Page 55 of Abel's Omega
I searched for Noah and found him halfway down the room, rocking back and forth on hands and knees and grunting. At first, I thought he was planning to make a mess, and I quickly gathered up the cloth he’d been lying on, but then a tiny patch of hair sprouted between his shoulder blades, and I knew what was happening. “Oh, good boy! Such a big boy! Come on, Noah, you can do it.” I grabbed Abel and dragged him down onto the floor next to my boy. “That’s it. Come on!”
Noah grunted again and stretched, and his muzzle appeared, then shrank back again almost to nothing. He growled in frustration, and the muzzle came back, as well as the beginning of a tail. Then hair over his arms and legs and his limbs became distinctly wolf-like. He fell over and staggered to his feet again, his ears flat back against his head. His dark curls disappeared into the soft deep brownish-gray coat of a puppy, and his tail stuck out straight behind him.
I squeezed Abel’s hand, and he squeezed back, then the two of us watched in fascination as Noah growled and stumbled the rest of the way through his first change. Finally, he shook himself, and staggered toward us. His legs weren’t quite strong enough for his body weight, but that would only be for so long. Now that he had a taste of walking, I’d have a hard time keeping him on two legs until his human form caught up with the wolf.
Noah fell into my lap, then scrambled out again as well as he could with his legs going in all directions. He wobbled two steps away, then squatted and peed on the floor.
“Oh, Noah!” I cried, trying to shove the new diaper underneath his little bum.
Abel was bent double, laughing at us.
“It’s not funny,” I complained, but couldn’t help laughing. “At least I have a spare diaper.” I finished mopping up Noah’s mess while he tried to savage my hands with his dull puppy teeth. “Here you, respect your elders!”
Abel scooped him up into his lap, and it was on the tip of my tongue to warn him about sudden deluges, but Noah had already done that, hadn’t he? So I packed the now sodden diaper into the plastic bag with the other one and put everything away. He wasn’t going to be able to wear one in that form anyhow.
I put a hand on Abel’s arm to get his attention. “I should stay with him until he changes back. I’m sure you want to run—you don’t have to wait for me.” I couldn’t help a smile as I watched my youngest attempt to savage Abel’s finger, growling and yipping, in constant danger of tumbling off Abel’s leg and onto the floor.
“I’ll stick around,” Abel said, teasing my ferocious fluffball with the fingers of his other hand. “He’ll probably change back when he’s ready to sleep.”
“You really did have brothers,” I said.
“Uhuh. I had three. Cas is away at university, Kaden’s in the Army, Quin’s in the Marines.”
“Ah.” A lot of young shifters went into the military, especially from the poorer packs. It surprised me that anyone from Mercy Hills would feel the need to do so.
Abel flipped Noah onto his back and tickled his belly. “Kaden and Quin wanted to do something for the pack. A financial infusion. Quin’s actually older than me—he’ll be able to retire this year, and then his pension will be coming in.” His expression turned hard, though he never stopped playing with Noah.
I leaned my cheek against his shoulder, pleased to be the one offering comfort this time. “And you don’t like that,” I murmured.
He sighed. “No. It shouldn’t be necessary.” He turned his head toward me and made a valiant effort to smile. “Something else to change.”
Damn. I’d fallen in love with a hero.
CHAPTER FORTY
Once Noah dozed off in Abel’s lap, his form returned to his more familiar human one. Bax and Abel laid him in his designated crib, then left the daycare for the fenced-off areas set aside for the older babies. Teca was already asleep, but—to Abel’s complete non-surprise—Fan was still awake, and determined to run with Dabi.
“But look at all the toys,” Bax told him, holding out a stuffed pheasant that squeaked when you squeezed it. “There won’t be any toys in the woods. And there are other pups to play with. If you come with us, they can’t come.”
“Don’t want them to come. I wanna go with you!”
Abel put a hand on Bax’s shoulder. “Let’s bring him,” he said.
Bax stood up, the well-chewed pheasant dangling forgotten from his hand. “It’ll be a slow run with him along.”
“I’m old. Slow is my speed.”
“You’re not old.” Bax frowned at him, but a smile peeked out around the corners of his mouth.
“I’ve got ten years on you. Come on, any excuse to be a pup again.”
Fan jumped up and down in excitement. “Dabi, I want to play with Abel.”
Bax opened his mouth, closed it again, and regarded the two them suspiciously. “Am I going to be running with one adult and one pup, or two pups?”
Abel and Fan looked at each other.
“You have to be good,” Fan said in all seriousness.
