Page 23 of The Omega's Alpha
I sort of felt it when Quin worked his way out from underneath me, but I only found out he’d carried me inside and put me to bed when I woke up with the sun the next morning.
Chapter Twenty
August turned into September, and we waved goodbye to Bram and Duke, and said hello to Quin’s little brother Cas. Apparently there was another brother around too, but the only one of the omegas who’d ever met him was Bram, who didn’t remember much of him.
Abel was having a meal for the family to welcome Cas back. I had Quin running at full speed, signing checks to pay for the last batch of building materials, and going over a few applications by young adult shifters who had decided, with all the construction going on, that they wanted to apprentice with some of our more skilled packmembers.
“If they’d ask to go outside walls I’d sign these right away. The guys can’t take on any more apprentices.”
“Maybe in the spring,” I soothed him. “Why don’t you have them in and talk to them?”
He shook his head and rubbed at the back of his neck. Instinctively, and because I loved any excuse to have my hands on him, I stepped in behind his chair and began to rub at the muscles of his neck and shoulders. “You’re really tense. I’m glad we’re going to Abel’s for supper. It’ll be fun.” Quin groaned as I dug my fingers into the knots on either side of his spine. “He needs to get out of that office.” I’d only met Cas a couple of times since he’d moved home a week ago—he was living in the barracks, but he’d disappeared into Garrick’s office almost from the minute he’d arrived and I suspected he was sleeping in there some nights.
“He’s going through the pack’s filed taxes to make sure we didn’t screw anything up.”
“You have an accountant.”
“Not the same as a tax lawyer.” His head fell forward, his upper body curling toward the desk. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”
“I don’t mind,” I told him and leaned into the corded muscles along the backs of his shoulders. “It makes me happy to make you feel better.”
His scent changed, and I braced myself for him to bring up mating again. He’d only done it once since that first time, a tentative suggestion that I’d immediately shut down—surprisingly easy to do, considering he was an alpha. But he didn’t say anything, and I let myself relax and moved on to the rock-hard muscles of his neck. That the innate respect he had for others also applied to me still surprised me pleasantly. It almost made me regret my no, except my reasons were still valid.
I held back a chuckle as he slumped even farther over the desk and used his position to let me work down his back. “We should build this into the schedule,” I said quietly.
“I feel selfish.”
“You get tense. You deserve to look after yourself a little. How did you sleep last night?”
“Okay.”
Yeah, right.“Good. I was thinking about slipping out for a little sleepover.” A good massage before bed might help him sleep better.
Quin sat up and twisted in his chair to look at me. “Really?”
“Sure.” Except his expression seemed torn between excitement and wary uncertainty. “Is it okay? I swear, I’m not a blanket-hog.”
That made him smile, as I’d intended, but then he shook his head. “I’m not worried about that—I think I can take them back. But I’m not a quiet sleeper.”
I pulled on his shoulders until he was back in place, and went back to kneading at the knots in his shoulders. “That’s okay.”
“No, really,” he said and grabbed my hands. He stood up and turned around, losing his grip on my hands for a moment, then taking them in his again and looking at me with the saddest expression I’d ever seen on his face. “Some nights I’m fine, some nights you’re safer in another room.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I said, and rose up on tiptoes so I could kiss him, because even being as tall as I was, he was still taller, which was just sexy. “Let’s pick out a few of those applications to apprentice and approach them about going outside walls. Take them for a few trips outside, maybe let them go stay with Bram and Duke for a few days. They can go back and forth with Garrick when he goes to work with that lawyer.”
Quin gathered me in against him. “You have the best ideas,” he said, and kissed me. “If I pick out a few, can you set up appointments with them?”
“I’ll track them down,” I promised. Not everyone in the pack had phones—a fact that had surprised me when I’d first arrived here. I’d assumed that, Mercy Hills being so rich, everyone would have a phone and a television and whatever—the luxuries. But the reality was that only about ten percent of the pack had a phone, not needing them much in the close confines of the enclave, and probably only a quarter had a TV. The pack spent it’s money on looking after the houses and making sure that everyone was fed and clothed and the sick ones had medicine.
In Buffalo Gap and Perseguir, I’d always been lucky because my family and my mate were well-to-do. If I’d gotten sick, they could have paid for my medicine. Other shifters, poorer ones, sometimes did without. But in Mercy Hills, if you were sick and Adelaide decided you needed something, the pack provided. It was such an amazing sense of security, like nothing I’d ever imagined or had ever realized was missing in my life.
“You know what?” Quin murmured, staring deeply into my eyes. “I’m tired of paperwork. Let’s sneak out early.”
“Sounds good to me.” I reached behind him and patted his bum. “Let’s go.”
Lysoonka bless Louise, she was the best packmate ever. When I stuck my head out the door and whispered that I was stealing Quin early, she never looked up from the stack of receipts she was going through, just made a shooing motion with one hand and then went back to her work. I grinned and slipped back into the apartment to follow Quin out through the other door and down the hallway.
“We should stop and pick up Cas on the way over,” Quin suggested. “Otherwise, he might not come.”
