An Omega for the Sheriff (Sugar Beach Book 3) Read online

  A pass through the store to pick up ingredients for my favorite Thanksgiving sides didn’t take long. I was keeping things low-key and opted for the traditional cornbread dressing and mashed potatoes. I picked up two bunches of asparagus. I could pop those in the oven for a quick roast while the turkey was resting.

  My last stop was in the freezer section to look at pies. While I was an okay cook, I sucked at baking. I couldn’t make a pie to save my life, but I was a master at reheating and following directions. I threw a pumpkin pie in the cart, then decided to add both an apple and a cherry pie. For good measure, I chose a Key Lime pie as well.

  Spotting the bread section in the freezer on my way to the checkout, I picked up two packages of ready to heat dinner rolls. Bread wasn’t usually my thing, but it was a nice addition to the dinner menu. I didn’t know what Rebel and his friends liked, but it couldn’t hurt to be prepared.

  I spent more time waiting in line at the checkout than I had cruising the aisles. Everyone and his neighbor had last-minute shopping before the mad dash of cooking began in each home today. I knew everyone because of the high-profile job I worked, so chatting in line became an update on what was happening in Sugar Beach today. Luckily, Sugar Beach was a low crime area and not much usually happened. The most exciting event in recent years was the big hurricane and the alpha who had been kidnapping omegas. People still talked about the alpha who had been found guilty and sent to prison. His last omega victim was doing well with an alpha who obviously adored him the last time I checked on the omega.

  An hour later, I was back at Rebel’s house preheating the oven and reading the directions for each pie to see what could be baked together and which ones needed different temperatures. I set the apple and cherry pies in the oven to bake and set the timer for the cherry pie which would be done ten minutes before the apple pie. Checking the directions for the Key Lime pie, I was happy to see it only needed to thaw in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before serving, so I popped it in the fridge.

  I found a roasting pan large enough and set to work prepping the bird before letting it sit to get to room temperature. If I planned things right, the bird would be ready to go into the oven once the first two pies were done. I could bake the pumpkin pie after most of the cooking was done for the day.

  By the time Rebel and Phil came back from their usual chores at the nursery, the pies were out and the bird was in the oven, stuffed with cut up apples and oranges to add flavor just the way my granny always made it. The smells of home cooking flooding the kitchen stopped them in their tracks as they both inhaled deep breaths.

  “What are you making?” Rebel asked as he walked to the counter where the pies were cooling.

  “Apple and cherry pies for dessert. I’ve got a pumpkin pie in the freezer I’ll bake after the turkey comes out of the oven. It can bake while the cornbread dressing is in the oven.” I told him as I continued dicing the prepared cornbread I’d picked up at the grocery store’s bake shop.

  “Turkey?” Phil said. “I thought we were doing a cookout instead, so we didn’t have to go to the emergency room this year.”

  “What? What happened? I never heard about an emergency room trip from you guys on Thanksgiving.” I paused what I was doing to look at Rebel. He straightened up from sniffing the pies to glare at me.

  “Why would you have heard about us getting sick? It wasn’t any of your business.”

  “Anything that has to do you, Rebel, is my business. I’m your alpha, despite the fact you kept me at arm’s length. I needed to know you were okay. Now, what happened on Thanksgiving?”

  “Nothing much. We decided to try making turkey and all the trimmings last year. It was the first time we’d really celebrated Thanksgiving since my parents died. Except we should have researched things a little better because I’m pretty sure the turkey might not have been completely done. We all ended up with food poisoning.” Rebel looked at the disaster I’d made of his kitchen. “It’s the reason I decided we were having a cookout today instead. Burgers on the grill are a lot easier than cooking a humongous bird.”

  “Huh, I’m sorry you were sick. It was very brave of you guys to start celebrating the holidays again. As for the turkey, you won’t be getting sick this year. This won’t be the first turkey I’ve roasted. I’ve been helping my granny fix Thanksgiving dinner since I was a kid. I also help with the cooking over at the community center for the homeless. Which reminds me, my shift there starts at three so I’ve timed everything so we can eat by two o’clock.”

