Page 68 of Omega's Flight

"Don't we all." Cas kneeled beside him. "What does it look like?"

"No, wait, I found it!" Bax held up a small composition notebook with a blue cover. "And here's the other one." This one had a black cover, speckled over with white and just the word TWO written on it in black marker. "The blue one is the first one in the series. The black one, we... well, it took me a while to figure out who had it.” His knuckles went white, like he was afraid someone would snatch the book from him. "There's a third and a fourth. Entries get farther and farther apart by the time you get to the last one and it's not nearly as useful. I keep hoping there'll be more, but I haven't heard anything." He shook his head and handed them over. "When you're done, you can give them to Raleigh."

"Have Quin and Abel read them?" They must have.

Bax confirmed his guess. "Once we read them, we realized that this information was going to have to come out. At least to the Alpha. And Abel used to be one." He squinted up at Cas. "Just, don't tell anyone what's in these yet. And make sure Raleigh understands that too, okay? I know Holland talked to him about it, but we haven't really decided how far to spread the information yet. Just the omega council for the moment, and their mates. A few other people, like Adelaide.”

"I can do that. Lawyer-client privilege, right?" Cas got to his feet and reached out to help Bax up.

"Thanks." Bax gripped Cas's offered hand and let himself be pulled back to his feet. "I need to get back to work. What are your plans for the day?"

Cas held the journals up and wiggled them. "I think I have some reading to catch up on."

Bax let out a crack of laughter. "Enjoy yourself. And if you have any questions, you can text me or Holland and we'll do our best to answer them."

"Will do." Cas tossed him a salute, then made his escape before Bax changed his mind and put Cas to work.

THE ELEVATOR DOORS SLID CLOSED AND CAS' S FINGER HOVERED FOR A MOMENT OVER THE BUTTON FOR the lobby, then rose to punch the one for the tenth floor. He was a fucking white knight, is what he was. Holland better answer all his questions for this.

It wasn't hard at all to track down Holland when the doors opened. The omega's voice echoed down the empty hallway, and it wasn't happy.

"We want a hospital. We are going to have a hospital. Adelaide got lucky with Raleigh, but the next one we might not."

Cas rounded the corner to see Holland and Mutch in a standoff, the table with the plans for the hospital laid out on it a barrier between them.

"I don't see what good a hospital will do without people to staff it," Mutch said in a tight voice. "Unless you've got a pack of trained humans in your back pocket."

"I don't. You know that. But we have Adelaide and Bram, and Cale is starting courses for pre-med this summer."

"Cale's going to med school?" Cas blurted, startled out of concealment.

The other two spun to stare at him. "When did you get here?" Holland demanded.

"About a minute ago. Don't let me stop you," Cas said airily and waved his hand in the air like the argument wasn't important. "Tell me more about Cale going to be a doctor."

Holland's mouth tightened for a moment, then he laughed and shook his head. "You could have knocked Quin over with a leaf when Cale made his announcement. He's going to do a few courses distance over the summer, maybe all his electives, then we'll see what happens after that. He's being stubborn."

"I can put in a word for him," Mutch offered. "But it's still seven years, even if he passes the MCAT the first time."

"Oh," Cas said casually. "He'll pass the first time. You don't need to worry about that. Once he's got something in his teeth, he keeps gnawing until there's nothing left but bone."

Holland nodded in agreement, then seemed to realize that he had a chance to get Mutch away from the plans. "Except he wants to go to Harvard, and they don't have much of a history of accepting shifters." And Cas heard the unspoken, I don't want him that far away and on his own.

"Is it that, or that you couldn't afford it before?" Mutch asked. "That can be fixed, you know. You have the funding." The man was sharp, for a human, even if he did sometimes stomp on people's tails when he went about something.

"We can send two or even three to local schools on the money it would cost us to send him to Harvard," Holland said dismissively. "You were just complaining about how we were squandering resources building the hospital right now. Sending Cale to Harvard would be easily as bad."

"It sets a good example," Mutch said firmly.

"It sets an expensive example," Holland replied, just as firmly.

Cas watched the two argue like a man at a tennis match. He thought he might have a solution, but he wasn't going to undermine his Alpha's Mate in front of the human. Time enough to talk about that later. He cleared his throat and made as if to leave.

"Oh, did you talk to Bax?" Holland asked suddenly.

"Got 'em," he said and nodded. "Thought I'd stop by and see when you wanted to meet." An open-ended question, knowing his packbrother would recognize the opportunity to steer his conversation with Mutch in whatever direction he needed it to go.

"To talk about Raleigh? Probably soon. We're going to have to tell them at some point that we're not giving any of them back."