And so it started. 

            After the morning…situation or whatever that was, the three of us had cleaned up in silence. I couldn’t even look at them and something about being exposed in front of them, even though I hadn’t cared before and they had quite literally seen everything, I found myself tugging the blanket around myself, hiding my nudity. 

            Maybe I was trying to hide from the truth that had just come screaming at me without warning. 

            We were all alone out here. I was all alone out here with two unmated Alphas and not fucking suppressants. It’s only a matter of time before instincts kick in. I thought them taking theirs would be enough, and I had seen them taking it so that could be it, but something else was happening between us. We couldn’t deny it anymore. 

            I wasn’t foolish enough to believe this silence, this poor attempt at continuing on like nothing happened would be enough to patch up the gaping hole we had just ripped open in our dynamic. But I wanted to stay in the delusion as long as possibile. I mean who wants to jump headfirst into that shit show?

            But then the gifts started appearing. Offerings. 

            I had been working on the walls, filling in the gaps with clay while they went off to refill the water supply and check the traps Leo had set. When taking my first break, I noticed a small pile of rations near my stuff in the bedroom. Thinking nothing of it, at least not as much as I should have, I ate one of the rations and got back to work.

            A little later, I noticed an assortment of flowers lying right next to the pile of rations, with little feathers. Then there were pretty stones, you know, the types with cool designs that were likely tumbled in a flowing stream of water for a  really long time?

            When it escalated to a bowl of wild berries and fresh kills, I had to draw the line. 

            Rushing out of the cabin, I caught Leo by the arm on his way back out into the trees. 

            “You giving me roadkill now? What is this? Some kind of barbaric mating ritual? What the fuck man?” I hissed. 

            Leo’s eyes were something else in the afternoon sun. The stare was animalistic, pupils near slits as they focused wholly on me. But I wasn’t afraid of him. Why? Because this dumbass was too busy trying to woo me to hurt me. All his work would have been for nothing. 

            “You need to keep your strength up,” he grunted, before turning back to the trees. 

            “Bullshit! You and Anders are giving me all your kills. I don’t need your damn offerings. I can feed myself. I can hunt myself. I had the same fucking training as the both of you! If it’s not split evenly between us, I’m not fucking eating it!”

            “Don’t be stupid, Micah,” Anders chided, appearing from behind. Shirtless and smudged with dirt and sweat, he leaned against the tree opposite us, arms folded and ankles crossed casually. 

            “I’m being stupid? How the fuck is giving one person more food than anyone can eat while starving yourselfsmart?” I barked back. 

            Anders’s eyes narrowed but the corner of his lips remained uptilted. 

            “You’ll need your strength. Or have you forgotten that your heat is coming?” His dark brow rose in challenge and I absolutely fucking hated it. 

            “I don’t need any special treatment. I can handle it on my own. Focus on keeping yourselves fed and I’ll go hunting myself.” I pushed past Leo heading into the forest myself, but a hand locked around my bicep shoving me back into the tree. Leo’s face was all I could see, eating up my entire field of vision.

            “No,” he growled. 

            No?

            “No?” I repeated incredulously. “You think you have the right to tell me no?” 

            Sliding my gaze from one Alpha to the next, I wanted to laugh. Not the humorous kind either. The utterly annoyed and “you got me fucked up” kind. 

            Who the hell did they think they were? Neither one of them had any right to act like my Alpha. I didn’t claim either one of them. 

            “Look here, you fucking knotbrains. I’m not your typical Omega. I wish I was, but I’m not. I have no desire whatsoever to be protected or cared for by another when I’ve spent the past twenty-five years doing it by myself just fine. So whatever expectations you have of me, let it go cause it aint happening. Got it?” 

            “Why do you assume we have expectations? We haven’t asked anything of you, we just want to give you things. Is that so wrong?” Anders challenged.

            “No expectations? You won’t even let me fucking hunt for my own food. That’s an expectation, moron. And don’t think I don’t know you’re assuming I’ll let you near me when my heat comes. I’ll be damned if I spread my legs for you assholes.”

            “Again,” Anders added with a mischievous smirk.

            My head jerked to the side as my brows furrowed in challenge. “Excuse me?”

            Anders pushed off the tree and took a few steps toward us where Leo still had me pinned to the tree. 

            “Again. Spread your again. Or have you already forgotten this morning?” 

            Fury burned through me, mixed with a tinge of shame I’d never admit. I shoved at Leo who didn’t budge an inch, ready to deck the smug bastard behind him right in his fucking throat. 

            “This is why I can’t stand fucking Alphas, you’re all the same. You masquerade your selfishness by pretending to care for Omegas when all you’re after is sating your own needs. Well guess what? I’m not fucking interested.”

            Leo finally slid away from me, allowing me the space to move away from the tree but my path back to the cabin was immediately blocked by Anders. 

            “I think it’s you who is pretending. You think we don’t know you want us? Every Omega craves an Alpha, just as we all crave that balance. You are different, I’ll give you that, but I don’t buy it for one second that you’re not interested. You want to be cared for. You’re just waiting,” he murmured, voice dropping with each word until it curved around the shell of my ear despite the distance between us. 

            “Waiting for what?” I whispered, unsure of this tension building yet still unable to leave the challenge of his words on the table. What exactly did this bastard think he knew?

            Anders leaned in close, lips grazing my ear in a way that drew a gasp involuntarily from my lips and raised the hair on my arms. 

            “For someone to care for you the way you need them to,” he murmured. And then he backed away and disappeared as if he had never been there to begin with.

            I glared at the empty space where he stood before whirling on Leo, ready to give him the combined anger I held and hadn’t been able to unleash, but something in his gaze stopped me. 

            It was complicated and intricate with interwoven layers of sadness, regret, and defeat. 

            I shouldn’t have felt bad for making him feel that way. I didn’t bear any of the responsibility, and yet, I couldn’t stop myself from caring. Couldn’t stop the twinge in my gut or the urge to hold him in comfort. 

            Fucking hormones. They were the worst close to heat. It made me want in ways that were more than sexual. More than the need to procreate. Something deeper, something forbidden rose from a forced slumber. Something too emotional for me to handle. 

            And that’s how I knew I was a broken Omega. I shouldn’t shy away from emotions, I was supposed to ride them, evoke them, understand them, and influence them. I couldn’t do any of that. I was too afraid. Too afraid of the idea that I couldn’t handle everything inside me and no one else would be able to either. 

            “We could do it, you know,” Leo said suddenly, breaking me free of the trance that nearly had me spiraling out of control. 

            “Do what?” 

            “Care for you the way you need. But…you have to let us.” 

            He watched me for a few moments longer before lumbering off into the trees once again, leaving me standing there alone and wondering what the hell just happened.