Page 110 of Abel's Omega
“Oh, you were never that bad. You just didn’t pay attention. Too busy thinking about alphas.” She patted my cheek and moved past me to the refrigerator.
Noise came from the front of the house, and then I saw Mac going past the kitchen to the stairs with what looked like all our bags hanging from him.
“I should probably help with that.”
“Don’t you worry,” Mam said. “Looks like he’s doing fine.”
Thumping came from upstairs and then a few moments later, Mac barreled down the stairs again. “I put you guys in the same room as before. You want me to take Noah? Oh, hello ma’am. You must be Bax’s bearer.”
Mam and I glanced at each other, and I realized it was now my responsibility to perform the introductions. “Yes. Mam, this is Mac. He’s mated to my best friend at Mercy Hills and he’s the head of Security there. Mac, this is my mother, Denise.”
“Hello, Denise.” Mac nodded to her, a dip of his head that looked as if it should have been accompanied by a hat. It was obvious she was a gamma, so the extra politeness was sweet of him.
“Good evening, Mac Mercy Hills.” Mam tilted her head to the side, the human equivalent of lowered head and tail in wolf form.
Mac being Mac, as soon as the formalities were done, he started looking for Noah.
I glanced under the table. “I think he’s fine. Does Abel want me to look after the rest of them?”
Mac shook his head. “No, they’re having a ball out there. Literally. Fan found one under the step and now they’re playing fetch.” He glanced under the table and blew a raspberry at Noah. “I kind of miss having one hanging off me. But I can see he’s well occupied.”
I shook my head and laughed. “Okay. Tell Abel we’re going to have steak of some sort, and Mam’s here to keep me from giving anyone indigestion.”
Mac grinned. “I liked the pork pie you made the other day. I think I’ll take my chances.” He left, and Mam and I turned back to figure out supper.
When everyone came back, we had the steak cubed and simmering in a sauce made of honey and garlic and cayenne, rice spiced with parsley and sweet peppers from Mam’s garden, and tiny new carrots steamed tender. It was a good meal, and I was glad I hadn’t screwed anything up, here in front of Uncle Mitchel’s judgmental gaze. He still seemed to blame me for this trouble with Montana Border, though he was careful not to say anything directly to me, merely planning for possible outcomes with Abel over our meal. I pressed my knee against Abel’s under the table and he glanced at me. I smiled and kept eating, but he got the message and the tension in his shoulders slowly faded, though it never went away entirely.
After everyone was done, I cleared away the dishes and began heating water to wash them. The sun had warmed the barrel out back, and the water coming out of that tap was almost hot enough on its own, but I didn’t want to put the dishes away greasy.
Abel scooped Noah up into his arms. “Oh, you’re a smelly pup, aren’t you?”
I went to take him, but Abel held him out of my reach. “You finish up here. I’ll clean him up and we’ll go play ball again.” He dropped a kiss on my mouth, then left the kitchen, a line of pups trailing behind him.
Mam began sorting the dishes for washing. “He’s a good father.”
“He is.” I stuck my finger in the pot on the stove, then jerked it out again. “I think this is good.”
As I poured it into the sink, I caught a misty expression on Mam’s face. “What?”
She shook her head. “You’ve grown up so well, I can’t believe.” She hugged me. “I’m glad you got the mate you deserve. Not everyone manages that.”
I hugged her back, well aware of my luck. “Let’s get these dishes done so we can go play ball with the pups.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
It was fun running on my old territory that night. I showed the pups all the best places to hunt the little lizards that infested the untamed end of the enclave and we ran wild chasing the zippy little creatures, but not catching many. A few of my cousins came along and by the time we got back, a crowd had gathered in the back yard. I was beginning to think that shifters were actual party animals, given the sheer number of parties I’d been to since I left Jackson-Jellystone.
The pups were completely worn out by then, which had been my plan—I was ready to enjoy some adult conversation tonight. Noah was three-quarters asleep and back in human form, clinging to Mam’s furred back like a little monkey, not a little shifter. Fan and Teca plodded beside me with drooping ears and tails, and Abel carried Beatrice balanced on his back with her little legs hanging down each side of his barrel and her muzzle lodged between his shoulderblades. The pups were hardly in the door before they’d all changed back to human and everyone but Beatrice was asleep before we even made it to the stairs.
It took four of us, though, to put them to bed, but mostly because Da and Mam wouldn’t give up their grandpups, so we all trooped upstairs to tuck our little burdens into their beds.
That night, I had fun. I hung off Abel like I was a teenager again, instead of an old married omega with four-and-a-half pups. He smiled as if he knew what I was thinking, and encouraged my shameless flirting. We even snuck in a few kisses here and there, and Abel grabbed my ass at least once when no one was looking.
We had taken six of Buffalo Gap’s omegas already—I introduced him to another nine. Mostly cousins—not that there were many in the pack that weren’t—but these were close cousins of mine, first and second generally. Only a few were my age. The rest were younger, and we only knew they were omegas because they were male. Abel pursed his lips in silent astonishment and nodded when I raised my eyebrows at him in an ‘I told you so’ gesture.
But in every perfect night there had to be at least one itch you couldn’t scratch. Here, it was my cousin Usher. I’d been older than him, but he’d been my biggest competition when it came to flirting with the alphas. There’d been a bit of bad blood between us for a while, but we were older now, and I was in love with my mate. I needed to put that behind me.
He strolled up to us, wearing brand new clothes from a store, his hips swaying slightly with his walk. It made the firelight glint off the silver buckle on his belt, and drew attention to his shapely legs and what lay between them. Where the hell had he gotten the money for that? I felt my mouth tighten, then I forced myself to relax.
