Page 24 of The Omega's Alpha
“He’s your brother.”
Quin grinned. “Yeah.” He sounded all too satisfied about that, and I began to worry about him and Abel cooking up some mischief. For a bunch of alphas, they were awfully silly sometimes.
The office assigned to Cas and Garrick was housed in one of the older buildings, next to the school that the younger pups went to. The pack’s records were also stored in there, and the pack’s library took up most of the rest of the building, but Garrick and now Cas had a room sectioned off at the back. It made sense—it was one of the few buildings in the pack that had Internet access, other than the new, main one, and the other school for the older pups.
Quin didn’t bother knocking, just walked in. “Come on, we’re going to go have family time.”
Cas, his dark head still bent over the papers on his desk, lifted one hand, the middle finger proudly erect, and kept scribbling on a piece of scrap paper.
Quin walked around the desk and peered over his shoulder. “Yeah, let’s go.” And before I knew it, there was a knock-down-drag-out playfight going on behind the desk. I scrambled out of the way as the two alphas swayed and stumbled around the room, calling each other things like butthead and weasel-brain. I retreated to the doorway and, once my startled reaction to their antics had faded, I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorjamb, making myself comfortable while the two alphas worked out who was the biggest doofus—their words.
Eventually, they tired each other out. I guessed that Cas had lost, since he shut down his computer and tucked the papers he’d been working with into a folder that then went into a desk drawer that was subsequently locked. He punched Quin in the arm as he walked past him and held out his arm to me. “May I escort you to supper?”
“Absolutely.” But I made sure I got Quin’s arm too, and we walked around to the garage where the cars were kept, three abreast. “You sure you want to drive?” I asked. “It’s a nice day.”
Quin cocked his head at me. “I don’t mind. Just figured Cas might be tired.”
“I’m not the only one who’s worked at a desk all day, Grampa,” Cas said. “A walk will do both of us good.”
I wondered if I was the only one who noticed the twitch of Quin’s eye when Cas called him Grandpa.
Chapter Twenty-One
On the walk over, I learned a lot more about Quin’s brothers, and their mother. As Cas talked, pieces of the Quin puzzle started falling into place. Not all of them, but a few. Like why he was really more suited to be Alpha than Abel had been. How good he was with Bax’s and Abel’s pups, and how that ease seemed to translate to the rest of the pack even on his quiet days. How that quietness was a new thing for him and how Cas worried about him.
The quietness being new wasn’t a surprise to me—I’d picked that up from things Abel had said and hadn’t said. But it pleased me immensely when, on the way out of town, Cas took advantage of Quin being called over to look at a damaged roof to pull me aside and say, “Abel tells me you’ve been really good for Quin.”
I raised my eyebrows, but a pale flush of pleasure rose up my cheeks. “I try.”
“Good. Can I ask you to keep it up, whatever you’re doing?”
“I’m not planning to stop.”
“Good. He kind of raised us when we were pups. Mom is…special.”
Oh. Oh dear. “I see.”
“Yeah, well, just so you know, you can count on us all to run interference for you.”
“Uh, I don’t see why you’d need to.” After all, what mother cared about her son’s bit on the side? It wasn’t like I was mate material.
He grinned ruefully and shook his head. “Quin’s her favorite. As soon as she gets wind of you, she’s going to want to visit to check you out.”
“She has nothing to worry about.” But my stomach twisted, just a little.
“No, she doesn’t,” Cas said, then glanced over my shoulder. “So, Grampa, you climbing up there with a hammer later on?”
“You know I’m too old for that,” Quin said good-humoredly. “What were you two talking about?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Cas got in there first. “I was trying to explain Mom, so Holland could understand where our names came from.”
“Fuck.” Quin put an arm around my shoulders and then we were off. “There’s no explaining Mom. Only a lawyer would even attempt it.”
“That’s because I got all the brains in the family,” Cas said smugly.
“You sure didn’t get the brawn, Mouse.”
Cas showed him a raised middle finger again, then directed it pointedly toward his ass. “You know what to do.”
