I stared at the freakishly huge house in front of me. This house would be too spacious for fifty people. How many people lived here?
I already suspected that his pack would live in a filthy rich place from the fact that they gifted him a car as a present, the fancy looking gate we passed through on our way up the driveway and the complete lack of neighbors. I wouldn't be surprised if this pack owned the entire mountain the house is resting on.
It had been a long four hour drive up the steep road that climbed higher and higher into the foggy tip of the mountain. The scenery had become so dense with trees, a pack of wolves could have been following us the entire time and I would have had no idea.
I looked at Caden, "so basically you have a ton of sugar daddies?"
He shrugged, "basically," he echoed.
I slowly walked up the stone steps, following Caden. I reached my hand out to touch the smooth granite of the exterior that started from the ground and arched up and over our heads, outlining two large dark, wood doors.
Caden slipped a key through the lock and pushed the door open for me. I murmured my gratitude to him and prepared myself to step into an unknown world of riches. We stepped onto the dark marble floor which lead to a wide spiraling stair case.
By looking at the interior, it was clear that the house was occupied by only males. The walls were a soothing medium grey color and was decorated by simple paintings that I'm sure costed half a million each.
Caden lead me up the staircase to his floor, the second floor.
Our steps echoed throughout the house, creating a lonely sound. Caden cleared his throat, "I share this level with one of my pack mates. However, he is on a business trip right now so he won't be bothering us. Not that he would be a bigger in the first place." I blew out a relieved breath at that.
"How many are in your pack?" I hesitantly asked not sure if I wanted to know the answer.
"Four. They are the sweetest, I swear." Caden answered giving me a sly wink.
I frowned not sure what that wink meant. The lights had changed from the fluorescent overhead lights to cozy lamps on each corner of the hallway as we walked towards Caden's domain. Maybe it was an omega thing to hate bright lights? Caden stopped at a door towards the end of a hallway.
"This is my room and you can take the guest room right down this hallway." He said and guided me down another hallway to my room.
My temporary room was a light tan color filled with multiple lamps, a luxurious king sized bed, a large dresser, a television hung on the wall with a bathroom complete with a tub, shower and the cherry on top, a walk in closet. "Oh shit, this is your guest room."
Caden smiled, "yep." He leaned in closer as if he was about to share a secret, "let me give you a tour of the rest of my house."
We walked around the house for a while with him constantly reassuring me that all of his pack members were away right now. He showed me the main floor that had multiple living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and a huge gym in the back. There was an indoor and outdoor pool, a huge garden and of course, the beautiful forest beyond that.
He completed the tour of his wing that consisted of his room, a movie room, an art room and three nests for his heat. He gave me a quick look of all the other rooms but insisted I venture into all three of the nests and have a look around. He insisted it was good to see what a good nest looked like.
The floors on all of them were covered with a memory foam mattress, the walls were all padded and there was either a large window or a sunlight that filled the room with a consistent amount of warmth. Of course, they were all filled to the brim with soft blankets and pillows.
My omega half urged me to circle up in the sun surrounded by the soft fabrics but I resisted, this wasn't my nest. Caden finished the tour by bringing me back to his room that had an even larger bed, dresser, closet and everything else with a little area containing a couch, coffee table and tv for relaxing.
"Wow. This is a lot. Why did you even go to the school if you lived here? I bet you and your pack could have convinced them to let you take classes online."
Caden blushed and averted eye contact, "a change of scenery is always nice and omegas are rare so I wanted to go somewhere with a lot of omegas. And to maybe see if my mate was there."
He mumbled the last sentence, but I still heard it. "Your mate? What does that mean?"
Caden looks baffled, "what do you mean ... oh shit! How many classes have you taken? Sorry, I just assumed most wolves, omegas especially, knew about mates before even arriving at the school. I didn't know you weren't aware of them."
I raised my eyebrows, "well you can teach me right now," I said as I perched on the edge of his bed.
He flopped onto his bed and wrapped his arms around me to pull me onto his lap, "gladly. So there's some scientific thing that explains it, but basically omegas used to be very overpopulated, there were way more omegas than alphas and betas. So, each pack had at least two omegas. Over time, omegas soon started to share this bond with each other and their heats would sync and they would get pregnant during these heats."
He blew out a long breath, "Long story short, the next generation of omegas had what we now call mates. This was believed to have occurred because of the connection the two omegas had. Mates are short for soulmates and basically omegas now still find their soulmate. As the omega population has gone down it's more rare but it can still happen."
"So you went to the school in person to look for your soulmate?" I asked.
Caden nodded. He briefly looked into my eyes before glancing at the ceiling and chewing his upper lip.
"How do you know when someone is your soulmate?" I questioned, still rather confused.
"You will feel a strong pull towards them, their scent calls to you and it's hard to be separated from each other for too long. Everyone experiences it differently but those are the main ones."
I frowned, "so it feels like a crush, how do you know if it's a crush or if they're your mate?" I tried to be slick about my question but I think I might have made it too specific. He probably was guessing that I thought he might be my mate. I mean he explained everything I felt.
"It's a lot stronger than a crush." He shook his head trying to hide a smile. He looked back at me, eyes shining with happiness, "I'll make it easy for you, I'm your mate. We're mates. I'm going to be honest, I felt the bond the first day we ran into each other and when you didn't react I thought you were rejecting me. I didn't think that maybe you didn't know what mates were."
I gaped at him completely at a lost for words. Only a week ago I had no clue this gorgeous man even existed and now he was the reason I wanted to get up everyday. Where do we go from this? Do I move in permanently with him? Do his mates know? Will they be mad? Do they want us to sync heats and get my pregnant? I don't want kids. "Does your pack know? What do we do now? Do I have to move in? What about when my heat comes what -"
"Calm down, princess. Yes my pack knows, they are happy for me and you. No one is mad. I do have to be honest though, I lied about our open relationship. We don't have one, I thought you didn't want a bond with me at first, but then when you showed interest I thought that maybe you wanted to get to know each other first. I just blurted that out to get you to feel more okay with getting to know me and hang out with me. So, we never have been with anyone's outside of the pack while we've been in it. But, you are pack now so this doesn't count. No, you don't have to move in if you don't want to. If you want to go back to the school, I can go back with you. I'm hoping that I can convince you to move in with us though. Your heat is far in the future, when it comes, anyone you want can accompany you during it. You are in control, okay."
I stared at him, he lied but, I forgave him. He talked like I was a part of the pack, but I wasn't. I haven't even met the rest of his pack. How could they be happy about Caden having a mate if they haven't met me? Wouldn't they want him all to themselves?
"Odette, I can see you already overthinking. I'm very sorry about lying to you, do you forgive me?"
I nodded and without hesitation responded, "yes."
Caden continued, "do you feel a bond with me?"
I nodded again.
"If you want to live here you can, if you want to meet the others, you can. If you want to return to the school, you can. You can do whatever you want. You are in control. Okay?"
"Okay. But what about our relationship?"
Caden smiled, "we can take it slow, I can court you, bring you gifts, spoil you. We can go as fast or as slow as you want."
I sighed, relieved. "Slow is good and I think I should meet your pack if we're gonna be dating. Maybe I could meet them like one or two at a time?"
"Of course, when would you like to meet one of them?"
I shrugged, "maybe today or tonight. If they want."
I thought it was impossible for Caden to look any happier but he proved me wrong. He looked absolutely ecstatic. "I know just the person for you to meet first."
"You're going to be there too right?" I asked Caden.
He grinned and placed his hand over his heart, "I would be honored."