Knot Your Damn Omega (Slate City Omegaverse)

Bergman’s was wild.

The nine-story department store had been around forever, almost taking up an entire city block. It also had a reputation for being exclusive and for the wealthy. All five of us knew Esme would be perfectly happy going somewhere else for the things we needed, but this trip wasn’t only about furnishing her bedroom.

It was about showing her she was worth everything,

We had more than enough money. I hadn’t lied to her. My family was nearly as wealthy as hers, and both Addison and I had healthy trust funds on top of our inheritance. We were lucky. When my parents passed I inherited a disgusting amount of money, which we’d used for the house, and continued to ensure all five of us could continue our careers without any pressure.

But even without that, we’d worked hard to get to where we were. Nautilus was a world renowned studio, and people traveled from everywhere to be tattooed by us. We were well aware of our status, though we tried to keep our lives as normal as we could.

Thankfully, being a tattoo artist didn’t come with the level of scrutiny Esme was used to.

But regardless, I agreed with Avery’s rule. Our little Omega wasn’t allowed to look at prices, and she wasn’t allowed to ask how much we’d spent at the end of it. It wasn’t about the number. We were taking care of her, and it didn’t matter what the cost was.

Bergman’s had agreed to usher us in the back, which would help a little. But the truth was the world would know about the courtship by the end of the day. The staff would do their best to head off any photographers, but they weren’t perfect, and it wasn’t really their job.

I tugged on Esme’s ponytail, currently woven through the back of her baseball cap she wore with sunglasses. She was still recognizable, but I recognized her need for armor.

She looked back at me and smiled before holding up her wrist. My heat gift was there. A simple bracelet with five beads which looked like nothing but silver. But they were little scent pods. All five of us had input our scent into one, so if she needed comfort or anything else, she could have our scent near her.

When I picked it up at Nest Inc. I wasn’t sure she’d like it. I was proven wrong when I gave it to her before we left the house. Her eyes turned glassy, and she jumped in an attempt to get her arms around my neck. The rest of them had found us making out against the front door.

Kade’s gift had been silky pajamas she wore last night in the nest since her bed wasn’t ready, and all of us slept in there with her. None of us were quite ready to let it go.

There was a service at the house right now cleaning the nest and the cushions from the heat without completely removing the scent marking on all the fabric.

Esme was fidgeting, her fingers tapping back and forth on her leg. So I scooped her hand up in mine and kissed the back of it. “You’re okay.”

“I know.” She didn’t sound like she did.

Kade looked over his shoulder. “Should have called Addison. She’s going to be furious we did this without her.”

I snorted. “She can be pissed all she likes. This isn’t about her.”

Esme squeezed my hand. “I like your sister.”

“I love my sister. But this is about the six of us. I’m sure she’ll corner you into another shopping trip soon enough.”

“So, where do we start?” Rylan asked. “This place is huge.”

Luke swiped on his phone. “Paint seems like a good place to start.”

“They have paint here?” Esme asked. “House paint?”

“We have everything here.” An imperious voice sounded in front of us, and a man in a suit appeared. “You must be Miss Williams.”

“That’s me.”

“I’m Mr. Syme, the manager. I spoke to your pack on the phone earlier.”

Luke stepped forward and offered a hand. Mr. Syme shook it. “Thank you for helping with discretion.”

The man nodded. “I can’t guarantee anything more.”

“We know.” I held out a hand. “But we still appreciate it. We’d also appreciate someone to take note of what we purchase. Especially while we’re in the furniture department. We expect to be purchasing quite a lot.”

He glanced between all of us, eyes lingering on Kade. “I’ll see what I can do.”

I gave Esme’s hand to Avery. “Why don’t you guys go to paint and get started? I want to arrange the delivery with Mr. Syme.”

Kade was smirking as they left, and Esme was looking back at me, worried as always.

The manager straightened after they disappeared. “You’re not our usual clientele,” he said. “I’m not sure I can justify excusing someone from their duties to tend you simply because your Omega has some fame.”

“That’s not why you’ll do it,” I said mildly, pulling out my wallet. The slick black card for the pack account got things done when everything else couldn’t. You couldn’t get one of these without… well, a lot.

“When I said we intend to spend a lot today, this is what I mean.” I held out the card to him and watched his eyes go wide. “Not only will we be furnishing our Omega’s suite, we will want immediate delivery, and people to paint the room when we leave here today. I’m sure you can make that happen, right?”

