Page 29 of Omega's Flight
Cas sat up. "I'll go. See what's going on." If they were just going to sit around, he might as well do something. And he was curious about the new omega, with the broken eyes and the brave smile. This urge to stand between Raleigh and his pack was likely the part of him that was alpha, instinct driving him toward the protection of the pack. And maybe knowing Bax's history and Holland's, and knowing them now for stories that weren't all that out of the ordinary. He wondered what specific horror had driven this omega to abandon everything he had, abandon his mate—which was almost unheard of— to throw himself on the mercy of Mercy Hills.
From Quin's absent frown and Abel's resigned posture, he could tell they were both mulling over this problem and wondering what effect it would have on their plans for their own pack. So, while his lips twitched at his unintended play on words, but kept the joke to himself.
Quin nodded to him, half distracted, and Cas took the excuse to leave.
Like the rest of the family, he had a key that would take him up to the Alpha's quarters, though he rarely used it. With twelve years between them, he and Quin weren't ever likely to sit down and shoot the breeze over a cup of tea or a beer. But they were family and sometimes shit happened.
Like tonight.
He got up to the apartment and knocked on the door, whistling casually while he waited.
Holland opened it. Far from his usual model's perfection, he looked harried tonight, his shirt half unbuttoned and his hair caught up in a messy ponytail at the back of his head. "Hi, what are you doing here? Is Quin looking for me?"
"He doesn't like the idea of all the alphas out there unsupervised," Cas said primly.
Holland grinned and let out a laugh. "Come on in. Raleigh's not feeling well. I might come down to open the dancing and then switch off with Bax." The vague echoes of someone vomiting in the bathroom around the corner faded Holland's grin and he looked behind him with a frown. "There's something not right about this at all."
"Want me to go track down Adelaide?"
"Could you?" The relief on Holland's face was almost palpable.
"Sure."
The sound of retching followed Cas back out the door and he winced in visceral sympathy, memories of undergrad floating through his brain.
It took him close to half an hour to find Adelaide, hidden in the middle of the crowd with her mate and her pups. "Hey, can I borrow you?"
She laughed and then she caught his expression. "Something wrong?" She handed her drink to her mate and patted his arm. They'd been mated for long enough, it seemed, that she didn't need to explain, he just nodded and gave her a hug before turning back to the rest of their group.
"Holland wants you for a minute. He's got the new omega up there throwing up everything he eats, he's wondering if you can take a look."
"Sure." She fell into step beside him, heading back to the main pack building. "Did he say if he wants more than a look?"
Cas grimaced. "I don't know. Probably, if I'm reading him right."
"Just as well to have a baseline to work from anyway," she said casually and lengthened her stride until Cas had trouble keeping up with her.
"So you're in on the omega thing too?" he asked and was shocked to hear how choppy his words were. He needed to do something about that—couldn't let the old guys be in better shape than their much younger and handsomer brother.
"Anyone coming here from one of the less fortunate packs gets a full physical before the end of their first week here. I've got some new equipment for blood tests, we'll have to get someone trained on how to use it all, but for now it makes it feasible to do a full workup more often."
Cas opened the door to the building and let her go ahead of him. "So the money is already helping."
"Yes, it is." She went quiet for a moment, mulling something over. "This new omega, he's mated, Bax tells me. But he didn't bring his mate with him. Which implies a whole pack of potential problems. Physical and mental." Cas stared at her in surprise and she laughed dourly as she pushed the button for the elevator. "Why else would he leave his mate behind when Quin probably would have accepted the entire family for the sake of the omega? I'm going to stop at the clinic and pick up a few things."
"You need help carrying anything?"
She shook her head as they stepped inside the elevator. "Just hold the door for me until I get back?"
He could do that. Cas nodded and went back to his own thoughts.
Adelaide hummed quietly to herself as the elevator doors opened. "I won't be long." She left Cas behind with his finger pressed to the button. He switched it up, leaning against the elevator door so it couldn't close on them and watched her disappear into the depths of the clinic across the hall, the sharp bite of alcohol and disinfectant spinning out into the hallway in her wake.
Her clinic was a small waiting room and a couple of doors he could see from where he was standing, though he knew there was a lot more behind. The pack wasn't set up for anyone to stay long-term under her care, but they had a few beds in the back—he remembered talking to Abel about the budget and how frustrated his brother had been when his plan for an actual hospital in the building had needed to scrapped.
A few minutes later she was back, carrying two largish bags. "Here, hold this," she said, passing him the bigger of the two. He got out of the way to let her in, then pushed the button for the twelfth floor with his other hand.
"That's a lot of stuff," he commented.
