Page 141 of Omega's Flight

Maybe I wasn’t a failure. Maybe, like Francine said, it was just that all this was really hard.

I closed the door gently, then turned and set my back against it, hands pressed flat against the wood of the door. "How do you feel?"

He strolled forward, a grin on his face, and put his hands on my waist. "Excited. Triumphant."

"Me too." I leaned into him. "The pups are asleep."

"Are they?" he said, practically chortling the words. "Do you have any suggestions for how to spend the rest of our evening?"

"I might have one or two," I purred and peered up at him through my eyelashes. "Care to hear them?"

"A gentleman never says no to an omega." His hands tightened briefly on my waist before he stepped back and made a half-bow in my direction. "After you."

I laughed—how could I not?—and walked past him, trailing my hand over his cheek. I heard him fall into step behind me and when we reached the bedroom door, I spun and stopped him with a hand on his chest. "I love you."

"I love you too. Come on and let me show you." He picked me up in a rush and strode into the bedroom. I wrapped my legs around his waist and laughed with pure joy for the happiness in my life now.

Cas laid me on the bed and stood over me for a moment, just looking.

"What?" I asked between chuckles.

He shook his head and stripped of his t-shirt. "I never wanted a mate, or anyone serious in my life. But it's all felt right since you showed up."

I got up on my elbow, my excitement fading into worry. "We talked about this—"

"I know, I know," he soothed. The bed creaked beneath his weight as he laid beside me and gathered me into his arms. "I'm not asking for anything you're not ready to give. But even this, before you came —I avoided it like moon sickness. You're special, and I just wanted you to know."

I raised a hand to cup his cheek and the worry evaporated like snow on a hot burner. "Thank you. And whatever I can give is yours, for as long as you want it."

"Always," he said, and bent to kiss me, and then we forgot everything except each other.

C H A P T E R 9 8

T he next morning, after Cas had gone to work and the pups were gone to school, I went looking for Mac. He wasn't home, but I tracked down Jason at the gardens easily enough.

"He's on shift today at the main Security building," he told me, handing me a carrot freshly pulled from the soil. It was no longer than my palm, but when I bit into it, a sweetness almost like candy burst from it. "What do you think?” he asked. “It's a new variety I'm trying."

"They're delicious," I mumbled through a second bite. "Maybe I can pry the pups off those sweets Degan keeps feeding them."

Jason laughed. "I'll plant more then. They're pretty fast growing, I should be able to get another crop in before it's too late."

His little girl, Macy, strode up to him with her arms full of something green. "I got salad for dinner," she said and dumped them on the ground, where Jason regarded them with a pained expression. She marched off again, and he sighed. "She's really taken to this bringing food home for meals." He toed the pile of—it looked like romaine lettuce. "I'll have to replant most of these. Where did she go?"

"Tomatoes," I said, pointing toward the tall plants, heavy with the bright red globes of the tomatoes.

"At least she can't reach most of them," Jason commented, then brightened. "Oh, she found the cherry tomatoes. That'll keep her busy for a while."

"I'm surprised you didn't take her to the daycare."

"Me too," he said dryly. "I keep thinking that it'll do her good to be contributing to the pack, but I think the positives for her outweigh the negatives for my nerves." He laughed, though, so I didn't think he was too bothered. "I might take her to daycare for the afternoon. After we've had lunch." He paused. "Speaking of, was there something you wanted? Most everything's producing now, you pretty much have your pick."

"I think I'm good, but I might take some of those carrots if you have extra," I said diffidently. I tried not to be pushy, but it was hard sometimes in the face of all this fresh food, so much better than the frozen and canned I'd lived on before.

"Sure." We moved along the row while Jason's nimble fingers ferreted out the best of the sweet, tiny carrots and bundled them for me. "What did you want Mac for?" he asked as he handed them to me.

"Oh." I felt a flush of pleasure rise up my neck and into my cheeks. "Degan's agreed to tear up the mating contract, but he has to go back to Jackson-Jellystone to get it, and he wants to take the pups with him. I'm probably just paranoid, but it makes me anxious."

Jason dusted his hands on his stained jeans and gave me a serious look. "Don't ignore your instincts. If you feel like there's something off in it, there probably is."