Page 204 of Omega's Heart
“That seems a risky thing.”
“I was a bit leery of it myself at first, but I’m not so sure now. And I trust my mate. He’s smart and he survived all that time in the Army. I think if he didn’t know how to read a human, he wouldn’t have lasted so long. Kind of like you here.” I pointed at her with my fork, casually, as if what I was about to say was something that anyone could see. “There’s not a dull claw in the bunch of you here in Nevada Ashes. It’s no wonder they don’t want you in the casinos—it would be like setting the wolf loose in a field of sheep.”
It had been a stab in the dark, an assumption I’d made based on some offhand comment by Quin on the ride out to the enclave, but I’d hit something there. I wasn’t sure what, but it didn’t matter. What did matter was that her scent changed and, if I didn’t get cocky and screw anything up, I’d just made things a little easier for my mate.
We talked a little longer, mostly baby things. She showed me her workroom, where she gathered pregnant packmembers and new bearers every morning to socialize and work on projects for their pups. I kept up my carefully chosen questions and came to the conclusion that she used that time to keep an eye on the health of the pack. A safe space like this one would be the perfect place to hear small complaints and offhand comments that might warn of bigger problems to come.
When she found out I’d worked in one of the daycares in Mercy Hills, she asked a lot of questions about how we ran them, so I gave her the email address for Marcia, who’d been in charge of the one I’d been assigned to. I made sure to praise her idea of having a daycare dedicated to the workers in the public houses and we passed a fun half hour coming up with ideas for what should be in it.
I’d already figured out that the Nevada Ashes Alpha left a lot of that part of running the enclave to his Mate. She was as well-informed on the workings of the pack as I thought Holland was in Mercy Hills, and her understanding of the business of it all was impressive. Actually, not just the business, but the psychology of it all too. Her mate had chosen well when he’d mated her, though after an afternoon in her company, I wondered if that, too, hadn’t been decided by her. She really was a powerhouse and I set myself to learning everything I could from her because she was exactly the kind of mate that Kaden would need if he was to continue with his political career.
By the time we rejoined the alphas, we were in perfect harmony. Which was excellent, because when we opened the door to the conference room, the alphas weren’t.
Verena sighed softly. “Posturing,” she muttered, then smiled brightly at me and sailed into the room with me in her wake.
The alphas, when we interrupted them, were all arguing good-naturedly, with that undertone to their voices that meant that, despite the joking and good manners, they were deadly serious about it all too.
“You’re only going to set backs up if you put us on that list,” the Nevada Ashes Alpha was saying as Verena and I entered. Kaden looked up with a delighted expression and held out a hand to me. I went to him and he pulled me down onto the chair beside him.
“Did you have fun?” he asked.
“It’s beautiful here. I have some ideas for Mercy Hills I want to run past Holland when we get home.” I sent a smile across the table to Verena and winked, which made her laugh. “Where is Holland?”
“Still wandering, I think,” Quin said and pulled out his phone. He sent a text, then set it flat on the table in front of him. “He’ll be right up, he was out looking at a water park for the puppies?” His tone was curious and he directed the question to both Alpha and his Mate.
“Oh, that’s Verena’s idea. She saw it in the city somewhere and thought it would be good for the pups.” He dropped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her. “I lucked into something special when I finally pestered her into having me.” He grinned and accepted the kiss she offered him, then looked back across at Quin. “Of course, you’ve got one like that too. I bet he takes a lot of your worries off your shoulders.”
“He does.” Quin smiled and his eyes strayed to the phone again, as if it held the essence of Holland.
We passed a few more minutes in small talk, sharing stories about how things worked in our respective enclaves. Just when Holland arrived, the Nevada Ashes Alpha looked at us all, but mostly at us omegas. “We’re a little isolated out here,” he said. “And we probably do things a lot differently than the rest of you folks do. Getting dropped here after the end of Rogue’s Hollow, we made a lot of choices that don’t sit well with your more traditional packs. I stand by those choices. They’ve done us well, the houses, and we won’t be giving them up. That’s not to say we won’t be standing there with our hands out waiting for our share of that money when it gets to us, but if you try to give it to us in this round, I’m going to refuse it. We don’t need it, not like some of the other enclaves do, and I won’t insult my pack with it either.”
“Insult?” Kaden asked, incredulous.
The Alpha nodded. “Insulted. Coming to save the poor whores? We worked hard to build those businesses into what they are today and we are still working hard to make them better. Our choice to cater to the humans, to make their weakness our strength, is what makes Nevada Ashes as strong as it is today. You devalue the sacrifices and our history when you offer us money as if that was all it would take to make us give up what we are.”
Holland froze and I started to worry because I was half-convinced that he’d been thinking that.
But there were always more depths to Holland than I realized, and this time was no different. “No, I can see you’ve done amazing things, and I give you full credit for the care that’s been put into making this a place where a pack can be healthy and at home. It’s beautiful and there is so much here that I would like to bring back to Mercy Hills, to bring our pack together for more than just full moons and matings. If you’d be so kind,” Holland nodded to Verena, “may I email every once in a while to ask questions?”
Verena’s eyes widened. “Of course. I’d be glad to help in any way I can.”
“I’ll help too,” I offered. “After all, I only have two pups. Well, one and three-quarters.” I looked down at my belly, which triggered laughter around the table as I’d hoped it would.
Someone knocked on the door and opened it, the Alpha’s assistant, I thought. She brought in a sheaf of familiar-looking papers and handed them to the Alpha. “Just came in,” she said before leaving again.
“That’s the fastest I’ve ever had the paperwork go through,” the Alpha said, just as three more shifters walked in through the conference room door. He looked up at the newcomers and said, “Sit, Salem. You look tired.”
The youngest of the three, pregnant and, indeed, tired-looking, sat, and said, “I haven’t been to bed yet.” He had dark blond hair with a hint of bronze and blue eyes as pretty as Holland’s. He seemed like any other shifter, if a bit prettier, but not what I would have expected from someone who worked in the houses here. Then again, Nevada Ashes itself wasn’t much like the rumors and gossip in White River had made it seem either.
It wasn’t long before we were on our way. Kaden did his best to be all alpha over me, but I ignored his over-protective growling and fussing. Salem seemed amused by us, which prompted the personal decision to keep in touch with this brave omega in his new life. Someone would have to, just in case things didn’t turn out as well as he hoped and he needed a place to run to. So I talked briefly to my mate—still the best mate ever—and scrounged a slip of paper and a pen to write my email address at Mercy Hills on, hoping I’d have a chance to discreetly pass of it over. The Nevada Ashes omega was distracted and had quite a bit of cool reserve, but that was only understandable—his life had been entirely upended and he didn’t know us from a hole in the ground.
But then I saw his face when his alpha came into sight, bathed in the light of our headlights, and knew it was more than that. He’d been waiting, the way I often waited for Kaden. Feeling incomplete until that other half of my life had appeared.
Seeing the alpha’s response to him, I thought they’d be happy. Damien obviously considered Salem a gift. Salem was a tough creature—I had no doubt he was up to the task of the life he had ahead of him.
But just in case… I leaned forward and passed him my email address. “When you have an email, send me a note, okay? Just so I know you’re all right.” He smiled at me and put it in his pocket, but didn’t say anything about it so I couldn’t be sure he wasn’t humoring me. I hoped not.
It startled me when Quin attacked the human who seemed to be in charge of Damien, but no one else seemed worried about it, so I let Kaden pull me out of harm’s way and waited for the scuffle in the dirt to end. With the amount of tension that had been riding the air since we’d gotten out of the car, I supposed it had been inevitable.
