Page 140 of Omega's Flight

He stared at me with sad, troubled eyes. "I don't understand. You said you wanted pups."

"I do. But I don't want what we were."

He shook my hand off. "I'll think about it." Then he turned abruptly away from me and strode off back to the garage.

C H A P T E R 9 7

L ater that evening, after I'd put the pups to bed—all three tonight, since their father had been away from home when we'd dropped by—Degan knocked at my front door. I let him in and tried with smiles and body language to let him know how much I appreciated him recognizing this boundary without having to specifically point it out. I didn't think he'd appreciate being praised like a child, but he did pick up on body language, when he wanted to. And lately he'd seemed to be picking up on mine.

"Would you like something to drink? Coffee? I think I still have a bottle of cider we could split," I said as I led him down to the kitchen.

"No, I'm fine. Not staying long." He paused and it seemed to me that he was uncertain about something. His eyes met mine and then, in a rush, words came tumbling out of his mouth. "The contract is home, I'll have to go and get it. If I say yes to tearing it up, will you let me take the pups back to visit with Maw? She misses them and if they're going to live here, she won't see them much anymore."

I froze, startled, then pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. "What made you change your mind?" This was sudden, too sudden, and I wondered if my omega talent was starting to show. Was this how it worked?

He sagged into the chair opposite me and grunted unhappily. "I've never seen you so stubborn about something, except sometimes about stuff with the pups. And I can tell you don't like it anymore when I touch you." He raised his eyes to mine and I saw sadness and resignation in them. "I don't want a mate that's disgusted by me. I thought, once I got a better job, maybe we could make a go of it. But it's too late, isn't it?"

I nodded silently and pinched my thigh under the table to contain my glee and the surprising stab of melancholy that welled up right after. I shouldn't have been sad, but it was hard to see the part of my life go, as well. And Degan looked—not broken, but certainly not whole.

He sighed and got to his feet. "Anyway, I talked to Mac about it all and I'll go home and get the contract and declare it voided. Can I take the pups?"

I almost said yes right away, but something made me pause. "Let me think about it?" Testing the waters. The old Degan would have blown up and accused me of not trusting him with them.

This one, this strange quiet Degan, only stared at me a moment longer with some indecipherable expression, then bowed his head in agreement. "Okay. Let me know when you've decided? I need to make arrangements for the paperwork."

I nodded and stood to walk him out to the front door.

As luck would have it, Cas opened the door and walked in, almost hitting Degan with it. The two alphas froze and sized each other up like they did pretty much every time they met.

"I didn't know you had company," Cas said, in that deceptively mild tone he used when he was readying himself for a fight.

"Just stopped by to talk about the pups," Degan replied through gritted teeth.

Cas's shoulders tightened and I reached quickly to pull him into the house. "He wants to take them to see his mother when he goes to pick up our contract," I said levelly, and with a sharp look in Cas's direction to get his attention.

My lover was a clever shifter. His eyes met mine, asking the question that mine answered. He lit up like a full moon bonfire and then—and this was why I loved him so much—he turned to Degan and lifted his jaw to expose his throat in an offer of equality. "Thank you," he said, and waited.

Degan had been startled, I'd seen that on his face before his expression smoothed out into his typical stolidity. His eyes flicked to mine, then he carefully leaned forward to accept Cas's offer of scent, and tipped his own head to return the respect. "Take care of them," he said and as much as I strained to hear it, there was no unspoken threat in the words, just a request from one alpha to another.

"I will," Cas promised. "Did you want to stay for a beer? I think there's still a couple left."

Degan shook his head. "Got to get to bed. We're going into the city tomorrow to look at a couple of cars to fix up, and take one in for someone to look at. If we sell it for what we want, we can buy three more and bring them back." He was halfway out the door when he stopped and turned around. "You want anything from the city?" he asked me.

"I don't think so," I said slowly. "But thank you. I'm sure the pups would appreciate anything you brought back for them, though."

"I'll stop and see if that used clothing place has anything—Ann was talking about a dress one of the other pups has for full moon nights."

"That would be wonderful. Thank you. I can give you money, I have some human dollars around here somewhere."

He shook his head. "They're my pups too. I'll get Pip one of those guns that shoot the foam things if I can find one, she’ll like that.”

She would, and it might go a ways to ease the tension that still existed between them.

I laughed and hung on the door, and for a moment it was like old times again, but only for a moment. "You'll probably want to look for two or three, or she'll be running around armed and none of her friends will have any way of fighting back."

Degan appeared to consider that, and then he grinned. "Yeah, she's definitely an alpha." He stepped all the way out onto the porch. "I'll take them to school tomorrow, if that's okay with you."

"Sure." I watched him head off into the dark and wondered at the sudden change of direction in our relationship. Maybe this could work, and maybe I could somehow have my family and have my lover and new life at the same time.