Page 44 of Mating the Omega
It was brilliant. And working. But Mac’s shifter side didn’t like it, hated that Jason was crying, and it was in a frenzy of worry about their pup and that recurring distraction in Jason’s face. Mac laced his fingers together and tightened his grip until it hurt, and used that pain to remind himself that Jason wasn’t really in danger. Except that he was, if they lost. But they hadn’t lost yet.
He squeezed even harder.
Expressionless, the judge glanced over at Orvin’s table. Mac followed the direction of his gaze, and had to fight not to laugh. Orvin was whispering vehemently with his lawyer, and the expression on his face was frantic. His lawyer looked pissed. Then the judge returned his attention to Jason.
“And what happened then?”
Jason licked his lips and looked down at his belly. His calm stroking sped up, like he was agitated or scared. Mac was starting to have trouble reading him, between his own worry and Jason’s body language. It made him restless. He caught Abel’s eye, but Abel shook his head and reached out with his own power to squash Mac’s desire to grab Jason right in front of the judge and run. That was just as painful, if not more, than what he’d been doing with his hands, but Mac welcomed the pain. It kept him focused on the now, and not the future.
In a small, shaky voice, Jason began filling in details of that night. “He caught me up against a fence. There was a nail sticking out—everything was always broken there, the alphas were always messing around and fighting. The nail stuck in my…butt.” He put a hand absently on the back of his right hip, where Mac knew he had curved scar, rough and ragged. “He was pulling on my jeans—”
“Your Honor!” Orvin’s lawyer broke in. “Is this really pertinent?”
“Yes, it is. I’m walking a fine line here, attempting to respect your culture—and you don’t make it easy—while also respecting the rights of this young man here to live a safe and happy life.”
“There’s no proof!”
“I can show you proof.” Jason stood up and reached for the fastenings of his pants, hidden beneath the roiling curve of his belly. He glanced down at it. “Hush, you. We’re almost done.” The curve tightened and rounded and Jason gasped, putting a hand on the judge’s desk for support.
Mac stood up. “He’s in labor.”
“I’m fine!” Jason snapped. He shot Mac a disapproving look. “Sit down. It’s still early. We’ve time to get home.” His hands started working at his pants again. “I want this done. I want to go home and have our pup in peace.” His earlier tears had disappeared before they fell, but these didn’t, creeping down his cheeks.
The judge reached out to stop him. “You don’t have to take your clothes off in front of him. We can have a bailiff take a picture.”
Jason laughed, and the pain in it wrung Mac’s heart. “It doesn’t matter. I’m an omega, what I want doesn’t count. He’s already inspected me for flaws, he’s not going to see anything new, except the baby.”
A cold rage swept in to take the place of the hot one Mac had been fighting. He nearly missed the judge’s incredulous, “Inspected you for flaws?”
Jason sat down as if all his strength had left him. “It’s normal. A flawed omega gets sent away somewhere. Only the good ones, the healthy ones are allowed to mate.” He paused, and added offhandedly, “I gave him the scar on his face. That’s why he didn’t manage to mate me. And I ran. The next day, he made my family move out of our bungalow into a shack. The roof leaked, and my window fell on me the day we moved in. We ran away the next night.” He went back to stroking his belly, the tears gradually drying on his face. “I want to feel safe. I want my baby to be safe.” He turned to the judge. “I know you have to follow that law. I don’t expect you to do anything different. But, if you have to send me back to him, can you make sure Mac gets our baby?”
Behind him, where the crowd of onlookers had been sitting in hushed silence, Mac heard a sob, and whispers began in the audience.
Laine stood. “Your Honor, in light of Jason’s current condition, perhaps we could recess and continue on another day?” He seemed happy.
“Sit down, counsel. I’m ready to render my verdict. I just wanted to be sure of where the young man wanted to be. There are two areas of pack tradition at play here, even if you ignore the issues around the contracts. I have looked at them and they seem clearly designed to allow Jason to visit Mercy Hills, and allows for further negotiation over his…mating, should he find someone he wanted. And this is where the difficulty lies—in contract law, the rules of the original contract have been contravened. Jason was mated without the proper negotiations concerning an exchange of appropriate value. Which leaves Mercy Hills in the situation of either returning Jason to his birth pack, or compensating them in the traditional manner. Montana Border has placed a value of half a million dollars on the omega shifter in question. I find that to be rather excessive—we’re talking a bride-price here, not human slavery.” He cast a withering glance at Orvin’s table. “The likely value of his contribution, should he mate within his pack of origin, is set at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mercy Hills, you have six months to either pay this compensation to Montana Border, or negotiate compensation in kind. This is my recorded verdict.” He slammed the gavel down and looked over at Orvin again. “Don’t let me hear about you appealing this, until they’ve failed to compensate your pack.” The judge stood and left the courtroom.
Mac raced to the front of the courtroom to pick Jason up and whirl him around. Then he put him down and guiltily asked, “Shit, did I hurt you?”
Jason laughed. “No, but I want to gohome!”
“We will. How far apart are your contractions?”
Jason shrugged, obviously unconcerned. “Long enough. About fifteen minutes now. There’s time.”
Abel put a hand on Mac’s shoulder. “Come on, we’d better go. I sent Duke to get the car.”
Laine shouldered his way into the conversation. “Congratulations.” He looked down at Jason. “And more congratulations. You were superb.”
“It was all true.” Jason wrinkled his nose and grunted. “Crap, that’s uncomfortable.”
“Another one?” Mac asked, spreading his hand over Jason’s belly. “It feels like a bowling ball.”
“Yeah,” Jason said in a tight voice. “I’m fine. There’s time, it can take two days sometimes.” He whistled through his teeth. “Little Mac better be here a damn sight faster than that.”
One of the court security guards approached them. “Excuse me. The judge has asked to see you in chambers.” His nod took in the entire Mercy Hills group.
They looked at each other, and Laine asked, “Did he give a reason?”
