Page 109 of Omega's Heart

“You know I can’t go with you,” I reminded him.

Despite my cheerful words, I wanted to go so, so badly. The past three days had been…not good. And Kaden was going to Honisloonz today and it had been eating at him as much as his mother’s eternal nit-picking was starting to eat at me.

I got it, I understood. She’d wanted him to mate an alpha, someone who had connections of their own, who could smooth his path to power. And I’d come to believe that what was really at the heart of all her snapping and growling was that she was used to having power, and she was watching it trickle away, like water spilled on fresh-tilled earth. Kaden agreed with me but said that when he’d tried to speak to her about it, she’d gotten snappy and refused to talk. It made him frustrated with her, but me—well, it made me sad, a little. It didn’t excuse anything, because she was still young enough to change, in my opinion, but it did make me a little less sharp with her when she got on my tail about things.

Kaden wasn’t giving up. “Are you telling me you don’t want out of here? Just a little bit?”

I frowned and shook my head at him, but couldn’t stop the smile from curling my lips. “What would we do with Hunter? We can’t take him on the plane, they want him to ride in a crate.”

“Leave him with Pip,” my alpha said shamelessly, with only a glance for our adopted pup beside me.

“I’m leaving to drive over tomorrow with Bax and Abel anyway.” I crouched down beside the car so I could press a kiss to the back of his hand. “You’ll take care of yourself, won’t you?” I rubbed my cheek over his skin and let my lips part just enough that I could pull his scent into my mouth and taste him.

“I always land on my feet, you know that,” he deadpanned.

I choked on a laugh. “My poor family.” I glanced up and saw Veronica waiting in the doorway of the building like an eager thundercloud and sighed. “Your mom wants to say goodbye too.” I leaned in and kissed him. “See you in two days,” I whispered and smiled for him because I didn’t want him to see how unhappy I was that he’d had to leave so suddenly. But it was his job to go talk to the packs. Not just on behalf of the senator, but to gather information for Holland and the other omegas for the spring, when they’d have to sit down and decide which pack would be the next to get that human money that was doing so much good here.

Which meant I hadn’t fussed when Honisloonz had called, supposedly to congratulate Kaden and me on our upcoming mating, but also, Kaden said, fishing for information about the rumors already floating around about the senator and his plans.

So I’d told him to go. It was important, and this was what our lives would be like once we were mated. An omega’s role was to support their mate, not criticize them.

Besides, Kaden had later pulled me aside to apologize profusely—and effectively—for the entire evening.

Not that I would have stood in his way, though an evening at the little pond with a bottle of wine and a box of ripe cherries drizzled in chocolate made it easier to forget, at least for a while. And by the time our romantic getaway had finished, most of the sting had gone out of his news.

But it made my ruff stand on end—or would have if I’d been in wolf form—to move aside and let Veronica take a crack at him before he left. “Come on, Hunter. You want to go to the playground for a bit?” I was already tired of her subtle jabs, and the not-so-subtle ones.

She gave Hunter her usual appalled glance as she took my place at the driver’s door. Kaden widened his eyes and threw me a pitiful look. I raised my eyebrows at my future mate and let the tiniest of grins sneak out. Your mother, your problem.

Kaden’s expression shifted briefly to resigned, but by the time he’d turned his face up to his mother’s he looked like the epitome of filial piety.

“Come on, Hunter,” I said quietly. “You want to go on the slide?”

Hunter barked in excitement. The sharp noise made Veronica twitch, and I cast one last longing look back at the car before Hunter and I turned toward the playground and the pack of shrieking pups already racing in our direction.

We had a good romp with the pups on the playground. They knew me and they’d come to know Hunter. It was an unspoken rule that only I or a couple of the older pups were allowed to help Hunter up the ladder that led to the top of the slide, so the rest of them would stand at the top or around the bottom and cheer my odd little pup on as he made the climb, then came sliding gleefully down the slick slope only to race around to the back to get in line for another turn.

I hadn’t expected this when I’d taken him in. I hadn’t expected to grow to love him as a pup of my own. It made me sad that we might only have him until summer, when Harris would be back to take him. But until then, I would give him all the opportunities to be normal that I would give a pup of my body.

So we played on the playground now that I’d taught the pups how to act with him. In his turn, he’d gotten more comfortable with the pups, which meant playdates through the week and storytime at the library, pups invited for meals or picnics in the park. He’d had two sleepovers at Pip’s, because I’d never seen his PTSD flare up while he was with her—we were working on a sleepover at Bax’s, but he wasn’t quite ready for that yet. We fought over his dislike of Brussels sprouts—which I blamed on Kaden, who only looked smug when I accused him of influencing our pup.

Though Kaden never said no to my bacon roasted sprouts.

Neither did Hunter, come to think of it.

Alphas, both of them. I had my hands full.

I was, I thought, the happiest I’d ever been in my life.

We came back to the apartment at suppertime tired and mostly carefree, though I could feel Kaden’s absence like an actual hole in my life. I was discussing meal options with Hunter as I unlocked the apartment when Kaden’s door opened and Veronica stepped out into the hall.

“Hello, ma’am,” I said politely, and pushed the door open so Hunter could go in ahead of me.

“We should talk.”

I didn’t want to talk to her. I wanted to go into my apartment, feed my pup, and then relax and pack for the drive to White River tomorrow. But Veronica was coming with us in the van and that was a long drive with the two of us at each others’ throats. “What about?” I asked, keeping my tone light. I put my back to the frame of the door and settled in. I wasn’t going to escalate things, but I also wasn’t going to lock myself in either apartment with her.

“Let’s go inside,” she said, taking a half step back into Kaden’s apartment.