  “Isn’t that a bit late to be starting your shift? Won’t most of the cooking be done by then?”

  “I’m not cooking this year. There were more than enough hands signed up for prep and cooking so I’m serving and working the last dinner hours this year.”

  “Oh, would they mind an extra hand? I could maybe help out.”

  “I’m sure that would be just fine. Thanks, Rebel.”

  “No problem.” Rebel looked at the pies again. “My favorite pie is cherry with the crumb topping. It looks good.” He walked out of the kitchen with a smile.

  It felt good to have my omega’s approval. I loved making him smile. If fixing a Thanksgiving spread was what helped me get my omega, I was okay with that. I couldn’t wait to see Rebel smiling at the dinner table, surrounded by his friends as he enjoyed food I’d prepared. It was going to be the best Thanksgiving ever.

  FIVE HOURS LATER, the turkey was out on the counter resting. The mashed potatoes and gravy were warming on the stove top. The last pie was in the oven, along with the cornbread dressing. I had just popped the dinner rolls into the oven for the last fifteen minutes of cooking. I had barely enough time to run upstairs for a quick change out of the mess I’d made of my clothes before I had to take everything out and up the heat so I could roast the asparagus while I got the turkey carved and everything out on the table.

  My timing on everything had been perfect, and I smiled as I ran up the stairs. Once in my room, I tore off my dirty shirt and put on a fresh, clean shirt. Today had been good, and I loved the smells permeating the house.

  I was on my way back downstairs when I heard a crash and yelling. When I got there, the kitchen was a chaotic mess with three large dogs fighting over the turkey no longer resting on the counter. Pies were on the floor with paw prints in the middle of them and fruit filling dripping over the sides of the tins. Phil, Rebel, and Todd were trying to wrangle the turkey from the dogs, the drippings from the platter a slippery mess.

  “Damn, that’s bird’s hot! Grab the dogs. Scout! No!”

  I turned to see the Great Shepherd licking the gravy out of the pan on the stove. Thankful the stove was off, I grabbed a pair of oven mitts. I barely got them on as I reached down to grab the large bird and rip it from the mouths of Kayla and Bacon. Not sure what else to do, I threw it in the sink out of reach.

  Kayla bumped my leg in a bid to get to the pies still on the floor. Somehow, Rebel ended up on the floor with Bacon on top of him, licking at the pan juices from the now defunct turkey. Phil had wrestled Scout from the stove top, most of the gravy having disappeared from the pan.

  Todd stood at the side, tears falling as he took in the disaster. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know they’d do this. They’ve never gone after the food like this before. They’ve gotten so tall the last few months they barely had to jump up.”

  Before I could say anything, Rebel laughed. Once he started, he couldn’t seem to stop. It was the first time I’d ever heard him emit such a whole-hearted full belly laugh. He shoved Bacon off and picked himself up from the floor. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he was gasping for breath by the time he managed to get himself under control.

  “It’s okay, Todd. I don’t think any of us had any idea. The puppies are practically as tall as us. I suppose we should have expected something like this at some point.” Rebel looked at the bird in the sink before turning to look me in the eye. “I’m really sorry about your Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t suppose we can salvage anything?”

  Seeing the amusement in Rebel’s eyes and the smile on his face was worth a destroyed turkey dinner. I looked at the bird in the sink, glad to see the bird was mostly intact and the dogs hadn’t gotten any bones. “I don’t think so. The bird is toast. I’ll pull all the meat off and portion it out to the dogs over the next few days. The pies…” I looked at the floor only to see both pie tins licked clean. Clean up would be easy as the dogs were in the process of licking the floor clean, too. “The only thing we have left are the things in the oven.”

  The oven timer went off as I spoke and I moved to hit the button, shutting it off. Todd and Phil wrestled the wrecking crew out the back door as I opened the oven to save what was left of our dinner. I wasn’t even sure if it was worth it to fix the asparagus now.

