Page 108 of The Omega's Alpha
“I don’t see why they wouldn’t,” Cale said. “Tell them that there’s a ton of eligible alphas here, and I’m having a terrible time picking one.” He turned a little pink. “Mom will back you up.”
“She will?” I asked, non-plussed.
He sighed. “I’m not ready to settle down yet. So I drop a different name every week when I write her. Do an occasional repeat, tell a story or two. It keeps her happy, and lets her think I’m holding out for a better offer, like you did. She’sreallyexcited about Cas.”
“Really? She hasn’t said a word to me.”
“I told her you thought I was too young for him. You know Mom.” He grinned widely and a dimple peeked out at the corner of his mouth, so rarely seen because Cale was the master of the polite smile. More like Bax, really, than me.
I rolled my eyes in fine Bram style. “Yes, I know Mom.” She loved to pit her children against each other—one of the reasons I’d been so happy to mate in Perseguir.
Jason looked puzzled.
“I mated the first alpha who offered to get some distance between us,” I explained.
“Wow,” he said with a tinge of sadness. “I’d give anything to have my Mom back.”
Bax leaned in to rub Jason’s back in comforting circles and we all murmured our sympathy.
Jason shook his head and smiled. “It was a long time ago, and I still have Dad, and now Mac and Macy and Seb. No life is perfect.” He turned in my direction. “So, what can we do to help with this project of yours?”
I nodded in acceptance of his change of topic. “We need the old journals. If everyone could spread the word to their relatives in other packs?” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “And I wonder if any of them have ended up in museums or at other universities. I don’t want to load Garrick down with anything more, but it’s not really Cas’ specialty.”
“A lawyer’s a lawyer,” Cale told me. “They all have to do the same basic stuff. Do you think they’ll refuse to give the journals back?”
I shrugged. “I want to try asking first, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to go the legal route.”
“Seems reasonable,” Jason said. “I’m coming up to my busy time of year though. I have maybe another month of just going through seed catalogs, but then I’m full-time in the greenhouses starting plants. I’ll send a letter to my uncle in Montana Border and see what he can do without letting anyone know it’s for me.” He grimaced. “I don’t know what they might have kept, or what they’d give up.”
“We have to start somewhere,” Bax said. He looked up at me and that warm smile of his crossed his face. “You know, we should have all been working on this together all along.” His smile widened into a grin. “This is going to be fun!”
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Quin cameto me one morning while I was cleaning the bathroom, bent awkwardly over the tub while my five month belly did everything it could to get in the way.
“We could have someone do that for you,” he said mildly, having learned earlier this week that my temper was growing shorter the larger the pup grew.
“It’s fine. I made a list of furniture to order that I want you to debit from my account, to be sent to Green Moon.” I levered myself up from the floor and kissed him.
“That’s kind, but you can still afford to have someone come in to clean.”
Yeah, I could. I was struggling with the idea of having so much money, and was currently going through a paranoid, spend-as-little-as-possible phase. Quin knew it too. The unspoken ending to his gentle comment was,Spend some money on yourself too.“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll see about finding someone.” Maybe two someones—one from Mercy Hills and one from the remaining Green Moon refugees. “What are you doing home in the middle of the morning?”
“I can’t come home to see my gorgeous mate when I have a free moment?” he joked and pulled me close. “And my son.”
“You can,” I said, but that growing awareness, connection, whatever, let me also see the sadness underneath. “But that’s not it, is it?”
He sighed and patted my belly, then my ass. “Love you both. But no, Mom’s mate passed finally. I should go, but I think you should stay here.”
“You think I can’t handle her?” I asked, nettled.Passive aggressive bitch.
“I’m absolutely sure you can handle her. But this isn’t the time, and you’re only a month away.” He leaned down to kiss me. “I’ll only be gone a few days, just for the funeral and to help her sort out the final details. And Louise dropped the notification on my desk this morning—the first of the President’s discretionary fund transfers arrived this morning.”
I stopped and stared at him. “He was serious.”
“Apparently.” Quin grinned and led me out into the living room. “I spoke to Green Moon and Salma Wood—they both got theirs this morning too. It’s more than we expected, though not a lot. But I thought you could maybe do me a favor and do some research for me?”
“Sure.” I imagined he wanted to look at tearing down one of the old warehouses and building something with more stories in its place—he’d been talking about that as long-term planning last week.
