Page 127 of Omega's Flight

We were so engrossed in our planning, we didn't even notice the time passing except for the occasional interruptions to tend to the baby. She was a sweet thing, wide-eyed and curious. A month old now and still so small and helpless, with beautiful dark hair like her sire but Ori's nose and slightly pointed chin. Ori nursed her while I made us lunch and then he put her in the little cradle where she could see him and stuck a toe under the rocker to keep her amused. I got out my pencils and began sketching out some ideas, showing the line drawings to Ori as I came up with more and more ideas.

"I like this one," he said, picking out the sketch I'd done of the offer by the Lord and Lady of Wolves. I'd set the boy and the girl beside each other, with the Lady, all pale fur and long dark hair, standing to one side, with her mate and husband on the other and behind the children. The Lady was beautiful, or would be, if my hands could follow along with the image in my mind.

"I hope I can do them justice," I said quietly, then looked up at the clock. "Oh, no, I'm going to be late."

"You go, I'll gather everything up. Same time tomorrow?"

I ran through my schedule in my head and nodded. "I have the whole afternoon tomorrow, but tomorrow evening I'm working in the daycare for a couple of hours to fill a gap." I didn't usually work evenings, but Bax was still home with Ryker and he'd offered to look after the pups, but I thought it was too much with is own five plus the baby. I was going to have to take the pups with me.

"You can leave the pups here if you want," Ori told me as he walked me out to the front door.

I opened my mouth to thank him, then realized even if I'd felt comfortable imposing on them, I couldn't just blithely drop them off with my omega friends anymore. "I'll have to ask their sire first, I think. Some welcome that would be, get him settled in his house and then find someone else to look after the pups. And the whole point of him coming here is for him to see the pups and see how well they're doing here." I stepped out through the door. "Thanks though. I'll see you later."

He nodded and waved, then disappeared back inside the house.

I wouldn't have been surprised if Degan had come looking for me by now. I was late and I'd told him where I lived, but the pathway was as empty as if he'd never moved to Mercy Hills.

My steps weren't as quick and happy as they usually were on my trips up to the school and the daycare, but I supposed that was only to be expected. I sighed, and sped up a little, still a little spooked by this morning.

Hopefully Degan would handle all this like an adult and an alpha and we could go forward with our lives as well as possible.

He was in his bedroom when I arrived at his house, going through the clothes I'd picked out for him. "Hi," he said. "Did you pick these out?"

I nodded and leaned against the frame of the door. "I wanted you to have some newer things to wear while you're here."

"They're nice."

He began folding the t-shirts that had been spread out on the bed. "I'm sorry about this morning. I was tired and I took it out on you."

I nodded again. A year ago I might have believed him, or made myself believe him. He'd been like this when we were courting, for the month that that had taken. I knew him better now, though I supposed it was possible that my leaving had given him enough of a jolt to make him think and he'd changed. "You ready to go see the pups?"

He nodded and dropped a pair of jeans on the bed. I had to pinch the outside of my leg to distract myself from the instinct to slip inside and put the clothing away. This was his house now, not mine, and its state of cleanliness and tidiness was no responsibility of mine any more.

Still, it was harder than it should have been to turn my back on those crumpled jeans and walk out of the room.

Degan's house was on the closest end of the original Enclosure houses to Central Park and the daycare and everything else. I pointed places out to him—the main security building, hidden off in the trees, some other random buildings, storage for food, the community gardens stretching off toward the wall with their promise of autumn's bounty. I thought I saw Jason among the dozen or so shifters working down the rows, clearing away weeds, picking early beans and radish. My mouth watered at the thought of fresh-picked vegetables and I made up my mind then and there to stop by Supplies and see if they'd been dropped off yet before we went home.

All pups stayed until the same time, about five in the evening, but they had a method for letting them all out. The smallest came out this end of the school and none of the other classes could leave until these little ones had been picked up by parents or had set off home on their own. It suited me, because I still had to go get Henry.

"Papa!" Pip's voice echoed across the clearing in her usual clarion call-of-the-wild. Then, louder and even more excited, came Ann's voice. "Da!"

I found them in the crowd and held out my arms. Ann rushed to me with her usual hug, then leaped at her Da. "Da, can I ride pick-a-back?"

"Just today," he said, and swung her up on his shoulders. "Glad to see me?"

She nodded, grinning so wide I thought I could see all her teeth.

Pip had slowed down when she saw her sire and when she got to us, she clung to me like a baby possum, eyes wide and fixed on Degan.

"Pip, say hello to your Da," I said and gently nudged her toward her sire.

She grabbed onto the waistband of my jeans and held on as if for dear life.

"Pip, baby," Degan coaxed and stepped toward us.

Her hands tightened on my clothing and she shook her head vehemently.

"What have you been telling her?" he said, a hint of a growl starting in his voice.