Page 53 of The Omega's Alpha
I nodded. “Like Ma and Da would have wanted if they had a chance to say. We’ll plant some trees so we can always remember them and some day you’ll have pups of your own to tell stories to about how brave they were.”
“They were?” Agatha asked and sniffed.
I felt something soft against the skin of my arm and turned to see Bax holding out a tissue. I took it and helped her blow her nose, then climbed back onto the couch with Dorian in my lap and Agatha under my arm. “Absolutely. So incredibly brave. And so were you and Dorian. You’re going to have wonderful stories to tell.”
“Oh.” Agatha leaned against me and sighed. “I like it here. Dorian does too. It’s nicer than home.” She stared at the pony in her hand and asked, “Do I have to call you Da?”
“No,” I told her softly. “You can call us Quin and Holland. I think Ma and Da should be for your parents, don’t you?”
She nodded, her hair making a soft shushing noise against my chest. “Yeah.”
“All right,” I said, and sent a relieved smile in Quin’s direction. “It sounds like we have a plan.”
We cuddled a little while longer, and then the pups wanted down. They played on the floor in front of us for a while, then disappeared with Fan and Teca while the adults were talking about pack business. I frowned after them, wondering if I should follow just in case. Apparently Bax had the same idea, because he caught my eye and, as one, we set down our glasses and crept after the pups.
Chapter Forty-Six
We foundthem upstairs in Fan’s bedroom. Bax held up a hand outside the half-closed door, his head cocked to listen. I stopped behind him, but couldn’t make out what they were saying at first, so I borrowed from my wolf to eavesdrop.
“You can borrow my car,” Fan was saying. “We’re cousins now. Dabi says you always share with family.” Something clattered, a plastic sound, and then I heard the vrooming noise of pups driving toy cars around the floor.
Bax’s lips curved into a fond smile. We exchanged contented glances and I wondered if this might be easier than I’d believed it could be.
After a moment, we started to creep away from door, until a puppy whimper came to my still wolf-enhanced ears.
“What’s wrong?” Fan asked.
“I miss Ma,” Agatha choked out. “I wanna go home!”
My chest went tight, so tight it hurt and I clapped a hand over my mouth to hold back a sob of my own as her words cut through my bubble of happiness.
But Bax held up a finger to silence me, and pulled me close, motioning for me to keep listening. His body was tense, and I thought that he was hoping for something as much as I was.
Fan’s voice slipped out through the door. “I miss my Pappuh too. He died. He was Alpha, but then the pack made someone else Alpha and they made me move out of my room and we had to live in the porch and no one wanted to be my friend anymore.” His tone was weirdly matter-of-fact, almost thoughtful. I frowned and glanced at Bax, but Bax shushed me again and turned back to the door.
Fan continued, “I wanted Pappuh to come back and make them give me back my room.”
“My room burned up,” Agatha said weepily.
“Dabi said. That’s sad.”
“So did my Ma and Pa.”
There was a pause in the conversation, then we heard Fan again. “I still miss my Pappuh. Dabi says it’s okay and that he’ll always be my Pappuh, even though I have Pap now and I love him too. Dabi says we can love as many people as we want, and it’s okay to love Pap and that Pappuh would be happy, because Pap is nice and he looks after me and Dabi said that Pappuh is in the Moonlands and he’s happy that we found someone else to look after us the way Pappuh would have. And we give a present on Christmas and his birthday to someone who’s sad so he knows we haven’t forgotten him.” Then I heard the rattle of toys in a box being sorted through. “Here, it’s a present from my Pappuh ‘cause you’re sad and it’s not fair to lose your Da and your Ma and all your toys.”
Agatha began to cry and this time Bax didn’t stop me when I moved past him, just whispering in my ear, “This is important, that she accepts that they’re dead and she has to move on.”
I nodded and stepped through the door. Teca was in the corner, playing quietly with Dorian. Fan looked up, then glanced behind me, gave Agatha a hug, and took Teca’s hand to lead her out of the room. I checked over my shoulder—Bax stood in the doorway with a look of immense pride on his face, and he crouched down to hug his pups, silent tears running down his cheeks. He nodded to me and smiled, then gently urged Fan and Teca out of the room.
Agatha was still crying on the floor and she batted at me to keep me away. I picked Dorian up, who was confused by his sister’s tears and becoming weepy himself. I sat on the floor beside her and rocked her brother, singing old pack songs under my breath and letting her cry out her sadness until her sobs began to slow and she allowed herself to lean against me as I rocked. A few songs later, she pushed herself into my lap, filling my arms.
I kept rocking and singing until the door swung open again. Quin took a hesitant step inside, his expression silently asking if he was allowed in. I nodded and reached out to pull him down beside us. He put his arm around my shoulders, the other around the pups, enclosing us all in the safety of his embrace. Agatha hiccuped against my chest, exhausted, and I turned my head up for a kiss, because my own inability to heal her pain had exhausted me too.
“We do not forget our dead,” Quin’s voice rumbled. “They have trodden the paths ahead of us, to make our own path smoother and more sure. It is our job to learn from them, from their lives, and from their deaths. And by doing that, we keep them alive in our hearts, and ensure that their territory in the Moonlands is rich in game, with plentiful shelter, and family around them. You are not abandoning your parents, but finding your way forward, as they would want you to. And we, Holland and I, as pack, will stand with you and help in any way we can.” I watched his fingers card through their hair and they slowly turned to him and to me for comfort as they let themselves feel their grief.
Eventually the tears stopped, though none of us were eager to return to the crowd in the kitchen below. I leaned into Quin and took comfort from his presence and thought once again how lucky I was to have found him.
He kissed my temple and hugged the three of us to his chest. “You are mine, and I am yours, and I will make of my body a shield against your enemies, against the dire wolves of want and fear. And Holland will make of his a place of welcome, a home den, where there is always love, and he too will make a shelter of his body for you. We are pack, and we do not leave our family in need.”
