Page 72 of Abel's Omega

Abel waved him off and turned back to me.

As soon as Holland was gone I reached for the thermometer.

Abel frowned and grabbed my hand again. “Don’t do that. It’s only another minute.”

Yes, it was, but I was feeling exponentially worse now, and I needed to tell Abel about Holland. To beg my favor. But he refused to let me talk, and so I sat there in forced patience, until he finally reached out and took the thermometer out of my mouth.

“Abel, I need to ask—”

“You can ask once you’re in bed. This is a fever.”

He pulled me up to my feet, and I gasped at the pain in my joints.

“Do you want me to carry you?” he asked, his brow furrowed with worry.

“No, I can walk.” It would probably hurt less. “Abel, please, can we take Holland back with us?”

“We’ll talk about it once you’re better.” He started chivying me toward the stairs.

“But he’ll have no life if he stays here.” I turned and hung off the front of Abel’s shirt. “He’ll have nothing, and no way to get anything unless it’s charity. Or he…” Tears started pouring down my face and my body was on fire, and the room began to spin again. Abel picked me up and I started to cry harder, because it hurt so much, and Holland needed help and I couldn’t do anything.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

I spent the next two days in bed, doing nothing but sleeping and taking acetaminophen for the pain and the fever. The flu, I remember someone saying, one of the bad strains, and it turned out that it had been going through Jackson-Jellystone while we were there, but no one had mentioned it. Fucking pack politics. Abel took me home on the third day, bundled into a blanket in the middle of the van, while Holland sat with the pups. I slept most of the way home, only waking to drink juice or go to the bathroom.

Abel cared for me as if I were the most precious of jewels, helping me in and out of my seat, tucking my blanket in around me.

“I’m sorry I’m so much trouble,” I told him at our last stop. I was starting to feel better, more alert, less like a wrung-out rag.

“I love you,” was all he said, and he refused to let me apologize more. But it had been inconvenient. Even more so, because my milk had dried up while I was sick, and now we were dealing with a hungry, cranky, frustrated baby boy who wasn’t ready to give up Dabi’s milk. Holland was good with him, though I could tell it hurt to look after my child when he couldn’t have his own. But I was glad to have him and now that my head was clearer, I realized I didn’t know what had passed between Abel and Uncle Mitchel, except that Abel had heard my desperate plea on Holland’s behalf.

We were on the road again before I had a chance to ask what they’d talked about.

Abel twisted around in the passenger seat so he could see me. “This and that. He wouldn’t sign a mating agreement, just a betrothal one. He was thrilled that I wanted to take Holland back to Mercy Hills, though. Made negotiations a lot easier. I’m mating a genius, and no Duke, you can’t have him.”

Duke snorted and I caught a glimpse of a grin in the rear view mirror.

But a betrothal agreement… “So, he’s thinking he might want to back out before April?”

Abel shook his head. “I don’t think so. I believe he’s worried I’ll pull out before April, if you’re officially mated to me.”

“Why would he worry about that?”

“I agreed to hosting six omegas from the pack for a year, to see if they can find mates.”

I laughed, despite how it made my chest hurt. “Yeah, I can believe that. There was a stretch of about four years where one in three of our pups was omega. And those were the males. There were a few more females that popped up at puberty. No pack can support that many omegas.”

“Well, we’re going to try to support an extra six, anyway.”

“I’m glad. Thank you.”

He shook his head. “I’d been thinking about it anyway, after Jason came and I saw how well he fit into the pack.”

Duke chuckled. “And how happy he made Mac. Don’t tell me you weren’t a little jealous.”

Abel grinned and ducked his head, then raised his eyes to mine. “Not any more.”

A matching grin spread across my face and when he reached for me, I eagerly gave him my hand.