Page 47 of The Omega's Alpha
“I’d have to go home and get clothes first.” I was a good four inches taller than Cale and there was no way I was trying to fit into his t-shirts.
“Yeah, um, I wanted to talk to you about that.” Quin gave Cale a portentous look, and my brother nodded and moved farther into the room, showing Agatha the clothing tucked away in her dresser drawers.
Quin pulled me out into the hallway. “I was thinking that it would be better all around if you just moved in now, rather than wait until whenever we can organize a mating ceremony.”
“Okay.” I laughed at the stunned expression my easy response put on his face. “If I’m going to blaze a trail for omega equality, let’s go all the way. Can I borrow the truck? And Jason or someone else who can drive?”
“Bram’s around—he can drive.”
“Bram?” I remembered his driving lessons. I’d decided at one point that the middle of the road was probably safest, though I’d heard he was better now.
“Yes, Bram. You’ll be fine.” He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “But put your seatbelt on.”
I giggled and twisted my head to catch his mouth. “Sending your future mate to his death.”
“Hurry back,” he whispered and kissed me again.
“I will.” But puppy wails cut through our excitement.
“I have to go,” Quin said and grinned wickedly at me.
“This better not be setting a precedent,” I told him with mock severity, then gave him a quick hug and pushed him toward the door. “I’ll look after the pups, you look after the pack.”
Chapter Forty
After forty-fiveminutes of trying to get hold of Bram to come get me, I gave up. Cale was still supposed to be watching the tables and directing any of the new shifters that got lost or needed something, but I begged him to keep an eye on the pups for an hour, and volunteered one of the teenagers acting as runners to take over the table. The young man had opened his mouth to protest, but then I gave him pleading omega eyes and he folded completely. Cale snorted and gave me a wry look, but I didn’t care. It had worked, hadn’t it?
With the pups taken care of, I made the trek across the enclave to Bax’s and Abel’s house. And immediately wished I hadn’t.
Fucking Bram.Fucking.Bram. I should have expected it, the little shit never had any boundaries.
He packed. My. Fucking. Apartment. Before I got there. Before I even knew I was moving in with Quin. He touched my underwear! No wonder I hadn’t been able to get hold of him to come pick me up.
“It was faster this way. And we heard you were betrothed,” he said, with all the airy insouciance of an omega nearly a year mated. “And Quin said to do it.”
“Quin and I will be having words,” I muttered.
Bram shrugged. “If you want to. But the real reason? We need the space. Like, really need it. There was some talk of moving all the omega pack into Cale’s apartment and putting two families in the big apartment, which is ridiculous and not fair to Cale. Thank Lysoonka Cale and I managed to put a stop to that, but it did leave us a little short on housing. My clinic’s been pressed into service as shelter too.” He appeared disgruntled about it, despite the fact that it would be six years before he could actually practice in it. “I hope no one’s planning on getting mated—except you—for the next year or so. Everything’s full, including the expansion space in the main building. We’ve even boarded a few in with families around the enclave.”
I’d known it would be tight—I hadn’t realized how tight. But the buses would be coming back again tomorrow with more loads of Green Moon shifters and then they’d start transporting the rest of the refugees to Salma Wood. The only ones that would be left in Green Moon would be the ones involved in the reconstruction of their enclave. Trying to spread nearly five thousand shifters out between two packs was going to be tough.
Shit. “Thank for doing the packing. It would have been less work, though, if you’d answered your phone.”
“Oh, I was done then.” His eyes twinkled and he cast me a look that let me know exactly why he hadn’t answered the phone.
I almost told himnot in my bed, but then I realized it wasn’t my bed anymore. “Okay,” I said, and grabbed a couple of bags. “We should get this stuff out of the way. I can’twaitfor a shower.”
If he’d been expecting a reaction, he was disappointed, but it didn’t show. “Yeah, they should be here any minute. There’s a couple of pups, their parents and, I think, her mother?” He glanced around the room. “It’s going to be tight.”
“There any food left in the cupboards?” I often ate at Bax’s, if I wasn’t eating with Quin, so my cupboards were pretty much empty of everything except snacks.
“Some. They should have a box with them when they come, or someone will deliver it.” All of a sudden, his voice sounded tired, and I turned to look suspiciously at him.
“Bram, what’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Just a long week. And this pregnancy—it must be triplets, because I could sleep all day. And between Jedrick and Isolde, one of them is up every night and I don’t want Duke working with that electric saw when he’s that tired.”
“Why don’t you go into Bax’s and lie down and I’ll deal with the new family?”
