Chapter 82

**Rowan**

"This is torture," Declan grumbles from beside me.

"Our time will come," I say to reassure him, knowing exactly what he was talking about without him having to explain.

My words were meant to reassure him but they were just as much a reminder to myself as they were for him.

Bennett had excused himself awkwardly a few minutes ago with his hand covering his crotch discreetly. Milo said that they could feel Luna's growing arousal through their new bond, and it had hit Bennett a little too hard. Milo seemed less affected by it but that was no surprise since he hardly showed any sort of emotion. He also had the most experience at keeping his natural urges under control. However, his words had stuck with me and it had me wondering if that would be a problem once we were all bonded to her and on tour. There is no way that a group of turned-on Alphas would be able to focus on anything other than their Omega id she was sharing her those kinds of feelings.

We would have to be very careful not to arouse those kinds of feelings when any of us were working. Since she would most likely be spending her time with Bennett I would have to be sure he knew to keep his hands to himself.

"She doesn't seem against completing bonds with all of us, and she took Kai on after Bennett and I had just bonded with her. I think we will be able to have us all bonded before the tour." Milo muses as he flips through sign language videos on the TV.

We all seem to end up in the game room waiting for Luna to come to find us. This room had regular use but it wasn't often that we would be together here at the same time, not until now.

"Only if she says she is ready. I don't want to overwhelm her." I point out again, but the sentiment tasted bitter in my mouth.

The urge to bond with her was starting to feel unbearable. My phone suddenly vibrated and I pulled it out of my pocket to find a message from Kai on it.

*Kai: Luna is hungry, have you ordered the food yet?*

I scoff at the message but quickly reply.

*Me: Yes, it should be here soon. How is she?*

*Kai: Perfect. *

That made me smile because it was the exact word I would use to describe our Omega. She couldn't be any more perfect if she wanted to be, hearing disability and all. There was nothing about her that reminded me of how other Omegas acted, and I loved her for that. She wasn't spoiled or expecting to live in a castle surrounded by the best things money could buy. Not that we were destitute but I'm sure some of the other packs she met would make the money we have look like chump change.

Another alert makes me glance down at my phone again and my smile grew as my heart started to beat faster. He had sent me a picture of Luna looking up at him from where she was laying on his chest and she smiled sweetly at the camera. I let myself admire her beauty for a few seconds before I nudged Declan and held out my phone so he could see the picture.

I watched his face and how it morphed from his usual scowl to something softer.

"Bastard," Declan grumbled looking away from the photo.

"She may be open to having more company if you asked," I tell him.

He was clearly struggling more than me, and as his leader, I wanted to be sure that he wasn't hurting. I had brought all these guys together and even though we didn't have labels in our pack they all looked to me to lead them, and I accepted it when need be.

"I don't think Kai would like that," Declan says but he looks like he is a second from leaping up from the couch and making a run for it.

"It isn't up to him. It's up to Luna. Maybe she wants you there. Why don't you take the food up to them and see if she wants you to stay with them." He looks at me wiht uncertainty but I nod to let him know it's okay.

"What about you?" He asks and I shrug.

"My time will come. I'm okay waiting a little longer, but I don't think you can and that's okay." I assure him.

It was the truth, as hard as it was I could wait. For my pack, I would do nearly anything, and that means putting their needs before my own. There was a time when that had not been enough and I was not ready for that to happen again.

No one outside of these guys knew that I had been part of a pack before I met each of the guys. It was my parents' pack and my father was head Alpha. He was not a kind man, and the only time he spoke to me was to remind me that as an Alpha I need to be tougher. I had been a scrawny kid who was picked on at the school by Alphas who were bigger than me. There was more than once that the school had to call my parents because I had been beaten up so badly. My mom was the sweetest woman you could ever meet, and she begged my father to send me to a different school.

He of course refused and told her that it would toughen me up. To add to it he had taken to pulling me into the home gym to train me daily. He would push me until I was hunched over the nearest trash can unloading everything in my stomach. I grew up hating him and that anger was what pushed me through the grueling task of living up to his expectations. When my mom got sick and passed away a few months later my father pushed me more.

The others in our pack had taken my mother's death hard and couldn't bear to stay with us. I had been the only child born in the pack so there was nothing really keeping them wiht us. Soon it was only me and my dad left and his anger toward me grew stronger every day. Our big house was empty, his Omega was gone, and he was reminded of that every day by my presence. By the time I was in high school I was well over six feet and pure muscle and unfiltered anger. So the next time a pompous Alpha thought he could come for me I put him in his place. The next time my father was called to the principles office was when I left six Alphas knocked out and bloody on the football field.

My father barely batted an eye at the accusation nor did he tell me he was proud that I finally stood up for myself. He didn't say a single word to me for the rest of the day until he walked into my room the next morning and gave a brochure for an all Alpha school. A school a thousand miles away that took in troubled Alphas and whipped them into people fit for society. I had no choice but to go. The school was worse than being tormented by my father or the guys from my school. The schedule was rigid and the punishments harsh. I had so much anger that I found myself being punished more than I spent in class.

I knew there was no way anyone would send their kids there if they accepted regular students. Things like locking us in our rooms without food and water were one of many harsh punishments. After only a year there I couldn't take it any longer and planned a way to escape. The school was heavily guarded but as part of our rehabilitation, several of us in music would travel and perform for senior homes. After watching and learning as much about the guards who accompanied us, I found my window and ran.

I expected someone to come looking for me eventually, but no one ever did. Not my father and not the school. To everyone who knew me, I was gone for good and none of them gave a damn. I picked up odd jobs as I moved from place to place until I met a group of guys looking for someone to play drums for their band. They let me audition and a few nights later I was up on stage with them. Naively I thought that those guys would become my new pack, but when they met an Omega at one of our gigs things changed. She didn't respond well to me, and that old anger I thought I had suppressed reared its ugly head. Needless to say, I ended up on my own again.

I enjoyed being in a band though and decided to start one of my own, but I wanted specific people in my band. It didn't take long for me to scrounge together a misfit band of guys who had no one, just like me. None of us expected anything from the arrangement other than a way to not be alone and to start a new life. However, we easily fell into the pack mentality even though none of us liked to admit it. Now that Luna was here though, that didn't seem to scare us anymore.