Page 80 of Omega's Flight
Bax went to him and wrapped his arms around the young omega. "Don't worry, we'll get him out. He's not an adult yet, we can use that our advantage." Bram nodded, but didn't seem convinced.
Cas spoke up, out of pity for Bram's obvious concern. "Winter Moon is as aware of what prison is like as we are. They'll want their people out just as fast as we do. I don't think they'll take long, but I'm willing to bet they come back with a counter offer of some sort."
"What do you think they'll want?" Quin asked, his brow furrowing. "We've offered to send Garrick up there to help defend them at our cost, and cover the local lawyer. Is there anything else?"
Cas held his hands up in an I-don't-know gesture. "What do they need?"
Garrick made a noise deep in his throat. "People. Trained people. Nurses, lawyers, accountants, electricians, plumbers." His mouth was so tight that the edges of his lips had gone white. "They'll look for a trade back of people."
The room went dead silent with the implication.
"Not happening, Gar," Cas said lightly. "Who would I get to do all the hard work if we gave you away? Besides, I thought the only one putting a bow on you was that human boyfriend of yours." He made a juvenile sort of wooo-ing noise and waggled his eyebrows, until the room dissolved in laughter. "Don't worry. If we have to, we can counter with an offer of training, right?" Cas looked over at Holland and Bax, then to Bram and Jason and Seosamh, so quiet in the corner. "I think it's only fair that you guys cover that cost, though, so that Mercy Hills isn't disadvantaged. And yours is the only trust that Mutch doesn't have a puppet on the board of."
Holland met Bax's eyes, then he jerked his head to the side and all the omegas disappeared up the hallway with him, leaving the alphas staring stupidly at each other, each one feeling the sudden chill of being on the outside of the group.
Quin walked over and put a hand on Cas's shoulder. "That was a good idea. And I think you're right, although it's not just about fair. People are getting excited about being able to go to school, or to get materials for repairs or new builds, or to start a business. We don't want any bad feelings against the new shifters coming in, if people start thinking their opportunities are being stolen."
Cas nodded and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "We're kind of sitting on a powder keg, aren't we?"
Quin nodded and his eyes began to twinkle. "Just don't set a match to it, brother wolf."
Cas flipped him the bird and ignored the rest of them laughing at him. Just because he liked a prank or two...
The omegas filed back into the living room, their expressions sombre. "We can do it," Holland announced. "But for Lysoonka's sake, talk to us first before you start throwing our money around, okay? We have stuff on the go already that's going to need some of that."
Quin laughed and crossed the room to raise his mate's hands to his mouth. "Of course, oh Dark Side of my Moon."
Holland made a face, then laughed and leaned in for a kiss. "The light side of my moon," he murmured, just loud enough for Cas to hear, and it sent a shiver down his spine.
The dark of the moon, or the dark of the omega. He hoped Quin, with all his own darkness still seething inside him, was enough light for Holland.
C H A P T E R 5 6
I t wasn't until the next day that Winter Moon called them back, and Cas wasn't around for it, though he heard all about it from Garrick after it happened.
But at least they'd agreed to Quin's proposal.
"I'm going to try to take Laine with me, he doesn't have much going on in the practice right now and what he does have, Jack can handle. We'll find—or bribe!—a lawyer up there that will take the case and give us someone licensed to practice federally there." He looked tired. Cas doubted he was sleeping much, trying to get everything he could done for Raleigh's case on top of the sudden panic for the Winter Moon shifter.
"Where's Raleigh's file? I want to look over it."
Without missing a beat in his fussing, Garrick picked out one specific folder from a pile of identical ones and passed it over. "It's mostly just our research. I hope that Quin can manage it through pack law, though, or we're going to be short of money." His words stumbled to a stop and for a moment, Cas was convinced that Garrick thought he'd said something he shouldn't have. But what? Who knew. And it was quite possible that it was just the fatigue playing tricks on Garrick's mind.
"When do you leave?" This was going to put his try for the Bar on hold for a while, taking over Garrick's workload as well as his own. And with tax season coming up, too. Zcerneb, the hungry wolf and King of the Barrenlands, bringing him the luck of the Barrens. But maybe not bad luck for the pack as a whole—something had to start shaking up the current situation.
Just...couldn't it have waited until he'd gotten the taxes done?
"Tonight," Garrick muttered, his mind already leaping ahead into the future.
"Here." Cas regretfully began stacking everything up that he'd been working on, setting it over on the shelves beside his desk. "Run me through your cases. Who did you have doing the filings or submitting the paperwork for you before you passed the Bar?"
"I did it as much as I could, but Bax will do it, or Seosamh. Actually, you should talk to Holland and see if he can find you a permanent assistant. Someone who could act like a paralegal for you—I'd say hire one but you know what you'd get if you tried to hire outside walls."
"Yeah." The misfits, the lazy, the dishonest, the unreliable. Humans didn't apply for jobs in the enclave unless they were spectacularly good or spectacularly bad, and the good ones usually had better offers. "I'll talk to him."
"Don't wait. I don't know how long this will take but my guess is the longer it goes, the better our chances. So you need to be prepared to be the only legal counsel around for a while." Garrick laid a tall stack of folders on the desk in front of Cas, then paused and put an awkward hand on Cas's shoulder. "I'm sorry about this. I swear, as soon as I'm back or I can pry a month out of this case, I'll take over everything and you can apply to the Bar. You have my word on that." He gave Cas a quick, uncomfortable pat and then reached for the top file. "This one has to do with the house in the city and some spot where we've missed a code or didn't know about it. I'm still trying to get the initial fines reversed, because there's other parts of local building codes that could be read to negate this one we're being charged under..."
His voice droned on and on and Cas listened and took notes, but underneath it all, he wanted to just go crawl into Raleigh's lap and forget about everything. Just for a little while. Damn, you're a fool. Maybe he'd just go talk to him. Or to Holland. No, Holland had enough on his plate.
