Page 18 of Duke's Baby Deal
Duke couldn’t help himself. “He broke into the house?” His voice near cracked with the effort not to yell. He’d kill him. Hunt him down and chew him to bits, one tiny piece at a time. How dare he?
Abel shook his head. “He was outside at the time, blowing off steam. Justin did go looking for him though.”
“And couldn’t be bothered to control himself,” Quin said flatly.
“And couldn’t be bothered,” Abel repeated flatly.
Duke felt sick. Poor Bram. What a horrible thing to have happen. “What are we going to do?”
Abel grimaced and glanced at Quin. “Nothing, I guess. Unless you have a better idea.”
“You’re not going to make him pay for it?”
“That was my first thought. Bram doesn’t want him, though. He was in tears at the idea of mating him.”
He doesn’t want him!A bubble of happiness rose in Duke’s chest, despite knowing that Bram didn’t want him either, until Abel continued, “But Bax and Holland both tell me that he can’t just have the pup and raise it himself. That the consequences for him and for the pack will be too high.”
Fuck. Yeah. “He’s right.” Duke felt the blood rush to his cheeks when the other two looked at him. “When I lived in Jordan Bay, there were a couple of omegas. And the crap that was talked about them, when the adults weren’t around… I was surprised that you guys let Bram run all over the place without a chaperon. I mean, they never went anywhere on their own in Jordan Bay.”
Quin was quiet for a moment. “So we set him up for this?”
Duke shrugged. “From the others packs’ point of view, probably.” He didn’t like to think of that, and, to be honest, he’d enjoyed Bram’s relative freedom here. In fact, it was that confidence that made Bram stand out from the other omegas. Enough that Duke would still mate him, even carrying Justin’s pup, if he thought Bram might feel something for him.
Not likely, old man.
Abel glanced over to check on the pups, then gestured to the two of them to huddle closer. “We’re going to look for someone outside walls, and see if he can stay with them. He’ll have to be hidden, because if the humans saw him, they’d know what he was, and I’d be worried they’d do something that he wouldn’t be able to protect himself from. When the pup comes, we’ll look for a family to raise it, here or in another pack. And Bram can come back and live his life. We’ll have to come up with a story, school, or going to visit relatives. Maybe say we’re giving him that roadtrip tour to visit other omegas that he’s been after.”
Quin looked surprised. “You think that will work?”
Abel scratched at his beard and looked anywhere but at the two of them. “What other option is there?”
Duke shook his head. “It won’t work. I mean, no one will say anything to your faces, but they’ll all know. Maybe here in Mercy Hills it might not occur to them, but if anyone outside this pack heard, it’d be all over all the packs faster than you could scratch an itch. And if the rest of the packs know, then they’re going to ask the relatives here about it.” Yeah. Because nothing was better than getting the best gossip first. “Maybe that lawyer could find a human family to host him? He could come back and say he didn’t want to do whatever he was away for. Might be better if his parents went with him. Less likely to be noticed.”
Abel leaned back and rubbed his hands over his face. “I wish… I don’t know what I wish. That it was different. That I knew what we were setting him up for. I didn’t want to be that Alpha, when I should have been putting my foot down about his behavior.”
“Hey, it’s not Bram’s fault!” Duke’s voice rose, and the pups stopped coloring to stare at him. Quin laid a veil of power over him, not force, but a warning of what he could do.Fuck, but he’s stronger than Abel.Duke took a deep breath, and controlled his voice. “Justin isn’t an idiot, not that way. If he could smell Bram, he’d have to know that Bram was in heat. And if you could keep your hands off Jason,” he pointed at Abel, “while he was in heat, then for sure if Justin says he couldn’t help himself, he’s a damn liar.”
The other two stared at him like he’d suddenly sprouted a second head, or had his tail wagging behind his human backside. Duke wrestled himself back under control and, in a more normal voice, added, “I just think that there’s a lot of ways that can go wrong. And why should he be held to a different standard than the rest of us? Why the heck is an omega’s heat,” he went bright red just saying the words, “so much more exciting than a regular one? It’s stupid.”
“Like alphas are?” Quin asked with dry humor.
Duke wished the flush in his cheeks would go away. “We can hurt someone if we don’t stop and think. And how are we treated, really, different from anyone else? Even delta pups who act up are punished. We’re all taught what we need to get along in the pack. I don’t see why we isolate the omegas so much. They’re just another kind of shifter.”
“I didn’t know you were such an intellectual,” Abel teased him, then sobered again and reached out to lay a hand on Duke’s shoulder. “You’re probably right. I’ve been putting off dealing with the prejudice against omegas, what with the baby, and the business and getting Bax up to speed on things we’re going to need him to do.” He glanced around them. “The house took more time than I planned too. But now that’s all settled. I’ll talk to Bax and Jason and Holland, and we’ll start planning a campaign to change the way people think about omegas.”
“There’s still Bram to deal with,” Quin said. “It’s all fine to go save the omegas, but what are we going to do with the one we have now?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The three of them bounced ideas off each other for the rest of the evening, stopping briefly for Teca’s bedtime, and then again later for Fan’s. Not long after Abel had settled Fan into his bed, Holland came out of Bax’s bedroom with a sober, red-eyed Bram. They disappeared out the front door, presumably Holland walking Bram home.Good. Bram shouldn’t be alone while this was going on.
Holland came back a few minutes later, stressed and angry looking.
“Bax is asleep.” He hovered in the doorway, his eyes flicking from the floor, to Abel, to Quin—where they widened slightly—then back to the floor.
“Join us,” Abel said, and cleared a small pile of well-loved stuffed animals from the end of the couch to the floor.
“Me? Why… Sorry.” Holland shook his head and squared his shoulders. “I know it’s different here, but it’s a hard habit to break.” He cast an uncertain glance at Quin again, though Duke thought it was only a little fear, and mostly a lot of nervous attraction.
