Page 12 of The Omega's Alpha
I snorted and handed him another plate. “We’ll see.”
The alphas soon came in with the rest of the bowls, those that had been given to the pups.
Abel made tea for himself and poured coffee for Quin. Quin wandered over to the table, mug in hand, and began leafing through the magazine. “Are these the articles?”
“Yes.” Abel trailed his fingers across Bax’s shoulders, eliciting a smile from his mate, and walked over to the table. “This one was when we were planning the mating, and during it. This one too. This third one used pictures he got while he was here, but it was about our culture. None of these are big magazines, though, and it didn’t have the impact we’d hoped for.”
I finished the last of the pots and poured a cup of tea for myself, one of coffee for Bax while he put the last of the pots away. He smiled as I handed it to him, and looped his arm through mine to lead me over to the table.
Bax showed me to the seat beside Quin, sneaky creature that he was. I didn’t mind, and I settled in happily next to the Alpha to look at the rest of the pictures I hadn’t seen.
There were a few of the mating ceremony, and as I looked at the images, they triggered memories of other portions of the night. Of the fight, and how fierce Abel had been. Of how fierce Bax had been, in his own way. Of Fan, running into the middle of the clearing to protect his Pap, getting hurt in the process. And Abel’s fury and how he’d finally stopped holding back and made his rival pay. Of the end of the ceremony and how they’d looked at each other, as if the rest of us didn’t exist.
Lady Lysoonka, I wanted that.
Quin put his arm around me. Without realizing it, I’d leaned against him, but I couldn’t regret the action given the results. He seemed comfortable like that, and neither Bax nor Abel commented on the gesture, so I settled in to enjoy the moment, looking through the pictures.
“Do you think he could do this when he doesn’t have a mating to work with?” Quin asked, his voice thoughtful.
“Probably.” Abel moved Taden casually up onto his shoulder, patting his little back while the baby dozed. “It’s going to take some organizing. Bax won’t have time to do it—he doesn’t have enough time to what he does do.”
“It’s not that bad,” Bax said, but I knew it was.
Quin glanced up at me, then gazed speculatively at Bax for a moment, but he’d gone back to taciturn and continued to leaf through the magazine.
Chapter Twelve
Full moon night. It was four days after that surprising kiss in the kitchen. I could still feel his lips against mine, but we hadn’t spoken since.
I had offered to stay with the babies tonight, like usual, but Bax had refused. “Go have some fun,” he’d said, with that look.
“Who am I going to have fun with?” I’d asked him, knowing full well who he was referring to. It was ridiculous, and I thought that Bax was maybe forgetting a little how the real world worked, outside this fantasy land called Mercy Hills. Because he seemed to think that two kisses in his kitchen could become something much more than what it was, or would be. At first I’d been hopeful, but as time wore on, my hopes grew thinner, until they faded away entirely. Quin was the Alpha of Mercy Hills. If he was looking to mate and have pups, he’d want someone who could, you know, have pups. So that was definitely off the table.
And I hadn’t seen him since the kiss.
But I was also tired of hiding myself away in Abel’s and Bax’s home and trying to be inconspicuous. If Bax was going to work in the puppy shelter, then maybe Iwoulddress up and go enjoy the party.
And that was how I ended up wearing a deep blue cotton shirt that I’d embroidered over in silver and white, my best jeans, and a pair of boots that I’d forgotten I had, buried in the back of my closet with the rest of the wreckage of my mating. I’d never worn them, having bought them—with my mate’s permission—to wear when it was officially announced that I was pregnant. And of course, that never happened.
Tonight, they would be dancing shoes. And I planned to break them in well. If the Alpha couldn’t find ten minutes to come see me after kissing me in his brother’s kitchen, then I was going to show him what he was missing out on.
“You’re going to break hearts tonight,” Bax said from the doorway.
“As long as I don’t break toes, I’m happy,” I told him.
He laughed and leaned against the frame. “Don’t worry about being home to help with the pups.”
“I can be home,” I told him absently while I traced some eyeliner along my lower lid. I never wore much, but I did like to show off my eyes a little. I had Bax’s same black hair, without the curl, but my eyes were bright blue and I’d been told often that they were my best feature.
“Go have fun. You haven’t taken a day or a night off since you came to live with us.” He stepped up and hugged me from behind.
I stared at him in the mirror. “You know why.”
“Stop being a martyr. This isn’t home. It also isn’t Perseguir.”
“Hmmph.” He was right, but was he right enough? Quin’s image hovered in my mind’s eye for a moment, then I brushed it away, though it left traces of itself behind. It would be nice if he was entirely right. How risky would it be to test the waters further? And maybe I should just make a decision and stick with it, take the consequences like an adult. I was tired of hiding in Bax’s home. And if he was pushing me to go out and meet people, maybe he was tired of having me in it too. I’d never really thought about it from his point of view, except to make sure he got his money’s worth out of me in labor and care. But perhaps he wanted his house back, to parent his pups, to be a family without the unwanted omega hanging on.
Ugh. I was turning maudlin. Time to buck up and remind myself of what I had.
