Page 75 of Omega's Flight

Cas put Pip down and the little girl stared up at him for a moment as if taking his measure. He wondered uneasily what weaknesses she was seeing that he didn't know about, then she said in a small voice, "Do you not like the jokes, Cas?"

"Pip," Raleigh warned, but Cas held up a hand to tell him it was all right. He crouched in front of Pip and proceeded to steal her nose, which made her let out a tiny giggle despite the worried look on her face.

"Well," he began. "I wouldn't tell them to Garrick. He doesn't have a sense of humor like that. But you can tell them to me. And then I'll steal your nose again." He waved his hand around, and Pip snorted and leaped after his hand, then tried to steal his nose until Raleigh made him put hers back.

"I need them to sleep at some point," he told Cas mock-sternly. "You pups go play in the living room, dinner's almost ready. Are you staying to eat, Cas?"

"Only if it's not a bother."

Raleigh shook his head. "No, not at all." His eye landed on the journal still securely tucked under Cas's arm. "Is that...?"

Cas nodded and held it out. "I have the second one too, but I haven't read it yet."

Raleigh stared at the journal with an expression that resembled someone facing down a snake when they couldn't decide if it was poisonous or not. With an uncertain air, he held out a hand and let Cas put the book in it. "Holland told me some of what's in here."

"How much?" Cas followed him into the kitchen, where Raleigh set the journal up on the top shelf of one of the cupboards, then went back to stirring whatever was in the frying pan on the stove.

"I don't know." Raleigh shrugged and smiled awkwardly at him over his shoulder. "I suppose I'll know after I read it." He picked up a fork and poked at whatever was boiling in the pot at the back of the stove. "I think this is almost done." He paused for a long moment, watching the food cook. "What did you think of it? Does it explain more? Than what Holland says, that is. About what Holland is. About what we all are?” His voice was quiet, almost diffident, but his eyes when he raised them to meet Cas's, were anxious.

Ah, mate of mine. At least, Cas suspected, and he should have felt more indignant at being railroaded by fate, but how could he, faced with this kind of bravery? It would be hard to have your entire identity turned upside down, to feel like you didn't even know yourself. Or maybe what was in the journal was still just an old wolf's tale and not true at all and Cas was just falling for the quiet determination and fierce love of this omega.

But Cosimo has been convincing when he'd described how he'd known Aaron for his and he'd implied that Aaron had felt the same way. I should have asked Quin and Holland when I had them together before. His mind had still been reeling, though, from the revelation of what Holland was.

Although, sitting here in Raleigh's kitchen, he was beginning to doubt that Holland's ability to rifle through another shifter's mind was the most disturbing of the revelations made in that journal.

How did an alpha go about winning a mate who was already mated?

His silence had stretched too long, he was making Raleigh more nervous. "There's a surprising amount of information in it, if you pay attention and read between the lines. It's a journal, he's making some assumptions about what we already know."

"So, like a puzzle with some pieces missing." Raleigh frowned as he stirred the mixture in the frying pan again.

"Something like that."

"Something like law, then." Raleigh's smile was subtle, but when he looked over his shoulder at Cas, his eyes were warm.

Cas laughed. "Can I help you with anything?" Raleigh was smarter than he let on, smarter even than he realized. But that wasn't a surprise—he was, after all, Pip's bearer.

"No, I'm just about done here." Raleigh moved efficiently around the little kitchen, getting down plates and water glasses, laying out forks and spoons. He dished up the meals for everyone before calling the pups in.

Pip ran immediately to the chair beside Cas and climbed up onto it. "Hey, Cas," she began and smiled like he was a cornered rabbit.

A small strangled noise from the direction of Pip's bearer made Cas grin. "Yeah, Pip?"

C H A P T E R 5 3

A patient alpha. How did I manage to luck into one of those? And why did he come around so much—he had packbrothers who were mated, he had to know how omegas worked. I watched as he joked back and forth with my pups, making them laugh—even sober Ann, who often smiled but rarely laughed. He complimented my cooking and complained about his own and I had a momentary thought that he would be a pleasure to cook for.

He even insisted on helping clean up after and conscripted the pups as assistants, so that I was left on the sidelines of my own kitchen while the guest and my pups washed and dried and put everything away.

Henry wandered over to Cas and held his arms out. "Up," he demanded and Cas picked my little boy up and set him on his hip without a second thought.

"Bedtime, Henry," I said gently. "Say goodnight to Cas and then it's time for a story and a cuddle and some very good dreams."

"Noooo," he protested in his little voice.

"I've read a story or two in my time," Cas offered. "Comes with having so many nieces and nephews. You want me to read you a story?" Henry nodded and stuck a finger in his mouth. "You have to promise to go to bed without fussing, and go right to sleep. Can you do that?" Henry nodded again. "Okay, go pick out a story and whatever you wear to bed at night."

"He needs to brush his teeth," I said firmly, dragging everyone back down to earth.