fur. And he felt every muscle in his tightly corded, powerful body. He felt every individual hair on his pelt; every single damnable whisker. His tail was like an arm, another limb attached to the base of his spine that he could manipulate at will. It was maddening, all of it.

  It was enough to make him go insane.

  Somewhere nearby, perhaps half a mile away, but much too close for the omega’s comfort, a fox yapped. He knew foxes. They sulked in the shadows of the city where he used to live—though that name also escaped him—and emerged at dusk and just before dawn with malicious intent. They were rodent eaters; filthy things with grease-slimed pelts. And they had a nasty bite, or at least that was what he’d heard. He’d never been foolish enough to go poking at one when he saw it. Wild animals were to be given a wide berth. Any fool knew that.

  Oh, but now he was a wild animal, too.

  Everything suddenly became too much again. The omega shot to his paws and fell over himself in a tangle of limbs, still uncertain of his own speed and dexterity. A panicked sob deep in his throat burbled out of his mouth as a hellish bark, and he leaped up again and raced off as fast as he could. He was tired. So, so impossibly tired. He was hungry, tired, and thirsty.

  Why didn’t I get a drink from that lake while I was there?

  As he ran on and on, a confused swell of thoughts played in his mind. Humans couldn’t drink water from a lot of sources out in the wild because of bacteria, but animals did it all the time. Was he then capable of doing the same, or was he still too human? It was too confusing. Everything was confusing. He didn’t even know where he was.

  He thought of that city he’d ran into earlier. He thought perhaps if he stood somewhere where other humans were, he might remember how to not be a nightmare, but all it did was fill his nose with disgusting smells. The wolf in him—or the wolf whose body he inhabited?—had hated all the cars and the modern amenities, and he hadn’t been able to do anything but just keep running.

  And then he saw that other wolf…

  A shudder passed through his body even as he ran, making him stumble sideways into a tree trunk before regaining his balance. He had thought he was a nightmare? That other wolf was on an entirely different level! It was gigantic, so sinister and with dark markings staining its gray fur. It was twice his size, perhaps three times, and it had even started to chase him. Luckily, it wasn’t as fast as it was big and he had quickly left it behind.

  Now he wondered if he should have stayed. Perhaps the other wolf would know what to do. He just hadn’t been capable of thinking at the time…

  As the omega ran across a grassy plain in the shadow of mountains, dusk paled the vibrant blue of the sky.

  Corey, he finally recalled. My name is Corey.

  Chapter
3

  “Hey, Brightly.”

  Dell looked up from the paperwork he was working on while stationed at the front desk, his second favorite activity. Though no crime was ever observed by the humans of Eureka, the wolves often kept budding crimes from happening in secret. Weekly reports had to be filed by every single member of the force. No exceptions. That was just the way things were.

  “Hey, Jefferson,” Dell replied, looking at the deputy who stood in front of him. The Chief had just departed about half an hour ago and Dell had been waiting for this moment ever since. Jefferson was a power-hungry bastard and there was no doubt he was going to start enforcing rules he’d made up for just such an occasion as this.

  Jefferson grinned, but it wasn’t the prideful, menacing smile that Dell expected. He quickly mentally rearranged his expectations. There was still pride in that smile, but there was also a great deal of unease, uncertainty.

  Jefferson raked his hands through his flame-colored hair before dropping them back down at his sides. “You got a minute?”

  This is interesting.

  Dell pushed his paperwork to the side and rested his elbows on the desk. The Eureka Police Department was no big city building. They had one holding cell and little else but offices and a supply closet that would just have to double as an interrogation room if they ever needed one. With a single second of listening, he established that they were quite alone. All the other wolves would be out patrolling the streets, or else enjoying time with their families. “I think I can take a moment to talk to our acting Chief.”

  Jefferson’s grin twitched. “You bet you can. Listen, Brightly, I am fully aware that I am not a popular man.”

  “Is that so?” It was a safe reply, neither confirming nor denying what the other said.

  “It’s because I try harder than everyone else. I am the best and everyone knows it.” This little bit of self-encouragement had Jefferson puffing up his chest and squaring his shoulders as if he was about to jump into a fight. Dell said nothing. You didn’t tell a guy that he was the second choice for the job when you hired him, and you didn’t tell him that years later. There was no point in causing that kind of enmity.

  “However,” Jefferson continued, “I am also aware that I’m going to need support if anyone questions my decisions. That’s why I’m coming to you. You’re the strongest after Chief and myself, and I hear that you’re smart, too.”

  “You talk like we haven’t known each other since we were pups, Jeff.”

  Jefferson ignored that. “If anything happens, I need you to back me up, okay?”

  “What are we talking about here? What do you think is going to happen? Eureka is a safe place.” Dell ticked off points on his fingers. “We don’t have prostitution or illegal gambling or a drug trade, or gangs, or murder.”

  “But let me stop you right there,” Jefferson said. “That last one. Murder.”

  “What about it? You think just because the Chief is gone for a week, the city is going to degrade into some apocalyptic wasteland?”

  The moment he said the words, he saw from the blank look on Jefferson’s face that the other alpha didn’t really understand the specific meanings. Dumb bastard.

  “I think now is a perfect time for the panthers to attack.”

  That was a possibility he hadn’t considered. “We’ve lost one wolf. Well, two. That’s not significant enough to warrant calling it a breach in our defenses, Jeff.”

