Page 54 of Omega's Flight
"No problem at all," Cas assured him. "Why don't I show you where the pups' rooms are and if they won't come when you say, we can pick them up and carry them off." There was still that sense of numbness coming off the omega, raising the hair on the back of Cas's neck. But maybe it was good that his emotions were worn out, since he was bringing the pups home. They didn't know that there had been a little brother on the way and it had been silently agreed amongst the adults to let Raleigh be the one who told them, so they still didn't know.
For one heart-stumbling moment Cas thought Raleigh was going to reach for his hand. But Raleigh turned whatever instinctive movement he’d been intending into a brush of fingers through his hair, then jammed his hand into his pocket. "Lead the way,” Raleigh said, and his smile went straight to Cas’s heart.
C H A P T E R 3 9
T he pups didn't want to go home, having too much fun with their new friends. Eventually, I was able to coax them with tales of Midwinter Wolf and stories of pups who'd been passed over because they weren't asleep in their den when he trotted by, and we'd bundled ourselves up against the chill in the air and made our way home. I'd refused an escort, though I wasn't entirely certain of the way back to the house and probably should have taken one.
But the escort they'd offered was Cas and I found him troubling in a way that he shouldn't have been while the omega bond still reigned over my desires. Not that I found him physically desirable at the moment, but I could tell that I would, if the bond that tied me to Degan ever broke. Objectively, he was handsome, leaner and more wolflike in appearance than his brothers, in a way which pleased my eyes much more than his brothers' bulk.
Physically, I felt nothing. But my heart seemed to be an entirely different story.
I'd discovered in those days in Adelaide's clinic that there was a part of me that Degan had never touched, and it wanted. Fiercely. Whether it was Cas himself, or just what he represented, I couldn't guess, but it made me nervous. I figured I'd play it safe for a while at least. And really, what choice did I have, unless I somehow managed to convince Degan to tear up our mating contract and leave me free again?
There was the other worry as well. Would my body ever forget Degan in favor of another alpha? I'd never known an omega who'd been widowed young enough to need another mate. Except for Bax.
Bax.
He'd moved onto another mate after Patrick died, and his pleasure in this new one was obvious. But his mate was dead; mine was not. Would it make a difference?
Too damn many mysteries.
No, wait. Holland. Holland had been repudiated, which meant his mate was still alive. His first mate. He had a new one. One who loved him and had given him a new pup.
There was hope for the future, in the lanky shape of my Alpha's Mate.
We did eventually make it home, thanks to my pups, who'd been all over this end of the enclave it seemed. We decorated the tree, and then I made my pups take baths before they went to bed, despite their protests. It was a good distraction for me, and a good excuse to get them to scrub really, really well and get all the corners, just in case Midwinter Wolf checked. And then it was snacks and stories and I was tucking my sparkling clean pups into bed, all ready for Midwinter Wolf to arrive.
The presents had been left behind at Bax's. Abel had promised they'd make it to our home in good time but had dropped no hints on how they'd get here. For a moment, I had a panicked thought that Abel himself would come as Midwinter Wolf and lay another burden of guilt on me, but I shook myself out of it. He had his own pups to look after—if anyone would be visited, it would be those pups.
I tidied the tree up a little, setting the ornaments a little more securely on the branches—most of Henry's dangled dangerously near the ends.
It was this, this tree, no taller than my waist, that proved to me how rich Mercy Hills was. Since when did an individual family have a Christmas tree of its own? I remembered years where even Nevada Ashes itself had not been able to afford a tree for the square, though that was only in years when some disaster had struck. It was three years once, when the water supply had failed. And Jackson-Jellystone had never had one, though I'd gathered that was by choice, not by necessity.
So this, this tiny piece of wilderness sitting patiently in my living room—this was riches.
There wasn't much to do once I'd set out the few gifts I'd brought from Jackson-Jellystone. I wandered restlessly around the house, feeling a shadow of my grief again as if these new walls had absorbed some of it. I was sorry for my little boy, that he wouldn't know this place, but I had living pups to care for now. I had to be focused on them. And I'd grieved heavily for four days—once again, I reminded myself that it was time to turn back toward the living.
Someone knocked on the door, soft as goose down. And when I opened it, I found Cas on the doorstep, the sack of gifts dangling from one hand. "The pups asleep?" he asked quietly, his eyes flicking past me to take in the living room. "I brought the gifts, and I thought I'd shift and make pawprints under their windows." He grinned and gestured out at my little front yard. "Look. Snow." His eyes met mine and I knew Degan then for the mistake he'd been.
Oh, my broken heart.
"I shouldn't keep you," I protested and reached for the bag. "Tell Bax thanks again."
He laughed, but kept his voice low. "Quin used to do it for us when we were small, if we had snow for Midwinter. You can't do it, they'll know your pawprints."
I set the bag to one side of the door and stepped outside, closing it gently behind me. In my mind, I knew I should send him away. But that part of my heart that craved whatever it was that Degan had never offered stopped the words before they could pass my lips. "Thank you," I whispered.
He leaned against one of the posts at the top of the stairs. "I don't mind. I'll go do it for Abel's pups too. Fan will let me know tomorrow if he thought I did a good job."
I laughed and took up a place leaning against the post opposite. I'd only met Fan again briefly tonight, but his intelligence had been impossible to miss. He had an odd maturity, as if he were growing to be an alpha already, but he seemed happy here and he'd run off to play with the other pups again almost as soon as I'd gathered mine up for the trip back here. I could, however, entirely believe he would pass judgment on his uncle's ability to play a fictional, magical wolf. "It sounds like you have your time planned out."
He nodded, and we were silent for a moment, contemplating the night and the snow lazily falling from the sky. I watched him from the corner of my eye, and it seemed to me he was watching me too. Though what an alpha would want with a mated omega I couldn't imagine. He didn't seem the type for casual cruelty.
"Bax knew you before, he told me." Cas spoke out into the night, but his words were aimed at me.
I nodded. "The omegas in Jackson-Jellystone all knew each other. He and I were part of the outsiders, the omegas who mated in. I think being the Alpha's Mate made some things easier for him. He'd never say, but I'm sure it also made others harder." I stared at his profile, memorizing the straight nose and the solid chin, the wide thin lips that smiled so easily. Yes, things would have been different if he'd been the one to come to Nevada Ashes that day. "What is it that you do for the pack?" I asked on impulse.
He started and turned back to me. "I'm a lawyer, or will be, as soon as Garrick's finished taking the Bar. I do tax law."
