Page 73 of Legally Mated
Finally, he heard the sound of an engine in the driveway. He pulled the curtains apart and breathed a sigh of relief to see Holland getting out of the pack’s sedan. By the time he’d opened the front door, Holland was halfway up the walkway, his shoulders slumped with fatigue, and Laine felt a moment of guilt for dragging Holland into another foolish dispute. Then he saw Quin stand up from the back door of the car with Zane in his arms, and he felt his heart begintorace.
Ah,shit.
“Garrick, they’re here,” he called up the stairs and retreated to the living roomagain.
Holland walked in through the door like he owned the place, but Laine wasn’t going to complain about that. He didn’t know quite where he’d gone wrong with Garrick, though he knew that not telling Garrick as soon as he figured out his omega status was at the very least a catalyst to this. It didn’t, however, seem to warrant this large of anintervention.
“I’m going to go upstairs and talk to him,” Holland said, not unkindly. “You and Quin have a chat. He knows what’s going on, and maybe he can help you understand.” Holland looked up the stairs, then looked back toward the door. “We’ll be a little while up there, love. I don’t know what Icando.”
Quin nodded and closed the door. “Just do your best. Let me know if Icanhelp.”
Holland smiled at him and went up the stairs. Laine stood frozen in the living room listening as Holland knocked on the bedroom door upstairs, and then the sound of the door opening and closing broke hisstasis.
“Can I get you a drink?” he asked Quinpolitely.
“Thank, no. Need to keep all my faculties if I’m going to keep this one out of trouble.” Quin put the baby on the floor, and Zane immediately got up on hands and knees and started to explore the living room with the determination of the Viking warriors. “You’ll want to put anything breakable away,” Quin warned him, so Laine grabbed the few potentially fragile things to set them up on the top of the bookshelf, but he probably didn’t need to worry. Quin was right behind the baby thewholetime.
“The rest of it should be fine,” Laine told him. “It’s still mostly baby-proofed.”
“You have kids?” Quin took a DVD case away from the baby and set it up on ashelf.
“One. A daughter.She’snine.”
“You everseeher?”
“Some. Not as much as I’d like. It’s beenprettybusy.”
Quin shot him a sharp look and Laine suddenly realized how it must havesounded.
“She’s in school right now,” he explained. “We have an agreement that I don’t disrupt her schedule. She comes here every second weekend, but we’re pretty loose with the visitation. Brenna and I are on the same page there. It’s all about what’s best for April.” And if there was a twinge of guilt because he’d been busy with all the things going on with Garrick and with the new law firm, well, he’d make it up to her. “I’d like her to meet some Mercy Hills pups her age, if that’s okay with you.” He picked an old stuffed rabbit off the back of one of the shelves and gave it to Zane, who jammed it happily in hismouth.
Quin gave him another sharp look. “I think weshouldtalk.”
Here is comes.“Sure. You certain you don’t want a drink?” Laine arched an eyebrow at him and helaughed.
“I may want one after this.” He rubbed at his neck, then leaned his back against the front of the couch, close enough to grab Zane if the baby took off anywhere. “Holland told me about Garrick. About him being omega and hiding it all this time. That complicates this,” he said, waving his hand in Laine’s direction. “In the old days, it was a way to claim an omega as your mate, to take them in heat. Not so much now, but damn common especially right after the Enclosure. It was, in part, what Abel and Mac had intended to use to keep Jason out of Montana Border’s jaws.” He reached casually out to Zane, grabbing one leg of the bunny and playing a gentle game of tug-of-war with him. “It puts me in something of a situation here. Not only do we have to figure out how to handle his change in status and make a decision whether that’s even going to be made public, but what does that mean for your relationship to him?” Quin glanced up at me. “You do realize that, technically, according to pack law, you’vematedhim?”
Oh, sh—” Laine broke off the swear word just before it came out, one eye on the baby growling fiercely at his father. “Shoot,” he substituted lamely, and was rewarded with a crooked smile from Quin. “I asked him to marry me a few weeks back. He said no, things were too complicated.” Laine sat on the couch beside Quin’s shoulders. “So he came here this weekend because he knew he was going into heat and I wasn’t going to be around.” That stung, though Laine had to admit he was glad that Garrick had at least had this place to come to. “How did he avoid getting found outbeforethis?”
“Omega lore? Apparently there are drugs an omega can take to suppress their heat and other ones that will make them smell differently. Holland says Garrick’s been using them since he was nine, so he’d never really had a normal heat.” Quin glanced toward the stairs. “I don’t know, this one sounded bad, but I’m no judge.” Then, in a tone of frustration, “I hate notknowing.”
Laine snorted a laugh. “Yeah, me too.” He leaned back on the couch and watched the stairs. “I don’t imagine it’ll make any difference, but I am sorry for any trouble I’ve caused. I’ve never met anyonelikehim.”
Quin let out a soft laugh. “I felt the same way about Holland.” He sighed and leaned his head back against the couch cushions. “What do you plan to do when they comedownstairs?”
Laine thought about it for a moment. “Apologize?”
A grin spread across Quin’s face. “Whatfor?”
“Damned if I know,” Laine said honestly. “I’m so confused right now, I’m thinking it might just be forexisting.”
“Too easy,” Quin drawled. “If you’re going to be part of the family, you’ll have to do betterthanthat.”
“Am I? Going to be part of the family?” It almost seemed too pat an answer. He still stood by his proposal and if Garrick ever accepted, Quin would, technically, be Laine’s Alpha. Which felt kind of weird and, if he were honest, like an ill-fitting shirt. He hated someone else telling him what he could or couldnotdo.
“That’s going to depend on that damned stubborn omega up there, I suspect. Both of them.” He turned his gaze toward Laine again. “I’m not crazy about this, because I’ve seen what trying to integrate humans and shifters does unlesseveryone’son the same page. But it’s been made damned clear that the two of you are going to keep finding each other no matter what I say, so I’m going to follow my mate’s lead and just try to keep this from killing either of you.” He mocked growled at the baby and shook the rabbit. “I hope your bearer finishes up soon. I have work to do. And I want to take the evening off to spend with my two favoriteomegas.”
They talked about other things until the light started to dimoutside.
