“Lily,” I replied, setting the feeding bottle on the table and taking her hand.
She clasped mine between both of hers, then rubbed it affectionately.
“Oh Damon, she’s lovely.”
“I quite like her,” he said, peering at the spread laid out on the boards, but she let my hand go to slap his away.
“Your mate goes first. Your father taught you better than that.”
She moved and took her seat, introducing the other man, whose name was Tom, so she missed the way Damon’s face fell. His eyes hardened, and he straightened up in his chair before plastering back on his familiar smile.
“So how did you two meet? Your dad must be fit to burst,” Barb twittered on. “He’s been wanting you lot mated and squared away for donkey’s years.”
Damon did one thing right. He looked up then and found my eyes, holding my gaze as he waited for me to answer. He could’ve taken control of the narrative, concocted some tale that would have passed muster in front of what were obviously family friends, but he didn’t. He let me choose. I didn’t much want to, but I had answered so many questions about Evie and what the story was with her dad that I was well practised. I took a deep breath, smiled and then said, “It’s a bit of a long story.”
“Of course, it is,” Tom said in a rumble of a voice, then shot Damon a dark smile. “Did he buy you in an illicit omega market? Whisk you away from your parents in the dead of night, never to return?” He took a long sip of his coffee. “Never does anything simple, does Damon.”
“I’m not an omega,” I said, not trying to be blunt, but what else could I say? “But I’m the mother of Ben’s child. Well, the pack’s child now.” The three strangers went very still then, their eyes going wide. “I… met Ben when I was at uni and one thing led to another… I didn’t think I could get pregnant, but I did.”
“A cub…?” Barb said.
“Just the one. A little girl called Evie.” Unable to stop myself, I pulled out my phone and unlocked it and then showed them a photo.
“Oh, she’s just beautiful and the spit of Ben,” Barb said, her hand going to her chest. “But a beta? A girl child?”
“Lily is our mate,” Damon said, quietly but firmly. “Turns out the reason we could never find ‘the one’ was because she was sitting in Adelaide raising our child on her own. Ben didn’t know. None of us did. Lily thought we would have an omega by now…”
“And she could just imagine the kerfuffle that would create,” Barb said, shooting me an empathetic look. “We’re a territorial sort. We wouldn’t mean to, but whoever their omega was, she’d be ready to scratch your eyes out. Your darling girl too. I remember when that Blossom Fairweather started sniffing around here…”
“Now, Barb,” Jimmy said. “You’ll put the girl off her food. Dig in everyone. I’ve got the chef preparing something nice for the both of you.”
The charcuterie board was exemplary.I’ll say one thing about South Australia, the prevalence of German, Italian and other European migrant populations led to an A class foodie culture. There was cheese, salami and other cured meats, pickled vegetables and olives and crusty sourdough, that had an amazing tang, spread with thick yellow butter. But I’m not sure how much of it I actually tasted.
“So… is some random omega going to come and attack me on the streets one day?” I figured I’d lose nothing by asking. There were few people in the city I could quiz on these things, and the pack was hardly likely to be honest with me.
“No,” Damon said flatly, regarding me over a hunk of bread spread with pesto.
“If he says no, he means it,” Barb said. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Tom agreed.
“We are a territorial lot, but if Damon says you are his mate…” she said.
“She is.” He seemed to realise how sharp his reply was, eyeing the others at the table to see how they reacted before continuing more softly. “All of us feel it. Lily’s the one for us.”
“You’ve gotta know that’ll cause some problems with ol’ Dick,” Jimmy said, shooting me a sympathetic look. “That old prick… I’m fairly sure he’s held Campbelltown in a death grip since your dads died, just waiting for you to take over.”
“There’s no reason why she can’t,” Barb said, bristling. “A mate helps run the town, doesn’t say anywhere that it has to be an omega.” She smiled approvingly at me. “I’m sure Lily will make a fine mate to the pack.”
“Got nothing to do with suitability. God knows there’s been some bloody terrible omegas left to co-run a town. Blossom Fairweather for one…” Tom said, and Barb made a disgusted noise. His eyes settled on me with the kind of academic concern strangers have when they sense a disaster in the making. “It’s Richard you’ve got to talk around.”
“No, I don’t.” The words were out of my mouth before I even thought about it, my hands going to my lips when they did. “I’m sorry, I mean no disrespect. I know… pretty much nothing about alphas or omegas. I’ve lived in the city my whole life. I have a life there. A business, my daughter is in a nice school and I have family—”
“Take a breath, beta,” Damon said, then reached across the table.
His hand, when it took mine, felt like a fucking lifeline I hadn’t known I’d needed two seconds beforehand, and when he squeezed it, I squeezed back.Get me the fuck out of here, it said, along with,what the fuck have you dropped me into?But before I could articulate any of that, a waitress appeared with four plates laden down with food.
“Oh, this looks lovely, sweetheart,” Barb enthused. “You’ve got some new spring lamb that was slaughtered locally with a crust of cashew nut dukkah and gremolata…”