The Omega's Three Mates

Chapter Four

I woke up warm.

Too warm.

Like I’d fallen asleep wrapped in a blanket fresh from the dryer—except the blanket was breathing.

Consciousness dragged me up slowly, my brain sluggish, my body heavy with something deeper than sleep. The air smelled unfamiliar. Wood smoke, pine, something sharper underneath. My fingers twitched against fabric—soft, expensive, definitely not my sheets.

My stomach dropped.

My eyes snapped open.

The first thing I saw was skin. Bare skin. A broad chest inches from my face, rising and falling in slow, steady rhythm. I wasn’t just near it—I was pressed against it, my cheek resting over a heartbeat that wasn’t mine.

The second thing I felt was the weight behind me.

Another body.

Pinned. I was pinned between them.

Panic hit like a live wire. I wrenched back, but an arm slung lazily over my waist tightened reflexively, like I was a pillow someone wasn’t ready to give up.

Oh, hell no.

"Nope," I croaked, twisting hard.

The arm let me go instantly. Not in surprise. Not in alarm. Just… deliberately. Like they’d been waiting for me to try.

I scrambled backward so fast I nearly fell off the edge of the massive bed, heart hammering. Cold air rushed in where warmth had been, but my body still felt them—the heat, the weight, the solid press of muscle that had caged me in.

Two sets of pale, glacial eyes watched me from the other side of the bed.

Thing 1 and Thing 2.

That was what I was calling them until further notice. I didn’t know their names, and I did not care.

Thing 1—dark-haired, sharp-boned, unreadable—sat up slowly, moving like someone who never wasted energy. Controlled. Cold. His brother, lounging beside him, was the opposite—all loose-limbed confidence and easy charm, stretching like he’d just had the best sleep of his life.

I had never hated anyone faster.

"Why the f**k was I sleeping between you two?" My voice came out raw, my throat thick.

Thing 2 smirked. "Because you needed us."

I wanted to punch him.

"Like hell I did."

Thing 1 sighed, rubbing his temple like I was already exhausting him. "You collapsed." His voice was even, almost detached. "You were tired and overwrought."

Those mutant dogs attacking us. These massive dudes bursting in and tearing them apart before standing in front of me naked, like conquering heroes. And they both looked at me like they wanted to eat me alive.

And now here I was, trapped in a room with both of them.

"Where the hell am I?" I demanded, my hands curling into fists. "What the hell is going on? I don't understand any of this!"

Thing 1’s expression didn’t change. "You will."

Rage flared. "Where’s Richard?"

A beat of silence.

Thing 1’s gaze darkened slightly. "Why?"

"Because I’m going to kill him."

That got a reaction.

Thing 2 let out a low, amused hum. "Oh, I like her."

Thing 1 didn’t even blink. "You’re angry," he said. "Because he left."

"Because he abandoned us." The words came sharp, seething. "Me and my mom. He ran off to find his real mate and left her to—"

My voice cracked.

My stomach clenched like I’d been punched.

Yesterday.

It had only been yesterday.

My mother—Vanessa—lowered into the earth while I stood there dry-eyed and hollow, numb from the inside out.

Gone.

Just gone.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, blinking hard. "Where is he?"

Thing 1 and Thing 2 exchanged a glance, something silent passing between them.

"Recovering," Thing 1 said.

My hands shook. "Recovering? He's not dead?"

Thing 2 tilted his head slightly. "You thought he’d die that easily?"

A sharp, sickening wave of wrongness rolled through me.

"I saw him bleed out." My voice wavered, but I didn’t care. "One of those… things ripped his throat out—"

"And you think that would kill him?"

The floor tilted.

I knew what he meant before he even said it.

Richard really wasn't dead. Not by luck. Not by chance.

Because their kind didn't die that easily.

Something in my chest cracked open, fury and grief rushing in all at once, my vision blurring. My mother was dead. Cold in the ground. Because Richard had left. Because she had spent years trying to keep me safe from something I hadn’t even known existed—

And he got to survive?