  “How quickly can you get the grill up and running? We might have enough time to grill some burgers before we have to leave for the community center. At least, we still have dessert.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure the pies are history.” Rebel said, looking at the spot where, moments before, disaster on the floor had been. There were still some sticky spots from the sugary sweets.

  “No, not those. There’s pumpkin pie in the oven and Key Lime pie in the fridge.” I said, tilting my head in the direction of the refrigerator.

  “Oh, Key Lime! My favorite!” Todd managed a smile from within Phil’s arms, who was trying to reassure his mate our kitchen disaster wasn’t his fault. The dogs, presumably, were outside, where they couldn’t do any more damage.

  It wasn’t exactly how I had planned Thanksgiving, but seeing Rebel smile was worth the change in plans.

  10

  REBEL

  It had been two days since Trygg had moved in and I was going bonkers trying to avoid him. Though Thanksgiving had gone well the day before, I had woken up today unsure of what my next steps should be. Did I get close to him? Allow him to get to know me better? What if he discovered my secrets and decided we were better off apart? I didn’t know the answers, and that bothered me.

  My house had always seemed large for just one person. I rattled around in it at times, the quiet only disrupted when my friends came to visit. Phil and Todd visited most often since they lived in a small house within walking distance of the big house here at the nursery. It had been the original house on the property belonging to my grandparents. Living in it rent-free was one of the perks of Phil’s position as my assistant manager.

  Now, with Trygg in the house, my home seemed small. I was constantly bumping into him when I would rather not see him. Living with him was messing with my emotions or my hormones in ways I couldn’t figure out. While I realized on some level Trygg was my fated mate, I was still resistant. I didn’t, couldn’t, believe someone like Trygg was destined to be with someone like me. No alpha would want me if they really knew me. I was sure of that. I had wants and desires most omegas didn’t have, and I was sure, once Trygg learned my deepest desires, he wouldn’t want anything to do with me. I dreaded the day he discovered them.

  I knew it was only a matter of time before I gave in to the overpowering scents wafting from my alpha and let him have me. Sex would be explosive. I knew this with every fiber of my being.

  I wasn’t a stranger to sex. I had fooled around when I was younger. I lost my virginity when I was sixteen. I liked sex. I liked being pounded in from behind. Unfortunately, I also liked doing the pounding. I enjoyed the feeling of having my cock squeezed by someone’s ass until I exploded. There was no feeling in the world like it. I didn’t know why more omegas didn’t want to fuck someone.

  Unfortunately, omegas weren’t supposed to have such abhorrent, deviant thoughts. Omegas were made to be bred and were still considered a lesser gender for a lot of alphas in my world. Things were a little more progressive in the tiny town of Sugar Beach, but I still had doubts any alpha I ended up with would want to bottom. Alphas didn’t bottom. Omegas topping wasn’t considered the norm and so I hid those thoughts and kept them to myself.

  Keeping to myself wasn’t difficult after meeting Trygg. My body and soul knew he was my alpha, and that played havoc on my sex life. Meaning there wasn’t one. My hand saw a lot of action, but any time I tried to go out and have fun, my body couldn’t get it up for anyone except Trygg. It was both exhilarating and frustrating. Each time I saw Trygg out in public, my body revved up in hopes of finally quenching the heat inside me, and frustrating because I held back, never allowing myself to give in to those emotions and feelings deep inside me.

  Now that Trygg was in my home, I was a hopeless mess of emotions and hormones gone crazy. I was sure I’d jump Trygg’s bones any day now. What he would do when I did was anyone’s guess. In my head, I was sure he would be horrified at some fantasies pinging around in there. I wanted to lick him all over and plunge my cock into his ass and finally feel what it would be like to nail my alpha. So, I avoided my fated mate, my soulmate the best I could in a house that suddenly didn’t seem as big as it once did.

