Page 19 of Omega's Flight
"You ready?" Bax asked quietly, running a hand gently down my back in a way that I suspected was supposed to be comforting. And then I realized, it was.
"Yes, we'll be fine." Henry and I were going to hide under the back seat of the car that Abel and Bax had brought into town. They'd cover the seat with random food and wrapped gifts after the two of us were tucked in, and then we'd make the hour-long trek to Mercy Hills. "Just give me enough time to get him to the bathroom before we go." Once we were locked in, Bax explained, we couldn't stop by the side of the road if Henry or I needed to get out. It was too dangerous, with all the human traffic on the roads.
"I will," he said, then hugged me. "I'm so glad to see you again."
"Me too." Though the happiness was mixed with sadness too. I'd sleep alone tonight, in a strange place. It had been a long time since I'd been alone at night—I'd shared a bed with my sister up until my mating, and with Degan after. What would tonight feel like?
I suspected it would be lonely.
"Okay, we've got everything," Abel said from the door. "We'll send Laine in first with the girls, and wait about fifteen minutes."
I swallowed hard against the sudden tightness in my throat and nodded. The urge to pull my daughters close roared over me and my heart sped up. I wanted to fight someone, anyone, who might take them away from me. Even though I knew that this was for their good.
Bax hugged me again and kept holding me, his hand rubbing gently up and down my upper arm. "They're safe, you can let them go. I trust Laine with my own pups."
"You do?" Laine had come in the door behind Abel, entirely unnoticed.
"I do," Bax said. "But you aren't my puppy minder. Have you ever seen me pull them away from you?"
He looked startled. "No."
Bax nodded firmly. "And Garrick loves you, which says a lot. And you love him, in all his forms."
"I do," Laine said, though his voice still sounded surprised. I wondered if they were telling him this now to make me feel better, or if Bax had made this up on the spot to make him feel better. Either way, I didn't like not knowing if it was truth or tale, but I was a beggar here and I didn't dare get choosy.
"Let's get them off," Abel said. "I don't want to be outside walls too long. Not tonight."
Bax nodded and went looking for the girls. I stared at the human and wondered.
A few minutes later, Pip raced across the office, dressed in her clean, unmended, borrowed clothes and looking not quite like the Pip I'd been raising, though it was a style I wished she could have every day. She threw herself at me in her excitement. "Papa, can I go with April to Mercy Hills? We're going to Midwinter Moon and Bax says they're having movies and treats!"
Ah, smart Bax. "I think that sounds like fun. Does Ann want to go too?"
"I'll go ask," she said breathlessly, then disappeared back into the office. I shook my head and, out of habit, held back my laughter in public. Bax strolled through the door, snorted in a most un-omega-like manner, and grinned at me. "I don't remember her being this busy."
I grimaced my amusement. "She gets busier every day." She wouldn't be Pip if she was quiet and sat in a corner reading like Ann. But then my good humor faded as another cramp took over in my belly, and I felt my stomach clench around the water I'd drunk earlier. "I'll be back in a moment."
Down the hallway again to the bathroom. I brought up a little water, but no food. Mostly, it was dry heaves and I choked and gagged until I was exhausted and weeping with the frustration of it. Could it not leave me alone for just a few hours? How was I supposed to make it to Mercy Hills with my womb doing its best to murder me? Exhausted, I rinsed my mouth out and washed my face, then dragged myself back out to the office.
Bax was waiting on the couch, Henry at his side while Bax read him a book from a cell phone. It looked so normal, but the sheer amount of money Mercy Hills must have to spend hit me hard in that moment and I struggled to contain the flare of rage and hatred for my old pack. Because if Mercy Hills could do this, why couldn't we?
Though maybe this was the money they'd gotten from the humans?
Well, fuck that, I didn't care. If it got my pups these same opportunities, I'd turn a blind eye to just about anything. So long as they weren't selling themselves the way Nevada Ashes did. I'd do whatever it took for my pups to be able to read their storybooks on a phone and wear nice clothes like Bax and his mate had.
"Come on, Henry. Let's go pee, then we're going to have another adventure." I held out my hand to my little boy and nodded a quiet thank you to Bax as he helped Henry down off the couch.
"I'll get your things together," he murmured in my ear, and then we were off, each to our own tasks in this escape. I took Henry to the bathroom and did my best not to think of all the ways this could go wrong.
Ten minutes later, I sent Ann and Pip off to drive to Mercy Hills with the pack's human lawyer and his daughter. They'd dressed themselves up, Ann in the princess jewelry and crown, Pip with her sword and the crushed pirate's hat, and April—the human's daughter—tucked in between them playing with a stuffed parrot that we'd discovered had fallen out of the bag on the way up the stairs.
And fifteen minutes after that, Henry and I folded ourselves into the dark, cramped hiding place beneath the back seat of the Mercy Hills car and began our own journey into what I hoped was a future we could all be happy in.
C H A P T E R 1 5
C as's hand slipped and he nearly dropped his end of the double mattress as he and Duke maneuvered it in through the front door of the old house.
"You okay?" Duke asked from his place at the front.
