Page 170 of Omega's Flight
Raleigh ran his fingers through Cas's hair. "It's fine. That one's older than the other two. It was bound to be tougher."
"Quin's gonna roast my tail."
Raleigh kissed the top of his head. "I'll protect you, never fear." He laughed at Cas's grin and turned to go greet his packbrothers.
Cas went back to trying to force the side rail out of the footboard on Henry's bed while the rumble of his brothers' voices grew in the living room. The scrape of feet on the floorboards made him look up. Quin leaned against the doorframe. "Need a hand?"
Cas shrugged. "It's jammed. I guess it swelled with all that rain we've had."
"Can I look?"
He didn't really want to turn it over to Quin, but they still had so much to move—this house would be closed down again once they'd left it, so they had to take everything. "You're the Marine." He moved out of the way and let Quin at it.
And, whatever Quin did, the damn thing came apart almost immediately.
"What the hell?" Cas groaned. "How...?"
"I'm a Marine," Quin said simply, but humor gleamed deep in the dark brown of his eyes. "I scared it apart."
Abel's laughter barked from the doorway. "Only if you don't ask Kaden. You ready to load the next batch?"
Quin jerked a thumb at Cas, who shrugged. "I'm a bit behind. But the girls' bed and this one is done, and we can take the mattress from ours with them."
"Let's do it, then," Abel said and came in to grab the footboard. "Hop to it, boys."
He disappeared out the door, calling out to the omegas to let them know the plans for the furniture. Cas and Quin exchanged amused glances.
"He's enjoying this a little too much," Cas remarked.
Quin shot a thoughtful look out the door. "I can fix that."
Cas grinned. "I knew there was a reason you were my favorite brother."
"Quisling." But Quin let out a low laugh. "What else do we have to come back for, other than your bed?" He said it with a straight face, where Kaden would have leered and Abel would have called it 'Raleigh's bed that he lets you into'. Cas appreciated it.
"Mostly just small things. And Raleigh. I'm not going without him."
"No, can't leave him behind." Quin smiled and turned back to dismantling Henry's bed. "You're doing well here, taking all this on. It's not easy, stepping into another wolf's pawprints and trying to walk their path and your own."
Cas felt a flush of pleasure rush over him. After all, his brother would know what it was like to step in for an absent father—he'd done it twice now, and a third time in taking over the pack. He'd know what it took. "Doing my best," he said gruffly, and gathered up the headboard to haul it out to the truck.
He met Raleigh coming back in the door. "I hope you weren't carrying anything heavy," he said sternly.
"Just pillows and blankets," Raleigh assured him, but he couldn't miss the flash of amusement as he passed his omega partner.
An hour later, they had everything either already over at the new place or packed into the truck for the final drive across the enclave. He and Raleigh took one last trip through the house, making sure that nothing was left behind and that everything was clean, all the electrical things unplugged, then flipped the main switch to the house's power and stepped out into the cool night air. "Ready to head home?" Cas asked, pulling Raleigh against him. "Our new home, I mean."
Raleigh wore an odd expression, like part of him was somewhere else. Thinking of something else, maybe. "Would you mind if we walked over?" His hands were making those slow, meditative circles over his belly again.
"You sure you're up to it?"
Raleigh's gaze cleared for a moment and he grinned. "I'm fine. I've been carting him around since November."
"He wasn't always this big."
"I'll be fine." Raleigh cupped a hand against Cas's jaw and leaned in to kiss him briefly. "You're sweet. No, I want to walk over to the grove. Moving across the enclave, I won't get over to see him as often."
Ah. "Sure. Let me tell Quin."