  I left my room, tummy rumbling. My day started early and I could already smell the bacon and eggs Todd was fixing down in my kitchen. As domestic as he was, bacon and eggs were the only things he knew how to cook when it came to breakfast, which was fine by me. Sometimes, he got adventurous and cooked potatoes. Neither Phil nor I had the heart to tell him the diced pieces of potatoes were never cooked all the way through. We both just smiled and dug in before heading out to the plant beds to start our day.

  I wasn’t even watching when the bathroom door opened, my stomach already looking forward to the food it wanted. Trygg stepped out, and I stepped right into him. All six foot five inches of dripping wet muscle with a towel wrapped around his hips that hadn’t seemed so skimpy whenever it covered my own slimmer body. Stepping back, I looked up at amused brown eyes and lost myself in them. I couldn’t think and my mouth didn’t seem to work when I tried to apologize.

  Trygg’s bald head practically glowed as the light in the hallway played with it. Shadows bounced as we moved around each other in an odd dance. We both attempted to move one direction or the other and only ended up blocking each movement. I finally stopped and let Trygg step around me, his hands reaching out to hold my arms as he circled us both around in the opposite direction.

  The entire time, drops of water ran down that muscular chest, the smooth brown skin with barely any hair on it. My eyes tracked one particularly fascinating drop as it fell from the scruff on his chin to his chest. It rolled and shifted around his nipple which was hard and begged for my tongue. I wanted to lap it up so much I moaned as I licked my lips, aching to taste the drop straight from Trygg’s glistening skin.

  When the drop finished its circle around the small tight nipple and traveled even further south, I might have whimpered as it moved from one divot to a mountain to a divot again on a six-pack any bodybuilder would envy. Time seemed to stand still as my eyes refused to look away. That drop moved down the body I wanted to crush against me, slid ever lower toward a towel I didn’t even know how it was staying on as the place where the two sides met were barely connected.

  As the drop finally met absorbent cotton, my eyes refused to leave as they snagged on the bulge barely hidden, growing even bigger as I watched. I bit my lip and clenched my hands in a bid to not do anything drastic like rip the towel from my alpha’s hips so I could see what I had so desperately wanted to see for the four and a half years since I had met him.

  “See something you like?” Trygg’s voice was warm and smooth, deep and raspy like he’d just drank a shot of whiskey.

  I looked up, expecting to see the man mocking me, but all I saw was a man who wore an expression full of affection. It was a little disconcerting that this man who I had pushed away for so many years could look at me and not be angry at me for not accepting him as mine.

  “I, uh, I need to go eat breakfast. Todd and Phil will be waiting.” I stepped back, not looking where I was going. “If you want to eat, you should hurry and get dressed.” I turned and practically ran down the stairs without looking back as an amused chuckle followed me.

  “I’ll be right down, omega mine,” he said as I hit the last step.

  A shiver ran down my back at the endearment. Even as I tried to shake it off, something inside me warmed that Trygg could still give a simple term of affection to someone like me. Someone who had done nothing but push him away and avoid him each time we crossed paths.

  11

  TRYGG

  By the time I got dressed and walked into the dining room, the smells of bacon and eggs and strong coffee filled the house. The table was loaded with platters of scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage links. There were biscuits and sausage gravy as well. I sat in a chair next to my omega and filled a plate. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day and I’d need the energy the hearty breakfast would give me.

  I looked at Phil, wondering if he was still on board with my plan. Seeing the young alpha give a surreptitious nod of the head, I relaxed as Rebel talked about the plans for the day.

  “The last of the trees are getting cut today. I need to be out there to supervise that. They should be done by ten. Phil, I need you with me to inspect the fences and fix any breaks near the back acres. If we’re lucky, we can have it all done and have a late lunch around two. The last thing I want is to have the dogs get through the fencing onto the next property.”

  “Afraid I can’t do that today, Rebel. Todd has a doctor’s appointment, and I promised him I’d be there.” Phil said.

  Todd only looked startled for a moment before he chimed in, “Yeah, it’s kind of important and I’d like my mate to be there with me.”