Page 12 of Mating the Omega
Mac glanced over at him. “Wouldn’t that make it better?”
“No. He’s nineteen, and high-strung. Neither of which would be good for me. We can let him think this will happen, if it will keep him calm, but it’s not.” A wistful look crossed Abel’s face, quickly replaced with his usual calm determination. “Not unless it’s the only way out. If he needs to be mated, we’ll have to come up with a few candidates.” Abel turned a cheeky grin on Mac. “Maybe you should take him on. He’d keep you on your toes.” His voice held an odd tone, one Mac found hard to read.
Mac laughed sourly. “Only until the mating. And then whatever it is happens to him, happens. I don’t want to be responsible for that.” He pulled up outside his house. “You can put them here, if you want. I can move back to bachelor quarters. I’ll give Duke a call and have him clear my stuff out.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah.” Mac nodded. “Poor kid. Someone’s got to do something nice for him.”
“Yeah.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
My ride over to the motel wasn’t the most comfortable. They crammed me into the space underneath the back seat of the car. Red—Mac, I guess I should get into the habit of calling him—told me it would hide my body heat from the infrared sensors at the gate. They made me stay in the box all the way, because my paperwork wouldn’t explain megoingto pick up my dad, only being picked up with him. And then I worried that we’d be stopped and the car would be searched, but nothing happened except a long boring car ride that I was too sick to my stomach during to sleep through. But the feeling when I crawled out of the car and saw the dirty rat trap Dad and I were staying at was worth the discomfort and the worry.
Mac still held my arm from when he’d helped me out of the car, his hand warm where our skin touched. It was comforting, in a way I didn’t like. “We’re here. Which room is your father in?”
“He’s at the end.” I paused. Mac had been good about this all, explaining everything, reassuring me constantly. He’d been patient when I’d had problems forcing myself into the box under the seat. And now he stood here, like a sheltering wall of werewolf, ready to follow my lead. If I didn’t mostly hate alphas, I could almost like him.
“We’ll walk down with you,” the Alpha said.
“I should probably go in first,” I said. “If you go in, he’ll think we’ve been caught.”
The Alpha wore an undecided expression, but Mac reached out and touched his arm. “He’s right. If I’d been on the run for six years, I wouldn’t believe anything he said with two strangers looming over him.”
I did want to be grateful that he’d validated my opinion. I was omega, not stupid. I shouldn’t need an alpha to agree with me before people listened. But the Alpha nodded thoughtfully, and leaned against the car, and I had to accept it, though it made me grit my teeth in frustration.
“Go ahead, then. We’ll wait here. Wave out the door when you want us.”
I’d never want them, but I didn’t say it. I knew what he meant.
A shadow paced back and forth across the window of our room. I reached for my key, then realized that it was gone, with all my other things—ID, money, phone. A flush of shame heated my cheeks for a moment, then I gave up and knocked on the door. “Dad, it’s me. Let me in, I’ve lost my key.”
He wrenched the door open and pulled me into a rough hug, weeping harshly into my hair.
“Hey, it’s okay, I’m all right.”
He took a step back but didn’t let go of me, his fingers still tight on my shoulders. “What happened? I’ve been trying to call you, but it keeps going to voicemail.”
“Let’s sit down.” It was as much for me as for him. The evening’s events, and the one’s left to come, had stripped me of anything but the desire to sleep until the world had changed. But I had to get through this, even though I knew that what I was about to say right now, more than anything else, would cut him to the core.
We crawled onto the bed and I wrapped my napping blanket around me for the comfort of the memories it held.
Dad reached for my hand. “We’re in trouble, aren’t we?”
“Haven’t we always been?” I shook my head. “Maybe. Not our usual sort of trouble.”
Comprehension grew in his expression. “Jason, what have you done?”
I swallowed and jumped to the meat of it. “I went to the Mercy Hills Pack Alpha and offered myself to him.”
“No!” Dad jumped off the bed and scrambled for our backpacks.
“Dad! Dad, listen to me.” I hoped the Mercy Hill wolves weren’t standing outside listening in, or they might come bursting through the door. “Dad, it’s okay. Listen to me!” I slammed my fist down on the mattress. That got his attention, and he stared at me with wounded eyes. “It’s time to stop running. You’re tired. I’m tired. And I’m not thirteen anymore. You need medical care. I—” I paused and drew in a ragged breath. “I offered myself to the Alpha under two conditions. He’s going to bring in a contract for you to sign. One is that you’ll always have a home, and they’ll provide medical care for you, fix your headaches. The other one is that I can have a garden, and that he makes sure I get enough time to work it properly.” I crawled over to the edge of the bed and held my hand out to him. “You’ve given up so much for me, and if I could see a future, I’d be halfway out that bathroom window right now.” That brought a small, wistful smile to his face, and he took my hand and squeezed, though tears welled up in his eyes. “It’s going to happen sometime, we both know it. This is a rich pack. And if it’s going to have to happen, I want it to be somewhere where we won’t want for anything. If I have to give myself up to them, then they’re damn well going to pay a decent price for me.”
Dad sat down beside me and pulled me into another hug. He kissed the top of my head, then laid his cheek against my curls and said, “You were always so smart. I thought it was sin that you were born omega, that you’d never get to use that intelligence.”
“I don’t think he wants a stupid mate. If anything, as long as I’m not disobedient, I don’t think he’ll mind if I have interests. There’s just that sense about him. Even his head of security is smart, not just a big bruiser. And he’s in charge, but he doesn’t seem to need tobein charge, you know? I was a real smart-ass, but he didn’t get fussed about it.”
