Page 201 of Omega's Heart
“Yeah, I don’t know either, buddy,” Kaden told him and settled in to wait.
Felix came out of the bathroom shortly after, naked—which was how Kaden liked him best—and climbed in under the bedcovers to take his place on Kaden’s other side. “We’ll have to go,” he said without preamble. “The omega is willing and the alpha is at risk. Not just from the humans, but from himself too.”
“That’s all you got out of it?”
“No.” Felix went quiet for a moment. Kaden could feel the tension work through him as he decided what he could and couldn’t reveal. “You can’t tell Holland I told you this. Or let him ever suspect that I did.”
“Swear to you,” Kaden said promptly.
“I mean this, Kaden.” Felix’s voice was flat and impatient, unusual in his mate.
“I believe you.” Kaden kissed his temple. “Not a word will cross my lips.”
“Hmph.” But Felix relaxed slightly in his arms. “All right.” He reached across Kaden’s body to toy gently with Hunter’s ears. “Years ago, Holland was mated to the son of an Alpha. It was a good mating, I gather, or at least was considered to be a good one in his pack. But his mate repudiated him.”
“Yeah. So?” Matings broke up all the time.
“You’re alpha, love. It’s not the same for you. We get one chance, really.”
“I thought that was all you guys needed?” He’d never heard of anyone who managed to mate an omega giving them up, it was too big a blow to the reputation. Particularly the bedroom reputation. At least, that’s how they looked at it in Salma. If you couldn’t make enough credits to keep an omega or weren’t alpha enough in the bedroom to keep one satisfied, you didn’t deserve to have one.
“What are omegas good for?” Felix asked him.
“Uh…” Damn. “You’re not asking the right guy. I don’t think I’ve given omegas two thoughts. Until I met you.” He tried to coax Felix into a kiss, but his mate shook his head and avoided Kaden’s mouth.
“Yeah, we get that a lot. You see, we’re a luxury item, but only as long as we aren’t broken. And Holland was, until after he came here.” He moved restlessly against Kaden’s body, then rolled away and sat up. “I’m going to go make a cup of tea or something.”
“Hey, you’re the one who’s pregnant.” Kaden got out of bed and fumbled his leg on to follow Felix out to the kitchen. Hunter jumped down off the bed and tagged along, his tail wagging hopefully.
He found Felix with water already on to boil, staring mindlessly into the cupboard where he kept the tea. Kaden walked up behind him and wrapped his arms around his mate’s waist. The baby rolled beneath his hands, silently dancing for him. “What did I do?”
“Nothing. It’s not you.” Felix put a hand over one of Kaden’s, but his eyes stayed fixed on the tea. “I’ve been very lucky, but I might not have been. Not if you hadn’t come along.”
“Your pack are all fools.”
Felix huffed a short laugh. “Maybe, but they were all I had. And I still would have been luckier than most omegas, I’m discovering.” He let the cupboard door swing closed and turned to face Kaden. “In five more years, all my hope of a mating would have been gone. Too old to be a prize, too close to the end of my fertile years. Holland… What happened to him was worse. Omegas are fertile, it’s what everyone believes. But an omega who isn’t?” He shrugged and looked away and Kaden could have cried challenge on the person who’d made those oh-so-rare tears rise up in Felix’s eyes. “They’re useless. Only good for housework and looking after someone else’s pups. And sex. After all, they’re still omegas, right?” He shook Kaden’s arms away and turned the stove off. “In my pack, I would have lived with my parents until they went to the Moonlands, then one of my brothers would have taken me in. It’s how it’s done in White River, but not in every pack.” He set out his favorite mug and held up Kaden’s in a silent question. Kaden nodded, and Felix set the mug on the counter beside his own. “Anyway, when Holland’s mate repudiated him because he couldn’t do the only thing an omega absolutely needs to be able to do to be worth the effort of keeping one, his birth pack didn’t really want him either. They took him back because pack law says they have to, but reading between the lines, I think Mitchel was pretty mad at Holland for it. He was talking about sending Holland to Nevada Ashes, and they could put him to work in the public houses so he could earn his keep.”
“But he has pups. The problem was with his mate, wasn’t it?”
Felix shook his head. “No, it was Holland. They looked into it and fixed it after he came here. Not that it matters. It’s always assumed to be the omega. But he told me...” Felix took a deep breath. “Well, he didn’t want to go to Nevada Ashes. He was like the rest of us. Still is.”
Kaden sent him a curious look.
Felix spun on his heel and strode back to the stove, picking the kettle off the stove with enough force that water splashed out to hiss and steam away on the burner. “All my life, I knew that it was my future to be mated and have pups and keep a house. And as I got older, what I wanted more than anything was to find that one alpha that I could love above all others. Who I could build my life around. Most of us are that way, you know. It’s like, the pinnacle of achievement for an omega, to find that alpha that will love us with care and tenderness and respect, because to so many we just aren’t equal. We’re—what is it you Salma boys call it? The jewel on your arm? Like that, though we don’t really have a term for it back in White River. But we all dreamed of that life-long, exclusive passion.” He put tea bags in the mugs, chosen at random, Kaden rather thought and started to pour water over them. “So what they were going to force Holland to do is basically the exact opposite. An ever-changing array of partners, but none for him. His value reduced to his body, for as long as he was young and beautiful and willing to do whatever was asked of him.” He finished pouring the water into the mugs and put the kettle down with a bang. “He’ll have to go with us because he’s not going to drop his own responsibilities on someone else and there’s few enough of us that he can send for something this delicate. But he’s got this sick look to him, like he’s seeing his own past and future if he hadn’t come here. And he’s furious, and terrified. And I think we need to be there because I don’t know that he won’t have some kind of nervous breakdown if he goes on his own.”
Kaden reached out to his mate but Felix sidestepped him, his hands held up like a barrier between them. “No, please, Kaden. I just...” He turned away for a moment, running his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t you. I just don’t want to be touched right now.” He started for the bedroom, the tea forgotten on the counter behind him. “I’m going to put some clothes on. I’ll sleep on the couch tonight.”
“Felix,” Kaden called his mate, but Felix ignored him and disappeared into the bedroom. He followed, fear for his mate chilling his spine. “Felix,” Kaden repeated, more insistent.
“No, Kaden, just leave me alone for a little while, okay?” Felix’s voice sounded watery, like he was drowning in unshed tears.
“I know you don’t want an alpha right now. I’ll let you have your space if you really need it. But you need to sleep in the bed.”
“I’m not the ex-soldier,” Felix reminded him, coming out of the room as he pulled a t-shirt on over his head. “You need the good mattress.”
“I’ve slept on worse than the couch. And you’re sleeping for two,” Kaden joked gently. “I’m worried about you.”
“Me? Why?”
