Page 154 of Omega's Flight
"They're dirty," he muttered.
"Ah," I said, for lack of anything better. I reached down and pulled Henry up to his feet. "These aren't too bad, anyway." I pinched each side of the waist between my finger and tugged it up, working one side then the other. "They'll do for today. We'll have to make sure everything's washed." I left it unsaid that I wanted everything washed before I took the pups home again. "I'm going to walk the girls to school. Henry, you coming with me or staying with Da?"
"I was going to take him to Mom's," Degan said, sounding a bit like a sulky teenager.
"No need," I said airily. "I can bring him over to visit. Where are you working today?"
His cheeks flushed. "Why?"
I shrugged. "Just curious." I doubted they had him working as a mechanic today, or he would have said something. And I was right.
He squirmed a little, until the weight of mine and Holland's gazes wore him down. "I'm working clean-up," he muttered.
Garbage pick up, was what he meant. Not the kind that my brother did, but taking a crew around the enclave and picking of scattered bits and pieces and sorting them into things that could be used or made usable again, or things that would be taken to the waste disposal out in human territory. I could tell he wasn't happy about it, but I wasn't going to poke that wolf in a sore spot. Not when I needed him to be compliant and cooperative. And, to be honest, the past few months with him in Mercy Hills hadn't been that bad. Oh, I absolutely didn't want to stay mated to him—I was too happy with Cas to wiggle that branch—but having him close enough that the pups could just come and go as they pleased seemed to be doing them a world of good.
Bax brought Pip out and there was no time to figure out how to use that information in the fuss of getting the pups out the door, but a low hum from Holland's direction told me that he'd caught the implication too and it wasn't going to be forgotten.
All the way to the school just down the street, the pups jumped and danced and chattered, dropping interesting bits of information that I filed away in case I needed them later. Things like Ann doing more teaching in her class than learning, because being in Mercy Hills had moved her ahead of her class here. Like Pip having already been sent home for misbehavior (she was completely unrepentant too). Like Henry coming home with bruises on his legs one day, which Pip had innocently explained, "Granna got mad at him 'cause he didn't like her dinner."
My blood boiled. "Well, that won't be happening anymore," I promised her.
With the pups dropped off at school—unhappily—and Degan gone to work for the morning, I turned to Holland and Bax. "I need to go speak to my pack mother."
Holland looped his arm through mine. "Lead the way."
Degan's mother was one of those alphas that only improved with age. I suspected that her bones had been too strong for her face when she was younger, but she'd grown into them as she aged, so it was easy to say that she was a handsome woman, if not conventionally pretty. Determination shone in her eyes and she ruled her little pack of family with an iron paw.
We sat in her living room and were given tea out of the company cups, the pretty, unchipped and uncracked ones that she saved for anyone not family. Way to insult me, packmother. Too bad I don't care.
"I understand that you think you're taking my grandpups back with you to that other enclave," she said, her anger thrumming under the words. This was the second time she'd refused to name Mercy Hills, which made me curious and—to be honest—a little determined to use the name as often as possible, just to get under her skin. I didn't need her cooperation to take the pups home, and it might push Degan in the direction of Mercy Hills if she attacked me in front of my Alpha's Mate and his cousin and packbrother.
"That's exactly why I'm here," I said calmly and sipped my tea. Oh, she gave us the cheap stuff. Bad form, packmother. "I'm surprised you'd even want to keep them given the extra cost of pups. Given this," I made a gesture with the tea cup, implying that they were too poor to afford good tea, "especially where Degan will be working and you are getting on in years. They're better off in Mercy Hills."
Her nostrils flared and Bax buried a smile in his tea cup. Holland didn't bother hiding his, but pointedly placed his tea on the table beside him. "If Degan wants his pups to have all the advantages they can be given, he won't refuse us," he said. "And he knows there's a place there for him if he wants to transfer packs."
My packmother looked down her nose at Holland and the corners of her mouth turned down, the lips pressed together tightly. "No one was speaking to you, omega. In my day, omegas were seen and not heard. It's not as if you have anything intelligent to add."
I froze, as did Bax. That was an insult of the highest order. Whatever you thought of an Alpha's Mate —yours or someone else's—it was only proper to at least show respect.
Holland cast her a glance from under his eyelashes and smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile. "Osberta, old bats who live in houses with holes in the floor really shouldn't insult another Alpha's mate."
"I'll speak to you how I please, omega. And to your mate too, as it's obvious he's spoiled you."
I bit my lip and looked anxiously between the two of them. Bax simply burst out laughing.
"And you!" my packmother snapped. "Whores, the lot of you! I know what you did after Patrick died!"
Bax's laughter stopped abruptly. "And what did I do, besides starve and worry?" he asked in a soft voice.
"Lifted your hips for every alpha that sniffed at you, trying to find some other sucker to take you and your brood on!" Degan's mother's face was red now and a line of sweat had broken out at her hairline.
Bax raised his eyebrows and considered the tea in his cup. "And you and all your friends beating down my door to help me and my pups," he said with soft menace. He appeared to think for a minute, then gave Holland a long slow look before he stood up and set his tea cup carefully down on the table. "You're lucky I don't pour that swill on top of your head," he said evenly. "Or maybe unlucky." He drew himself up as tall and straight as possible. I watched, open-mouth, as he almost seemed to grow in front of me.
"Bax, don't," Holland whispered.
My former Alpha's Mate lifted a hand to silence my current one. "Old wolf, I curse you. May you never be happy, may your pups never wish to be in your presence but instead have to be forced and blackmailed into visiting you. May your grandpups forget you as soon as they can. I curse you, as I am an omega of the old stock." Then he whirled and stomped out of the house.
Holland and I gaped at each other while my packmother spat and stammered in her chair.
