Page 179 of Omega's Heart
“I’m not worried that you’ll get mugged or your pocket picked. I don’t care about the money, that can be replaced. I’m worried that someone might kill you, for the differences that make you so precious to me.” He turned back to the senator. “On a very basic level, we are not the same as you. Not the same as the rest of your constituents. And it’s a difference that goes back hundreds of years. It’s bred into the bones of our identity, and yours.”
“And how is that any different from race relations in this country?”
Kaden gave a casual shrug, but I could feel the tension in his grip, thumb and forefinger alone as it was. “Because the people making the decisions don’t see what it is that makes us different, because its effect on their lives is so minimal. Before you knew me, what was the first thing that came to mind when someone mentioned shifter?”
Ah, that was a telling blow, as the historical romances put it. The senator opened his mouth to argue and for a moment I thought he would just flatly deny it.
But in this, I misjudged him badly. His expression froze in angry dismissal, then the lines of his face began to change—doubt, guilt, realization, confusion. Shame.
I watched Kaden from the corner of my eye and saw his breath of relief, the tension draining from his body and something that I privately called the commanding officer rising up in its stead.
“It’s the narrative,” Kaden said gently. “The narrative tells humans that we are lazy and poor, because poor people are always lazy. That’s why they’re poor, right? That we hide in our enclaves and expect the country to look after us. You know better because you’ve done the research. You’ve worked with me, and with my brother a little. You know the lie. Tell me—would you agree to move to the enclave, knowing that you would be bound by most of the rules that bind us in doing so? Consider your day, and consider having to do it all from inside those walls, with half the resources you have now.” Kaden squeezed my hand. “Consider as well that we do not feel safe outside of enclaves. The walls that hold us back are also the things that protect us.” Kaden reached down into his messenger bag and pulled out a file. “Read Minnie’s story. And Julius’s.” He placed the folder on the desk in front of the senator. “You did all this research, and you still don’t understand why it is that I rarely let Felix go anywhere without me. And it’s because of this, because we are seen as less. As unworthy. Because we have to start our race fifty yards behind the rest of you. Because I will not lose him over someone else’s misguided fear.” He spat out those last words, my warrior alpha.
I squeezed his hand and murmured, “I’m not going anywhere.” His hand squeezed back, but his attention stayed on the senator.
“You’re asking for more than I can offer,” the senator said, his voice grave and, I thought, a little sad.
Kaden shook his head. “I’m not asking for you to wave a magic wand and make it go away. But we need people who can be bridges.”
What? I shot my mate a look that very plainly told him I thought he’d gone lunar. Even Hunter lifted his head and stared at us like he thought we’d lost our minds.
He laughed in my face, the saucy alpha. “We need people who can straddle the distance that has grown up between our people. Holland does it. Quite well, as a matter of fact. Quin, somewhat less, and definitely not as effectively. Felix, last night—if that wasn’t an example of reaching out in a way that encourages others to reach back, then maybe I shouldn’t be here on your staff.” He turned to the senator. “The chief physician was a good idea. But it was the guy from the museum who was interested enough to reach back. We need more people like him. Because this I can tell you, our people will not be likely to reach out to you, until you have reached out to us in friendship and proven that it isn’t just a set-up for a trap.” He stared off into the distance and his fingers began to tap in rhythm against my hand on one side and his thigh on the other. Then a pause, then it started again, until I realized that he was tapping the missing fingers too, something he only did when he was feeling stressed or uncertain about a decision. “I’m doing my best to be a bridge; you are too. My concern is that Felix is carrying a pup and in another couple of months, we won’t be able to hide it. I would like it if he could work with the museum people and make those connections for us, become another bridge between our people, but I won’t risk his safety.”
This was why he’d wanted me here. It felt a little like an ambush, because now I thought I was obligated to offer. Except it wasn’t so much an obligation—the things the human had said about the museum last night had been fascinating. I wanted to know more. “I’m sure they wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I promise I’ll go straight there and back home again,” I assured my mate.
“I’m sure they wouldn’t intentionally.” He turned and gathered my hand up in both of his. “But all the same, once the pup is obvious, I don’t want you going anyplace alone. I don’t like you going anyplace alone now—that episode in the grocery store was enough for me.”
“What episode?” the senator demanded, sitting up ramrod stiff in his chair.
Yes, he was definitely an alpha. “It was nothing. I decided I didn’t want to wait for Kaden to get home to go shopping and someone was unpleasant to me at the store.” Kaden wanted us to order our groceries online from now on and have them delivered if he couldn’t be there to protect me. Maybe even if he could. I did have to admit it was convenient, the one time I’d let him talk me into trying it, but I’d truly enjoyed those first few times strolling down the rows of shelves, just picking things I liked or that looked interesting. The opportunity to choose my own fruit and vegetables, and just to be out of the house, that little bit of normality in a life that was rapidly becoming anything but normal, at least for an omega.
“Unpleasant how?” The senator pointed a finger at us. “You say that we don’t reach out, but you have to be forthcoming when we do.”
I nodded understanding of it and shot my mate a stiff glare to flatten his ruff because I could tell he didn’t like me being spoken to in that tone. “You’re right,” I said. “A lot of this seems to come down to not talking to each other.” I turned to Kaden and winked. “Reminds me a bit of your mother,” I added dryly.
“Lysoonka forbid,” he joked, but his shoulders were still stiff with injured alpha pride.
“The grocery store?” the senator prompted.
I suppressed a sigh and put a polite smile on when I turned back to him. After all, he was my mate’s employer and hopefully an ally in our fight for freedom. “You know we have to wear these when we go outside, right?” I pointed to the tabs on the collar of my suit. “It’s supposed to be a security thing.”
“But it makes us targets,” Kaden said softly.
I nodded. “Someone saw me shopping in the grocery store and was upset by it. I ended up being escorted out.”
“Only because you wouldn’t fight with them,” Kaden explained, his voice frustrated. “If you’d put up any sort of fuss, there would have been violence.”
“You didn’t call the police?” the senator asked.
I shook my head and looked to Kaden.
“It’s a well-known fact,” Kaden said slowly, choosing his words carefully and with the same sort of precision I thought he might have used when shooting a gun. “At least in the enclaves, that calling the police only escalates things. Better and safer to just leave.”
“The police are there to uphold the law.” The senator seemed frustrated, though I wasn’t certain why. These things were just how it was.
“The police are there to keep the peace. It’s not the same. Not for us. And they’re human and have been hearing the same stories about us for their entire lives as the rest of the population. He could easily have been beaten.” Kaden tapped the files on the senator’s desk again. “Read these. They’re not atypical, except that we’ve learned to keep our heads down, and mostly just take our licks when we can’t. But the top two files, in particular, were specifically because they were out after ten. Which is why we had to leave so abruptly last night.” He squeezed my hand again and let it go. “I’m sorry you didn’t get your chicken at the grocery store. I was looking forward to that.”
“I’m going to try a different place,” I promised him.
