Page 112 of Abel's Omega
I shook my head and put down my glass of juice. “I think I’ll go to bed. All this travel…” I got to my feet. “If you see Abel, will you tell him where I’m gone?”
“Of course. Sleep well, Bax. I’ll see you in the morning?”
“Come for breakfast, so we can plan our day.”
“All right, I’ll do that.” She squeezed my hand and smiled.
Before I left, I looked around for Usher again, thinking maybe we should talk more, but there was no sign of him. Except, when I went to go around the house, through that narrow, practically unused gap because the back door and kitchen were packed with shifters and I was suddenly in no mood for company, I ran into him. Or almost. Him, and the person he was with.
Usher was spreadeagled against the side of Uncle Mitchel’s house. I could barely see him for the shape of the man behind him, driving into him over and over as they fucked. I couldn’t see who it was, but I assumed it was Usher’s mate. It was bad manners for Boris to take him here out in the open, where Uncle Mitchel could come along at any moment, and for a moment I thought I understood Usher’s unhappiness. Then Usher made a convulsive movement and the man said, “Hold the fuck still!”
I knew that voice.
“Oh, Uncle Mitchel,” I whispered. Is this what his sterile mating had driven Usher to? Or had Usher even had a choice? What was my uncle thinking, to infringe so far on a packmember’s mate?
Quickly, I backed out of the gap and made my blind way back into the house, pushing rudely through the crowd until I could get to the stairs and finally up to the privacy of our temporary bedroom. Except even that wasn’t safe, because one of the windows opened onto that gap, and I could hear them—the slap of flesh, grunts, and a low whine that I took to be Usher’s. I went, instead, to the pups’ room, and sat on the edge of the bed, stroking Noah’s curls over and over and wondering if Usher’s fate would be his. A loveless mating, and no purpose in life except the pleasure of others. I put a hand on my belly. Would that be the fate of this one? Or of my girls? The only one I knew was safe was Fan, and the tears began to roll down my face.
A few minutes later, the door to the bedroom opened. “Bax?” It was Abel.
“I’m here. I was just tired.”
“Yeah?” He came over and sat behind me, his warmth a comfort to me while I tried to stop my world from spinning. “Anything else? Something with Usher?”
He knew me so well. I turned and practically threw myself in his arms. “He’s drinking, and sleeping with Uncle Mitchel even though he’s mated. He’s so unhappy, he doesn’t like his mate and I don’t understand why he’d doing it, because he can’t get any pleasure from it and, oh, Abel, I don’t want that life for Noah, or for this one or for the girls—” I choked on a sob and clung to him.
“Shh, shh, like I’d let that happen. Or you would.” His hands rubbed soothingly over my back, but it did nothing to ease my distress.
“Promise me!” I demanded, my voice rising. I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. “Please,” I added more quietly.
“I promise, if it will make you happy, but you know me better than that.”
I did. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I just…panicked.”
He rubbed his cheek against the top of my head. “You are the fiercest shifter ever where your pups are concerned. I’d bet on you against anyone when it comes to them.” I gave a watery chuckle and he laughed. “Come on, let’s go somewhere else so we don’t wake the pups.”
“Okay,” I said, and now I really was tired. But before he could lead me out of the room, I stopped and looked back. Noah seemed so peaceful, sleeping in the bed. I ducked out of Abel’s embrace and went back to pick him up.
“No, I don’t mind,” Abel said, reading the words in my mind as I stared at him from beside the bed. “At least he doesn’t kick like Beatrice does.”
Abel was always so good at making me laugh. He held Noah while I pulled on a loose t-shirt and pajama pants and pulled back the covers of the bed. I gave him a hard hug before he left us tucked securely into bed, and he kissed me in return.
“I’m not giving any of you up. Believe that,” he told me before he crept quietly out of the room, closing the door behind him.
I snuggled down with Noah, the ghost of Abel’s kiss still warm on my lips, and drifted slowly off to sleep.
CHAPTER EIGHTY
The next morning, I woke up with Abel at my back, and Noah cuddled into my front. Abel’s arm was draped around both myself and Noah, his hand on Noah’s belly as if he were a shield. I wanted to stay in bed a little longer, but the baby in my belly woke up and stretched, and if I stayed in my warm, cozy nest, it was going to end up being a warm, wet nest.
Delicately, I began prying myself out from between Abel and Noah.
Abel grunted and his arm tightened around my waist. “You getting up?”
“Just for a minute. The baby insists on the bathroom.”
He chuckled sleepily and let me go.
On the way back from the bathroom, I decided to check on the pups. It was past seven, and normally Fan would already be up, but I hadn’t heard anything from him at all.
