Page 42 of Omega's Flight

The pain drew back slowly, like the way a tree would bend in the wind then slowly straighten itself again, and it carried with it that same sense of hidden strength. I worried that at some point it would break me, because this first contraction had been bad. Now I truly understood why miscarriages were whispered nightmares among male omegas.

I opened my eyes to a low-voiced argument between my four caregivers. "I'm fine. That was pretty uncomfortable."

Bram frowned and opened his mouth, and Adelaide made a noise, the kind you make at pups when you see them contemplating something they know they're not supposed to do. He snapped his mouth shut and wiggled his shoulders like he was settling a shirt or something on them. "I think we should try. What kind of harm can I do?"

"Lots. You don't have near enough anatomy and physiology yet." Adelaide held up a finger and pointed it at Bram. "Don't argue."

Bram tossed his head like a sulky teenager and turned away from her. "Holland?"

What was he asking Holland for? For that matter, what were they talking about? I rolled my head to the side to watch Holland and the debate as it continued to rage.

"You're not considering this?" Adelaide sounded shocked, which worried me.

"I don't know what I'm considering. He's had two courses."

"First year courses! They're just primers, so you know where things are!" Adelaide's lips pulled back from her teeth and I watched as she visibly caught herself and forced them back together. "What if he does something wrong?"

"He can't do worse than I have," Holland said in that dry tone I already recognized, the one that shut down all arguments.

"Holland..." Adelaide growled.

He held up a hand. "I hear you and understand your points." He looked away for a moment, then back to me. "Raleigh, I'm going to tell you something that cannot in any situation leave this room. Do you understand?"

"Should you then? I mean, you hardly know me..." My voice trailed off at his smile and the small shake of his head. "What?" I asked, because this was all very strange.

"It's your heritage too, but it sounds crazy at first. Until you realize it's happened." He paused and reached for my hand. "There aren't many who know about it, except the omegas, and not even all of them. But if we're thinking of trying it out on you, then we owe you an explanation. If you decide not to be a guinea pig, then we'll accept your refusal, but I need to be certain you understand that this is not to be spoken about with anyone who isn't in this room."

I nodded, partly burning curiosity, partly the rising hope that the stories of the True Omega weren't so far off. Could they save my pup, just use their magic and make my womb whole again? "Of course. I'm a good pack member."

"I know. Bax told me." Holland squeezed my hand and took a breath. "Let me explain a little about what an omega is, and isn't. As much as we know, at least."

C H A P T E R 3 0

C as and Quin were sitting on a couple of rickety chairs near the fire talking about plans for the pack in the new year when Abel came back from dropping Bax's things off to him.

"How's it going up there?" Quin asked and held out a bottle of beer for his brother.

Abel grabbed an unattended chair from near the trees and dragged it over beside Quin's. "Thanks," he said as he accepted the bottle. "It's shitty." He took a swig and sighed, eyes closed. "Bax pulled me aside gave me a lecture on omega miscarriages."

"They're different?" Cas asked.

"Not for the women," Abel said, and opened his eyes to stare into the fire. "Not so much, anyway. Bax says omega bodies don't like to give up the babies and they fight it harder than one that isn't omega. Quin, we might be looking for parents to adopt or... I don't know. There's still the sire in this case. Maybe we can offer him a place here, so that Raleigh's pups can stay here like their bearer wanted."

"It's that bad?" Cas asked, startled.

Quin grunted and set his own beer down on the ground beside his chair. "It's riskier, for a male omega. One of the things we're setting up for in the hospital, because we've got so damn many of them." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the flames. "We'll need to find money for a blood bank eventually. I don't think we can afford it yet. We're already using up the entire infrastructure fund for the next five years to put the basic part of the hospital together, let alone the additions we'll need as we get personnel trained."

"We'll figure it out," Abel soothed. "I was thinking the other day, if we sent out a bunch of the young betas and deltas for trades training—you know, carpentry, electrician, plumbing—maybe they could work on the old houses using some of the education money."

Quin drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. "There's still some money in our regular repairs fund. I'd like to see the World War Two houses inspected and upgraded. They're close enough, I've been thinking that we might even be able to run internet out to them now."

"Have you thought about satellite?" Cas asked, intrigued. "Some of the people I went to school with could only get that for Internet."

"Too expensive," Quin grunted, just before Abel said, "I looked at it back when I first took over and the cost was more than it would be to run cables to all the houses."

"Oh," Cas replied, deflated.

"It was a good idea," Quin told him. "I'd rather have the wires, anyway. Better service, and faster, and no need to worry about the weather. At some point, we'll be on a par with the humans." He turned back to Abel. "You want to meet to talk about this education idea?"