Page 103 of Omega's Flight
"Is it too much?" Raleigh's voice spike with anxiety. "I'll make sure to be up in time, you don't need to worry about it, and if it doesn't work then it really isn't that important and—"
Cas put a hand over his mouth to stop the flow of words. "It's fine. I'm not angry." Time to confess. "Garrick and I talked. Quin and I talked about what it was like when our mother took up with my father. You knew that Quin and the rest of us had different fathers, right?" Raleigh shook his head, so Cas went on. "Mom's a determined woman. When Quin's dad wouldn't follow her lead, she tore up their mating contract and left him, went back to Salma. She ended up mated to the old Alpha there and had us three."
"But..." Raleigh's forehead crinkled in obvious confusion. "So why are you Mercy Hills, then?"
Cass grinned at him, but somewhere underneath was that constant pang of missing having the kind of family his yearmates had. "Yeah, well, remember when I said that Mom's determined? So are we. It was better this way, and Quin was always Mercy Hills, so he arranged for me and Abel to move when we were old enough to strike out on our own. Kaden went into the army, so moving packs wasn't as important to him at the time. I think he might apply to move, though, once he's out. After all, the rest of us are here." He really hoped Kaden would come here. They'd been the closest in age, and he'd never felt like the little pup around Kaden.
Raleigh reached out and stroked his cheek. "That's sad, that you couldn't be comfortable in your family. But I'm glad you're here."
Cas lifted his hand to cover Raleigh's and pressed a kiss to the center of his palm. "Me too."
Raleigh glanced toward the bed. "I see you've been busy."
"I don't like to be useless."
"You're not." Raleigh grimaced, then laughed. "I might be."
"Not in my eyes." Cas stepped close and his heart leaped with joy when Raleigh raised his face for a kiss, as natural as if they'd been together for years. He kissed him, careful not to push, to imply anything more than this pleasure in touch. And when the kiss broke, Raleigh stepped back, one finger tangled in the belt loop on the waist of Cas's jeans.
"I need sleep," he said, and tugged on the fabric. "You staying, or going?"
No need to ask me twice. Cas stripped his t-shirt and shoved his shoes off, kicking them against the wall. Raleigh was already half-naked, jeans sliding down tanned thighs to land in a puddle on the floor.
"Brrr!" he complained and jumped into the bed to burrow under the covers. "I thought it would be warmer tonight."
"It will soon," Cas promised, and disposed of his jeans before climbing in beside the omega. "Watch me." He followed Raleigh across the bed until he could spoon himself against his back. "Holy shit, your feet!"
Raleigh tried to pull them away, but Cas trapped them between his. "No, that was just commentary. And blackmail for later. Leave them there. I don't know why you don't clunk when you walk, they're like ice."
"Degan used to complain about it too," Raleigh said, then stiffened. "I'm sorry. It just slipped out."
It had hurt to hear the other alpha's name slip so easily off Raleigh's tongue. But he'd been warned about that too, by Garrick of all people. "It's okay. He was a big part of your life."
"No, but I shouldn't talk about him to you. It's not kind."
Cas shrugged, kept it as casual as he could. "My ego isn't that fragile. And we're going to be honest with each other, right?"
"I...yes, I think it would be best," Raleigh twisted in his arms to stare up at Cas in the strip of moonlight that was still coming through the window.
"I'd rather." He snuggled down and rearranged them again, so that Raleigh was firmly wedged against Cas's chest.
He hoped Raleigh didn't notice the growing stiffness between his legs. Just in case, though, better to finish this conversation as quickly as possible and get them both off to sleep before it became too obvious to ignore. "This isn't all going to be easy, I'm told. I wish it would be. Bax says some parts of it will feel like we'd been together forever, and others will feel like What the hell was I thinking to mate you?" He grinned into Raleigh's hair as the omega chuckled softly. "But he also told me that, when he and Abel first got together, it was hard not to talk about his first mate, and Abel didn't want to hear about him." Cas thought carefully about his next words. "Don't get me wrong—every time you mention his name, I want to take a car and drive down there to pound him into the dirt. Just because I'm the smallest of the brothers doesn't mean I can't fight." Not like his brothers, no, but his mother's line, oddly enough, was a warrior's line. So though he hadn't made the study of it that the rest of the brothers had, he knew some things. Enough, he hoped.
Raleigh rubbed the back of his head against Cas's chest. "I don't doubt that at all. And I like you the way you are. Quin scares me."
"Yeah, Quin scares a lot of people." Cas lifted his head again and kissed Raleigh's ear, making him giggle. "But, if you have something to say and it involves Degan, I need you to say it. I need to know what you're okay with, and what you're not. I don't want to make his mistakes if I can learn from them. This relationship thing is pretty new to me." Those last words were hard to admit, but he forced himself to. Never before had he ever regretted his footloose lone-wolf lifestyle, but now he felt every bit of whatever he was lacking. "I need you to know that I realize I have to share you with him, just a little." He pressed a kiss into the dark hair and settled down with his head on the pillow to have his last say. "Just so you know, and he knows eventually, if he puts a toe over the line, if you ever shed so much as a single tear over something he does or says, I'll hunt him like a deer and they'll never find the pieces that are left."
Raleigh stilled in his arms and for a moment Cas worried that he really had gone too far. He was just opening his mouth to backtrack, or try to suck the words back in, when Raleigh spoke. "I know you mean well, but I don't think I want that kind of violence in my life. I've had enough of worrying about it, I don't want that any more."
Cas took a deep breath and let it slowly trickle out through his lips. "All right. But you know that I'm here if you need me, right?"
"That's all I need. And if I decide I can't handle him, I know just who to call."
C H A P T E R 7 4
C as woke when the sky was still dark. "Cas, wake up." Then another poke in his ribs and a shaking at his shoulder. "Cas, you need to wake up." Raleigh. Cas groaned and dragged at the covers, trying to pull them over his head. "You didn't tell me you slept like the dead," Raleigh groused, but then he snorted a laugh into the blanket. "You have to get up, the pups will be up soon."
Pups? Oh shit. Cas forced his eyes open, wondered how much sleep he'd actually gotten, then turned his head to see Raleigh smiling at him from the other pillow. "Morning," he croaked, and pinched the sleep out of his eyes. "What time is it?"
