Page 77 of Abel's Omega

“Don’t shifters do photos for their weddings, uh, matings?”

“Think about what you just asked, Thom.”

He laughed. “Okay. So you don’t do pictures.”

“Not many. Why?”

“I want to document the ceremony.”

Ugh. Documentation of my complete lack of personhood. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Why?”

“It’s…personal.”

“You don’t have to have sex in front of the whole pack, do you?”

“No!” Not anymore. Though some of the stuff that Garrick had been digging up at the university had suggested that, at least for Alphas, that had been part of the ceremony, the last thing before the entire pack changed and ran under the moon. Abel had raised his eyebrows at me when that little tidbit had come up, laughter seething just below the surface of his bland expression, but I’d called him out on it and the idea died a pathetic death right there.

“Then why?”

I sighed, and set aside my list of pack gifts. “I don’t have much to do with it. It’s a contract between Abel and the Alpha of Buffalo Gap. I show my acceptance of the mating by being there and behaving.”

The other end of the line was silent for long enough I wondered if the call had dropped, then Thom came back on. “That’s fucking bizarre.”

“That’s the way it is.”

“How does Alpha Mercy Hills feel about that?”

“He works within the system.”

“And it’s always been like that?”

“I don’t know. No one knows. When the shifters were gathered up and shoved into the enclaves, a lot of stuff got lost. All that matters is the way it is now, and in today’s society, omegas are not people. They belong to their family and to their pack and to their mate, but never to themselves.”

“Welcome to Mercy Hills, set your clock back a hundred years?”

“No.” My tone was cool, and I had to remind myself that he didn’t know. “In some ways, Mercy Hills toes the line with the other packs. I’m aware that I lose all right to have an opinion or make my own decisions once I step outside the gate, and that other packs think Abel is crazy for giving me a job and letting me earn my own credits. But everyone at Mercy Hills has a job. Even the omegas. And here, we get to keep what money we earn; it doesn’t go to our guardian.”

“Interesting.” The sound of tapping came through the phone—Thom tapping the pen he never actually used against his desk. “Would the Alpha mind if I made a bit of a thing of that?”

“I can’t speak for him, but I can ask. I’ll talk to him tonight.”

“Great. So, can I come document the ceremony? I’ll bring a real photographer, not just me. I can get a good one—they’re all slavering to take pictures of you two.”

“Why?”

“You look good together. And you can’t convince me that you aren’t aware of just how attractive you are.”

I lost all power of speech, but my omega training saved me. “Hardly that much.”

He hmphed. “Well, I’m not going to argue with you. We can come?”

“I’ll have invitations sent. You have to do your own paperwork, though.”

Thom laughed. “Yeah, I know. I’ll bring a gift too. You guys do that, right? Give the couple gifts?”

“Close friends will. And the Alphas of the other packs. We give gifts out to our pack members, and Abel will gift something to my birth pack.”