  “Maybe not, but these panthers, they’re smart. You know they’ve been watching us, since long before we realized it. They’re still watching us now. They have to be. They want revenge and people who want revenge don’t just change their minds overnight.” Jefferson raked his hands through his hair again, eyes wild and rimmed in white. “They know that Michael was our Chief. Our leader. With him gone, we are leaderless.”

  “You’re repeating yourself.”

  Once again, he was ignored. “We have no one to guide us, in their eyes. It makes perfect sense for them to want to attack, and as soon as possible. That’s why I need your support.”

  Crazy and stupid as Jefferson might be, he did have a point. An improbable point that was never going to reach fruition, but a point all the same. It was their job to ensure such things didn’t happen and that meant considering all the possibilities.

  Dell nodded. “Okay. I’ll back you up. I’m telling you though, there won’t be anything to worry about. The Chief is going to come back from his trip and it’ll be like nothing changed, because nothing will have changed. That’s how Eureka works. The only thing different from the frontier days is that we have cars now.”

  Jefferson’s broad shoulders relaxed slightly, and a wistful gleam entered his eyes. “The Chief is lucky.”

  Dell glanced at the clock, wondering if they’d been having this conversation for an eternity. He wanted to get back to his paperwork, to immerse himself in the pointless stack of it. “How so?”

  The other man curled his lip in disgust. “That’s right. I forgot. You’re the lone wolf, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question. “Not a family bone in your entire body.”

  “Someone has to be the lone wolf, just like someone has to be the leader of the pack. That’s just my place in life. Was there anything else you needed, Jeff? Or can I get back to work?”

  For the third time, Jefferson ignored him. His relaxed stance was gone, replaced with a sort of deep-seated contempt that drenched his entire being. Dell could smell it, taste it oozing from every pore. “Being the loner isn’t a good thing. You’re the laughing stock of the pack.”

  “You don’t have a mate either,” Dell pointed out.

  “Not for lack of trying.”

  That was true. They had grown up together, not quite friends, but never exactly enemies. The close proximity to one another didn’t allow for one to be entirely ignorant of the other’s life, so Dell had been able to watch every single one of Jefferson’s attempts to be mated. They were both 29 now, and Jefferson had long since exhausted all his options. No one, male or female, would deign to be with him and carry his children. No one wanted to commit themselves to him, finding him either boring or too intense. Apparently, in the past few years, he’d been making appeals to other packs in the area in his search for someone, anyone. As of yet there hadn’t been a single reply.

  “Maybe some people just weren’t meant to have a family,” Dell said. “I like kids but I don’t want to be tied down. I don’t want that kind of responsibility. Maybe you just weren’t meant for it, Jeff.”

  “Everyone is meant for it,” Jefferson replied. “It’s the continuation of the species. Everyone must participate. Even you. You’ll see.”

  Dell grunted. “Are we done here? I’ve got work to do.”

  “Fine.” Jefferson looked over toward the wall, apparently deep in thought. He turned back, and Dell raised his eyebrows. “But when someone else comes back, I want you to go out and patrol around the city. Spread out wide. Search for signs of an invasion.”

  “And my paperwork?”

  “A few sheets of paper aren’t going to save any lives.”

  And with that, Jefferson sauntered away. Dell picked up on a flash of his wolf as he went, a rust-red giant with rather long, silky fur. In the image, his beautiful tail curled up high over his back in a show of dominance. Then, he turned the corner and was gone.

  Dell returned to his paperwork, but the words swam on the page, swarming on the white like oddly elongated ants. He gave up and switched to doodling on a notepad, sketching out the face of that strange omega he’d seen. Quick, light strokes to define the silver, and heavy crosshatching to mark out the fine facial features. As he was scribbling in the darkness of the ears, the door to the station opened and in sauntered a beta wolf.

  “Hi, Dell. It’s a beautiful day outside.”

  “Is that so, Gavin?” Dell stood up and stretched, feeling his tense muscles limber up. Sitting all day made him feel as close to 30 as he actually was, which was why being at
the front desk was only his second favorite activity. “Lucky me, because our new Chief said I’m supposed to go out on a patrol as soon as someone else got back.”

  Gavin made a face while walking up to the desk. He was a handsome specimen; a prime example of both man and wolf. They’d had sex a few times in the past, before Gavin found himself a pretty little she-wolf to love. “That means I’m up front. Great. Hey, did you draw this?”

  Dell glanced down at the notepad, the omega’s face looking up at him. Without meaning to, he’d drawn the little thing with a calm, almost wise expression on his face. No terrified runner, but a beautiful creature. “I did. Terrible, right?”

  “No way.” Gavin traced the line of the wolf’s face, his finger following down the suggestion of a supple spine before reaching the end of the paper. “This is really good. I didn’t know you drew!”

  Dell shrugged. It wasn’t exactly something he was proud of, or wasn’t proud of. It was simply a fact of his being. “Thanks. I used to do it more often when I was a kid, but not so much these days. Our wonderful Chief and Overlord stopped by to talk to me so I lost my taste for paperwork. Doodled instead.”

  Gavin shook his head, looking a little awed. Dell wasn’t sure whether he liked that look or not. “This is more than just a doodle. You did this with one of our shitty pens? Wow, Dell. If I’d known you could do this before, I might not have broken up with you.”

  Dell laughed. There was no breaking-up to speak of. They were occasional lovers, not a bonded couple. “I’m glad you like it then. It really isn’t anything though. I’m not an artist.”

  “But you could be.”

  That was part of the reason they hadn’t grown closer together. Gavin pushed at things that should not be pushed.