Page 100 of The Omega's Alpha
Quin snorted a laugh. “Cas will go lunar. And she only has herself to blame for our genetics. If she wasn’t so stubborn herself, we’d all be much easier to get along with.”
Abel joined him in laughter.
A young shifter came running around the end of the tent. “They’re coming!” he shouted excitedly, and bolted back out into the crowd.
Quin shot to his feet and strode around the end of the tent to find his place, butterflies making a concerted effort to ram their way out of his stomach as he waited for Holland. Abel squeezed his shoulder and disappeared with Dorian in the direction of the main building, where Holland and hisrozvennyawould be.
The noise of the crowd grew louder, and then Quin saw them parting around hisbratvuk. Inside the ring of alphas walked the ring of Holland’srozvennya, spread out around him like the petals of a flower. No, more like the bright ring of coals around the roaring column of a bonfire. Because Holland was luminously beautiful, his hair like a dark river around his shoulders, the tunic of his mating suit flowing around him like meadow grasses in the nighttime breeze.
He and Holland had spoken long about this ceremony, what they wanted, what they were willing to compromise on. Holland had been unaccustomedly tentative at first, but it had eventually come out that, while he was content to be an omega, the implied promises and the unspoken assumptions of the traditional omega mating ceremony rubbed him like an ill-fitting shoe. “And, after all,” he’d said. “We’re already mated.” So they’d come up with something that was uniquely them, and would set all the packs in an uproar.
His mother was going to have a stroke. Quin couldn’twaitto hear what her reaction was.
Thebratvuksplit apart to stand on the far side of the circle where Quin and Holland would exchange their vows, Dorian stopping for a quick hug before he went to his spot. Fan stood next to Abel, as solemn and upright as his adopted sire. Harris stood at parade rest and did his best not to smell like prey.
Holland’srozvennyamoved in front of them, each one holding an offering to the moon in their cupped hands. Holland walked up to Quin, defying the tradition that would see his guardian pass ownership of Holland’s body and soul to his mate. Quin listened to the rising murmur from the crowd, borrowing from his wolf to pick out words and phrases, alert to any sign of danger. He knew the men in hisbratvukwould be doing the same—it had been agreed amongst them.
As soon as they stood before each other, Quin raised his voice, borrowing again from his wolf so it would carry out over the crowd. “My family of Mercy Hills, I come here, not as your Alpha but as a fellow packmember, to ask you to lend your support to this mating.”
The crowd burst into cheers and even a few howls, signaling their support for their Alpha’s choice of mate with their unbridled voices. The humans surrounding their President where he stood not ten feet from the mating circle jumped, but Bax had moved to take a place right in front of them and he brought with him that island of peace that surrounded all their True Omegas. A peace that Quin had begun to notice emanating from his mate since his operation, which was both interesting and worrying.
When the noise of the pack had died down, it was time to make their vows to each other.
“Quin Mercy Hills,” Holland said in a voice that carried out over the murmur of the crowd, silencing them like the rush of paws silenced prey. “I do come here, in the sight of our pack, in the eyes of our families, in the light of the Mother Moon and her children, to pledge myself to you as your mate. To love you and care for you, to support you in times of need, share with you the times of joy, and to bear pups to continue your line in health and strength. Your joys will be my joys, your sorrow mine as well, for joys shared are multiplied, and sorrows shared divided. This I do promise, on my life, my heart, and the living fields of the Moonlands, before Lysoonka and her Guardian Pups, and before all these whom I hold dear.”
Quin grinned, and before the packs could start gossiping, he began his vows. “Holland Mercy Hills, I do come here, in the sight of our pack, in the eyes of our families, in the shade of the forest that allows our prey to increase in safety and plenty that our pups may too be raised in plenty, to pledge myself as your mate. To love you and care for you, to support you in times of need, share with you the times of joy, and to join with you in the care and teaching of our pups, the two we have now, and those to come.” He felt his eyes shining with excitement, every word stitching them closer together. “My kills will be your kills, my strength yours to command. You are my joy and shelter, and those things I will guard with my life. This I do promise, on my life, my heart, and the living fields of the Moonlands, before Lysoon and his Guardian wolves, and before all these whom I hold dear.” With those words, he stepped forward to undo the knot at Holland’s waist, handing the belt off to Mac, then slowly slipping the exquisite mating tunic over his mate’s shoulders and down his arms, to leave Holland half-naked and already goose-pimpled in the December air.
