Page 100 of Omega's Flight
Ann got her dance with me, and Pip her dance with Cas. Henry was too busy playing in the sandbox with some of his friends to join us. I'd been pulled into some of the group dances by Bax and Jason, and those had been fun, with us all swinging around each other in groups of four or six. But the ones I liked best were the couples' dances, the ones that were based around groups of two. It wasn't proper, me still being technically mated, and I felt a wicked thrill dancing with Cas, like I was throwing off the rules and restrictions of my old omega life and reaching out toward the life I should have had.
And Cas sure was fun to be around. Plus, the pups liked him.
I knew that our kisses would eventually lead to more, and that more would eventually lead to a commitment. Which would eventually lead to a problem. I was enjoying being a whole being on my own and not just an appendage and the longer I stayed in Mercy Hills, the more convinced I was that I could stay that way if I wanted to. Except I'd already invited Cas back to my house after the mating dance was done. And I couldn't regret that, either.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could have both him and my freedom? I wondered who I needed to pray to for that to happen.
Though, for now, the pups were happily scampering around with their friends, and I was happily scampering toward my cup of cider and the dark-haired alpha currently... holding it up above his head and out of my reach.
"Dammit, Cas, I just got rid of the pups. I need a drink!" But I was laughing as I jumped around him, and with each inadvertent touch of our bodies, I thought I heard the breaking twang of another strand in the cord that bound me still to Degan.
"I can't believe you didn't defend me from that vicious pup of yours!" He spun away from me again, grinning in triumph.
"You are quite capable of holding your own, Casimir Mercy Hills," I scolded.
He froze and stared at me with his mouth wide open. "I can't believe you just said that. She'd eat the Beast of Gévaudan for breakfast, then sit there burping and picking her teeth with his whiskers!"
"Does the big bad alpha need an omega to protect him?" I teased and swayed closer to him.
"Maybe," he said, his head lowering close to mine.
"What do I get for it?" I asked, nuzzling in almost close enough to kiss, but not quite. Or so I thought.
He dropped a sneak-attack kiss on my nose, then danced out of reach. "Your cider?" he asked with a laugh, and held the mug up above his head again.
"Here," said another, deeper voice. I spun on my heels to meet the Alpha's intense gaze, somewhat lighter tonight. He was holding a mug that steamed lightly in the moonlight. "The only way to win with him is not to play his games."
I eyed the mug, not really tempted to take it. I wanted my mug, returned by Cas. But maybe I didn't want to win if it meant Cas lost. Maybe we should both win.
How to do that?
I had a thought. "Thank you, Alpha," I said with all the deference he was due and accepted the mug. Then I turned to Cas. "Trade you?"
C H A P T E R 7 2
I finished tucking the girls into their beds after the mating and turned around to find Cas standing in the doorway of their room, watching me.
"This suits you," he said quietly. "You look happy, taking care of them."
"I am happy. They're mine." But he seemed troubled. "What's wrong?"
"Just wondering if I'm doing the right thing," he said, a small frown marring his forehead.
I reached up without thinking to smooth it away, though truly, he'd given me the right this evening to take whatever liberties I wanted. "You are. Or at least, as right as the things I'm doing." I gave him a little nudge to start him moving out of the pups' room, and closed the door behind us as we left. I thought we could go to the kitchen and put away the food I'd brought back for my new neighbors, but he stopped abruptly halfway down the hall and spun to stare at me with an intense look in his eyes.
“Would you go back to him? If he changed?”
Oh, Barrenlands, what a question. "Come sit."
"Raleigh, it's a fair question."
I nodded and nudged him again. "It is, but not an easy one. And I've danced all night and there's food that needs to be refrigerated for the new parents next door and I want a cup of tea. Can we go into the kitchen? I'll make you some tea, and try to explain as well as I can?"
He nodded, but didn't seem convinced and I sighed quietly as I herded him into the other room and set about putting water on for tea and getting the food put away.
Cas sat at the kitchen table, one finger tracing the grain of the old wood, his eyes following it closely. Something had disturbed him, what I couldn't imagine. We’d talked about this already; he knew that if I’d ever truly been in love with Degan, I’d since fallen out of it.
Maybe that was why his question was different this time.
