Page 115 of Omega's Heart

“Once we’re mated, I’ll rub whatever you want,” I promised, still feeling a little awkward when I said these sorts of things. I’d never really had the opportunity to flirt for real before; Kaden had opened whole new worlds for me.

“I’m going to hold you to that promise, betrothed,” he said, laughing. “Okay, off to bed with the pup. You and I have things to talk about.”

“Things?” I asked as I pushed on Hunter’s shoulder until he got the hint and jumped down to the floor. “What things? And I have to take him out to pee.”

“We can talk on the way down.”

“All right.” No more flirting, I guessed. It was probably about his mother. She must have called him to complain; I wondered what she’d said.

I shoved my feet into my shoes while Hunter grabbed my keys and then we headed out. He’d already figured out how to push the button beside the elevator door, but it was even odds we’d be stopping at half the floors in the building on our way down if I let him push the one inside the elevator.

I narrated the whole process for Kaden anyway because I was just so proud of him.

“He’s going to make a good big brother,” Kaden observed.

“Yeah.” I chewed my lip and watched the floor indicator change as Hunter and I descended to the main floor. “Do you think Harris will really want him back when he moves here?”

“I thought you liked him? Do you not want to keep him?”

“No, I do! But, I mean, he was Harris’s pup first…” My voice trailed off as I tried to find the words to express the weirdly possessive love I now felt for this odd adopted pup of mine.

“And he was looking for a home for him because he cared about him. Relax, Felix, no one’s going to take your pup from you. I promise.”

Now I felt silly. Silly, awkward omega. “Yeah, okay. I’m sorry. I know he’s just a dog. I’m being ridiculous.”

“I’ve hurt you.”

I sighed. “No, you didn’t. I’m just nerved up, I think, before the mating.”

“And I left you there with my mother.”

“Did she call you?”

“She did. I haven’t called her back. I wanted to see how you were.”

“I’m fine.”

“Felix,” he said in a tone of warning.

“No, really, I’m fine. We had some words this evening, which is probably why she called you.”

“Don’t let her run you over.”

“I’m not. It’s just…hard.” It was. Harder than I’d expected. I guess I’d never really realized that in White River we omegas still got some modicum of respect as shifters. She didn’t seem to have any for me. I wasn’t an alpha, and I wasn’t what she saw as an acceptable omega. My dreams of having a relationship with my packmother that was as close as the one I had with my mother were lying tattered on the floor, like an old shoe sacrificed to a teething pup to keep it from wrecking the furniture. “You know that I want her to like me, right?”

“I know. I want her to like you too. And I’m hoping that we’ll get there someday. She’s going to have to learn that she can’t order everything to her liking like she was still Alpha’s Mate or she’s going to be a lonely old alpha.”

Huh. I hadn’t thought he saw it quite like that but it made perfect sense, and some until-now unnoticed knot of anxiety in my stomach unrolled itself and toddled off, like a hedgehog going off to nap in someone else’s garden. But that Kaden was seeing the same future that I was made me kind of sad. As unpleasant as I was finding her company, I didn’t like to think that Veronica might nag her way right out of the very future she was trying to assure.

The elevator door opened and Hunter dashed out, skittering on the tile floor as he almost but not quite successfully made the turn toward the front doors. I winced as he ran into the door to the laundry room, but he just picked himself up and raced for the front door.

I heard Kaden snort. “Did he run into the door again?”

“Slid into it. He might have a career in baseball ahead of him.” I watched Hunter dance in front of the plate glass. “I think he thinks we’re going out to play.”

“I usually throw a stick for him when I take him out at night. It helps him sleep,” Kaden confessed.

“Ah, that was your trick.” I hadn’t been sure that would work with Hunter—in some ways he was just like any other pup. In others, he was completely incomprehensible to me. If I played with a pup right before bedtime, I’d never get to them to sleep—years of babysitting had taught me that. But if it worked for Kaden… “Hang on, Hunter. I’m coming!” There were some younger pack members walking toward the door, a group of three. No one had ever bothered Hunter when he’d been out with me or with Kaden, but he was twenty feet away from me right now, in a very dimly lit lobby.