Page 69 of Abel's Omega
“Mitchel,”Abel said with a wide smile.
Uncle Mitchel got off his chair and came down the front steps. “Abel. How are you? I see you brought Bax with you.”
“I did. Where I go, he goes.”
“I take it you’re fond of him.”
“He’s a good shifter.”
Nicely neutral of you, my love.
Fan climbed creakily out of the car, rubbing sleep from his eyes. I released Noah from his seat and set him in his sling, then picked up Abel’s phone and brought it to him. Fan followed us, hanging off Duke’s hand and looking around curiously. I’d been telling him about the place, and I could see him trying to match my stories to the reality.
“Hello, Uncle Mitchel,” I said.
He looked me over. “Hello, Bax. You’ve been well, I see.”
I gritted my teeth. “For certain definitions of well.” The math textbook had served me well, at least in terms of sarcasm. I bit my cheek and cast a quick glance at Abel, but his face didn’t tell me anything. Hopefully, I hadn’t screwed up before we even got started.
Since Uncle Mitchel just looked at me in puzzlement, I guessed that the message had flown clean over his head, and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Yes, Uncle, I’m well. Mercy Hills is nice; the pups like it there.”
That seemed to satisfy him, and he turned to Abel. “The house next door is where we usually put guests, if you don’t mind waiting while we empty it.” He turned back to Bax. “Your cousin Holland is staying there while we figure out what to do with him.”
“What to do with him?” Abel asked, puzzled.
Uncle Mitchel gave me a look. “It’s a family thing. Very sudden. He can sleep on my couch while you’re here, there’s no need for you to worry yourself about him.”
I tugged on the sleeve of Abel’s shirt. “Holland is an omega, too, a couple of years younger than me.”
He raised his eyebrows at me. I knew what he was wondering—why was he living on his own in guest quarters? Didn’t he have a family here to take him?
I shrugged. “That’s all right, Uncle Mitchel. I don’t mind sharing.”
“It’s not up to you to decide. And if you keep on like that, you’ll spoil your second chance. An Alpha doesn’t want a mate who tries to boss him around.”
Yeah, he had that right, at least with Patrick. I cast a glance up at Abel, wondering if he’d say anything.
He did more than that. “I’ve never noticed Bax bossing me around. He usually has good suggestions. And I don’t mind—Bax might enjoy the help.”
Now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. I’d never asked for help with the pups, ever. What was Abel up to?
Uncle Mitchel shook his head. “Well, maybe you’ve got him better trained than we ever did. Or maybe Patrick did the trick. Whatever. Holland has the small bedroom, so you folks can have the two at the front of the house.
“Thank you, Mitchel,” Abel said evenly, then turned to Duke and I. “Let’s get unpacked, and then we can have the grand tour.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
The town both did and didn’t look like I remembered. Now that I had Mercy Hills to compare it to, I realized how shabby and run down the place was. We were lucky here—unlike Jackson-Jellystone, which had been put up in part of the park, this had been an actual community before the government had bought out the landowners and built the walls. The houses were sturdy, and the pack had looked after them as well as they could. Still, you could see the wear and tear on them, and on the pack members who passed, with nothing to do but wander the streets and spy on each other.
Buffalo Gap lived off tourist money, making crafts and selling shifter themed junk. I’d sucked at that too, though any time I managed to get myself put in charge of a project, it always finished ahead of schedule. Not that I’d ever gotten credit for it—omega, right?
Duke once again loaded himself up with our gear, though Abel took the clothes basket this time. Uncle Mitchel led us over to the little two-story house next door and ushered us in without so much as a courtesy knock for Holland.
I was burning to know what had happened, and I craned my neck looking for him as we trooped through the house and up the stairs. The door to one of the bedrooms was shut—that must have been his.
It didn’t take long to settle in. Careful of Abel’s reputation, I sent him downstairs with Fan and Duke and Uncle Mitchel, and did the unpacking myself. The whole time I worked, I listened for sounds from the other bedroom, but there was nothing. Maybe he was out? But from the way Uncle Mitchel talked about it, he probably wasn’t out. On my way back downstairs, I stopped at that closed door and tapped lightly. Noah was a comforting weight against my chest, his tiny puppy snores barely audible.
“Holland? It’s me, Bax. Are you in there?” I pressed my ear to the door, hoping for some noise, but when I hadn’t heard anything in nearly a minute, I decided he must have gone out and started down the stairs.
