Page 33 of Abel's Omega
My hands stilled in surprise. “I thought they were just angry that there hadn’t been a mating price arranged beforehand.” I couldn’t imagine it, that there was a pack that would want to so burden itself with shifters who didn’t contribute to the pack’s wealth. Weak, promiscuous, a source of conflict amongst the alphas—why would a pack want to keep an unmated omega? Unless he’d already been promised and his escape had caused problems. “You had a suitor?”
Noah’s buckles had all been fastened before Jason spoke again. “I don’t know. Yes, I guess. The Alpha nearly had me during my second heat. It was stupid.” He sighed and leaned against the side of the van. “I snuck out, because it was Birth Moon and I was missing the party.”
I almost opened my mouth to argue with him, then remembered the brief image of him in front of the courthouse, his belly hanging heavy and his face strained with fatigue and anxiety. Spring heats… I suppressed a shudder, grateful that I didn’t have that problem on top of all my other ones.
Noise from the house announced the alphas exiting with the disassembled pieces of the crib, and my meager pile of baggage. Laughing, they stacked everything in the back of the truck.
Duke came over to us. “Fan wants to ride in the back of the truck with Mac and Abel if you’re okay with that.” He smiled down at us.
I wondered if all the alphas here were gentle giants, the fierce and caring warriors of legend. And then I thought perhaps I should tell Abel that he hadn’t accidentally forced me to eat the brownie, but it was too embarrassing to confess. “If someone will hold him. Or I can ride with him and someone can drive the van?”
Duke grinned. “I think we can manage.” He nodded at Abel, placing the last of my bags in the truck’s bed.
Oh. Shit.Abel turned his head and his eyes found mine. I nodded and realized, reading the guilt in his eyes, that I was going to have to confess. It wouldn’t be right to let the Alpha continue believing that he’d done wrong. Would they still let me stay if they knew just how under the sway of my hormones I was?
Awkwardly, I broke eye contact and bent to pick Beatrice up. “In you get, girlie.” She settled into her seat, obviously eager to go. I clipped her belts around her and backed out of the vehicle, closing the door firmly.
When I turned, the Alpha was standing beside me. “I’ll ride with him, if you’ll let him. And me.”
Jason laughed in a manner I found oddly reassuring, patted me on the shoulder, and drifted away toward his mate.
Kind of him.I shoved back my frustration and self-hatred and put a hand out to Abel. “You didn’t force me earlier. It’s just…me. I’m like that.” I looked away—I couldn’t stand to see the understanding in his eyes. Damned omega hormones.
He took my hand in a gentle grip. “I have trouble believing that. Is it the omega part of you, or is it that you just need someone to treat you the way you deserve?” He squeezed my hand and I looked up at him. “No one gets as strong as you are without tempering,” he said, his tone earnest.
Oh, how I wanted to believe that his words were true. But I’d always been flirtatious, had spent many a night familiarizing myself with my own body for lack of a partner. Had teased and gone as far as I could without ruining my value. How could I believe him? At least some of what had happened to me had to have been my fault; the world just didn’t work any other way. But I smiled, and said, “Thank you,” in my best polite voice.
He smiled back, though I could tell he didn’t quite believe me. But then again, who really trusted an omega to tell the truth? Though I thought they trusted Jason—maybe thingsweredifferent here? He still held my hands, and watched me with anxious eyes. The kind of eyes I’d come to associate with other omegas, not any sort of alpha.
I took a deep breath and decided to try to stop seeing this place through the memories of the old ones. My fingers closed on the Alpha’s and I smiled at him again, a genuine one this time. “Thank you,” I said, and meant it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Abel tightened the last screw on the crib and sat back. “That should hold it.”
Duke gave it a rattle. “Feels solid to me.”
Fan reached past them and shook the crib too. “Good job,” he said, nodding approvingly at the alphas, who laughed. Fan squinted up at them, but seemed more baffled than bothered by the laughter.
Abel grinned. “Thanks, Fan. Have you checked out your bed yet?” They’d set the crib up in the master bedroom at Bax’s request, and Fan was going to have a room to himself until Noah was old enough for a regular bed.
“I like it.” The little alpha bounced in excitement.
“That’s good. And you know what?”
“What?” Fan asked.
“I’m just around the corner, so if you or Dabi need anything, all you have to do is knock.”
Fan nodded as if they’d just concluded some major trade treaty. It made Abel feel better about it all that he could be of some small help with the pups. Something to make up for his slip earlier. He was generally better at watching how strong he came on; he wanted so badly to help this omega—out of Alpha’s obligation, out of shame for Bax’s treatment, out of a not-so-pure altruism—he was forgetting himself.
Duke raised his eyebrows at him, and Abel frowned back. It shut the other shifter up, but not before he could grin and glance out the door, where Bax’s voice could be heard finding things for the pups to do to keep them out of the way.
Nothing left to work on here. Abel held out a hand. “Let’s go tell Dabi we’re done.”
Fan wrapped his little fingers around Abel’s and bounced all the way into the third bedroom, where Bax had decided to place the girls.
“Dabi, we’re done!” Fan sang as they passed through the door.
