Page 13 of Abel's Omega
“Ba, ba, ba, ba,” he said, and I kissed his head for good luck.
The sound of a motor broke the stillness, and then a truck drove up and parked to one side of the gate. A man got out, tall, broad. As he got closer to the light, I saw that he had red hair. I remembered him from the TV show—this was the alpha who had mated Jason Mercy Hills. And then behind him I saw a smaller, darker-haired man, carrying a baby.
Jason.
I started forward, ignoring the mate and the hulking security team, and zeroed in on the other omega. “Jason!” I cried, as if we’d once known each other.
He paused and cast a glance at his mate, then handed the baby over. “Hi,” he said and we met in the gap between the humans at the gate, and the pack’s security.
I stepped close and lowered my voice. “I’m Bax. Please, help me. They’re going to give my babies away and force me to mate again.” I blinked away the tears forming at the words. “I can’t…” My throat closed with emotion and I bent my head and pretended to adjust something in Noah’s clothing.
The silence felt like it went on for minutes, though it was probably only a few seconds. But my life, and my pups’ happiness, rested on the next words to come out of a stranger’s mouth, and every heartbeat stretched into forever.
Then Jason stepped forward and bent over little Noah. “Is this your newest?” He reached in to tickle Noah’s cheek? “What did you name him? Or is it a her?”
“He’s a boy. I called him Noah.” Then, because Jason looked at me funny, I explained, “He was born after my mate died.”
“Ah.” Jason turned his gaze back to my baby. “He’s adorable.”
A voice rumbled out of the dark. “Jason?”
Jason looked up and I followed the line of his gaze to the red-headed shifter standing a bit more than arm’s-length behind him, the baby resting peacefully against his shoulder.
“Mac, this is my cousin Bax.” He grinned. “That’s going to get old. I’ll yell for one of you, and you’ll both come running.”
I looked at him oddly—his words didn’t make sense.
He turned the grin on me. “I didn’t realize when I mated how similar your names sound. Mac said you brought more pups?”
“Yes. I have four.” It was only then that I realized that I hadn’t heard anything from either Fan or Teca for several minutes now. “Shit! Where are they?”
“These yours?” A dark-haired man with a neatly-trimmed beard and a row of stitches above one eyebrow walked out of the shadow of some bushes about fifteen feet away. He had a squirming pup under each arm and he laughed as he carried them over. “I found them digging in the dirt underneath the currants.” He lifted Fan up so the light shone on his filthy coat. Dark streaks showed on the man’s T-shirt where the pups’ paws had left their mark. “Someone needs a bath.”
Fan barked, and everyone except me laughed. I was horrified. We hadn’t be here ten minutes and Fan was already destroying stuff.
“Let me take him.” I shuffled Noah onto one hip and reached for my pup, but the man holding him fended me off.
“That’s fine. I’m already dirty. So, you’re Jason’s cousin?” There was a slight emphasis on the last word, enough to force me to look him in the eye.
Oh shit.He was more handsome than he had been on the television, and my heart sped up, though whether it was fear, or my omega hormones kicking in even though I was still nursing, I didn’t have time to figure out. “You’re the Alpha.”
“I am.” He smiled, and I noticed a dimple that the cameras hadn’t caught. “You can call me Abel.”
“Oh, I couldn’t—” My tongue tripped over itself and I tried again to take Fan from him. “Really, he’ll get you dirty.”
“And I said I already am.” But he let go, and I promptly dropped my oldest boy on the ground.
“Fuck,” I muttered, on the verge of tears. He was going to think I was an idiot. Not that I wasn’t used to that, but I didn’t wanthimto. Stupid hormones. “Fan, baby, are you okay?”
He barked and ran in a circle around the Alpha, obviously unshaken by his unexpected high-speed descent. Teca yipped and squirmed, so the Alpha set her down too, and she took off after her brother, who was now running excitedly back and forth between us and the security team.
The Alpha stepped up to my side and looked down at Noah. “How old is he?”
“Five months.” My mouth was dry. I licked my lips and added, “His name is Noah.” If my heart had been beating fast while I waited for them to show up, now it was trying to leap out of my chest. Oh, he was handsome, but what got me the most was that he had kind eyes. They were warm and, I thought, a dark brown like the chocolate Patrick had brought home for the pups once. But kind was most important, because it could mean the difference between help and hindrance when I begged for their aid.
The Alpha glanced up at my two crazed pups, then turned his gaze back on me. “And what’s your name?”
It took me two tries to get it out. “Bax. Baxter, really, but I was always called Bax at home.”
