Page 83 of Omega's Flight
Holland and Bram were already through the door and into the building. I turned to find Quin watching me. "Thank you," he said.
I looked down and shuffled my feet. "I like to be useful."
"You are. Cas is right about you, there's a depth of ability that you don't even realize is there." And then, with those startling words, Quin turned toward the building and by the time I'd found my voice again, the doors had swung shut once more behind him and I was alone in the moonlight.
His words tumbled over and around each other in my brain as I tried to pick out the importance of them, what they meant underneath the obvious meaning. But despite the weight I could feel in them, I couldn't break them open and force them to reveal their secrets. So I tucked them away to work at in spare moments, and went looking for something to tempt the appetite of a thoroughly worn-down gamma hero.
C H A P T E R 5 8
C as was truly worried about Garrick by the time he'd gotten him to his apartment. The gamma lawyer had begun swaying obviously on his feet and had a tendency to wander. "How long has it been since you slept?"
"I slept last night. A couple of hours, anyway." Garrick yawned like he wanted to swallow the moon and stared confusedly at his bed. "Was someone in here?"
"I imagine Holland or Bax or someone came through and cleaned up for you." Cas waited a moment, then realized that Garrick was likely too tired to think of getting undressed. "Here, get into something comfortable. Raleigh's gone to get you some food." He had no trouble stripping the crumpled dress shirt and tie off Garrick, but when he reached for Garrick's pants, the other shifter thrust his hands away. "I'm fine to do it myself," he snarled and stormed off to the bathroom. Moments later, Cas heard water running, then the shower turn on.
He could have left then, but this wasn't normal for Garrick, who was not exactly even tempered but generally in control of himself all the time. So Cas hung around, waiting to make sure Garrick would be okay before he left to go check in with Quin and Holland. They'd need time to settle the new omega in—Cale had come through for them and offered to move into the big apartment so the new omega wouldn't be alone, but it still left a lot to do. And the new omega had a bit of the same look that Quin got when the war memories started riding him harder than usual.
With nothing else to do until Garrick got out of the shower, Cas poked around in Garrick's apartment, turning down the bed, getting out a mug and setting water on to boil for tea. Small comforts, maybe, but he'd never seen Garrick look like this before, even right after he'd written the Bar exam.
Someone knocked on the door. What do they think they're doing? Garrick's exhausted. He stomped over to the door and wrenched it open, ready to unleash the wrath of law school on whoever was out there trying to bug Garrick, and found himself staring at Raleigh with his mouth open, making unintelligible noises.
"I brought Garrick something to eat," Raleigh said, and held up a couple of plates. "There's a bottle of beer in my back pocket too." He smiled, then ducked his head, then peered up at Cas as if uncertain of his reception.
"Come in," Cas said. His voice squeaked a little on the words and he cleared his throat to add, "I was putting water on for tea, but I bet he'll like the beer a lot more." He stepped out of the way to let Raleigh come in and closed the door behind them. For a moment, he questioned whether he should have—Raleigh was an omega, now behind a closed door with not only an alpha, but a gamma as well. But Raleigh didn't seem to be bothered, and he'd have to be twice as aware of what his current situation could be taken as, given that he was an omega.
The beer bottle waggled like a tail or a tease as Raleigh walked across the room and Cas found himself ridiculously entranced by its movements. It was a sad moment in his life when Raleigh reached behind him and pulled it out to put on the table.
"I hope it didn't warm up too much on the way over," he said casually, then turned to look at Cas. "How is he?"
"Tired. Grumpy." Cas nodded at the plates. "I bet this will help. Sleep will be even better."
Raleigh nodded. "I'll just see him set up and eating and then I'm going back to Holland's. That poor boy..." His eyes wandered past Cas, as if he could see through the wall and across the town to where the new omega was doing...whatever. He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Anyway, it'll be better now that he's here."
The water shut off in the bathroom and reminded Cas that the pot was still boiling on the little stovetop. In a fluster, he turned off the burner but left the pot on so the water would stay warm longer. Cutlery rattled behind him—Raleigh setting a place at the table for Garrick.
"Cas, could you get a glass out for him? In case he wants water or to put the beer in?" Raleigh asked over his shoulder. His voice was louder than it needed be, but when Garrick walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, Cas realized it had been Raleigh's way of warning the other shifter that he wasn't alone in the apartment. He glanced at the omega with new respect, because that wasn't something he'd have ever thought of. Most shifters, used to being naked with each other on full moon, didn't worry about brief stretches of public nudity. But he realized that he'd never seen Garrick without at least pants on, and had never, ever been around when Garrick changed to go run on full moon.
What the hell do they teach their young in Winter Moon?
"What's this?" Garrick asked, staring at the table.
"You're tired," Raleigh said. "And it's Full Moon. And there was food." He smiled up at the gamma and Cas fought down a surge of mild jealousy. Garrick had no interest in anyone but Laine, and Raleigh was still tied to Degan and Cas had no chance at all with him. Don't be stupid.
"Thank you," Garrick said cautiously and sat down in the chair Cas pulled out for him. "Beer too?"
"Sometimes it's hard to sleep when you're overtired," Raleigh explained. "Do you want anything else? Cas boiled water for tea, on the stove there. It won't take more than a minute to make a cup."
"No, thank you." Garrick sat back in his chair and stared at the plates in front of him. "This is...more than I expected."
Raleigh patted him on the shoulder. "Eat and drink your beer and go to bed. Do you need someone to make sure you get up at any particular time, or can you sleep in?" Gently, he touched the heavy shadow beneath Garrick's right eye.
"I have my phone." Even Cas noticed Garrick's words starting to drag, as if the alertness of the shower was wearing off.
"We'll leave you to rest," Cas said, catching Raleigh's eye and getting a nod of agreement back. "You done good, Mr. Lawyer. I'm glad you're Mercy Hills now."
A blush rose up Garrick's neck and settled in his cheeks. "Thanks," he said with a nod and then turned back to his plate. "I like being Mercy Hills."
Raleigh plucked at the bottom of Cas's t-shirt and they crept away, leaving Garrick with his food.