He nodded. “Absolutely, I can. Mr.?”

“Mr. Gray.” I handed him the card and let him see it. “Do you need anything else to give us the service we need?”

“Ah, no. Thank you.” He handed the card back to me. “And my apologies.”

“Accepted. With a note that perhaps you shouldn’t judge your clients based on appearance.”

He looked appropriately chastised, and I smothered my smile as I walked past him to go after my pack. I turned back to him at the last second. “Oh, and Mr. Syme?” He was already typing on his phone. “Yes, Mr. Gray?”

“Miss Williams is not to be told the cost of anything, nor the total of what we spend here today. Even if she asks. Is that clear?”

“It is.”

“Good. We’ll be in the paint department.”

I almost wished I’d had Esme stay to see it because it was so satisfying, but humiliating the guy wasn’t going to get him on our good side. As it was, he was embarrassed enough and would probably spend the day making sure we had a good experience. Nothing else was necessary.

“Is wallpaper weird now?” Esme asked no one as I entered the small section of the floor dedicated to paints and decorations. “Because this is pretty.”

Her fingers were on a pale gray wallpaper covered in metallic silver trees. I touched her on the shoulder to let her know I was back. “It’s very pretty. And no, I don’t think it’s weird.”

“There are too many colors here,” she said. “I’ll never be able to choose. We’ll be in this section for hours.”

“Okay,” Luke said. “Forget looking at what’s here. If you could do whatever you wanted in the room, what would you do?”

Esme thought, biting her lip. I loved that little movement. It was entirely unconscious and told me she was actually considering his question. “Hold that thought.”

She pulled a sample of the metallic tree wallpaper and put it on the island in the center of the space and then went hunting. She pulled swatches from the gradient color racks and came back to us, spreading them alongside the wallpaper. The pale gray she’d chosen matched the paper almost exactly, and then the gradient faded through to a blue so deep it was almost purple. “Ignoring reality,” she said, “one wall would be this.” She touched the silver trees. “Like maybe the wall with the doors to the bathroom and the nest hallway. And then the rest of the walls—ceiling too—would be a really smooth gradient all the way down to this.”

“That would be beautiful,” Avery said.

“I’d probably paint clouds or stars on the dark end.”

Luke picked up all the swatches and looked at them. “This is what you would pick? For sure?”

“It’s the first thing I thought of,” she said. “Always wanted to do a gradient in a room, but it seemed tedious. I didn’t want to spend that much time with a giant airbrush.”

I laughed. “I don’t blame you.”

“All right,” Luke said. “Done. Next department.”

“Wait,” Esme reached for the swatches which he kept away. “You can’t do that—it’s not even practical.”

Luke caught her around the waist and held her against him even as he held all the swatches up out of reach. “Do you really want it?”

She bit her lip again. “Yes.”

He kissed her forehead. “Then it’s all you have to say. Go.”

Esme’s cheeks turned pink, and she stared at Luke for long seconds, judging if he was being serious. And he was. We all knew it.

Finally, she leaned in and laid her head on his chest, eyes closed. It was both concession and submission, and my heart ached at the sight of it. Esme was a woman who had her own business, survived on her own under the brutal scrutiny of the press, and knew what she wanted even if she didn’t have practice asking for it. Watching her let us in and accept the help and love she’d never had was beautiful.

“Go pick out your furniture,” Luke whispered. “And keep this in mind.”

She looked up at him and accepted another kiss on the forehead. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

I stole her away, knowing Luke would take care of everything. Especially now that the manager was on our side. Walking slowly with her out of the department, I wrapped her up and paused. “Do me a favor?”

“I can try.”

“I give you permission to enjoy yourself, Esme. The same way you liked picking things out for your nest. Please, for me, try to stop feeling guilty. Trust us to enforce our own boundaries the same way we respect yours, and vice versa. If there’s something we can’t do or don’t want to do, we’ll tell you.”

She sighed and relaxed into me. “Okay, but on one condition.”

“Name it.”

“I get to pay for dinner for everyone tonight so I can feel like I’m contributing something.”

My instinct was to tell her she was contributing simply by being herself, but she wasn’t ready to hear it. And if this day could be a hundred times better by letting her pay for dinner? “You got it. Now let’s go pick some furniture.”