Page 55 of Omega's Flight
"Tax law?" The words meant nothing to me.
He shrugged and looked up into the sky, putting a hand out to catch a few wayward flakes. "The government makes laws that say how much we have to pay in taxes. They also make laws that say what money we don't have to pay taxes on. That's what I do—I save the pack tax money."
"It seems very heroic."
He laughed and closed his hand on a half-dozen little white crystals. I saw his knuckles go white, and then he opened it again. "No, I'm no hero. Just a very frustrated bureaucrat."
"But you make sure the pack has more money."
Cas smiled at me, then looked down and wiped his palm dry on his jeans. "I try."
I glanced out at the snow again. "It's going to be a while before there's enough snow to leave tracks in."
"Oh, I know." He grinned at me again and stood up. "I should get going, I promised to drop into Quin's and Holland's too, then I'll come back and make the pawprints."
For a second, I thought he might kiss me and my heart stopped in my chest. I didn't know how I felt about that—my body was repulsed but my heart was another story. It sent my mind spiraling down into that dark place where all I could see was the things that Degan wasn't, which was a dangerous path for me to tread. I didn't want to think about all wonder and beauty I'd missed out on, because it showed me more plainly than anything else how bleak my life before had been. Frightened of where those thoughts might take me, I shook them off, or at least pushed them away until I had time to myself to deal with the bleakness of it. Then, as quickly as it had happened, it was over, and he had one foot on the first stair, about to take his leave.
"I'll see you tomorrow for dinner, then. Three o'clock, Bax said, but if you want to bring the pups over earlier, he told me he'd be happy to have his own distracted." He ducked his head, then looked back up at me again. "I can drop by to walk you over, if you like?"
I liked the idea, and that frightened me. A mated omega shouldn't have these feelings, if that's what they were. I should have been safe from that danger, locked in the prison of my hormones. "I think I'll be fine, but thank you." It was as close to a rude refusal as I could bring myself, and I breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't argue it.
"I'll see you tomorrow then. Merry Christmas and I hope Midwinter Wolf is good to you." He smiled and gave a half wave, half salute before descending the rest of the little staircase and disappearing off into the cold night.
C H A P T E R 4 0
C as had only planned a quick visit with Quin and Holland, until some point in time during his stop at the new omega's. But plans change, and he needed to talk to his packbrother, who had the best understanding of how omegas and alphas were before the Enclosure. Of everyone in the pack, Holland was the one most likely to be able to explain to him why this mated omega called to him so strongly. He was a civilized shifter, and there was no reason at all for his thoughts to be haunted by this man.
The snow was beautiful and he was glad that Raleigh had gotten to experience that, at least. As an alpha with no pups, he couldn't come close to understanding what Raleigh was going through, but he was empathetic enough to be able to imagine losing one of his nieces and nephews, who he'd grown extremely fond of in the time since he'd moved back to the enclave. Crazy brats, but fun. It would hurt in ways that would make it hard to go on living to lose one of them.
Cas was one of the few that had a key that would take the elevator up to the twelfth floor where his brother and Alpha lived. As he waited for the doors to open again on his brother's floor, he undid the zipper of his jacket and danced in place in an attempt to warm up. It had been a couple of years since they'd had snow—he'd forgotten how cold it had to be for that little miracle to happen.
The second the doors opened, though, he stopped his jig. He'd only needed to get caught once and suffer the embarrassing consequences to have learned his lesson. Let no one say that old Alpha Salma Wood ever sired a dummy.
The hallway was deserted, happily, and he whistled as he walked around the corner and knocked on Quin's door.
Puppies were still up and running around here too, it seemed. He could hear them giggling through the door and he knocked again, harder.
"Coming!" Quin's voice. It sounded like his brother was having a good evening. Good, because Cas planned to steal his mate for a bit.
The door opened and Quin appeared, with splotches of flour caught in his dark hair. "You're just in time." He grinned fiercely and yelled over his shoulder. "Pups! I have another victim for you."
Wild ululating howls rang out and then Dorian came charging around the corner with a handful of flour. "Cas!" he cried and let fly.
The flour puffed out into a cloud that made it impossible to avoid. Quin burst out laughing and disappeared back into the apartment. "Only a couple more," he said, out of sight around the corner. "Then we have to clean up before Holland gets home."
Oh. "Holl's not here?" Cas closed the door behind him and followed his brother in, pausing to take in the sheer chaos of the scene in front of him. "You guys are goners. Even Lysoon won't be able to save you from this." The place looked like it had snowed inside, only with the choking suffocation of the floating flour particles in the air. "There's no way you're getting this cleaned up before he's back."
"That's where you come in," Quin said, raising a finger in the air. "How did you do it when we were pups?"
Cas started laughing. "What would you have done if I hadn't shown up on your doorstep?"
"Called you." Quin took another hit to the shoulder, bent to scoop up some of the ammunition scattered over the floor, and flipped it in Agatha's direction.
"Oof!" Cas, caught up in watching his brother play with the pups, was caught completely unawares and took a full handful of flour right in the face. He choked on it, breathing in at least half a lungful, and had to be helped to the flour-covered couch by his brother while he hacked his lungs out.
"You aren't supposed to breathe it," Quin said in mock severity.
"Tell your pups that," Cas wheezed and bent over his knees. "Oh, crap." He coughed a few more painful times, then forced his breathing into a slow, shallow rhythm until the almost uncontrollable twitching of his lungs stopped.
