Page 17 of Saving His Omega
“Me, too,” came the shy reply.
And they were both hard. Graham’s cock strained his jeans and as loose as the omega’s pants were to accommodate his growing belly, his dick easily tented the fabric.
“Tonight,” he whispered, then forced himself to let go. “There are lots of ways to pleasure each other that won’t aggravate your poor ass.”
Tripp lips, wet and puffy from the kiss, turned up in a smile. “Okay.”
“Go now.” The beta sent his mate on his way with a light tap to his perfect rump.
Graham had just managed to drop the basket off in the kitchen when Elijah strode in. The alpha’s face wiped away the residual pleasure of the afternoon.
“What’s up?”
“Come with me. I’ve called a council meeting.”
Elijah’s office was already filled with the other betas and those gammas not on patrol. They sat at the round table that was intended to make them more equal. It was a nice idea, but everyone honored the chair that Elijah used. Wherever the alpha sat, that’s where the head was, where the ultimate power lay.
Graham took an empty seat closer to the door. As he sat, he nodded to each of the other dominants. He’d known them all since puphood and most of them were far older than he. The gamma to his right—Draco—was Graham’s age, however. They’d grown up together and still sometimes wondered how they’d ended up sitting at these important meetings. Graham’s sigma parents should have relegated him to a similar role and Draco’s gamma sire had been so ancient and his mother well past her breeding age that no one would have expected them to finally produce a pup that lived. All of the others had been stillborn or died shortly after whelping. Draco was proof that the Gods sometimes smiled upon them. But it was also confirmation that a one-pup family was at risk for raising a spoiled pup. Draco could be a terror.
The gamma leaned over to whisper in Graham’s ear. “They managed to pry you away from your mate, I see.”
Graham kicked the guy’s shin. “Shut up.” There was no real rancor in his tone. Despite being annoying, the gamma was a friend.
Elijah rapped the table to get everyone’s attention. “I received a call from Alpha Lorcan this morning. Four gammas from a southern pack showed up at the Rogue’s packlands. They were looking for a runaway sigma and omega. They thought the two might have sought refuge with the Rogues.”
Graham’s stomach dropped. He shouldn’t have been surprised at this turn of events. They’d known all along that a breeding omega wouldn’t have been let go by a pack, let alone if that shifter’s brother had taken him after killing his mate.
“Did they name Tripp and Blake specifically?” He had to ask no matter how slim the chance this had nothing to do with his mate.
“They didn’t. Lorcan had no idea who they were talking about and once he’d made it clear that the foreign shifters needed to move on, they didn’t press the point. He wasn’t happy with the look or smell of them, so he didn’t offer any hospitality. The encounter was brief.”
Graham nodded. “No surprise there.” From what he’d heard about the other pack from Tripp, they weren’t anyone Lorcan would have wanted hanging around. The alpha was fiercely protective of his members as were most alphas…including Elijah.
“Did he mention us as a possible destination?”
Elijah shook his head. “He figured we were the logical place the two runaways would end up and had our backs on this. They did head north, he said. He had a couple of his gammas track them for a while. We have to assume they’re coming here next.”
The lovely lunch he’d consumed with such bliss only hours ago now roiled in his stomach. “They can’t have Tripp.”
“That’s a given, Graham. It’s why you mated so quickly, as you know. Your claim as his mate overrides any they have. But…”
“Blake.”
“Yeah. Sigmas don’t get to choose where they live and I have no claim over him. Even if he mated right now with one of our sigmas, customarily she wouldn’t be viewed as important to the decision. Splitting up mated pairs is unusual and I’d make as strong a case for keeping him as I could. But we’re talking about a servient who killed a dominant. Their alpha has every right to demand his return for punishment. However much I believe Blake was justified in his actions, I don’t have the authority to pronounce judgment on the matter.”
Graham clutched at his stomach. He liked Blake but more, Tripp would be devastated to lose his brother. “He’s their sire. The alpha, I mean. He’s Tripp and Blake’s sire.” He wasn’t sure what that fact had to do with anything, yet it was information that had to come out before the gammas arrived.
Elijah sat back and drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “Interesting. I assumed they were traded into the pack.” He eyed Graham. “You’re saying the alpha sat by while a dominant brutalized his son?”
“Yes. Tripp said the alpha prizes loyalty above all else and uses his power to bind his dominants to him with bribes. Tripp was a useful tool in that regard, no matter the cost to the boy.” He sighed heavily. “I can’t see the fucker showing any mercy to this other son, either. He’ll make an example of Blake if only to reassure the other dominants that he can be trusted to put their needs above others in the pack.”
“What an asshole.” This from Draco, because the guy had no filter. The gamma looked around the room. “Why don’t we just kill them? The foreign gammas, I mean.”
Draco’s sire had long passed so it was up to the dominant sitting on his other side to smack the back of his head. “Gods, boy. Do you want to start a war?”
Draco appeared unfazed by the rebuke. “This pack is pretty far away, right? How likely are they to travel up here to pick a fight? They can’t bring all of their dominants, either. Some would have to stay back to protect their pack. We’d outnumber them for sure.”
Graham remembered at that moment why he liked the gamma. He was impulsive and irritating and irreverent, but also fearless and loyal as the day was long.
