Page 76 of Omega's Flight

"Good idea," Cas agreed. He put Henry down on the floor. "Lead the way, Henry."

"Cas, you don't have to."

He raised an eyebrow and grinned at me as he left the room, with my two girls right on his tail. I sighed and shook my head and decided that if he was willing to do it, I wasn't going to fight it. Having help at bedtime was an unexpected luxury. Having all the meal clean-up done and in half its usual time was a second one. Was I being greedy to hope for a third?

If so, then greed was rewarded. All three pups brushed their teeth with Cas, then climbed into Henry's bed, getting an extra story in the process, followed shortly after by a tour of the girls' room for Cas and good nights all around. And while they were busy with that, I'd finished tidying the living room, so there I was at eight in the evening with a clean house and time on my hands.

And the alpha I wished I'd met first sneaking back out of Henry's room after dealing with my baby boy's habitual request for a drink.

"You didn't have to do all that," I told Cas when all the pups' doors were closed.

He shrugged. "The novelty factor. And I've watched Bax and Abel enough with theirs, it wasn't hard to copy."

I thought it had to be more than that, but I let it go. If he didn't want to make a big deal of it, then I wouldn't push him. It did leave me with something of a problem, though—he was here and my daily housework was all done. I didn't want to give him ideas, but some part of me just wanted to pretend, to get out a movie and sit on the couch together to watch it, let the fantasy that it had been Cas I'd mated run just a little longer.

We stood in the living room for a moment, staring at each other while pretending we weren't. I wondered if he could smell the smoke as my brain scrambled desperately to figure out a way to hint at him that he should go. Because that fantasy was dangerous and with the pups' future still up in the air, I didn't dare let any breath of scandal attach itself to me. No more than there already was, anyway. Faithless omega.

"I should go," he said suddenly, as if reading my mind. "I'll bring the second journal over as soon as I'm finished it." He shuffled toward the door, with something in his posture that made me wonder if he was as reluctant to leave as I was to have him leave. "Enjoy your quiet evening."

His smile warmed me, breaking me out of the stalemate of my conflicting desires. "Thank you for bringing it over. And thank you again for all your help tonight."

"No problem," he said. He paused an instant with his hand on the doorknob, then pulled me into a quick hug. "It'll be all right," he murmured, words I barely heard over the panicked beating of my heart. Then, "Too soon?" as he loosed his hold on me.

I was already three steps away across the room before I realized I was shaking. "I'm still mated to Degan," I choked out.

"I know," he said in a voice that could have been designed to calm anxious omegas. "On paper."

I shook my head. Maybe he didn't know? "Not just there."

"Do you love him?" he asked.

Mutely, I shook my head no.

"Then it's the omega bond." A statement, not a question.

I nodded and wished...

"That fades. I have it on good authority." His gaze moved over my body in an almost physical caress, a definite alpha. "I'll leave you to read the journal. It made a lot of things clear to me by the time I was done." He hesitated, his eyes flicking away then back again almost instantaneously. "Call me once you've finished it, okay?"

I nodded agreement and then he was gone and I was alone in my house, my pups asleep, and all I wanted was for him to come back and sit on the couch and talk to me. Remind me that it would be okay.

Boy, when I fucked up, I didn't stop at half-way, did I?

C H A P T E R 5 4

T he next morning, Cas still hadn't stopped kicking himself for jumping so quick the night before. I've probably terrified the poor guy. He wondered if he could convince Holland to take a few minutes out of his schedule and drop in on Raleigh, make sure Cas hadn't screwed everything up. Holland would probably laugh at him, or he might get angry, but it would absolutely be worth the price to know, so he could fix it. If he could. Next time, just don't touch the omega.

Yeah, right. He was smart, just apparently not that smart, because he wanted to do it again. For an instant there, he'd been certain that Raleigh had clung to him, molded against his body as if seeking comfort. And damn it, he wanted to provide that comfort.

Cas also could have sworn that Raleigh hadn't wanted him to leave last night, but he’d made himself leave anyway. He was well aware that Raleigh's sexuality would be tied to Degan for a while. That had come out—unexpectedly—one evening while he and Quin had been strategizing that phone call they'd made to Jackson-Jellystone. Cas had thought it was a myth. Might be for the best anyway. He needs time to figure out who he is, without thinking he needs to be what I want.

He could wait. Abel and Quin had both taken on a new relationship and someone else's pups and they'd both been pretty successful, as far as he could tell. And neither of them had been in a rush.

Stop obsessing, wolf, and get some work done.

Garrick blew through the door like a small hurricane and slammed his briefcase onto the desk so hard the catch gave and his files spilled out in a wave, sliding across the desk and onto the floor on the other side of the room.

"Whoah, what happened?" Cas asked, and knelt to gather up the paperwork.