Page 105 of Omega's Flight
The Sir stopped Cas in his tracks. "I'm not that old. Call me Cas." He started moving again, taking them around the corner and up the small set of stairs at the back of the house. Cas opened the old steel door, wincing at the creaking of the spring in the hinge. "Can we come in?" he called through.
"Yes," Raleigh called back. He was just setting the last of the filled plates on the kitchen table and counting meatballs. "I couldn't remember which plate was mine and which was yours," he said absently, then put one of the plates back inside the refrigerator. "I kept some extra meatballs for us, because you're only two." He turned around and smiled at them. "What are you doing up so early, anyway? I thought Willie Rose was sleeping through the night now."
Patton, who had taken his black cowboy hat off the minute he came through the door, shuffled his feet a little and switched the hat from one hand to the next. “Sometimes she does. Today she’s hungry. Ori's in the rocking chair in the living room right now givin' her breakfast. I heard something outside and figured I'd better check it out." He glanced between Cas and Raleigh and went scarlet. "I didn't mean to disturb anything."
Raleigh's rueful eyes met Cas's and Cas rubbed his upper lip to hide an answering grin. "It's fine. I was leaving anyway."
"But not before you help carry all this food over next door, right?" Raleigh held out two plates in Cas's direction. "Please?" He smiled when Cas took the plates, then handed two more to Patton, who fumbled his hat onto his head before awkwardly relieving Raleigh of his burden. "I'm making breakfast, if you want to bring your mate over once the baby is fed."
"Oh, we couldn't—" Patton started to say, then stumbled to a stop. "Thank you. I know there's food in there, but I'm not much of a cook and Willie Rose takes more lookin' after than I realized."
"I'd be happy to. Let's go over and I'll invite him personally, if you think he wouldn't mind us invading his house."
"I'm sure he won't. Thank you, sir."
Raleigh loaded himself up with the last three plates and headed for the back door. On the way by, he kissed Cas on the cheek and whispered, "Thank you for last night."
Cas smiled, feeling like a wolf who'd got the fattest rabbit, and replied, "You're entirely welcome."
C H A P T E R 7 5
G leeful. It took a little while, but I finally decided on that one, single word to describe how I felt. Yes, Cas was a restless sleeper. No, it hadn't particularly bothered me. Instead, it had kept me slightly aware of him all night long, and I found that I didn't mind being made aware of him. It was comforting.
I'd felt safe, when I hadn't even realized that there were still parts of me that didn't.
We trooped into the little house next door, all three of us. This house was smaller than mine. It wouldn't do for my family, but it would be fine for Ori and Pat until this new young couple had more pups. Maybe by then, though, more houses would have been built in the other part of the enclave. As it was, I was content with mine, and with the privacy its out-of-the-way placement offered. It meant that I could have Cas over as much as I wanted, with no nosy neighbors to comment and spread rumors.
I really hoped these two youngsters weren't the gossipy type. I didn't think so—Ori was friendly, but seemed more concerned with Willie Rose and looking after his mate. Pat was a beta, which made a surprising mate for an omega but Ori had told me shortly after they'd arrived that they'd been childhood sweethearts. So when they'd gotten old enough that Ori's parents had started looking for a mate for him, the two of them had decided to run away to Mercy Hills. Which is how they ended up living next door to me.
We set the food down on the kitchen table and I was distracted for a moment when Cas looped an arm around my waist and pulled me close. "I'm going to go and get another couple hours of sleep," he said in a low voice. "You should too."
I shook my head. How to explain to him that I'd never had enough sleep, not since I was mated and took on all those responsibilities? I'd be fine. "I'm going to make sure they've got everything they need. They don't go out much." But he looked worried, so I told a rabbit lie, a little one that would do no one any harm. "I'll take a nap after I've got the pups off to daycare." In reality, I had my job to go to and would be working most of the morning on cleaning up after Full Moon.
It seemed to satisfy him and I breathed a sigh of relief as he kissed my cheek in farewell and slipped out through the back door of the new shifters' house. He had no responsibility to me, no matter how close we'd come, and I was enjoying my independence—I wasn't ready to start depending on someone else again yet.
"Patton?" came a soft voice from the direction of the living room.
"Here, Ori. Just talking to the neighbors."
Ori stepped out from around the edge of the door, Willie Rose held carefully against his shoulder. His fingers moved rhythmically against her back as he burped her. "Oh. Good morning," he said and smiled tentatively in my direction. "I hope Rose didn't wake you? She's fussy this morning."
"I never noticed," I said truthfully. "I was already awake anyway. How are you getting along?"
He nodded. "Good, I think." His nose wrinkled and the corners of his mouth turned up. "I think she's going to need another change."
Patton laughed and hung his hat on a nail in the wall. "Raleigh saved us some food from last night."
"You didn't have to do that." But Ori's eyes had glued themselves to the plates displayed on the table.
"Eat," I told him. "You might as well enjoy it while you can. How are your cupboards? Do you need anything? If it's only a couple of things I can stop by and pick them up for you if you want to call up to the counter and tell them what you want."
Ori and Patton exchanged uncertain glances. "I should probably go do some shopping,” Ori said in a worried tone. "I haven't been since we got here."
Far too long. "I have to work this morning, but I'll be back around noon and I'll take you up and help you carry things back. And I'm just in Central Park anyway, so not too far to walk if you have questions or want to borrow anything."
Patton put his arm around Ori and pulled him close. "Thank you. We're still getting our feet under us, we don't really know what..." His voice trailed off.
"I know," I told him, because it wasn't that long ago that I'd been in their shoes. "I only moved here at Midwinter, and I was pretty much in the same situation as you are." As in, having nothing but the clothes I stood in. "They're very kind here, you'll be fine." I wasn't going to tell them that my situation here was still up in the air, that we still didn't know if I would be staying, or if my pups would be staying. They would have their own uncertainty. "I'd better get back to my pups. I'll see you later on."
