Page 97 of Omega's Flight
"That might explain some of it. You ask your brothers the kind of responsibility you take on when you mate an omega. Everyone's watching, you have to earn twice the credits because you know an omega's gonna be knocked up quick as blinking. And their natures are different from the rest of us." Roland shrugged, just a mature alpha talking to another mature alpha.
My palms weren't sweaty any more. I was angry now. Holland squeezed my fingers and frowned at me and I nodded understanding. Wait my turn. I could do that.
"So, what you're saying is that you deny a group of packmembers equivalent education because of their biology, restrict their access to ways in which they can support themselves in the workforce, and then blame them for behaviors which arise from the artificial barriers you put in their place?"
Roland slammed a hand down on his desk. "They are educated for their natures, the same as any alpha, beta, gamma or delta would be." He took a visible breath, I suspected to calm himself. "Well, we know you Mercy Hills folks have some odd ideas about omegas, but around here we don't let them run wild, and it's down to their mates to keep them in line. That's nothing unusual, here or in any of the other packs."
Holland leaned down to whisper in my ear. "This is promising in the long run. He wouldn't be so angry if he didn't know deep down that they were in the wrong. But he's going to want to save face."
I nodded and leaned forward to listen intently. I had an idea of how to save face, but I didn't want to pull it out unless I absolutely had to.
Cas nodded in agreement with Roland. ”Indeed, we do let them run wild, in much the same way as we do with alphas, betas, gammas, and deltas. And we are the better for it."
"You were always a rich pack."
Quin broke in here, his voice deep and heavy with history. "Not always, Jackson-Jellystone. There was a time when we were scrambling to keep mouths fed and when an old one had to die before a baby could be born. When the third Alpha of Mercy Hills took office, we were set to go down the same road as Rogue's Hollow. We know poverty, and we will never allow self-imposed limits to take us back there. You wanted magic omegas—you have to treat them as they were treated before the Enclosure."
I panicked. Now Roland was going to think that every omega was magic like Jason and Bax and Bram and Holland. I batted at Holland, silently begging him to say something. He hushed me and finally hugged me to him so that I couldn't flail about any more. I didn't want Roland or Degan to think I was a magic omega. I wasn't—there wasn't a scrap of magic in me.
"Easier said than done, Mercy Hills."
"Only if you want it to be that way. In the meantime, the omega does not want to return to someone who has already raised a hand to him and I will not allow the pups to return to a situation where I have reason to doubt their safety. You cannot force me to return them, under pack law."
Really? I didn't know that.
"The council could. The other packs are getting tired of Mercy Hills throwing their weight around. Don't think that human money is going to protect you from our people's justice."
"Our people haven't known justice since eighteen-ninety-six. Don't talk to me about justice!" Quin's voice rose and immediately, Holland's chair was empty. He'd bolted from his seat to crouch beside his mate, his forehead pressed against the tense bulge of bicep, one hand creeping up the back of the Alpha's neck to stroke soothingly at the skin there. Whatever he was doing seemed to work; I watched the tension fall out of the Mercy Hills Alpha's shoulders, the set of his lips relax. "Roland, I've spent twenty years in the human world. If we don't make our move soon, we might never get out from behind these walls."
My jaw dropped at this evidence of Mercy Hills' intentions. Yes, we'd heard rumors—I'd certainly eavesdropped on enough of Degan's conversations with other alphas to have heard bits and pieces of it—but this was the first time I could point to something and say, Yes, they're planning to bring down the walls.
"Who says we want to come out? Who says it'll be safe? You want children and omegas exposed to the kinds of attitudes you find out there? You say you spent twenty years in their world. Can you honestly say that we'll be greeted with open arms?"
"No. I'm not saying we'll knock down the walls and walk out into their world as equals. What I'm saying is that we won't be caged animals anymore, that we'll have the opportunity for our people to have the things that the humans have. Not the least of which is the freedom to come and go as needed. And the humans will learn. There are already many of them who accept us as we are."
"Ah, yes, your pet lawyer. Is that who you're going to turn on me? Take me to human court?"
"We didn't start that."
"No, but for sure you finished it. How do you pay him anyway? I know you gave him one of your own. Anything else we should be aware of?" Roland's voice oozed with suggestion.
The Alpha's face never changed, his body never twitched. But even Bax beside me gasped as his anger spilled out on a wave of power, suffocating us all in his rage. I watched Holland beside him, eyes blindly open as he rocked in place and whispered things to his mate I couldn't hear over the roaring in my ears. Even Cas looked flattened, all his lawyer's wiliness crushed beneath the sheer power of the man beside him. This was how an Alpha came to be. I wondered if he'd ever been challenged, or if any opponent backed down as soon as he unleashed himself.
Eventually the power seeped away, like water disappearing into the ground. I could breathe again. A sheen of sweat showed at Bax's hairline and Holland's face had a gray tinge to it that worried me.
And when the Alpha spoke again, a thread of that power seemed to reach out in the words. I thought I saw Roland twitch, like a fly had landed on him, but it could have been my imagination. "I've changed my mind. Raleigh has already stated his intention to stay through me, I won't force him to face his attacker. Take me to council if you feel you need to. Don't expect to win." He ended the call and immediately pulled Holland to him, burying his face in his mate's hair. "Why are we so much less than we used to be?" I heard him whisper, then he let go Holland to gather us all in with a single look. "Now we wait." He glanced down at me, then held out hand. "I'm sorry we brought you down here. I expected some of this about the pups, but not that he would be so set on having you back.They must be starting to believe. “ He helped me to my feet and regarded me soberly. "This isn't going to get any more pleasant."
I nodded dumbly. It was Degan—why would it be?
Holland stepped up beside us. "Quin and I discussed this quickly before the meeting, but I wanted to talk to you first." He flicked a glance in Quin's direction, then looked back at me. "If we offered Degan a place here, on condition that he tear up your contract and agree to parent the pups in cooperation, would you be agreeable to that? You did say he was good with them."
"He was." I swallowed hard. "Not very interested, but when he did spend time with them they enjoyed it. But I don't want to risk the same thing happening to the pups. I don't want him to tell them they're stupid or break their things or hit them because he's upset about anything."
"Last resort," Holland said firmly. "Though, maybe Degan here would be a different Degan." He pulled me into a hug and whispered as he rubbed my back, "As painful as I'd find it to not see you take my packbrother in hand, sometimes people change when you change their surroundings. He might be the Degan you mated, away from old influences."
I thought about that for a moment, wondering what Degan would have been like if he'd been more successful, had an Alpha who was willing to take chances on him. Maybe. The problem was I had changed as well with my new surroundings, and the old Degan didn't suit the new me. "I think the Degan I mated was a figment of both our imaginations," I whispered back. "But thank you for the hope."
C H A P T E R 6 9
