Page 22 of The Omega's Alpha
It couldn’t be too bad if Abel was there, so I did what I was told. Quin folded himself into the seat beside me and then we were off, bumping over the road toward home.
When we arrived, Quin led us around the side of the house to the back yard. There, we found Bax, Bram, Jason, Duke, and Mac, sitting on the grass or perched on the back step.
“Are we having a party?” I asked nonchalantly, but the hairs on the back of my neck where my ruff would be began to stand on end. Something weird was going on.
“No,” Abel said, and his voice held an undercurrent of his old Alpha’s tone. “We’re going to teach you guys how to defend yourselves.”
“Us?” Bram exclaimed. His face split in a broad grin. “Fantastic!” He leaned into Duke, bumping him with his shoulder. “Watch out for yourself now!”
“Don’t get too excited,” Duke said. “We’re off to the city next week.”
“Darn.” But Bram didn’t look too disappointed. “Well, we can practice when I’m not in class.”
“Bram,” Abel said in a tone stern enough to make the other alphas sit up and take notice. “If you get into any kind of trouble, your job is to run, and run as fast as you can until they’ve given up on you. You’re not to go looking for trouble.”
Bram looked—not exactly crushed, but I thought Abel might have misread him. “I don’t think Bram would do anything that would keep him away from the babies, or put them at risk,” I put in gently.
“No,” Bram agreed. “I just want a chance against this big lug.”
He wasn’t telling the truth there either, but I caught a hint of nerves, hidden deep in in the center of his words. Well, I’d be nervous if I was going to go live in the middle of a bunch of humans, with no idea how they’d take to me. And he should know how to defend himself—none of us knew what he was going to be up against. Best to arm him with every weapon we could think of.
Quin stepped in to save the day. “I’d be more comfortable if he knew how to break free and disable someone long enough to escape. You can’t trust humans—they panic too easily, especially in groups.”
Bram started to get that look, the one where he was getting a little too excited, and I caught his eye. He deflated and reached for Duke’s hand. I nodded and moved over next to Quin. “What do we do?”
What we did, it seemed, was get our omega butts kicked. The alphas would show us something, and then we had to try it on each of the alphas, one after the other, while they, in turn, bent us into pretzels, or tested out how well we bounced. Once, and once only, I managed to get a leg behind Mac and knock him over, but he took me down with him and I ended up on the bottom again. Which I would have been perfectly happy with if it had been Quin, but nope—not Mac.
By the end of the afternoon, we were all tired—even the alphas. I flopped down on the ground with my head pillowed on Quin’s belly. “I’ll just go to sleep here.”
Quin snorted, bouncing my head a little. “You guys did well,” he said. “For beginners.”
“When are you planning to do this again?” Jason asked from his place sprawled out on the back step.
Quin got up on one elbow and looked in Mac’s direction. “Day after tomorrow?”
I groaned, and gave Mac a dirty look when he grinned.
“You’ll be fine by then,” Abel said. He got to his feet and reached down to help Bax up. “Why don’t you go have a bath?” he said in a low voice. “I’ll go get the pups and bring them home. Maybe we’ll stop at the restaurant and pick up supper.”
“But that would be—”
“Not expensive. And if it was, you’re worth it.” Abel leaned down and kissed Bax’s cheek, then pushed him in the direction of the house. “Go on.”
Bax let one hand drift over Abel’s cheek, the fingers trailing along his lower lip, and smiled. “All right.”
From the other side of me, I heard Jason murmur, “I think that’s our cue. Come on. I want to soak in a hot bath too.”
Mac chuckled and I watched as they waved and made their way, slowly and stiffly on Jason’s part, around the side of the house.
“I want a shower. And a nap,” Bram groaned. “Come on, Duke. You can rub the knots out of my back after.”
“I can, huh?” But Duke scooped Bram up into his arms and carried his laughing mate toward the house. “Who’s going to get the twins?” They disappeared, and Abel nodded at me and Quin, then rounded the side of the house. Going for the pups, I supposed.
Which left me and Quin lying together on the ground in the warm sun. “I could nap,” I said and closed my eyes. The sun beat down on us, too hot really, but it felt good on my overused muscles.
“You’re going to get a sunburn if we don’t move,” Quin told me.
“Just a few more minutes,” I mumbled. My body was like lead—my eyelids too. I’d been up too late last night and had taken part in far too much physical activity today. Not that I regretted a moment of it, but right now, a soft mattress and maybe, if he was agreeable, Quin’s chest for a pillow was all I wanted.
