Page 38 of His Bonded Omega Mate
Kade turned once we were all in the living room. He embraced Hiroshi, Tate, and then Asher, welcoming them to the family.
Part of me still couldn’t get over the way Jasper and Kade insisted I was family to them. I fully expected Jasper to turn around at any moment and tell me it was weird that I was so close to my ex.
Kade chatted happily with my mates as he made sure they all had food, especially Hiroshi. It didn’t take me long to notice he wasn’t serving me anything. Deke sat with an amused smirk with his bacon cheeseburger in hand.
I didn’t dare say anything, though. There was food still in the box. I just had to wait for Kade to punish me some more.
Sure enough, once he made sure everyone, aside from me, had their food and drinks, he turned to face me, giving me the first direct eye contact since he’d appeared.
I’d hurt him.
Fuck.
“Why did you keep this from me?” His voice cracked and I fully expected tears.
I went to my knees, crawling over the carpeted floor to land at his feet. I clutched his hands. “It was a stupid decision because it hurt you, but everyone was worried about you after the attack. Kade, you weren’t in a good space mentally—“
“I was fine!” he insisted, tears welling.
“No, you weren’t,” I said gently. “It took days for them to get you out of your rooms, then your papa nearly went into labor with the stress.” I blew out a breath. I still felt awful that Jasper’s omega instincts went into overdrive like that. He’d been struggling with guilt over not protecting Kade and the babies. He got hyper protective of him. My injuries were the last straw. “It was just something we decided you didn’t need to know until we were sure what was going to happen. If the bonding didn’t work, then we had a mess to deal with. It did, and now you’re here to celebrate with me.”
He was quiet for a full minute. Then nodded and squeezed my hand. “I’m so happy for you all. I might not understand why I was left out of the loop, but I get there were good intentions behind it. The last few weeks have been overwhelming. Even now, while I’m trying to do my council duties, the duties to the pack and to you as my family, I’m wanting to be back with the babies. I know they’re safe. Blake has them and they are well guarded. Teagan and Hakeem are with them. Larken, too.”
A ripple of discomfort worked its way through the bond with my mates.What?They exchanged a look and Hiroshi shook his head. I’d have to get that out of them later.
“So can I eat now? Hiroshi needs some rest. He’s exhausted.”
“Sure.” He handed me a huge bacon cheeseburger, and I rushed to unwrap it. “I’m happy your alpha and betas have looked after you well, Hiroshi. So Alpha Mate duties checked. Best friend duties are me saying that I’m thrilled for you, Roan. Your happiness might be unconventional, but you are alpha enough for your own mini pack.” We shared a smile. My mates and Deke just let us talk as they ate quietly and observed. “Now, council duties. They want to check the bond. I can see mate bites. I had a look while I hugged them all, and everything looked normal. Do you have a bond link?” He asked us all.
Hiroshi answered. “We do. The one I have with Roan is stronger somehow than the one I shared with Tate and Asher. I still hear them clearly, and it isn’t a pack link, but Roan’s just conveys more, if that makes sense.”
Kade nodded. “It does, thanks. The next step will be to get you all in front of a video link to the council to answer questions about how you performed it and how you are all feeling. We need to do this as soon as possible. The traditional alphas are up in arms about it.” He gave us a commiserating look. “As the Alpha Mate, I believe any new mating is a blessing. I really am happy for you. Welcome to our weird family, Hiroshi, Tate, and Asher. Papa is going to lose his mind when he finds out about this.”
“But we are keeping it from him, right?”
“Oh, absolutely. Poppy would murder me if I undid all her hard work, stopping the labor, and with the calming spells she put on him. She blocked part of his memory. He got a glimpse of you and that was too much.” Kade looked ill.
I winced. Although I’d known things were bad, I hadn’t realized just how big an intervention was needed to stop baby Hayden from being born early. He’d been measuring smaller than Aldrin and James had liked.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it a hundred times more, but I’m so grateful to you. Risking your life for my baby girl… I just can’t repay that.” Tears ran down his cheeks.
Hug him, Hiroshi insisted. I felt the others prodding me to action.
I wrapped Kade in my arms. “Look, I’m fine. You’ve seen me on screen, but feel my arms around you. Whole. Healthy. All because you turned super omega and tore that shit to shreds.”
Kade chuckled, snuffling. Laughter filled the room.
“Goddess! You guys saw that scum, right?” Deke spoke for the first time since he’d arrived.
My mates all made comments in the affirmative about how much of a mess he’d been in. “I only healed him enough so he was out of danger, but it took a lot,” Hiroshi said.
“I forgot you were a healer, too. How d’you like working at the clinic? Aldrin and James are the best, aren’t they?” Kade asked Hiro.
Moving away from Kade, I found a seat and finally got a bite of my burger. I moaned.
Careful, mate. I’m much too tired for those kinds of noises. Hiro winked at me.Maybe after a nap.
Fuck. He was perfect. There he was chatting with my best friend, being all sweet and super cute, but inside he was made for sin.
