Page 27 of Abel's Omega
“That’s fine.” He paused. “I may have help for you for that. I just hired someone to work in the office, looking for funding and such. Send your stuff over and I’ll have him start in on it on Tuesday.”
“That would be great.” Garrick’s relief was audible even over the cell phone. “I’m getting behind on the legislative stuff. There’s some new laws being talked about that I don’t like the sound of.”
“You can bring me up to speed on that tomorrow too. Let’s hope we can get ahead of the curve this time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
After Abel left, I sent Teca off to play on the slide and sat down in the grass with Noah in my lap to watch the pups play.
“How was your tour?” Jason asked.
“Great. We got the babies signed up for daycare, and I know where all the important offices are. The Alpha says I can stay in the guest quarters, wherever they are, until things get sorted.” I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” Jason boosted Macy up a little higher on his shoulder and patted her bum. “What do you want to know?”
I kept an eye on my other pups. Beatrice might not be old enough to understand anything we said, but Teca might be, and Fan would almost certainly get the gist of it, if not the reasons why, so I wanted to be certain they were out of earshot. “I wanted to ask you about single males who might be interested in mating.”
His eyes widened, but he kept his composure pretty well. I suppose it was a bit blunt.
“I could probably find a few. Are you sure you want to be mated again so quickly?”
“I’ll be mated again in the spring, and they’ll foster my babies out if I don’t find someone here. It’s that, or I take the van and disappear into the human world.”
He glanced around, taking in Beatrice, who had changed shape and was now trying to figure out how to get out of her little T-shirt without hands to help. “That might be a bit tougher for you than it was for my parents. I was thirteen, and an only child. With four of them, all so young…” He shook his head. “You’d be caught by the humans before your pack ever thought to look for you.”
His words sent a chill down my spine. It was an ugly truth that I knew but had refused to accept before. “I think I need to keep it in mind, as a last hope.” I caught his gaze and tried to impress on him how important this was. “I will not let them take my babies away and shove them on people who have no reason to love them. It’s bad enough they lost their father, lost their home, and lost their status. I won’t let them lose each other too.”
He looked thoughtful at that. “I’ll talk to Mac. He knows more people than I do and he’ll know who’s gotten to that age, if you don’t mind someone older. I don’t know if the younger ones would agree to mate on short notice. They’re all such romantics.” His tone was wry and I grimaced in response. Omegas were supposed to be the romantic ones, but somehow, they never got their happy endings.
Macy began to wriggle and fuss. “Hey, what’s up with you?” Jason sniffed and checked her clothing for anything sticking into her. “Just hungry, I guess. Pass me that bag off the wagon?”
I looked behind me and found a faded canvas bag hanging half over the end of a long, high-sided wagon. I handed it over and watched as Jason pulled out a baby blanket, tightly crocheted in soft pink wool, and draped it over his shoulder and the baby. “I hate people staring,” he said, and movements underneath the blanket indicated he was undoing the buttons on his shirt to nurse the baby. “Omega is pretty rare here, so everything I do is just short of newsworthy.” The tiny distressed noises of a hungry baby disappeared, replaced by the low smacking of a pup still learning how to latch on.
“Is she eating well?” I asked. Noah seemed to know what was going on, because he turned, grabbing at my chest and making urgent noises of his own. “Greedy pup. Just because Macy’s being fed doesn’t mean you’re dying of starvation.” But he probably was hungry—I’d been a couple of hours wandering around Mercy Hills with Abel. “Um, you don’t have a spare blanket, do you?” Because I suddenly realized, if Jason was covering up, that I couldn’t just pull off my shirt and sit down with my baby like I’d been used to at home.
“Here.” He dipped into the bag and pulled out another one, this one in blue. “You can keep it, if you want. I have tons—wasn’t much else to do at the end with Mr. Over-Protective refusing to let me lift much more than a plate full of food.”
I laughed dutifully at that as I accepted the blanket, but I couldn’t fathom not doing a full day’s work, even while I was in labor. With Teca, I’d cooked a meal for Patrick and a group of pack members who were trying to organize a mechanic’s course for themselves at one of the nearby human colleges. They’d finished eating, and I’d cleaned and cooked enough meals ahead for the next few days before I was forced to take to my block of foam in the porch. That had been exceptional though—she’d come a couple of days early, and in a rush, and I’d barely had time to pack away the last of the dishes before my Omega line had begun to separate. The others, I’d been more prepared for, and the only work I’d had to do that day was meals and dishes.
It only took a moment to copy Jason and tuck Noah in underneath my T-shirt. He settled contentedly against me, and I felt the sudden relief of pressure as he began to suck.
Jason was watching us with an odd expression on his face. “I suppose you’re worried what another family would do if they saw his Omega line. I’m sorry,” he added at my startled look. “He needed to be changed earlier.”
I nodded, wary of his interest in my baby. I’d kept it hidden in Jackson-Jellystone, hoping to escape them before it became an issue. Then I realized I was being an idiot. If anyone understood what I was feeling, it was Jason. “I’ve only ever been in Buffalo Gap and Jackson-Jellystone. When I was younger, we used to talk about drugs you could take to suppress your heats. I wanted him to have a chance, you know?”
“Yeah.” Jason looked down at the bump where Macy’s head filled out the blanket. “I’m glad she acts like an alpha. It’s such a load off my mind to know there’s a good chance she won’t turn out to be omega when she hits puberty. I know things are different here, but still—you worry, right?”
I nodded agreement and looked down at my own worry, contentedly kneading at my chest as he filled his belly. “Although, I wouldn’t change him for anything.”
Jason smiled. “Me either.”
Not long after, my other pups came running over clamoring for food.
“Why don’t we take them to the restaurant?” Jason asked, bundling Macy’s supplies back into his bag with one hand.
“I don’t think I can—I don’t have credits yet. The Alpha paid for everything this morning, until I can pay him back.”
“It’s okay, I’ll get it. Saving credits isn’t going to do me any good anyway.”
