Page 25 of Omega's Flight
My own bedroom was the largest of the three. I'd tried to have them put the girls into it instead, but Bax had looked at me and said in a solemn voice, "You're the parent. You've earned this." Something about the intensity as he said it stopped my protests in their tracks, so here I was with a bed all to myself, a dresser, and a wardrobe, though the door of the wardrobe would only stay shut if you jammed a stick in under the edge. But it was all mine; I didn't have to share with anyone.
It was so strange, it was almost frightening.
Almost.
I laid out all the clothing on the bed and looked critically at the different pieces. Bax had taken away the things that wouldn't fit—the rest, I'd have to decide what to keep, as Bax had explained it would be debited against my account, but that there was a stipend that each shifter received, and something smaller for the pups. The furniture belonged to the pack, like a loan, so it wasn't costing me anything.
Neither did the house, though Bax had also explained that if the pack needed the space for someone else more, I would be asked to move. "Not that it's likely. Not until my mate and his brother are done fighting about whether to fix these old houses up or replace them with new ones," he's said with a grin.
I could afford this.
Jeans were easy to choose, as were socks and underwear. What to wear on top of them was a bit more difficult. It was winter now, and chillier here than it was at home, but summer would come eventually. I split my pile in half, with some long-sleeved shirts and some t-shirts, and put it all away except for the few things I was trying to decide between for tonight.
Eventually, I settled on a sweater in a bright red, with little green trees around the hem and the collar. It was cheerful and would be warm under the winter jacket in the wardrobe. The black pair of jeans, ones that someone else had obviously worn a few times but that had kept most of their color, would look good with it. Then socks and underwear, still fresh from the package, and I could put everything else away in drawers and on shelves. Safe for later.
It gave me a warm feeling to see all those clothes and know that my pups had just as many. We'd left Jackson-Jellystone with not much more than what we were wearing—I tried not to feel bad that it was Bax who was providing for my pups, not me. I'd pay him back somehow, no matter how long it took.
But first, did I shower, or did I nap?
Bax said he would be along later to see if I wanted to go to Full Moon.
That still didn't help.
Finally, I decided I'd try a shower, in case the pups came back. Knowing Pip, she'd be filthy, and I'd have to scrub her from top to bottom before it was safe to take her out in public. Ann would be fine, because she was a fastidious little thing, but Pip... Yeah, get clean now, just in case. And I didn't want to climb into the bed and between its clean sheets with the sweat of the day's travel on me.
Cautiously, I sniffed the arm of my shirt. Along with sweat, the smell of the garbage truck wafted off it too. My nose was nearly dead to it, until I really tried to scent. No wonder the humans were looking at us funny.
But once I was clean, I was going to hit that pillow so hard it wouldn't know what happened to it.
C H A P T E R 1 9
C as accompanied Bax back to the house after they dropped Raleigh off so Bax could get the pups a snack. The pack always put on a big meal for Midwinter Moon, but it was usually later, after the moon was fully up depending on the month, which would put the meal at close to ten tonight. As Bax would say, "Pups can't wait that long without starting to gnaw on their parents." And Cas, being a bachelor, was all about not having to cook his own food. Especially if he could eat meals made by either of his packbrothers.
When Bax's family had finished a light dinner—all seven of them gathered around the table, plus Cas and Pip and Ann—Cas gathered up the dirty plates he could reach and took them into the kitchen to wash. He tried to be mindful of his mother's lectures about responsibilities and who should do what and then made sure that he always helped out with the omega chores. Just to put a bee up her tail, even if she wasn't there to see him flouting 'appropriate' pack roles. He liked to believe that she still felt his disobedience, though, even from so far away.
Not two seconds after he'd set his stack of plates in the sink, Fan came up beside him with his own stack. "Thanks, bud," Cas said. "You staying to wash too?"
"Duh. No." And Fan scurried off out the back door, leaving Cas laughing behind him.
"Did he take off on you?" Abel asked, coming through with the last of the dishes.
"I don't mind. I appreciate you guys not forcing me to eat my own cooking." Cas glanced back into the front room, which had been hastily set up as a dining room when word of Raleigh's arrival had hit the enclave. "Where'd Bax go?"
Abel began running water into the sink. "He's going through his stock of small gifts for presents that Raleigh can give the pups from You-Know-Who." His voice dropped conspiratorially on the last words and he grinned at Cas. "It's getting harder to hide things now that Beatrice is older."
"Beatrice?" The youngest of Abel's daughters was a cheerful, fun-loving child who seemed quite content to toe the family line. "I would have suspected Fan or Teca."
"You'd think, right? But it's Beatrice every time, and we're running out of hiding places. I'm looking for a trunk, something we can lock, then I can stop worrying about finding Bax stuck in the ceiling because he was trying to hide something from the pups."
"You can leave things at my place."
"You're in bachelor's quarters—where are you going to put it? Naw." Abel shook his head and passed over a plate for Cas to dry. "It's part of the fun." He grinned, and the old Abel from when they were young peered out from his brother's eyes. "Can't wait to see her face when she realizes we've won!"
"Take me a picture," Cas told him and wondered if he should be paying more attention to Beatrice. She'd always skipped under his radar with her happy-go-lucky ways, but it looked like she had a devious side to her. Maybe he could coax her over to the dark side—the law.
Bax bustled into the room with a white plastic bin on his hip. Through the translucent sides, Cas could see small, brightly colored packages in various sizes. "I think these will do. I wish we had someone going in to the city between now and Christmas."
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Remember what you thought was a decent Christmas when you first got here."
