Page 59 of The Omega's Alpha
Quin had put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him with a little shake of remonstrance. “Just think of how much trouble I could get into if I spent all my time worrying about you.”
And so, I’d gone to the city with the Head of Security, and one of last year’s crop of new adults. As we approached the hotel we’d be staying at, I laced my fingers together in my lap and squeezed until the knuckles turned white to keep from picking at the bright yellow tabs on my collar. They glowed like mini-suns against the dark blue of my jacket and I wished I had something else to wear. Something that wouldn’t make them stand out so much.
We’d booked four days outside the enclave, uncertain of how long this would take, but Quin said he could arrange to extend it if we needed more.
Mac pulled the car to a stop in front of the doors.
“Edmond, you can help Holland with the bags and checking in,” Mac told him. He glanced into the rear view mirror and I nodded. I’d keep an eye on him, though what good I’d be, I didn’t know.
Edmond and I got out of the car and extracted everyone’s bags from the trunk before Mac drove off to park. It was a nice hotel, all beige stone and big windows. When we went inside I had to stop and do a slow turn to take it all in, the rich wood, fancy gold doorknobs, something that I suspected might be marble on the floor. This would be the lobby, and if the lobby was this fancy, what were the rooms like? My gut twinged wondering how much this was costing the pack, but then I remembered that only the more expensive hotels would have the kinds of locks that were required to keep us shifters safely locked in. Didn’t help with the guilt, though.
Edmond looked around the lobby and spotted a curved desk made of the dark wood that covered the bottom half of the walls. “That will be the front desk.” He fumbled in his pocket, his eyes flicking around the room as if searching for threats, and his scent grew sharp with anxiety.Oh dear.I was here with a pup. Which was funny, because we were the same age. But he seemed far less in control of his emotions than I was, which was a new one for me. I glanced over at Edmond, who straightened up with a credit card in his hand. “Let’s go check in,” he said.
Obediently, I followed him over to the desk and smiled politely at the young woman behind it.
“Uh, we need to check in,” Edmond said, his cheeks turning pink.
“Can I have the name it’s booked under?” she asked. She didn’t seem to be bothered by the tabs on our collars, which was a pleasant surprise.
“Oh, uh…” Edmond spluttered. I guessed he hadn’t thought about needing that piece of information.
“It’s probably under Mac Mercy Hills, or MacKenzie Mercy Hills,” I put in, and eyed Edmond to see if I was stepping on alpha toes here. Prudently, I added, “If not, try Edmond Mercy Hills.” I’d left Seosamh to make the reservation online while I packed and had no idea what name he’d made it under.
She tapped a few buttons on the keyboard. “Oh, here it is.” A few more clicks and a printer whirred, spitting out a sheet of paper. “The credit card has been pre-authorized on the account, I’ll just get you to sign here as the responsible party,” she made an X next to a line on the page, “and then I can make your keys for you.”
Edmond signed with all the pompous sincerity of my first mated pack’s Alpha and I hid a smile.
Mac came in the door, spinning the car keys around his finger. He wasn’t nearly as tense as Edmond, though there was a certain subtle awareness in his posture that let me know he wasn’t entirely at ease. “Checked in yet?” he asked.
“Just getting your keys up, sir,” the girl said. I watched as she slid small rectangles of plastic through a machine, then slipped them each inside an envelope before writing a number on the paper. It was all fascinating; I’d never seen this before, though the characters in Bax’s novels all seemed to spend ridiculous amounts of time in hotels.
The woman looked up at us and handed out the…I supposed those were the hotel room keys. She smiled brightly at us, and Edmond went an even brighter pink. “Your room number is right on your key envelope,” she said. “The pool closes at eleven, the restaurant closes at twelve, but room service runs all night. If you have any problems with your room, or want more towels or blankets, just dial zero on the room phone and someone will help you. Checkout is at eleven in the morning, and your room will be at the end of the hall to your right if you take the right-hand elevator.”
“Thank you,” Mac said gravely, and accepted the keys. Edmond and I gathered up our bags and followed after him like good little packmembers, and I tried to keep my eyes from falling out of my head as the sheer luxury of the place beat down on me from all angles. It was a little better in the elevator, but the hushed silence of the hallway after was only exceeded by the weird stillness of our room.
Still, it was gorgeous. Like, jealousy-making gorgeous. I wandered about the room, letting my fingertips trail over the long desk against the wall, the rough textured wallpaper, then tried out the bed, which felt like about six inches of the softest cloud in the sky laid over a foot of lovely down. I closed my eyes and justfelt. It was amazing—I could have stayed there forever.
“What time do we have to meet him?” Mac asked, destroying my peaceful float through the heavens.
“Nine, in the bar,” I said, my eyes still closed.
“That’s cutting it close.”
“He wouldn’t come earlier.” I shrugged, and wondered if I had time for a nap.
He grunted. “We’ll have to watch the time.”
I yawned and started a stretch, then thought better of it. Because I was in a hotel room with two unrelated alphas and my own particular alpha was an hour away, and maybe it wasn’t entirely safe to act like I was home with Quin.
Speaking of… Damn, how could I miss him already when it had only been an hour since he’d last kissed me? Gah, I was such an omega. “I’m going to have a nap,” I said firmly, and kicked off my sneakers. “Wake me up about half an hour beforehand?”
“Sure,” Mac said, and moments later I heard the sound of the television being turned on.Well, good.I snuggled down in my cloud-like comfort and let the lack of sleep from the last couple of days take me away.
Chapter Fifty-One
Mac shook me awake, it seemed, as soon as I’d gone to sleep. “Holland, it’s eight-thirty. Do you want to wash or grab something to eat first?”
“Huh? No, I’m up.” I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, hiding my face in my hands until my brain caught up to reality. “No, I’m good,” I said as his words penetrated. I dropped my hands and asked, “What about you guys?”