"Tell me where he is," I demanded, "or I swear to God—"

"You’ll what?" Thing 1 murmured, standing in one slow, smooth motion.

I stumbled back instinctively. Not because he moved fast. Because he didn’t. Because he was perfectly, patiently sure that I had nowhere to go.

"You’re not human, Savannah," he said, quiet and sure. "You never were."

The room pressed in.

The pendant around my neck burned, pulsing like a second heartbeat.

"I don’t know what the hell you think I am," I said through clenched teeth, "but I am not one of you."

Thing 1 and Thing 2 exchanged another glance.

Thing 1 exhaled slowly. "You will be."

A sharp, awful certainty settled into my bones.

This wasn’t over.

This wasn’t even close to over.

I did the only thing that made sense.

I ran.

Or—I tried.

The instant I lunged for the door, a blur of motion cut me off. One second, the path was clear—the next, Thing 1 was in front of me, standing so still it made my breath catch. Like he’d been there the whole time. Like I had never even had a chance.

"Move." My voice came out shaking with fury, not fear. I refused to let it be fear.

Thing 1 tilted his head slightly, assessing. "And where exactly do you think you’re going?"

"Anywhere but here."

Thing 2 chuckled behind me. "Brave," he mused, and I could hear the grin in his voice. "I like that."

I ignored him, kept my eyes locked on the one in front of me. "Get out of my way."

Thing 1 didn’t so much as blink. "No."

Rage burned through me, sharp and fast. "You can’t keep me here."

"We can." Thing 2, still behind me, still too close. "But we’d rather not."

My pulse pounded in my throat. "Then let me go."

Thing 1 exhaled, slow and measured. "We are trying to help you."

I laughed. Short, bitter, humorless. "Help me? You kidnapped me! I woke up in your damn bed like—"

I cut myself off. The memory of that—the warmth, the safety—was a betrayal I wasn’t ready to touch.

Thing 2 leaned against one of the heavy wooden beams, arms crossed. "You passed out, Omega. Your body gave out, and we brought you somewhere safe."

I latched onto that word like a live wire. "Do not call me that."

Thing 2 smirked. "Why not?"

"Because I don’t know what the hell it means," I snapped. "And I don’t want to."

Silence.

The air in the room shifted, like the weight of a storm pressing in before the first crack of thunder.

Thing 1’s expression stayed unreadable. "You don’t have a choice."

Cold anger settled deep in my ribs. "I always have a choice."

"Do you?" Thing 2’s voice was softer now, too smooth, too dangerous. "Your mother kept you human, Savannah. Lied to you. Hid you from what you are. Do you really think you can keep running from it forever?"

My chest ached. A wound barely a day old, raw and gaping.

My mother’s funeral—standing by the grave, dry-eyed, surrounded by people who didn’t know. Who had never known the truth. And I had thought—

I had thought she told me the truth.

My hands clenched. "She did what she had to do."

Thing 1 stepped closer. Not looming, not threatening—just there, like an inevitability. "And where did that leave you?"

My breath hitched.

"Alone," he said, quiet and certain. "Lost."

I hated him for saying it.

I hated that he was right.

My mother had spent her life running. Hiding. Keeping me in the dark because she thought it would protect me.

And now she was gone.

I swallowed hard, forcing steel into my spine. "I don’t need you."

Thing 2 tsked, shaking his head. "You’re still thinking like a human."

"I am human."

Thing 1’s eyes locked onto mine, sharp as a blade. "Not for long."

My stomach twisted, nausea curling at the edges of my ribs.

The pendant against my chest pulsed, burning cold, sending a sharp shock through my body. My breath stuttered, the world tilting sideways for a split second—

And then—

The door creaked open.

It eased inward, slow and deliberate, the heavy wood shifting on silent hinges. No sudden movements. No aggression. But the presence that stepped through it was felt before it was seen.

Richard.

Still alive.

I had imagined this moment a thousand ways—most of them ending with my hands around his throat. But now that he was here, standing in front of me, looking less like the bastard who abandoned us and more like something hunted, something that had barely survived…

I didn’t know what to do with the burning, violent thing clawing at my ribs.

