Page 99 of The Omega's Alpha
Quin stood up. “I’m not talking to her.”
“It’s okay, I’ll shut it down.” He accepted the call and got out of his chair. As he left the room, Quin heard him say, “Hi, Mom, everything’s fine.”
Cas stole Abel’s chair and grimaced. “She still going on about finding a nice beta from Salma Wood to settle down with?”
Quin shrugged. “She’ll get over it.” His mom was convinced that anyone in their family needed someone with spirit to stand up to her boys. And she absolutely thought that they should be mating within thebetterpacks. And not omegas.
He sat back down again and checked the time. “I should get dressed.” But instead, he put the bottle to his mouth again and strained his ears to hear Abel’s half of the conversation.
Harris drained his bottle. “I’ll go wash up and get dressed. You need a hand getting into anything?”
Quin shook his head. “No, it’s easy enough.” He sighed and regarded his beer again, then set it aside. “I should get dressed too.” And he took Harris off to Abel’s bedroom to change, and to give him a gentle warning to watch his back while visiting in Salma Wood, just in case.
Abel came in as Quin was shrugging into the mating tunic. “I thought she’d never stop talking. She’s mad that you aren’t answering your phone.” He grabbed his old tunic from his mating off the back of the bedroom door. “I kind of wish she had been able to make it—I bet meeting Holland would shut her up fast.”
Quin paused as he belted his tunic and stared at him. “You don’t think meeting Bax would?”
“Bax will polite her to death. He’ll smile and wait on her and she’ll never see the parts of him that we see.” Abel stripped quickly and jumped into his suit. “Holland will shut her down. I don’t think the whole ‘quiet, polite omega’ thing really took with him.”
“No, I think you’re right,” Quin said slowly.
Harris laughed as he pulled his gloves on. “Maybe I should come back to watch the fight.”
Quin shook his head. “There won’t be a fight. There’ll just be my mother disapproving of my mate, and my mate likely telling her to pack her bags and leave if she was unhappy.” He grinned. “On second thought, we should sell tickets.”
“Time to go!” Mac’s voice rang down the hall. “Are you turtles or wolves?”
They didn’t even have to look at each other. As one, Quin and Harris shouted, “We’re Marines! Oorah!” and then they were off to Central Park and heading for Quin’s future happiness.
Chapter Eighty
Quin paced backand forth behind the tent where he and Holland were to be mated. Abel sat in a chair with his legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles like he had all the time in the world and he wasn’t Quin’s second in the bratvuk. Dorian lay on the grass next to Abel’s chair playing with his new toy cars, which had been a gift for him in honor of the mating ceremony.
“Calm down,” Abel said. “They’re always late. Well, not Bax, but Bax is special.”
“Holland’s special too,” Quin snarled, then caught the gleam of amusement in Abel’s eyes. “You know, I could still pound you like when we were kids.”
Abel grinned. “Thought you said you wanted your mating to be more civilized than mine.”
Quin turned away and grumbled under his breath, “Beating the crap out of your little brother is civilized.”
Dorian crashed two of his cars together. “Holland said you weren’t allowed to beat each other up today. He told me to tell you that you could fight tomorrow.”
Quin ran his fingers through Dorian’s hair as he walked past, meeting the boy’s smile with his own. He started to throw himself down into a chair, but remembered his mating suit at the last minute and instead lowered himself carefully onto the seat. “Where’s Fan? Did he change his mind about being in thebratvuk?” He glimpsed the talk show host strolling around the edge of the clearing and wondered where her cameras were.
“Duke has him, don’t worry. And Jason’s dad has the rest. Thank Lysoon for grandparents, or we’d be in trouble. And now you’re adding another pup to the mix.” Abel sat up and leaned toward him, elbows braced casually on his knees. “You know, at some point, theyaregoing to have to meet Mom. I don’t think we can keep putting it off.”
“I know.” One of the reasons he’d declared himself still Mercy Hills, even when she’d mated a second time and moved back to Salma Wood, was his mother’s attitude about the poorer packs. “Maybe when the baby comes. That should soften her up.” His mother was disappointed that he’d chosen an omega for a mate. In fact, almost the first words out of her mouth the day he’d told her he found a mate were, “You don’t have to do this. If he’s pregnant, we can find someone else to take him.” Still made him want to chew things.
Abel grunted and poked at the ground with the toe of one boot. “We can always sick her on Cas.”
It was tempting. Really tempting. But not fair to Cas. “Yeah, some big brothers we’d be if we did.”
“Yeah, I guess I can be a meat shield for him.” Abel’s eyes crinkled and he laughed. “We should let her meet Bram first, then she’ll love our mates.”
“That, or let her meet Fan and watch him wind her around his fingers.”
“There’s an idea too.” Abel tapped the arm of his chair with his fingernails. “I think she’s upset that she wasn’t around while we were finding mates. If she moves back home after Morris goes to the Moonlands, Cas is going to be in for a fun time.”
