wildest dreams ━ rick grimes × male!oc

chapter twelve:

ƇӇƛƤƬЄƦ ƬƜЄԼƔЄ: "I'll be the only dream you seek, so if you're lonely, no need to show me."

The campfire is small, the warmth from the embers a gentle kind of heat. Rick has Ren tucked into his side, face partially hidden in the alpha's neck, his breathing slow and steady. Carl is curled on top of them, sprawled between their laps, sleepy and soft, covered with a blanket, full from the fish he'd eaten. 

"Disoriented," Rick says quietly, thinking back to how he'd woken up from his coma, the hospital silent and eerie, "I guess that comes closest." Annoyed, he wants to say, angry, but he repeats his earlier response, keeping his mask tightly in place, "disoriented, yeah, that," he huffs, "that sounds about right."

Dale, as he had introduced himself earlier, makes a soft sound. "Words can be meagre things," he says, "sometimes they fall short." 

There's a murmur of agreement around the campfire, before Jacqui dares to ask, "and where were you?" She motions with her fork towards Ren. "Your kid's been here since the start, all alone." 

Ren shifts ever so slightly, placing his palm flat over his stomach. He moves it closer to his hip, slowly rubbing his fingers back and forth. "Somewhere I had to be," he answers softly, hiding his face now fully into Rick's neck. 

It's a terrifyingly good lie and Rick has to hold back a smile. Instead, he soothingly runs his hand down his omega's back and watches as realisation flickers across the wolves faces. 

"Oh," Amy's eyes begin to water, "I'm sorry for your loss." 

The humans around the campfire collectively look at her in confusion, but the girl shakes her head. Instead, Andrea gently explains, "male omega's are kept in special facilities when they're pregnant. It's to ensure the safety and survival of their unborn pup." She wraps an arm around Amy, pulling her sister into her side, "without the help of the facility, male omega's have a zero percent chance of carrying their pup for more than the first month." 

"I'm Sorry," Jacqui apologises, placing her fork onto her plate, her appetite now gone. "That must've been hard for you, the separation," she says, "and the loss."  

Ren shrugs a single shoulder, pretending to act rather nonchalant about the situation, but Rick can feel his lips curling into a smile against his neck. His omega sniffles and Rick plays his part, shushing him quietly. 

The group stays silent after that. They eat whatever leftovers of the fish they have, listening to the sound of insects, the rippling of the lake and occasionally, even the flap of wings somewhere off in the distance. 

Rick cards his fingers through Carl's hair, smiling at the way his pup starts softly purring. He turns slightly, murmuring quietly into Ren's forehead, "let's get you into bed, you're both fallin' asleep here." He's met with sounds of protest, the two omega's attached to him like leeches, grumbling about losing precious body heat. 

"I'm not a furnace," Rick says, amused, shifting to get both Carl and Ren detached from his being. He stands to his feet, dusting himself off, "you'll be warmer inside the tent. C'mon." 

"Momma," Carl whines, soft and childish, latching onto Ren, "dad's bein' mean again." 

"Trust me," says Ren, easily picking Carl up and placing him onto his hip, his smile a gentle thing, "if we had a couch he'd be sleeping on it." 

Rick makes a small, offended noise from the back of his throat. Somewhere behind him, Glenn huffs a quiet breath of laughter and Amy giggles. 

"Alright, that's everyone's cue," Morales voices, rising from his chair. "Let's rotate shifts and head to sleep," he ruffles one of his kid's hair affectionately and then presses a kiss into his wife's temple. At his order, the human's collectively start packing up their things and head for their respective tents.