Page 24 of Omega's Flight
"Give him a night to rest," Bax said quietly and sat down across from him. "Tomorrow's time enough."
Cas nodded. "Yeah. It makes me nervous. Neither Garrick nor I have much background in family law, and Garrick says Laine and Jack are both criminal law."
"Does that matter?" Bax asked, a wrinkle appearing at the bridge of his nose. I had to admit, I wanted to know too.
"Family law is an entirely different hunt than what I do, or Garrick does, or even Laine. We're going to need to find someone with some experience in it if your crew doesn't want to pay out the nose for him. And I don't imagine he'll want to let the pups go back to Jackson-Jellystone without him."
"No!" I almost shouted it, and the tea slopped over the edge of the mug to drip down my fingers and leave sweet-smelling blotches on my jeans. "I won't have the pups go back there. They were the reason I ran away."
Cas grinned and shot Bax a look so full of meaning that it halted my panic short, like walking into a trap.
Bax sat primly at the table and sipped at his tea. "Yes, we omegas are all the same." He raised his eyes to meet Cas's and I saw a side of Bax I'd never seen before, the part that had given him the strength to take his pups and leave his home behind. It was eerie, but some a piece of me recognized that strength and the sacrifices we were ready to make for the ones we claimed as our own.
"Yes, we are," I said and met Bax's eyes with that strange understanding still heavy in my mind. He smiled and then we turned back to our tea and Bax began introducing me to the world of Mercy Hills.
C H A P T E R 1 8
I t was strange, how easy the conversation felt to me. Like we had known each other or been neighbors for years, instead of having been remote acquaintances for a couple of years in another pack. Bax talked randomly about Full Moon traditions here in Mercy Hills and made sure I knew that I was invited for dinner on Christmas Day. Cas offered to make sure I got there and they drew me a rough map of the enclave so I could find the daycare and Supplies and the laundry, and then Bax marked the places where the different omegas in the pack now lived.
I found it oddly comforting to know they were there, which was a change from home or from Jackson-Jellystone. In both of those places, omegas almost went to war with each other—except for those few that became close friends. But the way Bax talked about the other omegas in Mercy Hills, it became clear to me that the old rules didn't apply here.
It was also clear that I would be expected to support other omegas as much as they supported me. I wondered how hard it would be to change my suspicious habits.
The tea perked me up for a while and the cramping gradually eased, along with the nausea. Whatever was in the tea was a miracle, and I memorized the name 'chai' to make sure I got more. It would be worth whatever it cost if it could perform this magic.
"You're looking better." Bax tipped his head to the side and it was like I could feel him looking at me, almost looking inside. "Do you still want to see Adelaide and get checked out?"
I should, I knew I should. But I'd faced so many scary things in the past twenty-four hours, I couldn't force the words to my lips. "I think I'm better now. The tea helped." I shot a grateful glance in the alpha's direction and was mildly surprised to see his cheeks flush slightly. My mind skipped quickly past that, tucking it away for later puzzling, and I turned back to Bax. "If you don't mind, I'd like to rest a little. Get used to all this." I waved vaguely at the kitchen, meaning to take in the entirety of the pack.
Bax nodded as if he understood what I was too overwhelmed to put the words together for. "It's been a long day. If you're truly feeling better, we should go and let you rest," he said. "But someone will come check on you in a couple of hours in case you want to come to the party." He got up and took his mug to the sink, rinsing it quickly then setting it on a towel he spread out on the counter beside it.
"Oh, I couldn't... I'm being so much trouble," I protested.
Cas laughed and got up to copy Bax, setting his rinsed mug on the counter beside Bax's. "No, it's no problem." He took the empty plate too, and wiped it down before setting it on the counter. "Do you want me to stop back?" he asked Bax.
Bax frowned and thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "We can walk up this way when we go up for the meal. If the girls want to stay here, we'll leave them, or we can take them with us. How tired are you?" he asked, directing the question to me. "Do you want us to just keep them? I have plenty of space and so does Jason."
"I don't know." I was tired, and the house was quiet.
"Well, we'll check on you around nine and you can make up your mind then. Keep my phone, just in case. If you feel like getting out earlier, call Abel or Holland or Jason and someone will come." Bax leaned over to hug me, and whispered, "If you feel worse, call Abel right away. We'll come get you." I nodded my agreement, then I ended up shaking Cas's hand, and before I quite knew what was happening, I was seeing them off through the front door and then they were gone into the deepening night.
After Bax and Cas left, I wandered the little house, absorbing the feel of it, memorizing its spaces. There hadn't been a peep out of Henry and given that he was still a little sick and we'd all had a horrendously long day, I left him to sleep some more. I might have been being a little selfish as well, but the quiet was like a balm on my soul and I could almost feel my thoughts reorganizing themselves into something that was less of a hurricane of information.
So here I was, with that miracle of an omega's life—a quiet house and time on my hands. What to do?
I went to look at the puppies' rooms again—Henry's smaller one with its single bed, the tiny lump of his body rumpling the middle of it. The girls with their bunk-beds in their larger one. The furniture had seen heavy use—I could tell it was one pup short of being tossed on the full moon bonfire—but someone had gone over it with a fine-toothed comb and made sure it was solid and safe, even if it wasn't very pretty.
Well, I could fix how they looked, if I could get my hands on a little paint. I'd earned small commissions in the pack, painting pretty walls for the more well-to-do members of Jackson-Jellystone. And home, in Nevada Ashes, I'd painted two entire walls in the entryway of their newest public house and earned enough to buy the bed that had later become my mated bed. I had talent, and maybe a skill beyond housekeeping and bearing that might make my living here less a burden for Mercy Hills, if only I had the opportunity.
Maybe that would come here as well.
The little bathroom was cramped but clean, and if the pipes groaned and complained when I turned the water on, according to Bax I could still have hot water whenever I wanted. The electricity could stay on and my little hot water tank, hiding in a cupboard off the kitchen, would be ready and waiting for me to command it.
After today's adventures, I wanted it now, to wash the anxious sweat from my skin and steam the lingering smell of vomit from my nose. My stomach had been quiet since that last bout in the woods, the tea sitting easy in my belly, and a few hours without the smell of illness polluting everything would be nice. A shower would be like the Moonlands.
Even better, I could have a bath if I felt like it, but not tonight. I wanted a nap while I had this quiet time and then I thought I might just join Bax and his family for Full Moon. There was still a long road ahead, but a little celebration tonight wasn't a bad idea. And likely Henry would be awake from his nap and raring to go by the time I was ready.
I checked myself in my dreaming and went to secure the front door in case he woke and tried to leave, then went to look for something clean to wear.
