Page 16 of The Omega's Alpha
“Really?”
Abel sighed and shook his head. “No, not really. I wish… I don’t know. He’s grown up a lot since he mated. I just wish it could have happened without all that.” His eyes widened when he noticed Quin’s expression. “Damn it, you know it’s not your fault. You were one month in the office, even I didn’t know, or didn’t think about it.”
“Didn’t think about what?” Duke said from behind Quin.
“Nothing,” Abel said. “You gave up on the food?”
“Can’t eat too much or I’ll be too full to dance, and then I’m done for. No one messes with Bram’s dances.”
“Looks like we’ll all be dancing then. Unless Quin made a strike for alpha dignity?” Abel raised his eyebrows at him.
“Nope. I’m as brow-beaten as you two heathens.” He noticed Holland making his way toward their little group, Jason right behind him. Holland’s eyes were bright and they fell on Quin like sunshine casually left behind as its originator moved on to warm other parts of the world.
“Have you had enough to eat?” Holland asked. “The musicians are setting up.”
“I’m done,” Abel said. “Quin?”
“That’s enough for me.”
“Good,” Holland said, and nipped the plates out of their hands. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he promised and walked off with a sultry glance over his shoulder.
Abel clapped Quin on back and pulled him into a rough, half-hug. “Good luck, oh my brother, great and powerful warrior of Mercy Hills. I’ll drop into the office to pick up your slack tomorrow.”
“No need of that.”
“Every need of it.” Abel grinned and squeezed Quin’s shoulder. “I’m glad you two have finally stopped dithering around. It was going to drive me lunar.”
Quin pulled him aside. “Promise me this isn’t a mistake,” he said in a low voice.
“You’re worried about Holland’s history? He’s a good man, a good shifter. He’s fantastic with the pups. And that thing with his mate wasn’t anything he did.” Abel looked as if he might have said more, then decided not.
“Not him. Me.” Quin looked up at the sky and the stars doing their best to outshine the torches ringing the clearing. “You know what’s been going on with me.”
“But it’s getting better, right?” Abel put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t look at him through the old stories we told each other as pups. One thing I’ve learned since Jason set off the omega avalanche here--” Quin snorted a laugh at that, but Abel continued, “—they’re so much more than just homemakers and someone to bear and raise pups. Look at Bram, going to college. At Bax, dealing with humans and balancingtwobusinesses, along with the pups. It’s funny—the most traditional of them all, really, is Jason, the guy who grew up in human society. Never would have expected that.”
“I don’t want to hurt him.”
“He’s strong enough to handle a few mistakes. And that’s what they’d be, is mistakes. We all make them.” Abel turned his head to look in the direction of the puppy area. “I’ve made a few with Bax, but courting him was not one of them.” His smile was fond and distant, as if his body was here but he himself had gone to be with his mate. “And Bax and I were talking about you two.”
“You were?” Quin’s first response was a surge of anger that faded almost as soon as it hit him. They were adults, and Abel’s mate was intelligent and observant. And then there was Abel, who worked together with him like a well-oiled machine and had always looked out for Quin’s interests as much as Quin had looked out for Abel’s. This wasn’t gossip, but Abel looking to help Quin find his path forward, and he should be grateful. “What did you decide?”
“That, even though neither of you think you’re worth having, you’re both idiots and Bax wants to smack the two of you. That, or feed the pups sugar and lock you in a room with them, until both of you come to your senses.”
Quin started to laugh, choked it back, then set it free. It felt good to laugh, like he’d suddenly shaken off some huge beast’s claws, its mass hanging from his shoulders, inertia keeping him on the same dark path. Maybe Abel was right, and he needed to give himself the same second chances he gave everyone else. Quin glanced in the direction Holland had gone.
He found him coming back from the table where the used dishes were being collected. Holland and Jason strolled across the grass toward them, deep in conversation, though Holland’s eyes seemed to focus on Quin as he approached.
Quin held out a hand. “Would you like to dance?” His heart pounded as if this were life and death, and for a moment, he wished he were back in his apartment, holed up with no one to tempt him.
Holland took it. “I would love to.”
Chapter Fifteen
We dancedmost of the night. I was giddy as a pup, whirling through the steps with an abandon I hadn’t felt since before I’d been mated. Quin was—not exactly graceful, but he never made a single misstep in any of the dances. Perhaps it was just his size, taller than me, bulky, all muscle and heat and alpha. It would have to be hard to maneuver tight patterns when you were that freaking big.
When the musicians called a halt to the festivities, he held out an arm to me. “May I walk you home?”
“I should collect the dishes,” I said reluctantly, and glanced toward the table. I didn’t want to leave my little fantasy world to come back to dull reality. And wasn’t he going to run in furskin?
