Page 59 of His Bonded Omega Mate
My mate, unable to guess my lion’s intentions, had shifted and taken to the air, circling high above until Hiroshi’s tiger had come into view. Roan’s wolf stayed well back, observing the chaos.
Once he knew he had back up from his other mate, Tate had landed in his new favorite spot, the top of Hiroshi’s head. The tiger had let out a happy chuffing noise at the raven hopping about between his ears.
Hakeem had asked me to name my lion in my sessions with him. He wanted me to define his personality as someone different from me. Giving him a name would help with the separation, he had said. I called him Demon. Probably unfair to real demons, but I’d never met any, so I could only go by the horror stories I’d heard about them causing havoc.
We had grown to hate each other, him and I. Demon, because he thought I was weak. He thought I should have destroyed all those that came between me and my mate. Including my mate’s other mate.
So I hated Demon. There was no way I could harm Hiroshi. I may not have been in love with him, or bonded to him any more, but I loved him. He was my family. My chosen family. Demon didn’t understand that harming Hiroshi, and by extension, Roan, would hurt Tate. It was an emotional wound he would never recover from.
We’d left for Abrocaelum as soon as Hakeem and the elves could get me under control.
It didn’t get better. Each time I saw Tate’s resignation; the hope dimmed with each visit. He endured a few visits to Abrocaelum, but the bond between him and Hiroshi had caused him too much discomfort for him to stay long.
Every time that I saw my mate, there was no progress to renew his hope. We couldn’t be intimate because I couldn’t be trusted alone with him. I felt him pulling further and further away until I wondered if it was just better to cut our bond loose and let him be free to love someone else.
Guilt
Hiroshi
WasIselfishthatI was glad that Asher wasn’t around? It sucked for Tate. I knew he missed his alpha. Their occasional visits were hard on them.
Each time that Asher came here, his lion would burst out, finally free of the geas that Hakeem had placed on him. Tate hated being in Abrocaelum. Our stretched bond pinched at him, begging for him to return to my side. Not that it was very comfortable for me, either, but I tried to put Tate’s needs before my own. My omega instincts asked for nothing less.
Life at home was peaceful when we ignored the Asher shaped hole in the room. Tate and I spent many hours together as he learned to deal with the instincts to nurture that came from being an omega.
Tate missed his job as an enforcer. It hurt my heart that he was having to give up something that he had worked so hard for. Being an omega was causing him no small amount of pain.
Blake, in wisdom someone so young should not have, soon realized that removing a shifter that could fly from the enforcer ranks was a bad idea. Sweetwater pack only had three such shifters, one being Tate’s cousin, Jake. He found a new title for Tate, Jake and Sebastian, so that Tate could still guard the skies around the pack in his raven form.
They were now the Wing Guard. Maybe a slightly silly name, but it appeased the enforcers that hadn’t wanted Tate in their ranks any longer. I could not do Blake’s job.
We waited for a couple of weeks for signs that Asher was ready to return home, so that we could stop dancing around each other and find something that worked for us all.
As the days went on, I hoped that this time my heat had worked. I wanted to give my family something to look forward to.
Ívarr and his team were still working hard to find out what had caused the change and if it was something that they could replicate. More omegas, more alphas, were a win to shifter kind. Especially if they could have children.
Poor Tate was in the clinic every morning to be tested, something that was making him feel like a lab rat. I’d heard talk of scanning him, but they hadn’t wanted to get anyone’s hopes up that Tate would be like a born omega, and be able to have kids.
It meant that instead of integrating with the pack now that his secret was out, Tate was spending more and more time at home. A home that was far too small for what we needed. Which is why I’d hatched a plan.
Alpha Blake had taken over the rest of the land that the Sweetwater sleuth had owned when the group of bears rejoined the pack shortly after Kade had become Alpha Mate. The land was desperately needed now that the elves were staying here and making homes within our borders.
I’d found us a home. One that was ready to move into as soon as the new fences were finished and wards constructed. The high trees made a perfect cover. Spells and nets made it so that flying shifters, the Northarbor aviary in particular, couldn’t spy on us or gain access to our lands. The house had six bedrooms, two reception rooms, a playroom, and a home gym. The kitchen was massive, with a large table dominating the space.
We couldn’t move into it without Asher. I wouldn’t start our new life in our new home without a member of our family. Just thinking of his suffering through the endless therapy to get back to Tate had guilt spiking my chest.
I sat up, absentmindedly rubbing my chest, and stared at the two sleeping shifters on either side of me. Thirteen days had passed since my last heat, since Tate’s heat, and each day made me wonder.
Roan woke, eyes bleary. “What’s that smell?” His nose twitched. It was adorable.
I’d been so distracted thinking about Asher and how bad I felt about my part in the situation, I really shouldn’t have pushed him into a bond he wasn’t comfortable in, that I hadn’t picked up on it myself.
It was coming from me.
“Could I–?”
“We’ve got a test, right?” Roan asked.
