Chapter 6

Garrick

I’d ever had an omega affect me this way before. His scent surrounded me like a warm blanket that I didn’t want to crawl out of.

I hadn’t put a whole lot of thought into what sort of omega I’d want to have as my Alpha Mate. But right now, if I had to draw a picture, it would be the omega currently standing in the kitchen, doing the dishes as he stared out the window. He was just so incredibly cute—shy, innocent, and happy despite his circumstances. And even with the small bit of fear he held for his future, he was optimistic, bright-eyed.

“Feels weird to sit around, you know? I’m not used to not being productive,” he said.

I nodded. “I’ll be honest, I’m not either.”

He dried off his hands after cleaning the last dish. “I can’t believe how much snow is coming down.” He stood on his tiptoes to gaze out the window. It made the muscles in his ass flex and strain against the thin fabric of his pants.

“Me neither,” I replied. Thankfully, we’d piled up a lot of wood on the porch and even more inside the house. With the weather like this, I didn’t dare take a cold shower, but I suppose a roll in the snow might help to calm the desires that were raging through me.

“Have you looked through any of the closets?” I asked. “We might want to see what sort of things we have on hand in case the snow gets real bad. There might be games or something to pass the time.” Something that would distract me from how incredibly good he smelled.

He bit his lip. “No, I didn’t do any looking around. We have plenty of food, that’s for sure.”

I chuckled. Between the food he had, the food that was already here, and the stuff I’d brought, we definitely wouldn’t starve. “If nothing else, we should make sure we have blankets, right?”

“Right,” he agreed.

I slipped past him to take a look at the closet to the left of the refrigerator.

His brow furrowed. “Oh, I hadn’t even seen that there.”

It was tucked into an odd place, and if you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t find it. I’d only noticed because, when I was getting the wood, I saw that there was obviously more to the house than it seemed from the inside. The door was slightly stuck, but I managed to pull it open.

He was right behind me, peeking over my shoulder. He had to get on his tiptoes to see that as well. His glasses were perched high on his nose. He tended to wrinkle his nose and push his glasses up when he was concentrating on something.

“Anything interesting?” he asked.

Clearly, he was getting more comfortable with me, and I loved that. I wanted him to be at ease, even if—I reminded myself—it didn’t really matter. After this week, I wouldn’t see him again. Though I could at least put in a good word with some of the local packs where he could seek refuge. Anything would be better than the pack that he had come from.

If he had any interest, I could take him back to my pack and he could make a home there. We welcomed new members, and he would be no different. Of course that meant I’d have him around a lot… Could I handle that?

He leaned in, and his scent hit my nostrils in full force—warm and enticing. My dick took notice.

“Oh, wow, it’s Christmas!” he said, his voice soft with awe.

I shook my head, trying to focus on the closet I was standing in front of. Inside were two totes stacked on top of each other, and on top of them was a pile of garland and other bright, colorful decorations in reds, greens, silvers, and blues. I didn’t recognize everything, but apparently, Noel did.

“I bet there’s enough stuff in here to decorate the whole place!” he exclaimed, and then he paused, spotting something behind the totes. “Look there’s more behind it! And a few games, like you thought.”

Noel brushed past me, stepping into the narrow closet with eager anticipation.

“Let’s get it all out and see what we’re working with,” I said.

To my surprise, he looked up at me, his eyes hopeful. “For real? You don’t mind?”

I shrugged. “We have nothing better to do. We can always put it all away before we leave.”

He shook his head, starting to say, “That’s just silly. We don’t need to—”

I placed a hand on his shoulder, and his words stopped.

“Let’s decorate for Christmas, Noel.”

His lips parted, and his tongue darted out to brush over his bottom lip. “Okay,” he whispered. “Let’s do it.”

You would have thought I hung the moon the way he looked at me with adoration. All I’d done was agree to put up some decorations. It wasn’t even a hardship. After all, we literally had nothing better to do. Yet, even if I was busy, I would have stopped everything just to see the smile on Noel’s face when I agreed to decorate for the holidays.

Noel grabbed the loose decorations stacked on top of the totes, while I hefted the tote itself. We piled everything into the living room. I managed to lift the plastic snowman and Santa decoration that had been shoved behind the totes. When Noel opened the first tote, he found lights, ornaments, and more garland.

“Oh, if only we had a real tree!” he murmured, a wistful tone in his voice.

I snuck a glance out the window, then turned to him. “Give me five minutes.” The snow was coming down, but as long as I didn’t go far, it would still be safe for me to go outside and find a tree.

If someone had told me that I’d be chopping down a Christmas tree today, I would have thought they were crazy. I was supposed to be relaxing, maybe brainstorming ideas for changes I might make as Alpha. But today, all I cared about was doing whatever it took to make this omega smile. And that, apparently, meant cutting down a tree so that the two of us could decorate it together.

The axe from the woodshed was dull, but in the end, it got the job done. The thick snow made it difficult to find the base of the tree, so it wasn’t a clean cut. I was able to locate a hack saw in order to make the bottom of the tree not crooked. There was nothing there to shake out the bugs or anything else out of the tree, so it was very likely that we were bringing in more than just a tree for the week. I ended up with more than one splinter, sap covered my hands and even got in my hair. But seeing the smile on Noel’s face when I carried the thing in the door made it all worth it.

He bounced on his toes and put his hands to his cheeks, his face radiating happiness and glee. “It’s perfect, Garrick!”

It was, because he was here.