Page 98 of Abel's Omega
“I,” he declared, laying a kiss against the swell of my womb, “think that I am the happiest shifter in the world right now.”
I smiled, and didn’t contradict him. But I was pretty sure that lucky shifter was me.
CHAPTER SEVENTY
Jackson-Jellystone would be what Abel called a ‘flying visit’. We’d get the panels installed—on Roland’s house, of course—and Abel even threw in one for heating water, which I thought was generous of him, but I suspected he had some plan in mind. He didn’tlikeRoland enough to justgivehim things.
I would be glad to be out of here. The memories were bad enough, but we’d hardly been here an hour before I noticed people strolling by the yard while I played with the pups. It was hot, which I was used to, but there was enough moisture in the air to wash yourself with, which I’d never quite accustomed myself to. So I’d taken the pups outside, wearing my lightest clothes and the pups in absolutely nothing. Roland had set out a half barrel under a tree and filled it with water, and the pups and I played in it, trying to cool off.
My t-shirt was soaked through, as were my shorts—my figure showed plainly. And that was the source of all the curiosity.
I did my best to ignore it all, giving friendly nods to those whose eyes I managed to catch. Despite Abel’s assurances, it was hard to ignore the looming explosion I was sure was going to happen.
I saw the two other omegas in Jackson-Jellystone hiding behind some trees, trying to be casual in their inspection. I wondered what they wanted—we’d never been friends. They’d resented my position as Alpha’s mate, and after his death had gone out of their way to make me feel my loss of status. It wasn’t very mature of me to want to rub my new mate in their faces, let alone my highly unusual pregnancy.
Why not?A little bit wouldn’t hurt, right? “Raleigh, Vitale, hello!” I stood up, set Noah on my hip so I didn’t have to worry about him in the water, and strolled over to the small group. Their eyes widened, and more than a few of them stared in horrified fascination at my burgeoning belly. “How are you?” I noted Robin’s last pup—now a toddler—at his side, and the six-month-old on Vitale’s hip. Raleigh’s pup had a runny nose. “Vitale, new pup? How lovely.” I let my hand come to rest on my soon-to-be new pup and hitched Noah a little higher on my hip, to show how healthy he was.
“Yes,” Vitale said slowly. “Just this spring.” His gaze was stuck on my belly, but I’d be damned before I’d help him out, so I pretended I didn’t notice his fixed stare.
“And Raleigh, this is your youngest, right?” Of course it was. “He’s grown.” Not a lot. I wondered how much they were getting to eat and immediately felt ashamed. “Would the pups like to come play in the water? I was about to make a snack for everyone.” Roland had bought in guest food—I remembered seeing a big wheel of cheese. Cheese and crackers would make a good snack, high in protein. The pack gardens were producing as well. Strawberries to go with the cheese?
Little Abel kicked to show his or her agreement with that idea.
“Oh, we couldn’t…” Raleigh said, but his tone wasn’t at all firm.
“Of course you can,” I insisted. “I’d love to catch up on everything that’s been happening.” And, surprisingly, I was. This had been my home for four years and, while I didn’t exactly miss it, I felt something. As we wiped little Henry’s nose and got both him and Eldon out of their clothes, our chatter went from being strained and polite to having a casual randomness I remembered from when I lived in Buffalo Gap and my cousins and I would gossip while doing our chores.
If the other onlookers had expected a blowup between us, they were sadly disappointed, and once it became obvious there would be no more gossip to spread, they gradually drifted away.
Raleigh and I left Vitale to watch over the pups and make sure they didn’t drown each other while we went back into the house to make the food.
Earlier, I’d set a couple of jugs of water mixed with fresh mint leaves out in the sunshine, before I came out with the pups, and the heat of the sun’s rays had turned it into beautiful golden mint tea. I brought it inside with us and strained out the mint leaves. Two of them, I sweetened with honey and put in the refrigerator to chill for the men. The other, I set aside to take out for the pups and us.
Raleigh was cutting the block of cheese into nearly paper thin slices.
“You can cut them thicker,” I told him.
“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” he said with real worry.
I gently took the hand that held the knife and moved it a fraction of an inch farther along the block. “It’s fine. If he complains, I’ll tell Abel.”
“And he won’t mind?”
“No.” I rubbed my hand over my belly, feeling the thumbs and kicks of my little acrobat inside. “He thinks I don’t eat enough.”
“Oh.”
I caught Raleigh trying to get a look at my belly without being noticed, but he was too flustered to do a good job, so I took pity on him. “You can ask,” I said.
He looked up at me with scared eyes. “How did that happen?”
I shrugged casually, though I was as unnerved as he was whenever I put any thought into it. “We’re not sure, except we know that some omegas used to have spring and fall heats. Maybe getting more food made the difference.” It was a lie—we knew exactly why I had gone into heat, or thought we did. Jason and I had a great-great grandfather in common, from a mating over a hundred years ago. Before the Enclosure. I just wasn’t ready to admit to True Omega status, and I freely admitted—to Jason at least—that the idea terrified me.
“Is that all?” Raleigh looked both scared and hopeful. “I don’t think I want to have heats twice a year.”
Dammit.“I don’t think everyone can do it. Abel had someone start reading the histories and talking to the old ones. Even Before, there were only certain omegas who could do it.” I wasn’t going to have him starving himself even further just because I’d been careless in my lie. Fuck, this trip was such a bad idea. Except it wasn’t, because if the packs thought Abel was trying to hide the baby, everything would be that much worse when it finally came. But it was a strange turn of events that I suddenly felt responsible for the Jackson-Jellystone omegas.
You really are Alpha’s Mate, aren’t you?Over achiever. I had to fight to keep a smile off my face, because there was no way I could explainthat. “Cut it thicker and I’ll get some strawberries—I’m sure I saw some earlier.”
