Chapter Two

That weightless feeling lasted all of two seconds before a hand gripped the front of my jacket, jerking me forward. The movement caused my pack to slip off my shoulders, making the freefall my body had been promised. 

            Leo’s teeth gritted as he pulled me up over the edge, grasping any part of me he could reach to get a better grip. When I made it over the edge and onto the safety of flat land, my chest heaved with what very well could have been the end. 

            “You good, Micah?” Anders asked, over the pattering of the rain. 

            I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Staggering to my feet, I glanced over the edge. I could have died. I almostdied. My eyes trailed up to the male who watched me closely. Leo’s gaze was piercing, peeling every layer of my skin until he saw everything underneath. 

            “Thank you,” I told him quietly, not even sure he’d hear me over the pouring rain. But he nodded once, letting me know he either heard me or read my lips. 

            “We’ll go back for your pack when the storm clears up,” Anders said after glancing over the edge. “For now, let’s keep moving.”

            Not sure when he became our defacto leader, but I nodded and followed anyway. Seemed like the path of least resistance. And if Leo was fine with it, then I wouldn’t have a chance to protest anyway.

            The cold was biting through my clothes, despite the thermals underneath my uniform. We trudged forward, thankfully avoiding any more of the treacherous paths. It took about an hour or so of travel before we finally saw a dark little shack in the distance. A breath of relief washed out of me, sagging my shoulders, and providing just a bit more adrenaline to make it to our destination now that it was finally in sight. 

            The feeling must have been collective because our pace picked up drastically. When we made it to the tiny cabin, it was clear it needed a lot more than a bit of love. After shooing away some critters that made their home in the abandoned structure, I immediately went to work and got a fire going in the mini hearth. There wasn’t a lot of wood stocked inside so we’d have to be strategic with how much we used until it dried out outside. 

            There was a single bedroom with a large bed and threadbare blankets and sheets, clearly eaten by some pests. The bathroom was outside, if one could even call it that. It was vintage, to say the least, just a hole in the ground for waste. The kitchen was a bit more workable. A woodburning stove and plenty of cabinets for storage. 

            We’d have to build quite a lot to survive for the month, but the bones were good. That’s a plus at least. 

            I pulled off my jacket and the rest of my clothes, the others doing the same. We laid them out around the fire to dry. The others still had their blankets from their packs. I went to the bedroom to pull the blanket off the bed, not caring that I was baring my ass to the world. 

            When I came back into the living room, if one could even call it that, Leo was there, in all his naked glory, holding his hand out. I frowned at him. 

            “What?” I asked, about to pull the blanket around me. 

            He jerked his head toward the ratty blanket. Confused, I handed it to him. He held his own pristine blanket to me. Dazed, I grabbed it, then watched as he wrapped the ratty, tattered cloth around his shoulders and padded over to the fire where Anders sat. 

            I joined them, sitting gingerly, ignoring all the aches and pains. 

            “You don’t have to do that you know. I was fine with that blanket,” I pointed out. 

            Leo glanced at me briefly, tawny skin glowing against the fire, giving me a glimpse of those faint freckles that spanned across his nose and cheeks.

            Anders glanced between us both, blue eyes nearly glowing in the dim light, before he sighed. 

            “We’ll dig for some clay tomorrow while the earth is still soft, see if we can patch up and insulate the cabin and set some traps. We’ll need to store some fat if we want to survive the colder nights. This fire won’t be enough to heat the whole cabin.”

            I nodded, grabbing the stick to poke the fire a bit. The logs popped in response, showering the air with little sparks. 

            Anders stood, wrapping his blanket securely around his waist before jerking his head at Leo. “Give me a hand,” he commanded. 

            Leo glanced at him, then me, before getting up and tying his own blanket around his waist. I watched the pair disappear into the bedroom before lugging out the lumpy-looking mattress. I backed out of the way as they laid it down on the ground in front of the fire, but far enough that it wouldn’t catch on the sparks that periodically sprayed from the rotting wood.

            There weren’t any pillows, nor any sheets, but it was better than the hardwood floor. It’d be a tight fit but the three of us would likely be able to fit on it. Normally, I wouldn’t even think about it, but with how the temperature was quickly dropping, we needed to preserve heat. And the fire wouldn’t continue all night. 

            Slowly, both Alphas unwrapped their blankets and laid down on the mattress, both looking up at me expectantly. I crossed my arms and raised a brow at them, seeing as they left a space right in between them.

