Page 31 of Omega's Flight

Holland helped me sit up again while Adelaide was putting her things away. "You better? Still want your ice cubes?"

I nodded and gratefully accepted the plastic tumbler. "Thank you." I picked one out and put it in my mouth, sighing as the cool wetness spread over the tackiness inside. Swallowing was a bit nerve-wracking, but maybe the amount of water was small enough that my stomach didn't notice it. Whatever the reason, I was finally able to relax a little and when Adelaide started speaking, there was enough of my brain available to actually listen to her.

"So," she began in a friendly, reassuring tone. "I'd guess you're having some stress right now and that's upset everything. Not uncommon, and combined with the fact that you're right on the mark for puppy sickness, that's likely what it is. You're too thin to let this go on for much longer though. I have a couple of different things I can give you to take that will make the nausea a little easier to bear and that are safe while you're pregnant, but they aren't as effective for shifters as they are for humans. So, my advice is to take it easy, eat things that aren't spicy and that are easy on the stomach. Get lots of rest, lots of sleep. But before I let you go, I'd like to try the ultrasound machine on you, just to make sure everything's fine down there."

An ultrasound. I'd agreed to it before, because it felt to me like anything the humans kept for themselves had to be a good thing. But what information could she see with it? And would I want to know? Because I was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this. Instinctively, I put a hand over my belly where my fourth pup was busy growing and tried not to think of all the things that could happen.

"It's worth the trouble," Bax said from the doorway. "She's done one on me. Later on, we can tell if the baby will be a boy or a girl." He grinned and came closer to crouch beside me. "It'll make picking names a lot easier."

I wasn't feeling very humorous, but that did make me laugh. "Okay." I looked up at Adelaide. "I'll do it."

C H A P T E R 2 3

C as hung out in the hallway outside the bathroom. The horrible retching had stopped and he was half-listening to the conversation inside while he browsed his phone. He probably could have left, but something about the situation was keeping him there.

No, something about that omega, white-faced and sick and still doing his damnedest not to be a bother to anyone. Which was ridiculous, but having gotten to know his packbrothers, he understood that was the norm in most other packs.

So he stayed, in case they needed help.

Bax stepped out into the hallway. "We're going to take him downstairs for an ultrasound." He touched Cas's arm and ushered him down the hall and into the living room. "I think she's worried there's something wrong."

Cas glanced in the direction of the bathroom. "I thought this was normal."

Bax shook his head. "Not like this. Jason had some trouble with his first but Seb was fine. Bram's was bad, but he was carrying twins and we're not made for twins. It's not just the nausea that's causing the problem here."

"You want a hand getting him down there?" Adelaide had mentioned a stretcher, between them they could carry Raleigh down.

"We'll see. You'll stick around?"

Cas nodded and Bax disappeared up the hallway again.

There wasn't much he could do, so he paced around the living room. He didn't often act like an alpha, he knew, but he was one and part of being an alpha was a bone-deep drive to care for the pack. That his skills were useless here made him restless. So he paced to keep himself from shoving through that door and trying to fix things.

"Cas," Holland's voice echoed down the hall.

Cas came around the corner to see Holland standing in the hallway, his phone in his hand. "Adelaide's going to see if she can get someone to call in a prescription for him and we'll send someone from Security to pick it up. Can you give us a hand to get him down to the clinic?" He stopped and turned back to the bathroom. "You okay to try to head downstairs?"

"I'm fine," came Raleigh's reply. He sounded exhausted.

Cas put his phone away and moved to lean against the bathroom door. "What am I doing?" he asked as congenially as he could.

"I can walk," Raleigh complained.

"I know," Bax told him. "We're back-up, just in case. Want a hand up though?"

From the look on Raleigh's face, he was going to say no, but then his eyes flickered with a pensive expression and his shoulders sagged a little. "Yeah, maybe." He let out a breath and squinted up at them all. "I didn't mean to be this much trouble."

Bax grinned. "It's hard to resist Midwinter Moon food. Fan and one of his friends literally ate themselves sick last year."

Raleigh's eyes widened, and Cas could almost see the question in them.

Apparently, so had Bax. "Oh, I knew they were doing it. Fan's his own kind of stubborn and sometimes he needs to experience the consequences before he realizes that maybe ol' Dabi does actually know something. And to give credit where credit is due, he apologized after and offered to sweep the floors for a week to make up for the mess he'd made."

Cas put up a hand to hide his grin, but Bax and Holland didn't bother, and eventually Raleigh's mouth curled in shared amusement and he held his hands out. "Okay, I'll admit that Dabi maybe knows something. Help me up."

That was Cas's cue—he stepped forward and he and Holland each took a hand, pulling Raleigh smoothly to his feet. Raleigh's face went a shade whiter and his eyes wandered for a moment, unfocused, then fixed on Cas's face.

"I'm ruining your Full Moon," he said apologetically.