Page 103 of Omega's Heart

“I don’t even know what you see in them,” she said with an exasperated look in his direction. “The sex can’t be that good.”

“I wouldn’t know. Felix wants to wait for the mating night.” The tops of the walls were visible now and his grip on the steering wheel tightened painfully. He debated slowing down a bit more but they were already collecting a string of cars behind them.

“So he’s holding out on you until he’s got you well and truly trapped,” she said bitterly.

“No.” Kaden kept his tone even, even though he wanted to yell at her. “He’s been starved for romance. If he wants to wait, I’ll wait. And before you make any assumptions, he’s offered and I’ve said no. I won’t take that from him.” He kicked himself right after he said that, but then was glad that they’d decided to wait. In her current mood, his mother was quite capable of making comments about omega insatiability and how they had no self-control around alphas. When it was Kaden’s self-control that was getting shaky.

“And when he starts having pups? Can you afford that?”

Kaden snorted. “That’s mighty fine talking from someone who had four herself. And isn’t that what he’d be doing in Salma? Sitting at home and having pups?” The mention of pups was distracting, evoking the inevitable images of Felix heavy at the end of pregnancy, majestic as a hundred-year-old oak and far handsomer. With an effort, he yanked his brain—and certain other critical body parts— back onto the path.

“I was Alpha’s Mate,” his mother said cryptically. “And if you were that determined to flaunt our wealth in the faces of the pack, I would make sure you had a position that would let you support an omega properly. Though I’d thought I’d raised you to have more class than that. I suppose he wants three or more pups?”

“More than that. Personally, I think I’d like to have six,” Kaden mused, his frustration making him careless. And maybe a little cruel, but he would rather her displeasure be aimed at him and not Felix. “Maybe seven. I don’t know, we haven’t really set an upper limit on it, but we know we want at least four.”

Her hands curled into balls in her lap and she stared out the window.

The gate came into view, the walls rising ominously beside it. No more time. “Mom, Felix really wants you to like him. He knows what happened with Holland and Bax. I want you to like him too, but I’m well aware that you may be too old now to adapt to what our world is becoming. I’ve made my peace with that. I love you, with all my heart, and I’d give up my other leg to keep you safe. But I will not give him up, because that would be like giving up my heart, and an alpha can’t survive without his heart. So, I’m asking you, for my sake and yours, to try. He’s smart and capable, but his heart is as big and rich as the Moonlands and he will not protect himself from you if he thinks it would make me unhappy.” They pulled to a stop and Kaden plucked their papers down from where he’d stuck them above the sun visor, handing them out with a friendly word for the guards and a quick introduction.

He waited until they were inside the enclave, bumping along the rough road toward the main pack building, to finish what he’d started. “It would make me very unhappy to throw you out a window, but Felix is my heart and I won’t have my heart made unhappy. Understood?”

She never said a word, all the rest of the way to the pack building, where Quin and Felix and Hunter were waiting for them.

Kaden grinned. “By the way, I also have a dog now. His name is Hunter.” Might as well be shot for a sheep as for a lamb.

The expression on her face was priceless. Guess he wasn’t so different from his brothers after all.

C H A P T E R 6 0

I could smell the conflict in Quin’s scent as Kaden’s little car pulled up in front of the building. I knew my own was sharp with anxiety, if only from the way that Hunter kept leaning into me. As if I needed him to hold me up or something.

Maybe I did.

This is stupid. You’re a grown shifter and so is she. And you’ve seen what happens when someone gets on the wrong side of Holland.

Except I couldn’t imagine anyone that would put that kind of tight-lipped ‘I’m refusing to talk about it’ kind of expression on Bax every time her name came up.

Hunter barked when the driver’s door opened but for the first time ever, he didn’t run straight around to beg hugs from Kaden. My betrothed sent me a look of commiseration and rounded the front of the car on one leg to come give me a kiss, then braced himself against the fender so he could crouch down to say hello to Hunter.

“Is she not getting out?” I whispered, only to realize that Quin had stepped over to the car and opened the passenger door. Right, his mother too.

Veronica hugged Quin and said something to him in a low voice that made him chuckle, and then it was my turn to meet the queen.

Kaden stood and put an arm around my waist. “Mom, this is Felix White River. Soon to be Mercy Hills.”

“Mercy Hills?” she snapped, flinging her head up like she’d just scented another alpha on the hunt. “When did you decide to change packs permanently?”

Quin winced and pinched the bridge of his nose, while somehow at the same time shooting daggers at Kaden with his eyes.

Kaden ignored him. “When I got this job working for the senator. Maybe before that. I dunno. I just knew one day. Aren’t you going to come meet your packson?”

“He’s not mated to you yet,” she said, and I could have sworn I heard the sound of her teeth grinding together. I was sure it was all going to the Barrens already when she pulled herself together and, while she didn’t smile or even act particularly welcoming, her, “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” was perfectly civil. I offered her my scent, but I noticed that both Kaden and Quin had to stare her down before she returned the gift. I did my best to be quick and unobtrusive but still felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, and if I’d been in wolf form, my ears would have been pinned back like Hunter’s.

“We should go up,” Quin said when the awkwardness had stretched long enough. “Holland made food and you’ll want to rest before tomorrow.” He popped the hatch on the little car and unloaded Kaden’s chair and his mother’s luggage.

With a wry look, he handed the smaller of the two bags to Kaden.

“Why are you making your brother carry that, after all he’s been through?” she demanded, and I bristled, but meeting Kaden’s eyes I kept my mouth shut. This was between the brothers and her—not my place to interfere.