Page 31 of Mating the Omega
“I am.” Well, kind of a person-possession hybrid, really.
“No, you’re not. But that attitude is something that Garrick thinks will work against them. Your old pack is kind of isolationist, right?”
I nodded. The only reason Dad got his electrician’s papers is because the pack needed money, and they had me and Mom to hold over his head.
The Alpha grinned. “They probably don’t realize how much attitudes have changed in the human world. Garrick’s going to look for a lawyer for us.”
I shook my head. “Who’s Garrick?”
Behind me, Mac grumbled, “That’s right, you haven’t met him.”
“I’ve hardly met anyone.”
His arms tightened around me. “No. I suppose that’s my fault. I’ve wanted to keep you to myself.”
“I wasn’t putting myself out there either.” I turned my head and kissed him. When I looked back at the Alpha, he wore a satisfied smirk. “You think you’re responsible for this, don’t you?” I said, gathering all my bravery. It was still hard for me to believe he wouldn’t lunge across the room and smack me right off Mac’s lap, but all he did was laugh at us and grin even harder.
“I sure pushed hard enough on you two. I’m glad it’s working out. You’ll have to sit down with the lawyer, both of you, and your father, Jason. He or she will have lots of questions.” He sobered. “There’s one other thing.”
“What?” I asked, with that prickly sense of looming disaster.
“Are you guys expecting?”
A sudden tension turned Mac’s body to steel. “We don’t know yet. We just went in this morning. It’ll be a couple of days, I think.”
The Alpha rubbed his hands down his cheeks and stared down at the floor. He looked like a man trying to work himself up to something extremely unpleasant.
When he raised his head again, I was sure of it.
“If we aren’t successful in this suit, they’ll take Jason back to Montana and we’ll have to negotiate a mating contract with them. You can imagine how that might go.”
I felt sick--I knew exactly where this would go. My hand went to my belly, trying to protect something I didn’t even know existed. “You think they’ll ask for so much you can’t afford it, and then they’ll abort me to bring me into heat again and mate me there.”
He nodded, his expression bleak.
Mac stirred beneath me, and when he spoke, his voice was deep bass rumble that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and promised retribution for the person that had angered him. “Not if they want to live,” he said. It was wrong, and dangerous, what he said, but it made me feel safe, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him, my face pressed against his.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “It won’t happen. The humans would have a fit. They wouldn’t dare.” But the squirming in my gut told me I wasn’t as sure as I sounded.
The Alpha spoke. “Just in case, we’re going to ask the lawyer to do everything they can to put this off until the fall if your blood tests come back positive.” He stood. “I’ll leave you two to talk about this. As soon as you know, I need to be the first call you make.”
I nodded, my face still hidden behind Mac’s. I was afraid to move—the churning in my stomach was getting worse and the room suddenly felt about ten degrees cooler, and hotter at the same time.
The door closed with a thunk and we were alone.
“I swear,” Mac murmured in my ear, “I won’t let it come to that. Your father hid you for years, I can too. If it goes badly,” he sat back and cupped my cheek in one large, warm hand. “We’ll disappear. Go to Mexico, or farther south, even.” His hand moved down to cover mine, lying limp against the skin beneath my bellybutton. “I won’t let them take our baby from us.”
That did it. “I have to go.” I rolled off his lap and bolted for the stairs. I barely had time to drop to my knees next to the toilet before everything in my stomach came burning out through my mouth and my nose. I coughed and gagged and vomited again, my back aching with the effort of it.
Mac’s hand on my back startled me—I’d been so involved in trying not to choke I’d completely forgotten about him. He gave me a damp cloth to wipe my face with, and held me gently while my body did its best to reject everything I’d eaten this week.
At least, that’s what it felt like.
He rubbed circles on the small of my back. I groaned and rested my head on my arm where it stretched along the porcelain of the bowl. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. How are you feeling now? Better?”
“I don’t know. A bit. Tired.”
