I Was The Only Omega In The Beast World Chapter 143: CP: 143 We’re Building A Home

The walk back to wolf territory took half the ti the journey out had taken.

There was a lightness in the group that hadn’t been there before—a sense of purpose finally realized, of obstacles cleared, of the horizon opening instead of closing. Even Drakar moved with sothing that might have been contentnt, his massive tail swinging on both sides, his ruby eyes scanning the forest with the unhurried patience of a creature who had waited centuries for things and could wait a little longer.

Sally walked beside Granite, her hand resting on his fur like she needed the contact to believe any of this was real. She’d been quiet since the border, which was unusual enough that Alex kept glancing back to check on her.

"I’m fine," she said the fourth ti he looked. "I’m just... processing."

"You’re allowed to process."

"I know." She kicked at a stone, watched it skitter into the undergrowth. "That was the most terrifying and amazing thing I’ve ever done. I need to be quiet for like an hour so my brain can catch up to the fact that I didn’t die."

Alex slowed until she was beside him, matching her pace. "You didn’t die."

"Barely."

"You didn’t die at all. That’s the important part."

Sally snorted. "Low bar."

"You’d be surprised how many days I’ve celebrated that particular achievent."

She looked at him sideways, and sothing in her expression softened. "You really have been through it, huh?"

"I’ve been through sothing," Alex admitted. "But I’ve also found... this." He gestured vaguely at the group around them—Lucas walking ahead, his pale hair bright in the dappled light; Leo overhead, a speck of gold against the blue; Zale’s sphere floating serenely between two wolves; the distant sound of Granite’s massive paws on forest floor. "I found people. A family. A place."

"You found yourself," Sally said quietly.

Alex blinked. "That’s... Yeah I guess. "

She grinned, but it was softer than her usual grin. " it’s true. You were always looking for sothing, Alex. Even back ho. You just didn’t know what it was until you fell into a world where you had to figure it out or die."

"That’s a very generous way of saying I was emotionally constipated and needed a literal life-or-death situation to process my feelings."

Sally’s laugh startled a bird from a nearby branch. "I’m going to tell your mates you said that."

"They already know."

"Even better."

---

They reached wolf territory as the sun was setting, painting the familiar trees in shades of amber and rose. The pack had been watching for them—Storm appeared at the border before they’d taken three steps into the territory, his expression shifting from guarded to relieved in a flicker.

"It went well?" he asked Lucas, not quite a question.

"Better than expected," Lucas said. "Kaelen approved."

Storm’s eyebrows rose. "Just like that?"

"Not just like that." Lucas glanced at Alex. "But our mate is persuasive."

Storm made a sound that might have been a laugh or a cough. "I’ll alert the pack. The female has been... anxious. She’s been thumping her tail ten thousand tis a day. "

"The female?" Sally perked up. "Soone was anxious about ?"

"She ans Naga," Lucas said.

"OH." Sally’s face went through several expressions in quick succession. "Naga’s a he."

"Storm has certain... old-fashioned views," Lucas said dryly. "He calls anyone who’s not a wolf ’the female’ regardless of gender. It’s not personal. It’s just incorrect."

Storm’s ears flattened, but he didn’t deny it.

" Reminded of how I was called ’girl with a dick’ back in those days. " Alex side eyed system who was floating on his head level.

[Host,] System said mildly, [I’ve called you worse.]

"That’s not comforting."

[It wasn’t ant to be. Also—]

But whatever System had been about to say was lost, because from sowhere ahead in the wolf camp ca a sound Alex recognized imdiately: six distinct voices at varying pitches, all talking at once, getting louder.

"—MAMA’S BACK THE SCOUTS SAID MAMA’S BACK—"

"MOVE, RIPPLE, YOU’RE IN MY WAY—"

"I’M NOT IN YOUR WAY YOU’RE IN MY WAY—"

"BOTH OF YOU ARE IN MY WAY," Jade’s voice, authoritative and increasingly desperate, "STOP PUSHING OR WE’LL FALL—"

A crash.

Then all six voices at once, from the ground: "—we’re fine—"

Alex started walking faster. Then jogging.

He ca around the last stand of trees and found his children exactly where he’d expected to find them: in a pile, a tangle of scales and limbs, sowhere in the middle distance between the camp and where the trail entered the trees. Naga was approximately ten feet behind them, coiled tight, looking like soone who’d been holding his breath for two days.

