Page 111 of The Omega's Alpha
“Okay,” Holland said and ran his palm along Quin’s forearm, raising the hairs in a pleasant quiver of flesh. “That’s the alpha taken care of. What about an omega?”
“Beathan?”
“Well, it means life. Kind of what an omega does.”
“So we’ll have Bea and Bea?”
“We’ll have wha— Oh, fuck. Okay. Scratch that off. Sorry. Wasn’t thinking about Bax’s pups.” But he laughed, as did Quin. “Look at the next one.”
Quin read them out loud. “Galen. We might need him to be tranquil, in this family.”
Holland elbowed him. “Our pups are fine. It’s your brother’s pups that cause all the commotion.”
Quin leaned over to catch Holland’s eye. “Did you forget the Flour Fight to End All Flour Fights? And that they used water to try to clean it up?”
“I’m trying really hard to forget it. Thanks for digging that rotten carcass up.” Holland looked at the list. “There’s Conor. He is much wanted. But it’s another C name in the family.”
“Does that matter?”
Holland shrugged. “I don’t care. But sometimes it leads to teasing.”
“You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?”
“A bit,” Holland admitted after a pause. “It feels… I don’t know. Weighty? Like we’re setting the tone for the rest of his life. I want it to start off right.”
“It already did. He got you as a bearer.” Holland threw him a fond glance, but that was as much as Quin got before he turned back to the list.
Fine.Quin sighed and read further down the list. His mate wanted the perfect name for their pup and he wasn’t going to be up for any bedroom antics until they’d picked something. “Here—you want something that doesn’t limit him right?” He pointed to the last name on the list. “This is the one. This one is freedom to be whoever he wants.”
“Zane,” Holland said softly, and ran his hand over his belly. “Do you like that, little boy?” he asked, turning his gaze downward.
No kicks responded to his words, but instead, a long slow stretch and roll, as if their son was doing cartwheels inside his bearer’s belly.
“Zane it is,” Quin said. He plucked the paper from Holland’s hand and tossed it on the floor. “Now, let me show you how much I love you.”
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Iusually enjoyedFull Moon night. But I was six months pregnant for this one, fat, awkward, and having what Adelaide had told me a couple of weeks ago were practice contractions. I was cranky. And tired. Andsoready to have this pup.
Quin was doing most of the on the ground organizing tonight, but I would have Bax and Bram for company. Cale was sulking in his apartment because he’d gone into heat and had to miss the celebration. He was terribly worried that he’d miss the baby being born, but the way I felt, it seemed he had plenty of time. This kid was never coming out.
I waddled through the crowd in Bax’s wake so I could get rid of my dirty plate and glass, accepting congratulations and dodging the hands that wanted to pat my belly. My stomach was slightly upset and my womb wouldn’t settle, which was tiring. I kept waiting for it to hurt, because that would be a sign that I was going into true labor, but all it would give me was this restless expansion and contraction.
“You’re done already?” Jason asked, wandering along the table and adding a dab of this, a spoonful of that to his plate. He’d obviously already eaten and was coming back for second helpings.
“No room left. The baby’s taken it all,” I said, and laughed.
He laughed as well. “Yeah, they do. Worth it, though.” He glanced around and waved. “There’s Mac. I should make sure he gets something to eat. He’s working tonight, but there’s nothing crankier than a hungry alpha.” He laid a hand briefly on my arm, then disappeared into the crowd.
A chair. That’s what I needed. There’d be some on the edge of the clearing, where the dancing would be, so I abandoned Bax as he talked to the shifters manning the food tables. I made my way over to the small cluster of random, borrowed chairs and plunked down on one of the last ones left free, next to one of the elders.
She turned to look at me. “Ready to pop, hm?”
“Can’t happen soon enough,” I said with feeling.
“Ah, yes, but you know, they’re a lot less trouble when they’re inside. Once you let them out, they get up to all sorts of things.” And she continued with a long litany of all the dangerous escapades her pups and her grandpups had gotten into. My cheeks began to ache from my forced smile and I started to wish I’d stayed on my feet at the other side of the clearing.
Just when I was debating the wisdom of claiming that my omega line had opened, Quin appeared out of the dark. “Come start the dancing with me,” he said.
