Page 35 of Lone Wolf
Or maybe that was just the omega bond.
Who cares?I was tired of trying to figure out what was me and what wasn’t. And since I was omega, the omega bond was also me, which meant that those feelings were also legitimate. I put them out of my mind as unimportant, at least for now.
They were reordering my life so fast I thought my head would start spinning for real soon. I’d only been sitting for five minutes and now here we were. More moving. And walking and lifting and carrying. I felt the edges of my temper start to fray and patted them back into place as Da helped me to my feet.
Everyone else stood up and that was when I discovered that it was the taller of the two unnamed strangers who was the omega, because he had a baby belly easily the size of mine. Though I thought he maybe carried it better, especially given his size. Or maybe because of it.
I wondered if he'd had trouble finding a mate, being so tall, but the scarred man beside him was so protective that I thought maybe not. They seemed very much in love.
It didn’t take long to fill up the back of the SUV—it was funny to watch the scarred alpha—a younger brother to the Mercy Hills Alpha—snap at his mate and order him to sit in the back of the vehicle while the rest of them loaded it. Even funnier to watch the omega smile and lean in to kiss him, then go right back to carrying things out of Ma’s apartment like the alpha hadn’t said a word.
He winked at me as he walked by with a bag of my baby clothes and I stifled a juvenile giggle.
I ended up picking and choosing a few things to leave behind. Ma offered to have them mailed to me, which made my heart stop, but the Mate chimed in about what a good idea that would be and that if she wanted to send it to him, he’d make sure I’d get it. I guessed this was his way of keeping tabs on me.
Then we were ushered into the SUV and the Alpha pointed us toward the gate, and a whole new life for me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Isat with Felix, the large omega, in the back of the SUV on the way to wherever we were going. I knew it wasn't Mercy Hills, we'd had that discussion as soon as the doors were shut and the gates of the enclave behind us. Some meeting place, where Oscar and Damian were supposed to be waiting. Felix’s mate Kaden sat behind us but hung over the back of our seat like he couldn’t bear even this distance between him and Felix.
The Mate sighed as the gates closed behind us, as if he'd been holding his breath waiting to leave Nevada Ashes behind. The Alpha reached across the front seat and took his hand, bringing it briefly to his mouth before putting it on his own thigh and covering it with his own hand. I hid my irritation behind a blank face and stared out the window until the walls disappeared into the darkness behind us.
"Have you found out if you're having a boy or a girl?" Felix asked politely.
I shook off the strangeness of that typical omega question coming in that deep voice. "I don't know. We hung the twig and it went in circles, so I'm guessing a girl."
"You didn't get an ultrasound?"
"I did, way back in the beginning. I don't want to know."
"Huh." He didn't seem to be bothered by my decision though, unlike my family. "We're having a boy."
"Congratulations."
"Thank you." He slumped a little in his seat, hands folded over the baby. "I'm looking forward to it. I want a big family."
I made polite noises about that and then the conversation moved on to, of all things, politics. Not something I'd ever paid attention to before and I didn't pay much now. Most of my mind was consumed with wondering if I'd made a mistake, now that there was nothing I could do to take this choice back.
Over everything else, I wanted to see Damian again and know that he was all right.
We didn't go straight to the city but pulled off onto a side road that led out into the desert. Maybe ten minutes later, the Alpha turned toward a pair of lights gleaming in the night and the conversation in the SUV died.
They had one vehicle, an SUV like ours, but larger, and a couple of lanterns set out on the ground to make everything easier to see. The Alpha pulled up just outside the circle of light, sat there a moment, then got out.
As if it was a signal, the rest of us followed him and gathered into a little clump at the side of our vehicle.
"Wait here," the Alpha said, and his voice was grimmer than I thought the situation warranted. Then again, I suspected he would want to be sure he wasn't abandoning me in a situation that wasn't what it seemed—Alphas tended to be like that, I thought. At least, mine at Nevada Ashes had been.
He strode across the clearing toward the headlights of the other vehicle, and I saw two figures move out from the darkness into the yellowish cones. By squinting hard, I was able to make out Oscar and then, half a step behind him, Damian. I let out a lungful of air I hadn't realized I'd been holding and started forward, but the Mate put a hand on my arm and stopped me. "Stay here."
"You're not my Mate," I reminded him, though politely.
"Wait," Kaden said with that same grim tone. "He's going to make sure they aren't screwing you and Damian over. If you go over there, any leverage we had is probably gone."
I didn’t know what it was that they were expecting, but the tension in the group—even Felix, who struck me an eminently unflappable—made me obedient. At least until I had enough information to make my own judgment call. So I stayed, and watched.
The Alpha spoke mostly to Oscar, his body language screaming that he was ready for violence. Uncertainly, I put a hand on Kaden’s arm. “Nothing’s going to happen, is it?”
