Page 126 of Omega's Heart
My hands twitched and my palms grew damp. I wanted to rub them dry against my legs but they’d covered them with paint too, so all I could do was spread my fingers and kind of... vibrate.
“You okay?” Holland asked softly.
“Yeah. Just never thought I’d have this day, you know?”
“You were waiting for Kaden,” Bax said in a firm voice. “I wish I could have waited for Abel.” His smile turned wistful. “I’m maybe a little jealous of you right now.”
Bax, jealous of me? He seemed serious, and none of the others were making fun of him for it. Maybe he meant it? “I love him,” was all I could think of to say.
“Like we couldn’t tell,” Holland said, fanning me harder. “How much time do we have left?”
“Enough,” Cale said. “Want me to go check on the alphas?”
“No, go get dressed. There’s just enough time.” Holland shooed him out of the room, then chased Julius and my cousins out after him. I was only having a small rozvennya, these two plus Theodora and Franklyn. Despite the initial urge to rub this in everyone’s faces, I didn’t need to be petty about it. As much as I was enjoying finally getting my mating, I’d grown less and less interested in being the center of the pack’s attention for the night.
Except maybe for being the center of Kaden’s attention. That, I was excited about.
My rozvennya came back just in time. The room got loud and very crowded, pushing the mated omegas out into the kitchen to watch through the doorway.
Julius helped me into the pants, and Cale held out the deep red tunic that went over them. My gift from Holland and Quin. It was cut close to my body in a way that left nothing to the imagination, at the same time as it confused my eyes trying to make out any details. I was glad now that I was too big for the traditional omega’s tunic in my family. Kaden was going to howl for me, Holland had promised when he’d first shown it to me. And now, seeing everyone’s reaction to it, I had no doubt that he was right.
Theodora tied the belt around my waist and Franklyn held my boots for me while I pushed my feet into them.
“Ready?” Cale asked, and I nodded, too breathless now to speak. This was it. In an hour, I’d be a mated wolf.
I really hoped I didn’t throw up.
C H A P T E R 6 8
K aden stood by the mating circle, waiting with nerves strung nearly as tight as they’d been on his first overseas patrol. He’d felt just as overwhelmed then, but the potential outcomes tonight were a lot easier to look forward to. A lot more pleasant too.
Felix’s entire family stood around the outside of the mating circle. The Mercy Hills complement was mostly Kaden’s immediate family, plus Duke and Bram and their pups, Edmond—who Kaden suspected of being slightly moony about Julius—and his mother, who was on her best behavior tonight. Felix was an alpha whisperer for certain. Whatever he’d said to her that night Kaden had been away in Honisloonz had stuck and she’d been mostly quiet ever since.
The mating parties were handled a little differently here in White River. The head of the bratvuk —in Kaden’s case, Quin—stayed with the alpha as a guard of honor, while the rest escorted the omegas to the mating circle. Kaden was quietly grateful for the company and the support of his oldest brother as he waited for his soon-to-be mate to arrive. It felt like his heart might straight out leap from his chest and go galloping off in search of Felix.
Quin reached out to touch Kaden’s arm. “They’re coming.”
Kaden straightened and craned his neck in the direction Quin pointed, and his breath caught in his throat. Felix was gorgeous. Kaden had always found his mate easy on the eyes, but tonight, it was like the whole world was paying attention.
Felix walked steadily, one hand on his father’s arm, his eyes fixed on Kaden. He was wearing low boots of cream leather and white pants that clung to the shape of his legs with each step. Not see-through, but something that hinted at that possibility and made an alpha realize how good an omega could look. The long red tunic over it gleamed in the light of the lanterns that hung around the perimeter of the square. A wide belt in pale cream and scarlet framed his waist, the dangling ends of the ties that held it closed flexing gently against his left thigh as he walked. A complicated collar of bone-beads and stone peeked out from inside the neck of the tunic. Matching bracelets gleamed dully on each of his wrists, and a few of the same ashy beads had been worked into a pattern with the ribbons that Kaden had bought, running along the hem of the tunic and giving it weight and sway to complement the steadiness of his stride.
But it was Felix himself who caught Kaden most strongly. Felix, his eyes shining in the flickering lamplight, surrounded by his rozvennya and Kaden’s bratvuk, outshining them all the way it should be. The group stopped outside the ring of branches on the ground and the bratvuk—Abel, Cas, Duke, and Fan —moved off to encircle the mating ring. Felix’s gaze met Kaden’s—nervous, excited, and eager. Kaden nodded back and let the smile filling him up from inside grow on his lips. Not much longer now. He mouthed the words to Felix and rocked eagerly from foot to foot when his mate grinned back.
At a nod from the Alpha of White River, Kaden stepped into the mating circle to meet Felix and his Dad.
Felix’s father raised his voice and turned to face the crowd. “Packmembers of White River and of Mercy Hills, we come here tonight to ask your support and your strength for this young pair of wolves, just beginning their lives together. We ask that you lend your voices to their prayers and your love to their love, this night and all the nights forward.”
The surrounding packmembers lifted their voices in human howls and shouts, the sound rising in a crescendo then gradually dying away like a wild wolf’s howl.
When the night was finally silent again, Felix’s dad turned back to Kaden. “Kaden Mercy Hills,” he said, his voice shaking. “I bring you this omega to be your mate, of sound mind and health, of a line of proven fertility.”
Felix’s cheeks went pink, but his excited smile never wavered. His dad continued, “He is well versed in the keeping of a house and the care of pups and will be a right and worthy mate and helper to you in your life.”
Kaden nodded and took a deep breath to begin his part. “Bartholomew White River, I come to you, wearing the hides of my prey and the trophies of my enemies, in proof to you that your child will live a good and prosperous life, safe in my care, he and the pups he will bear of my seed.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Felix turn bright red and roll his eyes up to stare at the sky. Yeah, you’re thinking about it too, aren’t you? They should have just signed a contract and had the ceremony later. Like a month later. He caught Felix’s eye and if they hadn’t turned immediately away from each other, he suspected they both would have burst out laughing like they were lunar.
Then it was Felix’s turn to speak his vows. He stepped into the light of the lantern, looking beautiful and wild and utterly desirable. “Kaden Mercy Hills, I come here in the sight of my family and yours, witnessed by our packs and under the watching eye of the moon, who keeps us all in the sight of our Lady of Wolves. I come here to give myself to you in all that I am, to love you and support you, to share with you in your joy and help carry your burden when you sorrow. To bear pups for you and to care for you and them that your line may prosper. This I do swear, to the pack, to the Mother Moon, and to the Lady of Wolves and her Mate, and I call upon my pack and yours to hear and witness my joining to you.”
The White River ceremony was different from the Mercy Hills one, which had apparently been different from the Buffalo Gap one. Here, the watching shifters once more lifted their voices in cries and howls of support for the soon to be mated couple, and once they’d quieted again, it would be Kaden’s turn to make his promises to Felix, which he did happily, if a bit impatiently. His nerves had disappeared with his first spoken words and now all he could think was Can’t we just get to the bedding part?