“Hurry up, will you? I don’t want to look like a wimp,” Holland muttered.
Abel came forward and traded the tunic he was holding for the one that Quin held and went back to his place in the circle.
Quick as hunting, Quin swung the mated tunic—another gift of Martin’s—around Holland’s shoulders and helped him into it, tying the knot at the waist with as much speed as possible, then pulled Holland against him and remarked to the crowd, “Not much point in mating him if I’m going to let him freeze solid.”
Dead silence from the crowd, unused to hearing their Alpha makes jokes, then the human President began to chuckle and it spread out from there in a swell of happiness until the entire pack in attendance had joined in on the hilarity.
In the midst of the laughter, Mac brought out the small table, with a place to sign their contract, a mug of the pack’s cider, and the bowl of meat cubes Jason had made for them earlier.
Quin picked up a cube and held it up to Holland’s mouth. “As I share my life, so do I share what I have. What food I have will be yours.” Holland accepted the meat daintily and began to chew while Quin reached for the mug of cider on the table. “If you thirst, I will quench it.” He let Holland sip from the mug. “Together we are more, as is right. We are pack, and in pack, no one is alone.”
Now it was Holland’s turn. He delicately picked out a chunk of meat and held it up for Quin to eat. “As I share my life, so do I share what I have. What food I have will be yours.” He held the mug up to Quin’s mouth. “If you thirst I will quench it. For we are our own pack within our greater pack. We are one and more than one, and we will never be alone.”
And so they were mated in the eyes of the pack. Quin pulled a pen and the contract from inside his tunic and spread it out on the little table. He signed with a flourish and then handed the pen over to Holland. Holland grinned at him and shouldered him out of the way, signing his own name just below Quin’s. He paused after and the pen dropped from his fingers so he could stroke the tips over their names, and Quin wondered if he too felt that connection, as if their names together on that piece of paper, coupled with the words they’d spoken tonight, forged some strange, mystical link between them, beyond even what they had already.
Quin stepped up beside him and gently slipped the sheet of paper out from under his hands. Quietly, contemplatively, he folded it in precise thirds, then slipped it inside his tunic again and looked up at the stars, thanking Lysoonka for giving him this man.
Holland punched him discreetly in the side, and when Quin looked down at him in surprise, tipped his head back to invite a kiss, gladly provided. The pack whooped, howls rising from throats gone half wolf in excitement, making the humans jump again in startlement. Quin looked up to see the some of the human security rushing to surround their President and his family, only to be stopped in their tracks by Bax and Taden. The gorgeous young omega—though not as beautiful as Holland, in Quin’s eyes—blinked in apparent bemusement at the men in their suits, then handed Taden off to the President and stepped in between them, his lips moving as he spoke to the man’s wife. The President looked startled for a moment, then laughed, especially when Taden grabbed for his lip and tried to put his fingers in the human’s mouth. Without even looking, Bax reached across and gently pried Taden’s fingers away from the human’s face, and Quin could almost hear him say, “We don’t put our fingers in other people’s mouths.”
“Hey,” Holland said. “Why don’t we start the fire and make the offerings. Then, if you’re not tired of your pregnant mate already, you can drag me off to your den and have your way with me.” He ran his finger over Quin’s lower lip. “Unless you think it might be better to stay and do the social thing with the humans.”
Quin bit gently at Holland’s finger, making the other shifter laugh. “I want to drag you off right now, but you’re right. I’ll have to wait to ravish you.”
“Ravish, huh?” Holland looked thoughtful, but his eyes glinted. “That implies a bit of a chase. Or a hunt.” His eyes were positively gleaming now, and Quin wondered what devilment his outrageous omega was planning.
Holland patted him on the chest and said, “Let’s light the fire.”
Chapter Eighty-One
Iwas prettysure that no one in the history of shifters had ever had such a spectacular mating. We signed our papers quickly, raising a whole new murmur in the crowd when I signed for myself. Quin tucked our new contract into his mating tunic and kissed me soundly in front of the whole pack, then we turned and opened our arms to Dorian and Agatha, who leaped away from their places on the mating circle and raced across the clearing to throw themselves at us.