            Anders gave an exasperated sigh, “Just get in, Micah.”

Defeated, I unwrapped my own blanket, ignoring the intense stares, and crawled in between them both. Together, they draped both of their blankets over me and slid in close. 

Sandwiched in between two Alphas wasn’t actually all that bad. They were warm and solid, and something deep within me found comfort in their embrace. Maybe it was that animal instinct, the one I kept fighting. I could blame it all on that.

Hands, large and callused, slid around my waist, tugging me into warmth from behind. I shivered, more so when lips grazed the back of my neck. Dangerous territory. Especially when my mating gland throbbed in response. 

Leo didn’t do anything more than that, but his hold on me was unbreakable. I was about to protest until Anders’s bright blue eyes filled my vision, one of his legs tossed over mine and arm finding purchase on my hip until I was well and truly cocooned by the two males. Especially when Anders slid his arm under my head so I rested on it instead of the mattress.

“Sleep, Micah,” he murmured. 

“Who died and put you in charge?” I grumbled. 

“You want to step in?” he challenged. Though it was an empty threat, we both knew they wouldn’t listen to me. 

I rolled my eyes. At least I was comfortable and warm. Though sleep may prove impossible. With the way Leo’s naked body cupped me from behind and Anders’s gentle sweep of his fingers over my hip bone, I had to focus on not making this weird. Not letting my body respond the way it wanted to. 

What was the point of mixing the Omegas with the Alphas on these missions anyway? It wasn’t as if the Alphas let the Omegas do anything. Were we just there for comfort? To ease their instincts? Was that our only job? Aside from baby making of course. 

I didn’t understand the government, couldn’t. And sometimes, I feel like I never will.

***

            I understand that in the morning, there are some functions of the body that we cannot control. However, waking up with a huge, hard cock poking me in the ass and in the thigh was a bit much.

            I was sweltering under the cage of bodies that felt more like furnaces. The fire had long since died, but even raging, it had nothing on the heat I now faced. Squirming, I tried to detangle myself from the nest of limbs, but that only resulted in grunts of protest and tightening arms. 

            “Let me up!” I groaned when it became clear that I wasn’t going to get out of this without their cooperation.

            Anders’s face was buried in my chest, deep breaths fanning across my skin, while Leo’s face was stuffed into my neck, breaths even with sleep. 

            Neither had budged with my complaint. 

            “Fine, if you want me to piss all over you, I’ll do it. But we’ll end up sleeping on the floor for the rest of the month.”

            Anders groaned, finally untangling himself from the mass and letting me breathe. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes before glaring at me. 

            “You really know how to ruin a good morning.”

            “Yeah well, I gotta pee. No one told you to hold me hostage,” I snapped. Then shimmied out of Leo’s grip only to be dragged back against him. 

            “Jesus fucking Christ, Leo! What the hell?” I growled, swatting at the Alpha behind me. He ignored the jabs, stuffing his face back into my neck. 

            “Leo,” Anders warned. 

            Reluctantly, Leo backed off. I hurried out of the bed, scrambling up and away before they got any ideas to grab me again. 

            Glaring at the two Alphas whose eyes simply traveled up my naked form appreciatively, I huffed and turned out of the cabin. 

            After relieving myself in the “bathroom”, I came back inside only to see both Alphas pulling on their clothes. I walked over to my own, grateful that they were dry now, before tugging them on.

            “We can look for a water source to fill the reserve with so we can the sink and shower working when we go back for Micah’s pack,” Anders said, sliding on his shirt. 

            A shower would be really nice. Even if it was cold. It would be even better once I had my soaps. 

            Once we were all dressed, we set out to trace our steps back to the cliff. With it being light out, it was a bit easier to take in our surroundings, and with me not having a heavy pack to carry, it was even faster to move.

            It took about an hour to get to the cliff’s edge. The drop was too far down to see if my pack was there, but Anders swears this is where we climbed up. He wasn’t usually wrong, so I took his word for it.

            “We should find another way down,” he said eyeing the slick edges of the rocks. It would be way too dangerous to climb down now. I still don’t know how we even managed when it was dark and pouring rain. 

            The detour down the cliff’s edge was long and took a good portion of the day, but when we got to the spot, I was a bit relieved. 

            However, that relief was short-lived when my pack was nowhere to be found.