Page 120 of Omega's Flight
I started to laugh, I couldn't help it. I laughed until I had hiccups, and he held me until they went away. "You always make me laugh," I said, exhausted.
"My goal in life," he murmured. "So, do we have an agreement?"
"Legally binding," I said and nodded against his chest.
"Abel said we'll have to be careful how we present it to the pups."
I nodded again. "I know. It won't be easy."
"Things usually aren't when they're worth it." He paused, then added, "I probably shouldn't move in right away. Get everyone used to the idea first."
He was right, I knew it, even though I didn't want him to be. But... "Doesn't mean we can't practice." I raised my arms and draped them around his neck. "Stay the night?"
"Gladly." He dipped his head to mine and our lips met and it was like the moon had come out, full and silvery to shine upon us. Then, in a shocking move that shouldn't have surprised me coming from Cas, he bent a little and scooped me up in his arms.
"I'll need you to open the door," he said as he climbed the stairs. "My hands are full."
I snorted laughter into his shoulder and did as he asked. And when he laid me on our bed, I was the happiest shifter in the enclave.
C H A P T E R 8 5
T his is it. I finished straightening the sheets on Degan's bed and gave them a last pat down, the body memory of all the other times I'd done this echoing through me like sound bouncing back from the enclave walls. It was an odd disconnect, this act, performed in this place. Here I was, making a home for my mate, with no intention of living in it with him.
But still, I wanted him to be comfortable, and for the pups to be comfortable. If this worked as Laine said it could, then the pups would come and go as they pleased, and Degan and I would only have to make sure we knew who had which pup when so they had clean clothes and their homework done. Degan, I hoped, would see that the ending of a mating wasn't the terrible thing he thought it was.
And maybe it would help convince the rest of the packs that an omega could be just like any random gamma or delta.
I made myself leave the bedroom and head out to the porch. There were only the five of us in the house—myself, Quin, Holland, Bax, and Laine, the human lawyer who'd brought me to Mercy Hills. We'd be six when Mac escorted Degan and his Alpha up to the house here.
Cas had been sent to stay in his office and not come out until he was called for. He'd gone about as willingly as the pups went to bed, but in the end he'd gone.
The pups were still at school. I didn't want them there for this first meeting, mostly because I wasn't sure how it would go. Regardless about how I felt about their sire, I didn't want them to see us fighting, or to see Degan being cruel. It was a poor example to set. And as Laine had explained to me, divorces often started rough, but if you were careful, they could end in friendship.
"How are you?" Bax asked, slipping out the door behind me.
"Fine." No, not really. "Anxious," I admitted. "I'm starting to second guess this working."
"We'll make it work," Bax said seriously. "Trust me. He can't come here and see how well you're all doing and not want that for his pups. After all, they are his pups."
I would have said that was true when I lived in Jackson-Jellystone, but I was beginning to question things here.
Laine came out the front door to stand next to us. "How are you holding up?" he asked, and Bax grinned while deliberately looking away from me. I elbowed him lightly and answered Laine with, "All right. Nervous."
"Nervous is normal," he said, squinting in Bax's direction then deciding to ignore him with a shake of his head. "Just remember what we talked about. Keep it neutral, keep it about business. Show him around the house if you want, though I wouldn't recommend it. Establish that you're here as a courtesy and not out of any interest in continuing a marital relationship with him. And get out as soon as you politely can."
I nodded, and watched the rough road that curved through the enclave a hundred feet away from where we stood.
My nerves, already stretched, grew tighter, until I felt I could have twanged like the guitars we would dance to next week. They should be here by now. I checked the time again, and went to the kitchen to wipe down the already spotless counters. I'd asked to do this all myself, once the furniture was in place. Brought down curtains that I'd mended and washed, a rug I traded a portrait for, pots and pans and plates that I'd picked out at Supplies for him, from the tiny budget I'd been given to get him started out. Even the clothing—I'd found him some new jeans and shirts, and a pair of sneakers that weren't too expensive, and had laid them out carefully in his bedroom for him. A den blessing, I supposed, though they didn't seem to do that here in Mercy Hills. Regardless, I thought he'd appreciate the new clothes.
I'd also carefully parted out all the pups' clothing, so that we both had equal portions of good clothes and clothes that were on their last pup before being turned into rags, and they were all neatly folded and put away in drawers in the pups' bedrooms. Each room had a stuffed animal for them to sleep with—not their favorites, but a second one. Although they'd probably drag the favorites with them whenever they went from one house to another.
Coloring books and a new pack of crayons lay on the shelf in the living room, underneath the movies the pups had chosen to bring here to watch with their Da. There were books, too, for reading, and a blanket laid over the back of the couch for cuddling in.
Not quite ten minutes later, the low rumbling of an engine disturbed the air. I straightened and stared down the road, until a low-slung black car rocked into view over the ruts that hadn't yet been fixed this year. It pulled up to the end of the row and stopped and I could have sworn my heart stopped with it.
Bax put an arm around me. "You can do this. I know you can." And Laine just put a hand on my back for a moment, but it helped to steady me enough that I could watch my mate cross the physical distance between us. I knew he'd never cross the emotional distance. Besides, he'd have to jump over Cas to do it, because Cas was right up there in my space already.
Mac's face was absolutely expressionless. I almost wouldn't have recognized him, except for the hair; he looked nothing like his usual joking, friendly self, but more like an alpha holding himself in check in the face of an intruding foreigner. Or a bodyguard, there to make sure nothing went wrong.
