Page 38 of Abel's Omega
“To do what?” Mac asked. He’d worn a troubled look through the entire conversation, but had merely shaken his head when Abel had tried to pry out whatever was bothering him.
“Whatever you want? Though the first thing I’d do is get a counter penalty, to take the sting out of the one for Jason. You could even go farther. After all, they deliberately chose to use violence and risk all your lives to take Jason back. Something which could also have killed him and the baby. You might be able to get a pain and suffering judgment against them that would turn the balance of the money in your favor.”
Mac shook his head. “Jason wouldn’t be happy with that. They’re poor enough as it is.” He picked at the corner of his notes, shredding the edge.
Laine glared at him, exasperated.
Abel sat up again. “I think I agree with him, though not for the same reasons. I still have to deal with these other Alphas afterward, and if they see me using the human justice system to punish another pack, it’ll make it hard for me to gain their cooperation for other projects. We have gardens, but we don’t have the agricultural expertise that Indiana does. We have no capacity to train our own medical personnel. And most important is genetic diversity—if we can’t mate among packs, then our genetic diversity goes down the tubes.” He felt trapped, and it made him restless. It didn’t help that Laine was challenging him in this, and his first instinct was to slap that behavior down.
There could only be one Alpha in a pack, and Abel had won that place with words and blood. He’d keep it that way too, if he needed to. But Laine was human, which meant ignorant of shifter lives, and they needed him; Abel gritted his teeth and sat hard on the unnecessary anger. “I can’t risk those ties. I’d be happy just to keep Jason, and to hell with punitive measures.”
Laine spread his hands in apparent defeat, though Abel could tell he was still annoyed with the decision. “Very well. You’re the client. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”
Abel glanced around the table, receiving a shake of the head from everyone. “Then I guess we’re done.” He motioned to Garrick. “Come with me, I’ll get you your tabs.” He turned to Laine. “You have his papers?”
Laine nodded and reached into his briefcase. He passed over several pages, then began gathering up his notes from the conference. “I’ll bring him back next weekend, if you like. I had the paperwork made out for two weeks, just in case.”
Garrick leaned over and put his mouth next to Abel’s ear. “Do you want me to go talk to that professor at the university?”
“Is he here?”
Garrick nodded. “This is his last year, though. He’s moving to New York.”
Abel tapped his fingers on the table while he worked through the pros and cons. “Do it. You’ll probably have to get Laine to take you.” He glanced over at the human lawyer. “Fill him in on everything we know, see if you can enlist his help. He’ll have way more latitude for research than we would.” He signed all three pages and passed it over to Garrick for his signature.
Garrick signed, and stood up. “I’m ready whenever you are,” he told Laine.
That seemed to be the signal for the meeting to end. They all got to their feet, shook hands, and then each went their separate ways.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Monday morning, I raced around the apartment, determined to leave the place absolutely pristine just in case someone dropped in to check on it. I didn’t think they would, but just in case, I wanted them to know they could trust me with their possessions. As soon as I’d picked up everything I could find that wasn’t where it was supposed to be, I scrambled some eggs and put toast in the toaster, then went to get Noah out of his crib.
“How’s my baby?” I whispered as I picked him up. He was wide awake, cooing to himself and grabbing at his toes. I grabbed the diaper bag as well on my way out of the room. It only took a moment to get him cleaned up, and then I set him in the high chair Duke had dropped off for me yesterday. It was battered, but still in working shape, and I tried Noah on some of my eggs while I shoveled most of the rest of them into my mouth before the other the pups woke.
I still couldn’t get over the idea of being able to eat eggs every day if I wanted to. Fan and Teca and Beatrice, too, though they’d latched on to some imported cereal at Supplies and had opted for that both yesterday and today. But I’d feed them something healthy tonight. Maybe spaghetti, with alphabet pasta, and carrots grated into the sauce so Teca couldn’t pick them out.
While Noah mashed his spoonful of eggs in his hair and launched them at the ceiling, I washed my plate and went to wake up my other three.
Fan was a morning pup, and he woke easily. I sent him to the bathroom, then set some clothes out for him and left my independent little alpha to wiggle into whatever he could manage. Teca wasn’t fond of mornings, and Beatrice was already awake, playing in the corner with the new blocks I’d bought yesterday at Supplies. With a bit of humoring, I got Teca on her feet and headed for the bathroom, and quickly stripped Beatrice out of her diaper and put a new one on her. We met Teca coming down the hall, still rubbing sleep from her eyes, the corners of her mouth doing their best to head for China. I kissed her and called her my darling, and shooed her out to the living room for breakfast.
No one wanted eggs, a choice I acquiesced to with only a small pang of guilt.More for me!I poured them bowls of cereal, and let them eat in the living room with a video playing on the television mounted on the wall. It was all still new enough, and while I worried about spoiling them, the memories of the past six months were enough to quash any temptation I had to take it away from them.
Noah was obviously done with his eggs, so I wiped him off and sat down on the couch to let him nurse himself full.
I eyed my litter with pride. They were so well-behaved now that we were away from Jackson-Jellystone. I couldn’t wait to take them to the daycare, have them meet new young shifters without the stigma of their sudden loss of status to hold them back. A new start, a chance to remake our futures.
Noah finished nursing, and I set him down to crawl happily around on the floor. He hadn’t tried for his first form change yet, but if he followed the pattern set by my other pups, it wouldn’t be long now.
“Okay, pups, finish up. We have to brush our teeth and get ready fordaycare!” I sang.
“I wanna stay with you, Dabi,” Teca said. She let me dress her, but wasn’t her usual helpful self.
I crouched down in front of her, wiping the milky smear from around her mouth. “Wait until you see the toys they have. There’s a little kitchen, and costumes, and it’s right at the park, so there’s lots of places to play. Annnnnd,” I drew the word out, as if I had a fantastic surprise for her. “There are other girls and boys there to play with too.”
She gasped in two-year-old excitement, even though she wasn’t quite at the age to be excited about playmates. But Fan certainly was, and he inhaled the last of his cereal and toast, though he stubbornly left the crust behind. Generally, I’d make him eat it, but this was the beginning of our new life, and even though I’d already let them watch television during a meal, maybe another small celebration was in order. It felt like a celebration to me, anyway, not having to fight with him over it.
“Fan, you go brush your teeth while I get your sisters cleaned up, and then we can go. Take your dishes to the sink!” But I was too late with the last sentence, and he was already gone. I shook my head and piled the pups’ plates on top of each other, then wiped the girls clean. “Okay, you two. Stay here.” Like that was going to happen. I’d barely gotten the cloth over their faces before they were off scattering their toys over the living room floor. Again.
