Page 97 of The Omega's Alpha
“He did,” Bax said. “But it was like dealing with a three-year-old in an adult’s body.”
I laughed.
“It’s beautiful,” Cale said, stroking the sueded leather of my mating suit.
“It is that,” Bram said. He poked around the little pots of body paint and grinned. “If we don’t use all this tonight, can I have it?”
“Why?” Jason asked.
Bram went slightly pink and I put up a hand to end the conversation. “Yes. And if you want, we can sneak away to paint you before you and Duke head home.”
Jason stared at him, then his mouth curled up into a wide smile. “That’swhy you were wondering if I could take the twins.”
The blush on Bram’s cheeks went scarlet and he hung his head, though his grin was unrepentant. “Well, Vawn will probably sleep through the night, and Duke and I never really had a proper mating night. I mean, we had the paint and everything, but…” His voice trailed off and he grimaced.
“I can keep Vawn, if you want,” Cale offered. “He’s still taking a bottle sometimes, right?”
Bram grimaced. “Yes.” He sighed and came over to start painting my left leg. “Maybe the next one I won’t need to add formula.”
“He is nursing some, though, right?” Bax said, leaning in close to paint an intricate symbol over my hip.
Bram nodded and moved a little to one side, and then I felt the cool touch of a paintbrush over my lower back as someone else joined in the traditional painting of the bearer. “He always starts on me, but he still needs some extra.” He stood up and shook his head, then exchanged his pot for one of another color. “Maybe the next one, I’ll make enough milk to feed them on my own.” He looked sober for a moment, then his eyes crinkled up in mischief and he started to paint a symbol on my thigh.
I looked down my body, trying not to sway too much and risk ruining everyone’s work, and squinted at the shape. “Speed?”
Bram grinned. “Alpha’s mate, model, bearer. You’ll need to be able to move faster than everyone around you to get everything done.”
“That’s,” Bax said with mock sternness, “why he’s got Cale and Seosamh to help.”
Bram was unrepentant. “Uh huh. Can’t hurt though.”
I laughed. “No, it can’t.”
Bax worked his way around to my belly. “I don’t suppose we need fertility here?” he asked, that glint in his eyes again.
“Jerk. Yes, we do.” I almost had to physically stop myself from putting my hands over the place where our baby was growing. The spring seemed so far away, and the baby already so real.
I couldn’t wait for the ceremony to be over so I could have Quin to myself for a little while, before I had to give him back to the pack again. But for tonight, he was leaving his phone in the office, as was I, and we were going to be just two newly mated shifters on the first night of their shared lives together.
Behind me, Cale said, “I’m putting strength between his shoulder blades, in case anyone needs to know.”
“I don’t think you can put strength on too many times,” Jason said and laughed. “Especially for Alpha’s Mate.”
We chatted lightly and joked until my body was covered with good wishes and beautiful lace-like tracery. Bax checked the time. “We have a few minutes, if there’s anything else you want to do.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.” My hair had been done by a hairdresser friend of Freddy’s earlier—much to my surprise. My mating outfit was laid out and ready on the bed, and I’d done the little make-up I cared for before anyone had shown up. “Might as well get dressed.”
Bram gathered up the pots of paint and set them to the side. “Is Seosamh getting Agatha ready?”
“Yes,” Bax said. “Holland, don’t move. We’ll bring the clothes to you.”
“You do realize I have to walk to the mating site, don’t you?” But I stayed put and let him come to me with the loose pants. He knelt in front of me, and Cale held me steady as I stepped into them, careful not to smudge the paint on my legs. Bram held out the tunic and between him and Jason they got me into the complicated outfit without ruining any of the good luck painted on my body.
“I’m kind of jealous too,” Jason mused as he tied the belt around my waist.
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” I agreed. “I’ve been very lucky.”
“Not that you didn’t earn the luck,” Bax said. He straightened up from holding my boots for me and looked me square in the eye. “We all have paid for our luck. And I, for one, am going to enjoy my luck tonight.” He grinned and winked lasciviously and we all roared with laughter at him. It wasn’t often Bax let this side of him out to play, and I was pleased to see him so relaxed, more Bax and less the perfect mate.
