Page 86 of The Omega's Alpha
“Garrick and I have been talking,” he said slowly and his hands flattened out on top of the papers in front of him. “He says you know.”
“Know what?” I thought I had it, but I wanted him to confirm it.
“That we’ve been sleeping together since last November.”
Well. Wasn’t this going to be fun to deal with? “I’d guessed there was something more than friendship between you, back at Green Moon.” I hadn’t known they’d been having sex—that was a bit of a shock, though when I probed the emotion more fully, not as much as it should have been.You’re supposed to be a wolf, not an ostrich with its head in the sand.
I took another drink of the wine, a gulp more than a sip, and wished he’d kept this part of his confession to himself. “What do you want me to do about it?”
That evidently wasn’t the answer he was expecting. He stared at me for a long moment, then his eyes flicked briefly away to his paperwork and back again. “Garrick thinks Quin knows too.”
“He does. Well, not the sex part, but I had to tell him. He just doesn’t have time to deal with it, or know what he wants to do with it. And he does try to keep his nose out of other people’s relationships, though I don’t personally see how he can avoid that with yours.” I kept my eyes on his, exerting my dominance as Alpha’s Mate—which was getting to feel less like wearing someone else’s shoes all the time. All my life, I’d been at the bottom of the dominance hierarchy. Now, here I was, second only to Quin, on a par with Mac. Except it was a much more delicate dance with humans, but if this human had been sleeping with a pack member, he would understand some things, and not understand others. It would be interesting to see which were which. “I don’t appreciate you complicating his life like this.” I’d heard Uncle Mitchell’s wife say something like that once. It had the same effect today on the human beside me as it had had in the pack back then.
Laine winced and looked away and if he’d been a shifter I would have expected him to tip his head to one side and turn his wrists out, but he didn’t, so I was left uncertain of what his body language actually meant. “It wasn’t intended to be a complication,” he muttered and picked up a sheaf of papers to sort through them.
“Then what did you intend?”
“It was an…accident.” His face went blank, unreadable, and even his scent lost any tell-tale nuances of truth or lie. “He explained to me that it’s different in the packs, that there’s more freedom to form a…connection, with whoever you like and their sex doesn’t matter.”
“Not everyone. You having only one form does exactly what you didn’t mean to do—complicates things—and it’s going to make his life distinctly more difficult if it gets out.” I leaned my head against the back of the seat and closed my eyes. “Who else knows?”
“We haven’t told anyone.”
“Keep it that way.” I drank another swallow of wine, feeling it curl through my veins. If only Quin were here, instead of Laine.Fuck.I suppressed a dirty little smile and raised my glass to my mouth again. “After the mating ceremony, we’ll talk about it. But you two need to spend less time together. Garrick will need to stay at the pack house and not yours for a while, until we figure out what harm this could cause.”
He stared at me, a look on his face like a teenager told he couldn’t see whatever flame was heating his heart and his loins until he did his chores, then his expression smoothed out again. “We are capable of being discreet,” he said with a bite in his voice.
“I don’t doubt it,” I told him calmly. “All the same, you’ll do as I say. For Garrick’s sake. We live among you, but wearen’t you. As your kind have made it obvious, over and over and over again. And that kind of disdain breeds a response that I can’t guarantee on our own territory, even toward our own kind.” There’d been whispers, comments, easily squashed, and Quin and I hadn’t taken them seriously. Now I was. “Cas suspects something too, I think, but he’s either keeping it to himself or hasn’t really done any thinking about it. I don’t know which.”
The conversation had to be paused a moment while the hostess came back to fill my wine glass. Interestingly, Laine’s was still full. What did that say?
She left, and I added softly, “We did our best to keep you safe.”
I saw comprehension dawn on his face. “You’ve controlled who I dealt with in the pack.”
“Not exactly. But Quin made sure there was always someone with you, or with the other humans, who could keep things from getting out of hand.” I didn’t really want him to know how much personal danger he’d been in at Green Moon, though the light in his eyes told me that he was starting to put two and two together. But thinking about this brought up memories of other things that had happened at Green Moon and a smile curved my lips. I buried it in my wine, and wondered if I’d be drunk by the time I got to California. “Do we truly need to discuss this here and now? I’ve never ridden in an airplane before and I’d like to enjoy it.”
He leaned back in his seat and regarded me a moment before a smile broke out on his face and I caught a glimpse of what Garrick saw in him. “Absolutely.”
Chapter Seventy
There wasa small group of alphas waiting for us at the airport, a tiny island of familiarity. The three of them stood near a window, surrounded by empty space as the humans casually avoided them. They must have been warned that I would be arriving with a human, because they gave him no more than a cursory glance before introducing themselves.
“Alyn Las Padros. Head of Security.” he said and held out a hand, eyes watching me critically to see how I would respond. But I was Alpha’s Mate now and, as much as instinct and history wanted me to tip my head and admit he was more dominant, he wasn’t the Alpha of Las Padros. So I nodded and introduced myself and Laine, and stared him straight in the eye.
He sniffed and leaned forward. I permitted it because sending the Head of Security was a sign of great respect, but only briefly, letting him catch my scent, and Quin’s still painted over me. “I heard you’re already contracted.”
“I am. Our public ceremony will be Midwinter, though. The fire threw our schedule out of joint.” I wasn’t going to confess to our real history.
He grinned. “A shame. You’re a handsome omega.”
I smiled back at him. “And a taken one.” Not that I wouldn’t make him pay if he laid a finger on me that I didn’t agree to.
“Yes, that too.” He turned to the other two shifters waiting patiently behind him. “Balthazar Las Padros, and Werner Las Padros. I’ve assigned them to look after you, make sure you get to your appointments and protect you outside walls.”
“I thank you for your care, as does my Alpha. May I introduce my lawyer, Laine Montague?” I gestured to Laine, who nodded politely. We followed our escort to pick up our luggage, then outside to a van waiting for us at the far end of one of the parking lots. The heat hit me like a blanket, hot as Buffalo Gap, but maybe a bit more humid. I was growing accustomed to Mercy Hill’s. They bundled us into our seats and then we were on our way to the TV station for a meeting before tomorrow’s show.
The traffic made me nervous, even though I wasn’t the one driving. But just thinking about trying to direct a car or van through the rapid weaving of the other vehicles made my stomach churn and I breathed a silent sigh of relief when we pulled into a parking spot not too far from the television station. We piled out of the van and Alyn took my arm as we walked toward the front doors.
