Page 98 of The Omega's Alpha
“Abel’s going to be tired tomorrow!” Jason caroled. “Give him a good one!”
Bax threw an arm over Jason’s shoulders and another over Cale’s. “Let’s go get this guy mated so I can spend the evening molesting my mate. I’ll leave it up to you guys who you molest tonight.” He glanced at Cale. “Except you.”
Cale crossed his arms over his chest and took a step to one side, mock-glaring at Bax. “I can do as I please, thank you very much.”
“Don’t get yourself in trouble,” Bram said firmly, and pried one of Cale’s arms free so he could loop it through his own. “But, if you’re going to pick one to get in trouble with, Cas is awful cute. And you guys do seem to have a thing for that family.”
We left the bedroom amid hoots of “I’m telling on you!” and “Don’t you dare!”, as noisy as any pack of puppies set loose without supervision. In the living room, we met up with Seosamh and Agatha, gorgeous in their versions of the outfits that Martin had designed for my rozvennya.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” Agatha asked the rest of the omegas, as severe as the alpha I sometimes thought she’d be.
“We’re getting dressed. But we had to help Holland first,” Bax reminded her. “Give us ten minutes and we’ll be ready to head out. You!” he said, pointing at me. “Don’t you dare sit down.”
I held my hands up. “I’ll just stand here like a pole, waiting for you slow pokes.” I leaned over and whispered to Agatha, “He’s getting old and slow!”
“I heard that!” Bax yelled from down the hall. “You just wait.”
Agatha shared a conspiratorial smile with me and stood patiently for pictures.
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Harris arrivedwith just an hour to go before the ceremony started. “Sorry, Master Sargeant. Missed my connecting flight and had a hell of a time finding a new one.”
Quin clapped him on the shoulder and handed him a pack-made beer. “You made it, that’s all that matters. And it’s Quin now. I’m not your sargeant any more.” Quin took him around and introduced him to Mac, Abel, Cas, Edmond, Harry, and then the two pups, Fan and Dorian, who would also be part of hisbratvuk. “We’ve got a suit for you, unless you want to wear your dress uniform.”
“Which one is going to cause the least trouble for you?” Harris said.
“Neither,” Mac said dryly. “Wear what’s comfortable.” His phone rang and he stepped out into the kitchen to take the call.
“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll wear my uniform.”
“Fine,” Quin said. “Come on, we’ll get you a beer.” He led Harris into the kitchen to find a bottle, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb Mac, murmuring seriously into his phone. “You still okay with this?”
“It’s an honor.” Harris tried his drink and looked startled. “This is good.” He held up a hand at Quin’s snort. “No, I mean, my dad liked to make his own beer, and he was good, but this is way better.” He followed Quin back out to the living room. “And I’m not bothered. After the thing at Green Moon, I guess I was kind of adopted by one of the old ladies. Went down at Christmas to visit. She made me a sweater.”
Quin and Abel exchanged glances. This was unexpected, positive. He hoped. More in line with the kinds of relationships he’d bee hoping to foster, which brought his mind back to the problem of the more intimate relationship going on between Garrick and Laine.Not the time to be thinking about that. Put it away for later.“Just wait until she starts feeding you,” Quin said, when the silence had gone on too long. “You’ll get kicked out of the Navy for sure for being too fat.”
“But what a way to go. Damn, that woman can cook. If she wasn’t three times my age, I’d marry her just for her chili.” Harris grinned and saluted Granny Green Moon with his beer.
Quin laughed and joined in on the salute.
Mac came back in, shaking his head. “I don’t know. I kind of thought better of the Secret Service after all those movies we watched.”
“What’s wrong?” Quin asked. It was important that they didn’t screw up this Presidential visit.
“They’re just jumping at shadows. I set them up with Green Moon and his mate to help them figure out what was normal behavior and what might be a threat. And I loaned them a few of our guys to help out. They just want someone to hold their hands a little while they get used to the idea of us.”
“Might not be a bad idea to put some emphasis on the idea of not playing pranks on the humans,” Quin said.
“Already on it, Alpha. I had a few of our better-known troublemakers brought in today and squashed them ahead of time. We shouldn’t run into problems.”
“Good.” He knew he could trust Mac, who had been the steadiest of the group when he’d spent most of his time looking after his little brothers and their friends. He could trust him. Of course, just because no one else was allowed to get up to mischief didn’t mean he couldn’t pull a few tails to work off some of the nerves. “Hey, Abel,” he called, but before he could start razzing Abel about making sure not to break any of the pups tonight, Abel’s phone rang.
Abel looked at the screen. “Damn.”
Quin raised his eyebrows in inquiry.
“Mom.” Abel shook his head.
