Page 70 of Omega's Flight

"Are you going to Supplies?" Holland asked.

I stared up at him in bafflement, until I realized he was handing me easy questions to give me something to think about other than my awkward panic. "Oh, no, I came to bring you something. But you have company, I can come back later."

The human stepped forward and smiled at me, the kind of smile you usually saw on grandsires when their grandpups come to visit. "It wouldn't happen to be that marvelous drawing you were working on when I stopped by earlier, would it?"

My cheeks went hot and I ducked my head a little.

"Drawing?" Holland asked. He tipped his head to one side and smiled at me, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Yeah," I said, and licked at my suddenly dry lips. "I did one of Bax, before I came here. I like to draw." I flicked a glance at the human, still watching me like I was a thing he wanted to possess, and inched a little farther behind Holland.

My Alpha's Mate squinted at me, then at the human. After a few moments, he reached behind himself to pat my hand and stepped entirely between me and the human. "Jesse, we've talked about this. The omegas you've met here are not..." He paused, choosing his words. "They're not representative of the whole population." He shot me a look over his shoulder, then put his hand on the human's arm. "Are you still in town tomorrow?"

"I fly out at ten."

"Are you free for breakfast?" Holland turned him gently and pointed him toward the car.

"I can be." Mutch directed a look in my direction. "You really should show him the drawing. And consider my offer."

I nodded and watched him duck inside the car. Holland came back to stand beside me, his arm around my shoulders, and we both waved as the car bumped slowly away from the building.

"Sorry," Holland said quietly. "He's used to being in charge, and at the same time, he's been told all his life that omegas should be in charge. Sometimes I think I can smell his brain short-circuiting."

"What?" The word leaped out of my mouth before I could stop it, but it was such a bizarre thing to say. "Why?"

"Remember what we talked about in the van on the way home from Jackson-Jellystone?" Holland reminded me, with a laugh behind the words. "That was the human who kept the books, and made the trust funds available to us."

Oh. The omega things. "I don't think I want that kind of responsibility."

"I know. And you don't have to take it on if you don't want to. One of the things we want is for our brothers and sisters to be allowed to choose." He put an arm around my waist and steered me toward the door. "Are you busy? Come up for some cocoa."

I wasn't busy, except for having to pick the pups up. "School's almost out."

"I can call down and have them send the pups over here. I'll be feeding mine once they get in, yours might as well come too."

"I don't want to be a bother..." He'd already given me so much.

"You're never a bother. Come on, I have to go retrieve the baby from his sire and let Quin get something done."

"All right." This might be a better way, anyhow, to show Holland the picture and see if he liked it.

Upstairs, we retrieved little Zane from his sire and retreated to the apartment. "I loaned Cas the books you'll need, by the way," Holland told me as he set water on to heat and handed some little crackers over to Zane to gnaw on. "He's going to pass them on to you once he's done with them—I expect you'll have the first one by tonight." He paused and cocked his head at me. "Speaking of—what was it that you brought me?"

"This," I said, and reached inside my coat where it hung on the back of my chair for the rolled up picture. "I had some time this afternoon and..." My voice trailed off as he unrolled it, holding it out to let the sunshine from the living room window land on it.

"This is..." He paused and took a quick, choppy breath. "Raleigh, I've never had anything like this before in my life." He lifted one hand as if he wanted to touch the image, then froze. "I'll smear it if anything touches it, won't I?"

"You might," I admitted. "You like it? Bax liked his, but I want to do one on better paper for him."

"I didn't know you had this much talent. Do you do anything else?" He carefully set the picture down on the table and walked back toward the kitchen, but I noticed that he kept turning his head as if to try to see the picture where it had curled back in on itself. I shouldn't have been so pleased by his approval, except he was my Alpha's Mate and I desperately wanted Mercy Hills to see enough value in me to keep fighting for my pups. Though being able to draw wasn't exactly a useful skill.

"I haven't really had the opportunity to try anything else. I can use colored pencils too, and I did some painting back before I was mated, but I don't have any real training."

He gave me a thoughtful look as he stirred the chocolate powder into the hot water. "How would you like to come into the city with me tomorrow morning?"

Oh. OH. "I... The pups—"

"I'll arrange for the pups. Or you can." He brought the mugs over to the table and set one in front of me. "I have to talk to Mutch. You could still use a few more pounds on you and there's nothing like an uninterrupted breakfast to let you eat your fill. And after I'm done with Mutch, we'll go find someplace to get you proper art supplies."