Page 45 of Abel's Omega
Mac made a sound halfway between a sigh and a growl. “Okay, we all saw his papers. We know he was mated early. And I pried it out of Jason today that his mating wasn’t good.”
“I think we’d already figured that out.”
“No, I mean the actual physical act of it. Jason just kind of tightened up when I asked him for details, but it sounds like they had to force him. You ever look at his hands?”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” There was nothing wrong with Bax’s hands—they were beautiful. Like the rest of him.
“Check out his right pinkie. It’s a little crooked.”
“You’re saying that happened his mating night?”
“I don’t know, but Jason is mad enough to spit. At me, at Buffalo Gap, and at Jackson-Jellystone.”
Come to think of it, Abel had noticed a nervous twitch of Bax’s, a tiny crooking motion of that finger. “Shit. No wonder he’s nervous.”
“And I’m sure I didn’t understand it all, because it’s omega stuff and it makes no sense to me,” Mac said. “But it sounds like Patrick used his omega nature against him in the mating. You know, in the bedroom.”
“Damn it all to hell.” Abel got up and began to pace. “So he’s got some baggage. I kind of figured that.”
“And then some. I thought you should have a head’s up. It’s lucky I’ve got nights this week, or I’d be sleeping on the couch. Jason’s pissed.”
“Jason?” Since when did Jason ever get angry?
He heard the creak of the chair as Mac shifted position. “Yeah, well, he came with his own baggage, right? It’s still a fight sometimes to get him to talk about things. And I don’t think he wants me feeding you information. Not that information. Or maybe he does. Damned if I can figure out what either of them want.”
“I hadn’t realized…”
“You weren’t supposed to. But I thought you should know what you were getting into if you keep on this course.”
“Thanks. I’ll have to be careful how I deal with him.”
Mac’s voice lightened. “On the bright side, if you could get him to tell you what his problem is, Jason’s tells me he finds you attractive, and you rank pretty high on the potential Pappy scale. But he’s got something else going on in there, and nothing I could do would convince Jason to cough that up.”
“Omega solidarity.”
“Something like that. I’ll let you get to bed. Let me know what you plan to do once you’ve had a chance to think about it.”
“I will.” He hung up and plugged in the phone again. There was no thinking about this at all. He really liked Bax, and no relationship was perfect. He’d stick to his path, and see what it brought him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Mercy Hills went all out to celebrate Harvest Moon. Well, all the packs I’d ever been in did, but I’d never seen anything like this.
The whole enclave hummed with excitement all day. I’d ended up drawn into an impromptu dance with Fan, and then Teca, this morning when I’d gone over to nurse Noah. The pups were learning their first pack dances and they could hardly wait to show off what they’d learned. I’d barely extricated myself in time to finish my afternoon’s work, but I’d forced myself to, because this Harvest Moon celebration looked like it was going to be something I’d never experienced before in my life.
First of all, a group of volunteers looked after the young shifters for the evening, arranging games and full moon activities for them. Fan’s and Teca’s eyes when they saw the toys set up in the fenced field were all I needed to make my day perfect, but it didn’t stop there. Even the babies had a small enclosure where they could run and shift and play puppy games, and Beatrice was four-footed so fast I didn’t even get to see it happen.
Jason and I went together to drop the pups off at their respective areas. The tension of the weekend had passed, and I’d seen no sign that he’d spoken to anyone about my foolish confession. I hadn’t meant to tell him as much as I did, just enough to get him to back off about Abel. As much as it would be a dream come true, I was trying not to believe in or expect dreams anymore. A nice dull mating with someone who would provide for my pups was my plan.
Someone whom it wouldn’t kill me to break their heart.
Jason grinned at me as he passed Macy over to one of the caretakers. “Come on. Let’s go pretend we’re single for a while.”
“Iamsingle. But childless, yes.” I loved my babies, but they were being well looked after. Fan and Teca had taken off without a backward glance or a goodbye and in their excitement they didn’t even notice my slightly wistful wave. I returned Jason’s grin. “You’ll have to be my guide to all the best fun. We never had anything like this at home.”
“Oh, you’re going to have fun. This is my first one too, but Mac’s been telling me all about it ever since the trial.” A shadow passed over his face, but it disappeared quickly enough, and soon we were jostling our way through the crowd to find food. They even had alcohol, beer, and a packmade cider that was bright and sharp and absolutely delicious. I sipped cautiously at mine, wondering what Noah would think of it later, and accepted a plate of barbecued meat on a wooden stick, accompanied by another stick with small potatoes and vegetables on them. They both dripped with some sweet, acidic sauce and I moaned in delight at my first mouthful.
“Good, isn’t it?” Mac appeared out of nowhere and pressed a kiss to Jason’s cheek, then bit into a chunk of meat. I watched them enviously; they didn’t have a fairy-tale romance, but I wasn’t certain that theirs wasn’t better.
