Page 22 of Abel's Omega
The worst that occurred was being turned away from a door I wasn’t supposed to go through, but immediately after, he took me through the rooms that were being renovated to expand the software business, then down a floor into a workshop where busy shifters were assembling solar panels that one of the pack members had designed. Next door to that, empty rooms waited to be turned into the home office for a brewery once they had their permits to sell outside walls, something he was expecting any day now. The thought of it seemed to excite him, even more so when he mentioned he wanted Jason to start coming up with some products they could try to market as well, and pointed out an entire floor—currently empty—that could be put to use in their production. His pleasure in another shifter’s success was very real, and it eased some of my concerns about him, although I couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret for my old pack, with theirno one succeeds unless I succeedculture.
He showed me Jason’s gardens—huge things on the west side of the town, with row upon empty row where vegetables had once grown. At the far end of the deep brown soil, I could see a group of people bending and straightening, putting things into bins. I thought I caught a glimpse of red hair, and wondered if that was Mac.
We walked down to Supplies, which was actually in the same building, but had its own entrances at the point where the two long arms of the building came together. There, I was allowed to make a list of things I thought I needed, and food I’d like to have. Abel had them deliver it, which I gathered was something special, and when they asked where, he said, “Guest quarters. The large one. Call Maintenance to let you in.”
Guest quarters. It only made sense—I wasn’t a part of the community yet. I’d need to prove my worth. That, or find a shifter to mate me and take my babies.
Abel took my arm as we walked out of the building. “I hope you don’t mind the guest quarters. I was hoping to find something with a yard for you, but we’re full and there’s no families ready to move out yet, though in six months that might change.”
I realized that Abel was waiting for a response. “Oh, no. I truly appreciate everything you’re doing for me.” And here was a chance to make sure he knew I understood how generous he was being. “You would have had every right to tell me to turn back around, because I know if you decide to let me stay, it’ll cause trouble for you.” Or maybe not—Roland would probably be ecstatic to think he was making connections with Mercy Hills. Could he ask for a mating gift for my second mating? He probably would. Although, if I took a while finding a new mate, he might have enough time to forget about me. Out of sight, and all that. “If there’s anything at all I can do to make up for the trouble, please, I’d be happy to do it.”
“I’m sure it won’t be that bad. We can always bribe your old pack.” His expression turned dark and then he made a visible effort to shake off whatever it was that troubled him.
Impulsively, I asked, “What’s wrong? Have I already caused problems?” I held my breath in fear of the response.
“Huh? No! No, I was just thinking…” His voice trailed off and he looked at me, assessing. For what? Then he shook his head. “You might as well know. Jason’s birth pack took us to human court over the rights to him.”
I nodded. “I saw it on the news.”
“Well, the judge decided that we could keep him, but that we needed to pay Montana Border because we’d broken pack law in mating Jason without negotiating with his pack. It’s a quarter million dollars.”
I whistled, despite how un-omega-like it was. “That’s a lot.”
Abel nodded. “I have some of it—we planned to expand to the east, build more houses and maybe start growing our own animals for food. But that’s all on hold over this.” He gestured as if Montana Border’s lawsuit were right in front of him.
“That’s a shame.” And then the implications hit me. “So, you really don’t have any money to deal with Jackson-Jellystone.”
“We’ll sort something out. Come on, I’ll give you a tour of the town, show you the park. It’s a good place to take the pups to run, and the day care is right off it, so you might as well see that too.”
He showed me the rest of the town. There was even a small restaurant, and Abel explained that it worked like Supplies and Housing. You signed for your meal, and your account was debited the amount that the meal was worth.
It was like a fairy tale.
Right in the center of the little town was a large green space with trees all around it. At one end was a slide—I recognized it from stolen hours watching television—and a sandbox, which we did have at Buffalo Gap. Painted metal pipes criss-crossed each other beside them, covered in pups climbing, hanging, and jumping from them. An older shifter seemed to be supervising, but it was mostly to keep them from hurting themselves or each other. The pups seemed at liberty to play how they wanted, and I listened in for signs of bullying or class friction, but I didn’t hear anything. A subtle tension I hadn’t even realized I’d been feeling drained out of my shoulders. My pups would be safe here.
Not far from the playground sat a low, white building, the grass in front of it scattered full of toys. On its right, a good-sized square of the park was fenced in behind a neat picket-style fence.
“We call this Central Park. Not after the New York one. It used to have a name, but people just started calling that, and it stuck,” Abel said. His mood had improved as we walked, and he looked entirely relaxed now. “This is where we usually gather for full moons. We do big official things in spring and fall, but the rest of the year is just come as you are and people usually bring whatever food they feel like making and we all wander around and get fat until we decide we want to run.”
His tone made me laugh. “It sounds like fun. We used to do a bonfire twice a year.” The bonfireswerefun. The young shifters would write wishes on slips of paper and burn them. For the omegas in my birth pack, it had mostly been in hope of a rich and handsome mate—after all, a mating was in all our futures. I cast a glance at Abel, thinking he would have fit the bill for young Bax perfectly. Older Bax—well, older Bax wanted to wait and see. But I had to admit, I was much less nervous of him now than I had been before our tour.
Why couldn’t life be simple?
We waved at Jason and the pups over by the slide as we walked, but didn’t approach. Despite the sudden ache of emptiness in my arms, it was a relief to have someone I could trust my pups to, to not always be organizing five people for something only one was needed to do.
Abel led me across the park. It was bigger than I’d first thought, and I was impressed with the amount of space they’d set aside in the middle of the town. Or maybe not quite the middle—when I turned my head, I could see the top of the wall not more than a mile away, so we were close to the edge of the pack land. The silver coated bars at the top gleamed in the sunshine and I shivered.
“Are you cold?” Abel stripped off his jacket and, before I could do more than open my mouth to protest, he had wrapped it around my shoulders. “I guess coming from down south you’re not used to the temperatures here. I’m sorry, I should have thought.”
The cloth was still warm with his body heat, and his scent rose to my nostrils, creating a change in bloodflow that made other things rise as well. But I couldn’t bring myself to give it back—it was like being wrapped up in his arms, and I was tired of denying myself even the smallest indulgences, so I filed the sensation away to fuel my fantasies once the pups were in bed. “Thank you.”
He smiled and we continued on across the park.
Naturally, I waited at the door for Abel to go through first, as was his right as Alpha.
“We don’t worry about rank here, not in everyday things.” Abel put his hand in the small of my back and guided me through the door ahead of him. I nearly tripped over the sill, I was so focused on that light pressure and, more shocking, how little I minded him doing something that had made me sick with fear when Patrick had done it. I filed that away as well. So much had happened, it was going to take me hours to make sense of it, and right now, I needed to pay attention to what was going on around me.
The daycare was gorgeous. I’d read about them, but I’d never actually seen one, and my expectations were blown away.
