Page 171 of Omega's Heart
He kissed the top of my head. “The pack would pay me back, I imagine. We can figure it out. I know you and Holland are close.”
“If that doesn’t work, we could always put off finishing the house and stay here a bit longer. Then they could start their house.” It would be crowded in this little apartment, with the two of us, plus Hunter and the baby, but I could make it work.
“Yeah, well, Mom’s still talking about moving back here and this apartment might be the best place to put her for now.”
My eyes flew open. “Holland’s not going to like that.”
“Nope. But where else are they going to put her? She won’t go into the elders’ complex and none of her sons have space for her to live with them right now.”
Or want to make space for her. But we would have space, once we were in the new place. For a few years, anyway. “Do you want her to live with us?” I could handle it, but I already had Hunter and would have the baby and, well, I also had Kaden to manage. I didn’t really want to have to manage Veronica too, but I’d do it if he asked. She’d gotten better since the mating, anyway. A little. I wasn’t certain what had happened, but we’d slowly struck up—not a friendship. A relationship, I guessed. Occasional emails to keep her up to date on what was going on with Kaden and me. I curated what information she got like it was state secrets, though, to be certain she had nothing to criticize. And her emails back were equally bland and inoffensive. I wondered if she was doing the same to me.
Kaden rolled me over onto my back and draped himself casually over my body. “No. I love my mom and I’d like her to have a relationship with her grandpups, but I won’t share my territory. Or my omega.” He kissed me in a way that I thought was meant to remind me that he didn’t just see me as a housekeeper and bearer of pups. “But, yeah, I thought I’d put a burr under Quin’s tail and see if we can get our place finished a little faster. After all, the outside walls are done, it’s just windows and the inside that need to be finished. Then if she wants to apply and Quin approves it, she can move in here until we find someplace else she’ll approve of.”
“I’d like to be in the new place when the baby comes,” I finally admitted. “It’s not really important—”
He stopped me with a finger against my lips. “But it’s another new beginning, right? If I’d courted you the way you would have been courted in Salma, you would have had a year or more to have your mating how you wanted it, and you would have had your own home to come back to after the ceremony.”
“I like what I had. It suited me perfectly. And I wouldn’t have wanted to wait that long for you. Or for him.” I took his hand and put it back on my belly, pressed it into that slight firmness there that was the only sign yet that I was expecting a pup.
“How are you feeling anyway?” he asked. “I thought I’d be following you around with a bucket by now.”
I made a small noise of dismissal. “My family usually have pretty easy pregnancies. I think you’re safe.”
“Oh, good,” he said, sounding way more satisfied than I’d expected. Then he added, “So, you haven’t said yet if you want to come to Washington with me.”
“Hunter?”
“We can take him too. We’ll have to drive up over a couple of days, unless you’re okay with him going in a crate.”
“I don’t want him in a crate, Kaden.”
“You know he’s flown in one before, right? That’s how the Army ships their dogs.”
I gave him a look that said I’d see him in a crate before I’d force the pup into one.
He shook his head and gave me a quick hug. “Fine. We’re driving. You get to ask Quin for a car for us to take.”
Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. How would we get the car back to the enclave? “You’re sure Hunter wouldn’t mind being stuck in a crate?” I wouldn’t enjoy it. It looked claustrophobic.
Kaden slid back onto the mattress and propped his head up on his elbow. The thumb on his other hand stroked back and forth over the jut of my collarbone. I suspected he was trying to soothe me, the way I soothed the babies when I pupsat for Holland or Raleigh. “It won’t be strange for him, I swear to you. If he is a little anxious, we can probably get Adelaide to give him a shot or something to calm his nerves. And I’d make sure he had a nice big crate so he was comfortable. He won’t be crammed into a little box with his paws up around his ears.”
I burrowed into the solidity of his body. “Let me think about it? Right now, I’d say no, even though I’m sure you’re right.” A plane ride would be convenient—I’d loved how fast we’d gotten home after our mating. And it would be a lot less time cooped up for Hunter. But I couldn’t help worrying about not being able to see him and know that he was all right.
Kaden rubbed his cheek over mine. “Yeah, I get it. You need some time to get used to the idea, right?”
I nodded and kissed the hollow of his shoulder. “Yes.”
“We have a week before we have to make a decision,” he reminded me. “You have time.” More of his weight came to rest on me, pushing me over onto my back, and he began nuzzling the side of my neck. “I can pick up a crate and you can see how comfortable he is going into one again. Give you time to make it kind of homey for him too.”
Yes, that was a good idea. And if Hunter hated the crate, then we’d just have to drive. Or I could stay here in Mercy Hills.
I sighed and raised my chin a little in encouragement. “You are the best mate.”
“I was smart enough to pick you, right?” His breath puffed over my skin like a warm breeze, tickling the already aroused nerve endings. “You should take Holland shopping again, get a few more suits and some other good clothes to wear while we’re away.”
“I can do that, but we don’t really need to waste money on clothes for me. No one looks at an omega.”
“They’ll be looking at you.” He paused in his delightful mauling of my neck for a moment and pulled away so I could see him clearly. “In this situation, I’m effectively an arm of the senator, which makes me a politician. And you a politician’s mate. You’re not an Alpha’s Mate, but it won’t be that different. Less responsibility, but you’re going to be just as much a part of mine and the senator’s images as Holland is of Quin’s. If you don’t want to do that, I’ll tell John it’s off and go myself, but I’d like to have you with me. Quin says I need someone to soften my ‘shock-and-awe’ tactics.”