His storm-grey eyes swept the room once before locking onto mine. "Savannah."

I saw the flicker of pain when he said my name. Like it cost him something. Good.

I folded my arms, fingers digging into my skin. "You don’t get to say my name."

A muscle in his jaw ticked, but he didn’t argue.

He didn’t look at the twins—not at first. Not directly. But I felt the shift in the air, the careful tension in his body, the deliberate way he held himself. He wasn’t afraid. No, Richard didn’t do afraid. But he was aware.

He had to be.

Because no matter how much of a reckless, selfish bastard he was, he wasn’t stupid. He couldn’t just barge in here. Not when this wasn’t his house. Not when he was clearly outranked by these dudes.

He took a slow breath. Then, finally, he did what he had to.

He inclined his head.

It wasn’t deep enough to be a full bow, but it was enough. A gesture of respect, of acknowledgment. Because Richard, for all his arrogance, was inferior to them. And the two men standing on either side of me—these two glacier-eyed nightmares—were something else entirely.

His voice was careful. Controlled. "My Alphas."

I stiffened.

My what?

I looked between Richard and the twins, something ice-cold slithering into my stomach.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 watched him with unreadable expressions. If they were pleased with his deference, they didn’t show it.

Thing 1, of course, was the first to break the silence. "Richard." His voice was smooth, even. A single name, no warmth, no inflection. Just an acknowledgment that he existed.

Thing 2 smiled—that slow, knowing smile that made me want to break something. "So formal," he murmured, lounging against the nearest carved beam. "What do you want, Richard?"

"Her." Richard’s fingers twitched. "She is my daughter."

Thing 1 barely reacted. "And yet, you left her."

A flash of something in Richard’s eyes. Regret? Guilt? I didn’t care.

"I had to. Her mother wasn't my true mate. She--"

My vision blurred, rage and grief warring for space in my chest. "You abandoned her, old man. " The rising fury within me burned my throat. "She’s in the ground. Because of you."

His breath hitched. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, but I felt it.

He swallowed, shifting his stance—but not toward me. Toward them.

"She does not belong to you." His voice was steady, but there was something underneath it. Something dangerous. "Vanessa did not raise her to be Pack."

Thing 2 made a quiet, amused noise. "That was her first mistake."

Richard’s shoulders stiffened. "I did not come here to fight."

"Good." Thing 1’s voice was ice. "You’d lose."

Richard held his ground. His body stayed still, his breathing even, but I felt the tension threading through him. The instinct to challenge, to defy. He forced it down.

"You have my respect," he said carefully, "but I will not let you force this on her."

Thing 1 watched him for a long, weighted moment. "It isn’t up to you."

My pendant burned.

Something heavy pressed against my ribs, my pulse skipping like a live wire. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I could feel it—the slow, inevitable pull of something vast and ancient pressing down on me from all sides.

And the worst part?

Some part of me wanted to give in.

I clenched my fists. "I don’t belong to anyone."

Richard’s head snapped toward me. "Savannah—"

"No." My voice wavered, but I didn’t back down. "You don’t get to play protective father now. Not after you abandoned us. Not after Mom—"

I choked. Swallowed. Forced myself to breathe.

"She never told me the truth." The words came out bitter. "Because of you."

Richard’s expression flickered. "I had to stay away. I couldn't betray--" His gaze cut to the twins, something furious lurking behind it. "I came for you because you were no longer safe. As an unmated omega, you would have been claimed..."

Silence.

The world shifted under my feet.

My stomach twisted. "Claimed—?"

Thing 2 hummed thoughtfully. "Now that’s a bit dramatic."

Thing 1 said nothing. Just watched.

Richard turned to them fully now, his composure slipping, his voice rough. "She is not ready for this."

Thing 1 finally spoke, cold and final. "She will be."

The weight in the air pressed harder, thick and suffocating.

I didn’t want to be here.

But standing between Richard and the twins, caught in the pull of something I didn’t understand—

I had no idea where else I could be.