Page 74 of Omega's Flight
"Good question." And not one Cas had an answer to. "In the meantime, what are you planning to do with these talents?"
Quin answered this time. ”Make the enclave better, work toward getting those laws struck down. Work for better living conditions and more equality, less tension between packmembers. Why?"
Cas shrugged. "What about your talent?" He pointed this question directly at Holland, but his packbrother didn't flinch.
"We keep it quiet. Of everything we've guessed or seen, this is the one that's the most dangerous and the most likely to be abused or to turn other packs against us. The omegas from before were very strict about their responsibilities and they lived under a strong moral code. And it was, in the end, enforced by the ones with my ability." Holland sighed and looked away, and Quin leaned in to lay a kiss at the base of his throat. "Shitty end of the stick, really. I'd have much preferred Bax's gift, but we take what we're offered and say thank you to the Goddess of Wolves." He looked back to Cas and if his smile didn't look entirely natural, it didn't seem all that strained to Cas. "We'll figure it out. Maybe there's other journals out there, older ones that might tell us more. Mutch is still looking for us, but not having a lot of luck. I suspect that most of the packs were overwhelmed when the Enclosure happened and a lot of their records were destroyed."
Quin patted Holland's hip and whispered something in his ear. Holland nodded, then turned back to Cas. "You okay? It's a shock, I know."
"A bit of one." He was reeling, but he wasn't going to show it. "I need some time to think about it."
His brother and his brother's mate nodded at him and stood up. "You can stay here for a while, if you want. Or you can go talk to Bax and Abel, if that would help."
Cas shook his head. "I just need to think about this for a while." He got up from his chair and reached for his coat. "Thanks for telling me."
Quin stood and followed him toward the door. "I didn't keep it from you on purpose. This is just—" He shook his head and shrugged, making a gesture like he was trying to brush something away from in front of him.
It hit Cas then how hard this all must be for his always-responsible older brother. "You gonna be all right?" he asked in a quiet voice. Not that he doubted how Holland felt about Quin, but Holland had just been hit with a big shovelful of responsibility himself.
"I'll be fine. I've got Holland." And if Quin's voice sounded a bit uncertain saying that, well, he was the one living with the man who could reach inside his head and turn off his memories. And if Holland could do that now, what would he be able to do once he'd had time to understand it?
Cas glanced over his shoulder to find Holland watching them with sad eyes, as if he knew what Cas was thinking about him. Probably wondering when people are going to start avoiding him. Dammit, they're both struggling. He grabbed Quin behind the neck and pulled him into a quick, brotherly hug. "You are a damn lucky man. He'd turn himself inside out and give you the fur off his back if you even hinted you need it. And he's damn lucky too, because you'd do the same for him." Then, because he was Cas and he couldn't leave anything without some sort of crack to ease the tension. "Just, please don't do it. The thought of my brother running around naked in both forms kind of creeps me out, you know?"
He winked at Quin's open mouth, then walked over to hug Holland too. "Don't worry. You'll both be fine. I trust you." He wasn't a hundred percent sure he was being truthful, but then again, he wasn't a hundred percent sure he was lying either.
What he did know is that both his brother and his packbrother needed to hear that they weren't failing each other, or the pack. "And, since it's confession time, I'm going to confess that I'm leaving right now to drop on over to Raleigh's and see if his cooking is a good as yours. And you two have three fast asleep pups." He leered in Holland's direction, making his packbrother laugh as he backed away in the direction of the door, only stopping to grab the journal on the way. "You should club that Neanderthal over the head and drag him off to the bedroom to have your way with him while you have a chance. I'll hang a sock on the doorknob for you on my way out." He smacked Quin on the shoulder, breezing past his brother's exasperated response, and slipped gratefully out into the hallway where he could stop performing, and think.
C H A P T E R 5 2
T he temperature must have risen by a couple of degrees over the course of the day, Cas thought. The snow that had been there this morning was melting, or melted, and where he wasn't slipping and sliding on a greasy layer of snowflakes, he was soaking his feet in unexpected puddles. He hoped Raleigh wouldn't mind him just showing up out of the blue, but Bax and Holland both had said that Raleigh was to be the next to get the journals.
And Cas had picked up some other hints from this one that made him wonder if there wasn't more True Omega in Raleigh than anyone seemed to expect.
As long as he's not Holland's flavor of it. That would be creepy.
He made it to the bottom of the steps of Raleigh's porch before the pups sensed the approach of a victim. The door flew open and Pip raced out, followed shortly by Raleigh yelling at her to close the door, what was she, a calf in a barn?
"It's Cas!" Pip shouted in excitement. She grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs. "Hey, Cas," she began, her typical opening whenever she saw him.
He knew what was coming next. "Yeah?" Cas let her lead him through the door into the house, if only so he could get it closed and stop freezing the omega standing in the entry to the kitchen, his cheeks flushed with the heat of whatever smelled so good cooking on the stove.
"Why won't sharks attack lawyers?"
Oh, groan. "Why?" he asked, while she giggled in anticipation.
"Professional courtesy!" she crowed and went off into peals of laughter. "Hey, Cas?"
He squinted at her, which seemed to be enough to set her off.
"What do you get when you cross a lawyer with a librarian?"
"What?" he asked cautiously. This one was new.
"Everything you ever wanted to know, but you can't understand it!" Pip bent over laughing, her little arms wrapped around her torso as if she needed to hold herself together.
"Har, har," Cas said, pretending to be sour. "Pups are silly. See?" He reached down and wrapped and arm around her waist, picking her up so she was upside down. Pip shrieked and kicked her feet, nearly braining him in the process.
"Enough, you two," Raleigh said in a gentle scold. "Put her down, please, Cas? Pip, no more jokes. They're not that funny."
