Page 6 of Abel's Omega
Abel closed his eyes and tilted his head back to catch the beams of sun slipping between the leaves of the shrubs. With his eyes closed, he didn’t have to see the leaves changing color, didn’t have to look at the weight of his responsibilities, didn’t have to watch his friend grasping at straw after straw, desperate to keep his mate. “What’s he want to do now?”
Mac shifted beside him, the heavy canvas of his jacket scraping across the wood of the bench. “He wants to try the solar collectors on the greenhouses and see if he can grow crops during the winter. He says there’s two of them that shouldn’t be too hard to heat.”
“That will hardly touch it. And he’s just barely had a baby. Who’s going to look after Macy? She too young to go to the daycare yet.” Abel opened his eyes and looked at his friend.
Mac shrugged. “Jason’s dad. He’ll move back in, we can coordinate her care between the three of us. Jason says she can come to the greenhouse with him anyway.” Mac rubbed at the back of his neck. “I was thinking I could work outside walls too. There’s got to be some manual labor jobs somewhere.”
“And still cover our security? And help raise your child? Don’t tell me you won’t be out in those greenhouses all winter too if I give Jason the go-ahead. No, that’s not workable either.”
“Well then what the fuck are we going to do?I can’t lose him.”
Abel sat up and gave up on his alone time. “I’mworkingon it. I just don’t have anytime.”
Mac propped his elbows on his knees and let his head droop. “He’s so happy to be here, but there’s the shadow of that money hanging over him. He thinks I don’t notice.”
Abel put a hand on his friend’s back and rested his forehead against Mac’s shoulder. “I’ll figure it out. You go back and enjoy that daughter of yours.”
Mac sat up and leaned against the back of the bench, his face tipped back into a sunbeam. “Jason wants you to come for supper. Friday night. Six o’clock.”
It was a good thing that Mac’s eyes were closed because he couldn’t have missed theyou’ve got to be kidding meexpression on Abel’s face. The word, “No,” danced on the tip of his tongue, but something stopped him. An evening spent in the company of Mac’s omega mate, with his eerie ability to calm and soothe, might be just what he needed to shake a solution to this problem loose in his brain. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be there. Should I bring anything?” As soon as he said the words, the world seemed brighter.
Mac laughed and stood up. “Nope. He’s got the whole thing planned down to the tiniest detail. You have to come—I made a deal with him. He stays in bed until Friday, and I talk you into taking a bit of time to spend with your friends.” He clapped Abel on the back of the shoulder. “Just be prepared to be wrapped around the fingers of the prettiest little alpha pup you’ve ever met. Uncle Abel.”
Abel got to his feet. “I’m looking forward to it.” Yeah, he needed some down time. An evening spent with Mac’s family would be good for him.
They parted, Mac back to his second job harvesting in the gardens, Abel into the building, to his office and the stacks of problems that never seemed to end.
“Hey, Louise, how’s the rest of my morning looking?” he asked as he walked through his secretary’s office.
“There’s a phone call from the Department about new forms for travel, and another from a different branch about the request you put in to extend the enclave to the east. And then there’s a conference call with Twilco’s IT department. Apparently they broke the inventory software again and he’s raging. And then—”
He held up a hand to stop her there. “I think that’s enough. Put Francis on the software problem—she’s the least likely of any of us to say something we’ll regret later. Let me get my coat hung up and we can start with the forms and move on from there.” He opened the door to his office and stepped inside, thinking furiously. That land to the east of the enclave walls—he’d bought it with the first of the big payments he and his—at that time—tiny software company had earned, for that same piece of inventory software that was going to send his blood pressure through the ceiling if Francis couldn’t talk them through a fix. It had always been his intention, tentatively approved by the department, to have that land incorporated into the enclave and extend the walls to make more space for the pack. Shifters weren’t meant to be crammed into apartment buildings and dormitories, even if it was the only way to keep a roof over everyone’s head and still have the space they needed to run in wolf form. And he was lucky—most packs weren’t as well off as his. Mercy Hills had had three strong Alphas before him, with goals and plans. If they hadn’t, they’d be in the same situation as many of the other packs.
Selling the land was an option. It wouldn’t bring in much, but he’d been in the habit of putting money aside as a security measure and, while he didn’t have anything near to what they needed, the two funds together brought them a little closer.
He cast a frustrated glance at his cell phone. If he could find the time to get that game finished, this whole issue could simply vanish. Maybe. Until then… He picked up the handset of the land line. “Louise, I’m ready to talk to them about the travel forms.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Alpha’s household had been fed, and I’d finished cleaning up the kitchen afterward. Now I had a free couple of hours to play with my pups and get the diapers washed. I piled the bag into my laundry basket and set it by the stroller, then collected Beatrice from her play area and strapped her in.
I opened the door that led from the porch to the back yard. “Fan! Teca! I’m going!” I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them, out of sight behind the trees. There were a few other pups out there too, some barking, some yelling as they played. While Patrick had been alive, my pups had had lots of friends. Now that I was simply an unmated omega, they were down to the three or four lowest status families in the place.
Another thing I wanted to change.
“Pups! Now! Don’t make me come out there.”
I didn’t want another mate, but it was a foregone conclusion that as an omega—with no property rights, no legal rights—I needed a mate to have the opportunity to raise my pups the way they should be raised. And for them, I’d submit to anything.
I was just about to yell for the pups again when Fan and Teca pelted around the clump of shrubs they’d been playing behind. Teca ran full tilt, her little human legs a blur of almost-clumsy waddling. Fan was in wolf form. He raced circles around her, then jumped up and knocked her down before tearing off for the house.
“Fan!” I shouted, and ran out to comfort a now crying Teca. Fan yipped and stayed just out of reach, his ears and tail angled aggressively. I picked up my daughter and set her on my hip. “Go inside and change, Fan. And put clothes on.”
Fan took off in the other direction, but I’d been expecting it. As the pup ran past me, I grabbed him by the ruff and picked him up. “No. We’re going to do laundry. And you’re coming with us.” I almost wished Fan was old enough to leave on his own, but he’d already proved that he wasn’t capable of behaving when there wasn’t an adult around. Even when there was, he couldn’t always be trusted. If this didn’t stop, I figured he’d either be the most hated Alpha of all time, or he’d end up being brutish muscle for one. Fan’s personality didn’t leave much room for compromise. And I was essentially running two households, and the time he needed from me inevitably got swallowed up in chores. If his life was ruined, it would be my fault. Maybe I should talk to Roland about trying other packs to see if I could entice a nice shifter elsewhere.
Inside, I got everyone ready to go—Fan and Teca clean and dressed, Beatrice changed—another diaper for the laundromat—and the baby tucked into my sling. I’d planned to get a new one for this pup, since Patrick had shown no sign of losing interest in keeping me pregnant. This one had seen better days, but it still worked. And it left my hands free for other work, or to keep up with my older pups.
I had them all lined up at the door, and was doing a last check to see what else I had that could be washed, when Miranda came into the porch without so much as a courtesy knock. “You’re going out?”
