Page 21 of Omega's Flight
"We don't want you to, just let us or Quin know." Jason smiled at him and then he jumped and checked his phone. "Oh, they've already sent Laine on, he should be here in about twenty minutes. You want to come help with the rooms for the pups, or do you want to inventory what we have and see what we need to get from Supplies?"
"I'll help with the rooms. He'll have his own ideas about what he wants anyway, I'd guess." Cas followed Jason out into the living room, where a battered old couch had appeared on the wall opposite the dresser he and Duke had carried in earlier, before the mattress. "He'd have to be tough, from the sound of it, to come here by himself."
Jason's smile was mirthless. "That, or scared shitless." He peered out the front door, then stuck his head into the bedroom closest to the front of the house. "I don't see the sheets. Or the bed."
"I'll go see what I can find out," Cas offered, unaccountably disturbed by the change in the normally easy-going omega. He wondered briefly what Mac thought of all this, then, at Jason's nod, he escaped out into the darkening night.
C H A P T E R 1 6
T he ride in the car was nearly the end of me. Henry and I curled up together in the space underneath the back seat, pretending it was a game. Bax had made sure to bring a blanket with him to pad the inside of the steel box, but by the time we were half-way there, I ached. And being crammed into that tiny space, barely big enough for the two of us—my stomach was making its displeasure known.
Don't throw up, you have no way to clean it. Do you want to lie in your own puke for however long it takes us to get to Mercy Hills?
Even though Bax had given me his cell phone and told me to call Abel if anything went wrong, I knew I wouldn't do it. Better to lie in my own vomit, or suffer with the pains in my belly that never quite went away, than to delay getting inside walls again. I gritted my teeth and thought about Christmas and Midwinter Wolf and how I'd still somehow managed to sneak the pups' presents into my bags. I hoped no one kept track of how often I wore the same outfit, because they'd figure out pretty quick that I only had one pair of jeans and three shirts. Thank Lysoonka for being able to wash underwear in a sink each night, too. But I wasn't leaving those gifts behind, I wouldn't take that from my pups as well.
Someday, I hoped, they'd understand why I had to do this.
I whispered stories to Henry as we rocked over the rough roads and made sure he understood that we were hiding and that, when I said to, we had to be as quiet as mice. I did my best to make a game of it, not only because I didn't want to frighten him but because in the back of my mind I was worried about my girls.
I was sure they'd be okay—Bax would never have sent them off with the human if he thought there was a chance they wouldn't be. But locked in here, unable to reach them, to see that they were safe, it seemed the height of omega foolishness to give my pups over into the keeping of a human I'd only met tonight. No matter how strongly Bax vouched for him.
And then it was time to be quiet and I cuddled Henry close, singing to him in a voice so soft it almost didn't exist. I could smell his anxiety, probably caught from my own, and I sang the silliest songs I could think of to try to distract him. The muffled voices above us made my heart race wildly, but it wasn't long before we were moving again and I could breathe.
I'd expected to drive farther into the enclave, but we were only another minute in the hiding place before the car came to a smooth stop and I heard the doors open above us. A gritty, rasping noise sounded out behind me, then with two loud clunks the seat lifted away and I smelled fresh air. Mercy Hills air. It was different from Jackson-Jellystone—not cleaner, or dirtier, but there was a scent of fresh sawed wood and, underneath that, the smell of roasting meat and sweet fruit. Full moon. I hadn't thought about that when I left.
I let Abel help me out of the car, my limbs cramped and weak from being in one position for so long. When I turned to get Henry, Bax had already picked him up and was talking to him as they waited for me to get control again of my body. "Thank you," I said and held my arms out for my little boy.
"You sure you're okay to take him?" Bax asked. "You still look pretty stiff."
"It'll pass once I start walking."
Bax let Henry come to me and I hugged him close.
"Welcome to Mercy Hills, Henry-boy," I whispered into his hair and prayed that we could stay. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up.
Bax smiled and hugged us close, one armed. The other arm was wrapped around his mate's waist. "We're going to walk through these trees to the old Enclosure houses and someone will let us know exactly where you're going to stay. They were still arguing about it when we left."
I wondered where the girls were, then remembered Bax making a phone call before we'd left to Jason, asking him to pick them up from Laine and keep them until Full Moon started. It was Bax; they were safe. "I'm fine with wherever, really. The pups all shared a bedroom, and I don't mind sleeping in with them. Separate rooms are a luxury at Jackson-Jellystone anyway, you know that."
Bax nodded and something passed between him and his mate, the former Alpha of Mercy Hills. Impulsively, I reached across to him. "Thank you for what you did the last time you were in Jackson-Jellystone."
"What I did?" he asked, clearly puzzled.
I nodded. "You threw money at the Alpha and scolded him for my mate's behavior. Degan was a lot...easier...to be around for a while after. And I got to keep the shirt." My grateful smile faltered as his puzzled expression and then again I had to suppress a flare of jealousy against Bax. I didn't think alphas like that existed, the sort that could do that sort of kindness and consider it so little that they didn't even remember it. And it had been such a huge part of my life and my understanding of life since; a shining hope that an alpha could change or be taught to change. But maybe it hadn't been change, maybe he was just like that by nature.
A deep depression fell over me, like something fragile and dear breaking in a fight. If alphas were only kind by nature, then my mating had no hope, and it was only then that I realized I'd still been nursing the faint hope that my intemperate flight would wake Degan up to how desperately wrong our mating had gone. I buried my face in Henry's hair and took deep breaths so I wouldn't weep for the frustration of it all.
Bax, or maybe his wonderful kind alpha—who could tell, they were both so generous—waited until I had my emotions under control, Bax's hand making small comforting circles on my upper back. Like I was a child and he my bearer. Then again, he'd been my Alpha's Mate for a while and Alpha's Mate here. It would have been part of his job to care for the pack as a parent. And while he hadn't been given much responsibility in Jackson-Jellystone, I'd heard rumors that they made much more use of his time and talents here than we had.
I could do that too, be more than my old packs believed me to be.
And then, like saying farewell to the dead, I let the thought of my mate fade away.
C H A P T E R 1 7
M y relief only lasted a few moments. A wave of nausea rolled over me again and I half-dropped Henry on the ground to stagger away into the bushes and retch. I was already empty from before but my insides seemed determined to get rid of something, I didn't know what. The ghost of dinner, I supposed.
I wasn't sure how long it lasted but when I could finally focus on the world around me, I was surrounded by the smell of alpha and a strong arm was helping me back to my feet. "Are you all right?" Abel asked.
