Page 7 of Mating the Omega
Abel sighed. “Then I have to report you to the human police. You have to have a pack, it’s the law, and I can’t afford that kind of trouble. Did they throw you out?”
“No!” The omega jerked in his chair, his eyes wide. He looked back and forth between the two of them a couple of times, and Mac watched as realization dawned on his face. His gaze dropped and he mumbled defiantly, “I ran away.”
“Well that was very silly of you,” Abel said. The tone was way out of character for him, and Mac threw him a questioning glance. Abel lifted a finger, a silent signal to play along. “Omegas shouldn’t be out on their own.”
“I’ve done fine up until now.” Still the defiance, colored with the knowledge that, right now, he wasn’t doing fine. Though Mac had to admit it had only been luck that he’d glanced up in that tree and caught a glimpse of sneaker through the leaves.Smart young man. Shame he’s omega. Nothing like starting a race twenty feet behind the starting line.
Abel leaned back in his chair and propped his elbow on the arm so he could rest his chin in his hand. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”
The omega looked up at him. “I need to see someone.”
“Who?”
And this is where it went kind of funny. The omega tilted his head to one side, his gaze halfway between aggressive and social, and his scent changed--not much, but the tension in the room dropped like a stone. Abel twitched and his eyes widened, and he and Mac shared a glance of wonder and disbelief. When they turned back to the omega, he was watching them patiently, as if he was waiting for whatever he’d done to take effect.
They stared at each other for a moment, then the omega said, in a much more confident tone, “Abel Mercy Hills.”
Mac guessed that was natural, Abel being the Alpha of the pack, but a small knot of disappointment formed in his gut. He was starting to take a liking to this kid, who smelled like an omega and acted like an alpha. “What do you want with the Alpha, feral?”
“That’s for me to discuss with him. But he’ll want to hear my proposal.”
Abel spread his fingers over his mouth, barely hiding the smile behind them. “How do we know it’s worth his time? He’s a busy man.”
Oh, and that made the little omega mad, though he did his best not to show it.Good for him. Most omegas were passive little things. Whatever pack he came from had handled him completely differently if this was what they’d turned him into. He was a real spitfire.
Not that Mac minded. Maybe other guys would think it was annoying, but Mac kind of liked it. It was one of the reasons he’d turned down a few omega matings. As head of security, and Abel’s childhood friend, he was considered an excellent mating prospect, and most of his social life was spent quick-stepping around attempts to get him to propose to someone. So far he hadn’t been caught, and he planned to keep it that way. He couldn’t imagine living with someone who never argued, never expressed an opinion until he knew what Mac’s was, never stood up for himself or herself. When he mated—if he mated—he wanted someone who could be his equal. The supposed bedroom advantages of an omega mating were far outweighed by the thought of always having to be in charge. He got enough of that in his day job.
Now, if real omegas were more like this one, whatever he was, that would be a different story. He caught Abel’s eye and jerked his head at the door. The Alpha nodded and stood up. “Wait here,” he told the omega.
The omega’s eyes widened. “Where are you going?” He jumped to his feet and started around the table.
Mac caught him before he could get to Abel. “Don’t push your luck. You’re on shaky ground as it is.”
“I need to speak to the Alpha. It’s important.”
“You freely admit you ran away from your pack. Why shouldn’t we just send you back?”
The omega looked up at him, anger and a deep-seated fear in his eyes. “Because he’d be giving up a True Omega.”
CHAPTER NINE
Mac followed Abel out of the room. His last glimpse of the omega’s face wrung his heart—he didn’t go into security for the pleasure of wielding power over people, but for the pleasure of helping them in situations like this.
Abel closed the door and moved away from it so the omega inside couldn’t eavesdrop. “I’ve heard rumors,” he said, his voice low. “That there was an omega running around that wasn’t your run-of-the-mill omega. Didn’t believe them—everyone knows that line died out a century ago.”
“You think he might be one?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t smell like any other omega I’ve ever met.” Abel leaned against the wall, tapping a finger against his lips. “I’d like to keep him around until we can figure that out. If the rumors are true… At the same time, it’s going to be a royal pain to get papers for him.”
“We could forge them.”
Abel smiled up at him, but the weight of being Alpha darkened the humor in his eyes. “You’d know just where to get that done too, wouldn’t you?”
Mac shrugged. “It’s my job.” Sometimes you had to sidestep the human laws—not all of them were meant to preserve good relations between the species. Some of them were just damn inconvenient, and meant to remind shifters where they stood in the scheme of things, and who was really in charge.
Abel looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook his head. “I think the less I know about that, the better. Let’s see what I can find out first through channels. We’ll talk to him again, see if we can get him to tell us what drove him to run.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Like I needed this right now.”
“Negotiations going poorly?”
