Page 117 of Omega's Flight
"But he's complex," Abel said. He hesitated, then shook his head and stepped through into the kitchen. "Any tea going?" he asked Bax and dropped a kiss on his cheek.
"I'll put the water back on to boil." Bax suited actions to words, then busied himself in the cupboard again.
"When were you planning to talk to him?" Abel said, and somehow we were all sitting down at the kitchen table together while my brain spun its wheels trying to catch up.
"I don't know," I muttered and looked down at my coffee. "Soon."
Bax put a hand on mine. "It's okay, you don't have to have a firm plan, or any plan."
"You want me to encourage him?" Abel asked.
"Can you do that without setting his back up?" Bax asked curiously. "I'll admit, I like him, but I don't feel I know him that well. He hides his thoughts."
Abel nodded. "He's always been like that, right from when he was a pup. But you can get him to talk, if you're careful and he trusts you."
I didn't understand. "He trusts you."
"Sometimes." Abel sat back in his chair and laced his fingers together on the table in front of him. "You have to understand a little about us. Our mother comes from a well-known family. They've always been powerful, each generation has had a pack's Alpha come out of it. She has high standards for a lot of things, including her pups." His lips twitched and he looked over at Bax, whose expression more closely resembled someone who'd just bitten into a lemon than his usual friendly smile. "Yeah, including who her pups mated. A lot of shifters think that mating an omega shows that you don't need a useful mate to be successful. It's a sign of just how good you are and how valuable your talents are that you can provide for someone who will only ever be a drain on the system. She's never seen it that way—she thinks that someone with the potential to be Alpha should mate someone who can be useful, someone who also comes from a well-established family, with good alpha genes and enough strength to handle the role of Alpha's Mate."
Bax growled and when Abel laughed at him, he flicked some of his coffee in his mate's direction. "She almost makes me wish we still lived on the twelfth floor," he muttered.
"Holland did enjoy that." Abel looked over at me and sighed. "Holland threatened to throw her out a window if she didn't leave at one point. So she came here. And then I was faced with a mutiny in the troops and sent her back to Salma." He grinned at Bax, who frowned and sipped at his coffee. "You both gave it a good try, I'll admit, but I could have told you it wouldn't work—she's why Quin joined the Marines, and why he made sure that me and Cas could move here as soon as we turned eighteen. Kaden was already set on the army." He snorted and scrubbed a hand over his face. "I'll never forget him calling home to say how much he was enjoying Basic, and how much less stressful it was."
The tight anger disappeared from Bax's body and he laughed. "Two more years?"
Abel nodded. "Two more years. I think he's going to come here, rather than go back to Salma. Be good to have him." He appeared lost in thought for a moment, then shook himself back to awareness. "I'll put a bee in Cas's ear for you, though. You just want him to move in?"
I stared down at my coffee and chose my words carefully. "I don't want another mating. Not even if my first contract was torn up. Not yet." I raised my eyes to Abel's. "I know what it'll mean for my reputation, but since I'm basically asking to be repudiated..." I shrugged, much more casual on the surface than I was beneath. In reality, my heart was pounding and the thought of what I was setting myself up for was daunting. But for the opportunity to see my pups going to the schools here, the promise of further education once they were older—I’d be the community scandal ten times over.
And I wanted Cas. Just not the marital leg trap. Thinking of him made me warm and happy; thinking of another mating ceremony made my stomach clench painfully around my tea.
Abel's phone buzzed and he smiled as he checked it. "I have to get back to work." He drained his mug and set it in Bax's outstretched hand. "Thank you, love." Then to me, he said, "I'll see if I can sound him out this afternoon and let you know."
"Thank you," I said in a small voice. I wanted to know, I really did, but it had all seemed so much safer and more certain before I'd actually said the words out loud.
Bax walked Abel to the door and I hear them talking in something not much louder than a whisper. Then Bax came back. "He really will be careful, you know. He was Alpha, once upon a time."
"I know. I just—" I shook my head. "Whatever. What comes down the trail is what comes down the trail."
"Then, here's to a fat rabbit. Or a handsome alpha," Bax intoned and raised his mug to clink it off mine. "Do you work today?"
I nodded. "Eldercare, but not until later this morning. They're good to schedule me for day shifts."
"We try, for the ones with pups. Doesn't always work, but I'm glad they're making it work for you." Bax traced the rim of his mug with one finger. "What will you do if you find out he doesn't want to move in?"
I shrugged. "Not ask, I guess? I don't have a lot of ground here to stand on." I tilted my mug toward me to check how much tea was left. Too much. "I'll be fine. He makes me happier now than I've been in... oh, I don't know how many years. And I wouldn't be happy if he felt pushed into something for my sake. It's not quite what happened to me, but there are things that ring true between the both of them. It doesn't make for a good mating. I doubt it would make for a good..." What did you call what Cas and I had? I didn't know, so I just shrugged and held up a hand, palm open, to let Bax come up with his own words to fill that blank.
He still didn't look satisfied. "You know you're the test case for Mercy Hills open gate policy for omegas."
"Yes." I'd figured that out pretty quickly, though I hadn't known it when I'd first come here. "I'm okay with that. Maybe that's my reason for being born, to create this opportunity for other omegas."
This time he seemed satisfied. "You'll let me or Holland know if there's anything you need. It'll be harder for you, because you're really the first one, just like it was harder for Abel's grandfather to be the first shifter in four generations to join the army and fight alongside humans. If there's anything we can do to ease that, we want to do it."
I hadn't considered that. "Thank you," I said. "I promise."
And that, definitely, was the right thing to say, because his eyes lightened and I thought I caught a glimpse of the shifter he'd been before mated life and responsibility had honed him down to that core of strength that made up so much of his personality. I wondered how many people noticed it past the green eyes and the black curls, but then realized it didn't matter, because Bax didn't let it matter.
We talked about plans for the future, about dealing with Degan and how to keep things as smooth and natural for the pups as possible. Bax loaned me a book—written by a human, of course—about parenting from two homes. And then it was time for me to go to work, so I gathered myself up, gave Bax a hug, and left, but only after Bax had made me promise to drop down the night before Degan was due to arrive to take my mind off it all.