"MAMA!"

They hit him like a wave.

Alex went down—there was no resisting six determined snakelings—and landed in the grass with all of them on top of him, over him, wrapped around him in various configurations. Ripple was crying again. Siddy was talking nonstop about everything that had happened while Alex was gone, which apparently included three escape attempts, one diplomatic incident with a wolf cub over a fish, and sothing involving a bee that Siddy described as "a fight I won."

"You cannot win a fight with a bee," Jade managed, from beneath Sterling’s weight.

"I did," Siddy insisted. "He stung and I bit him and now he’s dead so I won."

"That’s not—"

"He’s dead. I’m alive. I win."

"Being stung is not winning—"

"I WIN, MAMA."

Jade extracted himself from the pile with the dignity of the eldest, settled beside Alex’s head, and looked down at him with those steady green eyes.

"We’re glad you’re back," he said.

" too," Alex said.

"Did it work? The lion lord?"

"Yes."

Jade’s hood flared once, quickly, with what Alex had learned to read as suppressed excitent. Then he schooled it back. "Good," he said, with studied composure. "I expected that."

"Really."

"You always figure it out." Jade tilted his head.

[I genuinely love this child,] System said.

Naga arrived while Alex was still extracting himself from the pile—or rather, Naga arrived and the extraction beca unnecessary because Naga simply coiled around all of them, Alex and snakelings both, and pressed his face against the top of Alex’s head and stayed there for a long mont without speaking.

Alex felt the bond mark on his abdon hum. The particular resonance of it when Naga was relieved—deeper than contentnt, more physical than words.

"It went well?" Naga asked, finally, his voice low.

"Kaelen approved. Raqasha is... manageable. We have all four factions."

Naga exhaled, long and controlled, through his nose. "Good. That’s good."

"Two days," Alex said. "I was gone two days."

"I know." Naga pulled back just far enough to look at him, serpentine eyes bright. "The knowing didn’t help."

"I know," Alex said. "I know."

Next ca Zale, his expression shifted into sothing quiet and full. He dropped his head, pressed his forehead to the sphere’s surface where Alex’s hand was. The gesture was r—Alex had learned it gradually, the way he’d learned all of Zale’s language that didn’t translate directly. It ant: I have you. I see you. We’re ho.

Leo ca down from his patrol circuit faster than was strictly necessary and didn’t bother with any pretense of composure. He landed in human form, crossed the distance in four strides, and pulled Alex into a grip that was more warrior than embrace for about three seconds before softening into the other thing.

Leo made a sound against his hair that wasn’t quite a word. Alex held on.

Lucas had stopped at the edge of the reunion, watching with that particular stillness he had—not removed, exactly, but asured. Present without intruding. River, who had been wound around Alex’s left wrist since the initial pile-on, lifted his head and looked at Lucas.

Then he extended one small arm toward him.

Lucas ca forward. Crouched down. Let River wrap back around him in the easy way that had apparently beco habit in the space of two days.

"Hello," Lucas said.

"Hello," River said. "Did the lion lord behave?"

"Mostly."

"Was Mama worried?"

"The whole ti."

River looked at Alex with an expression of deep personal vindication. "I told you to worry less. It uses up energy you could use for other things."

"I’ll take that under advisent," Alex said.

"You won’t."

River settled against Lucas’s chest with the satisfaction of soone whose point had been made regardless.

Sally appeared from behind Granite, took one look at the reunion, and imdiately started crying. Not quietly—Sally didn’t do anything quietly—but the kind of crying that ca from relief and fullness, the kind that couldn’t quite decide if it wanted to be laughing instead.

"We did it," she said, to no one in particular. "We actually did it. We have a sanctuary. We’re going to build a HO."

Siddy raised his head from the pile. "There will be climbing structures?"

"There will be so many climbing structures," Alex confird.

"And hot springs?"

"The site has natural ones."

Siddy’s iridescent scales flared with sothing Alex could only describe as joy. Then he turned to the camp at large, to the wolves watching from a careful distance and Granite settling back onto his haunches and Drakar observing from a high rock with that expression of ancient, fond amusent—

"WE’RE BUILDING A HO," Siddy announced, to everyone and no one. "WITH CLIMBING STRUCTURES AND HOT SPRINGS AND I WIN—"

"What do you win?" Sterling asked.

"EVERYTHING," Siddy declared.