Page 68 of The Omega's Alpha
“What time is it?” Holland murmured and rolled over to reach for Quin’s phone, somewhere on the floor where it had landed when he’d undressed in such a hurry. It left the long back and legs exposed and Quin couldn’t resist a last nip at the base of Holland’s spine before he reluctantly pushed himself up to get dressed.
“Did you want to come with me?” he asked Holland.
“What about supper?” Holland sat up and held Quin’s phone out to him. “We’re late.”
“Let’s go to the restaurant. I want to look at one of the houses near it and see if it would be a good spot for the pizza place.”
“You’re serious about that.” Holland slid off the bed with that grace he seemed completely unaware of and started pulling his clothes on. “Where would we put the people living there now?”
“Totally serious. You haven’t tasted their pizza. And I’m thinking this summer, as soon as we can get another house finished, we’ll get them set up. I want to bring us a little closer to modern days, modern ways. I hope soon that doing things the old way will be a matter of choice, and not a matter of necessity.” He pulled his t-shirt down over his head and bent to put his shoes on. “I don’t know how much longer this little time-warp can last, and I worry about the other packs if they don’t come out of their dream.”
“You try to look after everyone, don’t you?” Holland came around the end of the bed and laid his palm against Quin’s cheek. “You’d burn yourself to ash for our people.”
“It’s what an alpha does.”
“Not all of them. I’m a lucky man.” Holland placed a gentle kiss on Quin’s lips, then stepped back. “Let’s go get our pups.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Aweekafter I came back from the city, and another week before I was supposed to leave for New York to visit the agencies and get new pictures taken, we all gathered once more in Bax’s kitchen for the official adoption of the pups. Abel, Bax, Cas. Bax’s pups. Garrick and his human friend, who was spending a lot more time in the enclave than I was entirely comfortable with, but I had enough to deal with right now without borrowing from the commotionthatrelationship was going to cause. Mac and Jason were there with their pups, my brother Cale, even Seosamh, who’s become close with Cale in the past few months. Duke and Bram couldn’t make it, but they’d sent presents for the pups and their well-wishes for all of us.
It was a small signing. Not even a ceremony really, just the placing of our names on the adoption papers next to Alpha Green Moon’s and the heads’ of the pups’ families.
And then it hit me, as I watched Quin sign the contract, that I was truly a parent now. Holy shit. But Quin laced his fingers through mine and the pups gazed at the adoption papers with wide, wondering eyes. It was almost as good as Christmas. Maybe even the same—there were a few presents for everyone hidden away at the back at the apartment. Nothing big, but something to celebrate our little family coming into being.
“Whooo!” Bax yelled, uncharacteristically loud, and then we all laughed when Fan frowned at him and put a finger to his lips. Bax leaned down to kiss him and whisper in his ear. Fan’s eyes lit up and he took off like the Hukkeller was after him, down the hall and into Bax’s and Abel’s bedroom.
I raised my eyebrows at Bax. “What was that about?”
“You’ll see,” Bax said, and smiled mysteriously. I smiled awkwardly back at him and wandered over to the table to touch the piece of paper that had magicked our family into being. All of it.
Quin stepped up beside me. “Too late to back out now,” he said with a grin, but I think I was the only one in the room to notice the inward-pointing barb in the words.
“Damn right,” I told him and grabbed the front of his shirt. “You’ll never escape my clutches now!” And I let loose with a classic villain’s laugh and dragged his mouth down to mine to seal his fate. He chuckled around the kiss and I felt that self-doubt the army had left him with thrash its final death throes. His arms wrapped around me, and we lost ourselves in each other until the laughter and teasing comments from the rest of the family dragged us out of our wonderful little bubble. I let go of him, laughing, and allowed myself to be pulled into Bax’s hug, then Jason’s and Cale’s, Abel’s and Mac’s and Duke’s. And then someone—Garrick’s human friend, I thought—pressed a tall, narrow glass of something bubbly into my hand. It took me a moment to realize it was champagne and I stared at it in mild surprise.
“It’s traditional for humans,” the human said. “Do you not drink it here?”
“Laine, we aren’t made of money,” Garrick said in a sharp tone.
Laine looked puzzled, then comprehension dawned on his face.
Before he could apologize, I laughed and put the glass to my lips, tickled by the bubbles on my tongue. “Thank you,” I said. “I’ve never had this before.” And shot Garrick a glance out of the corner of my eye, to remind him that humans were ignorant and he was to educate, not humiliate. He flushed and stepped back, startling me. I’d played the Alpha’s Mate card when I’d sent him that look, but I hadn’t actually expected him to respond to me the same way he would respond to Quin. It was something I’d have to get used to, and learn to watch to make sure I didn’t abuse it. I sipped at my drink, marveling at the flavors as they lit my tongue up like fireworks, and wandered away to chat with the omegas and absorb my new reality.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Time passed. I’d found an agency willing to work with me, and had won the contract for an ad campaign for some new cologne. Bram called his doctor and set up an appointment for me for June, just days after my first fashion show was slated to take place. Martin was nearly done with the clothing and Clarice had been educating me on the finer points of fashion shows and working with designers. Agatha started a growth spurt that had me scrounging around the clothing exchange on a weekly basis for things that would fit her. And every night, I curled up in bed with my mate and wondered at the changes in my life.
I also grew more hopeful about the idea that, someday, I might be a bearer like any other omega. And our little family settled into a routine that seemed to be regularly disrupted by pack emergencies or puppy emergencies or just random unexpected events that made me throw my hands in the air while Quin laughed at my frustration.
My latest frustration was our mating ceremony, planned for just before Christmas. Quin and I had been bickering back and forth, not about which shifters should be invited, but which humans. This was a politically motivated mating ceremony, completely opposite to our small, hurried and so personal signing of the contract in the front seat of the van. Today, I was sitting at the kitchen table at Bax’s while we hashed out a few more human celebrities we thought might be willing to come.
“Freddy, obviously, though just as a guest,” I mused. “But maybe he can recommend someone to take pictures during the ceremony.” I cast Bax a wicked glance. “We probably won’t need security to keep any old suitors of mine from coming to fight for me.”
“Stop, you!” Bax snapped one the towels he was folding at me, and went back to his laundry. “I certainly hope you’ll have less drama than I did.”
I snorted and added the owner of one of the big construction firms in the city, in the hopes of future consideration when the expansion was finished and we had extra carpenters and roofers and whatever else you had left at the end of a big building project. And it would end with more human money coming into the pack.
Abel walked through the back door and into the kitchen with a pack of what a quick count said was nearly a dozen pups in wolf form running around his feet. “Snacks!” he bellowed. “We’re starving!” He kissed Bax on the cheek and patted his hip, then went to rummage in the cupboard.
