Page 197 of Omega's Heart
“Bax’s too. I know, I’m dropping you in it.”
“You have no idea. And you’ll have to think about Raleigh, too. He’s not too terribly fond of her, though he at least has the out of not having actually mated Cas officially.”
“I’ll talk to him. Maybe he’ll have some ideas.”
“He mentioned something about a Cone of Silence the other day, whatever that is, though I think he wanted it for the pups.”
“If we can find one, might be good for Mom, too.” The two alphas mused over that for a few moments, then Kaden shook his head and tipped the beer bottle up to finish the last of his drink. “I still haven’t shown Felix the bathroom.”
“Did you see the sign they put up on the door to keep everyone out?”
“I did. Who do I need to thank?” The master bedroom and bathroom were right off the kitchen, and Kaden had been adamant that no one saw what he’d done until Felix had.
“Teca and Aggie, though I think it was Bax who asked them to do it.”
Kaden scanned the room for the two girls, but being the oldest of the girls in the family, they’d disappeared off together somewhere. “I’ll save them some cookies or something. Buy them some water guns to shoot the boys with.”
“I’m sure they’d appreciate the extra armament.” Quin’s eyes crinkled.
Abel wandered up. “This is where you two are hiding. I think I’ve made all the appropriate noises over baby stuff and kitchen appliances that I have in me. Though it looks like you’re going to be well set up once you’ve moved in.” He nudged Kaden with his elbow. “Your humans are, uh, enthusiastic?”
Kaden made a strangled noise. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that.” He couldn’t see it from where he was, but the senator’s staff had pitched in to buy them some multi-purpose stroller-car seat-shopping basket type thing that looked like it could have come straight from NASA. He might actually need to call in an astronaut, or an engineer, to figure the damn thing out.
The senator’s own gift to them had been a couple of sets of fancy clothing—two little suits in case it was a boy, two little dresses in lace and chiffon if it was a girl. Kaden didn’t doubt that there was an expectation that he would parade the pups in front of the media for that family man vote, but Holland had fallen into awe-struck silence when he’d checked the brand name on the tags inside them, which gave Kaden an idea just how much the man and his wife had actually spent on them. He doubted very much that it was only the political aspect that had prompted the senator’s choice of gift —any nice clothing would have done.
A coffee machine from the senator and some fancy type of mixer that had made Felix’s eyes pop and the rest of the omegas ooh in jealousy rounded out the rest of his coworkers’ generosity.
Raleigh wandered up to him and gave him a quick hug. “I’m going to get the pups to bed. Cas too. The house turned out beautifully. Let me know if you want me to do a mural on the pup’s bedroom wall once they’re born, the offer still stands.”
“I’ll talk to Felix about it,” Kaden promised.
Cas came in through the back door, carrying a precariously balanced stack of glasses in front of him. “Nice setup.”
“Did you folks figure out a house plan yet?” Abel asked.
Cas shook his head. “Almost. We’re down to just a couple.”
“Don’t wait too long,” Felix said from the door into the living room. “It’s going to be lonely over here all by ourselves.”
“Don’t you worry,” Raleigh told him. “I’m getting claustrophobic with all the paperwork taking over at ours.”
“It’s not that much,” Cas protested, but he was laughing and then so was Raleigh, which probably meant it was some sort of in-joke between the two of them. “I like that little office idea, though,” Cas added in a meditative tone. “We should look at something like that, then I can keep my paperwork out of your way.”
“I’d never see you if you had an office in the house.” Raleigh draped his arms around Cas’s neck. “We should corral the pups and get them off to bed.”
“Okay.” Cas kissed Raleigh quickly and just as quickly lifted a middle finger in Kaden’s direction, an aggressive defense against commentary that still didn’t stop Kaden’s grin.
Quin narrowed his eyes at the two of them, which made the alphas laugh and Raleigh smile gamely along. Kaden couldn’t blame him for being confused, Raleigh not having been half-raised by brother Quin.
The last of the humans left so as to reach the gate before curfew. Bax was gathering his pups— they found Fan in Kaden’s office with his laptop, hiding out to play games. He’d managed to make off with a good stash of cookies and squares, too. Bax had scolded him, but when his packbrother wasn’t looking, Kaden offered to fist-bump the young alpha, who’d grinned and then wandered off to ignore his bearer some more.
Finally, after one too many hugs from Holland, and Julius promising to come back in the morning to help clean up, they were alone. Kaden closed the door behind Julius without too much of a snap, he hoped, and leaned against it to thwart any sudden attempts at re-entry. “Phew!” he whispered, just loud enough for Felix to hear him.
Felix grinned at him. “Tired, love?”
“A little. But mostly, I have one more surprise for you.”
“This wasn’t enough?” Felix spun slowly to take in all the things lying about in the living room. “That stroller is amazing! Did you give them that idea?”
