Page 133 of Omega's Heart

C H A P T E R 7 3

“So, what is this mating hunt thing, anyway?” Kaden asked as they walked away from the only place in White River he wanted to be at the moment. His packbrothers, even the ones related by blood, were a poor substitute for the company of his new mate.

“You don’t do this in Mercy Hills?” Max asked, stunned. “How do you show the families that you’ll look after your omega?”

“I did that last night,” Kaden said dryly, then nearly ruined all his hard-won self-control by meeting Cas’s eyes. He frowned to put a stop to the off-color remark his brother obviously had ready and waiting on the tip of his tongue, if only because it would start him laughing too.

“Not that,” Max protested, turning a shade of surprising pink.

“He means the ceremony and the exchange of tunics,” Quin explained. “Not what came after.”

Was that a...tone...in Quin’s voice? “You both are assholes, you know that?”

“Yep,” Quin said. “Gotta keep you young ‘uns in line.”

“Hey, you’re way older than me,” Cas complained. “Why do I need to keep him in line?”

“It’ll do you good,” Quin said. “And with Pip around, you won’t be young for long.”

Cas looked thoughtful at Quin’s words and, to Kaden’s amusement, slightly crestfallen. Eventually, Cas sighed and draped an arm over Kaden’s shoulders. “Maybe I can get Felix to babysit her. I mean, really—sit on her. It’s about the only thing that might stop her.”

Was that a crack about his mate’s size? He shook Cas’s arm off. “The pups all listen pretty well to him,” he agreed levelly. “They’re going to have to share him next spring, though.”

“Next spring?” Cas’s eyebrows flew up.

Kaden shrugged. “He wants a pup. I figure, why not? It makes him happy and it makes me happy to see him smile.”

“Just pray you don’t get one like Pip,” Cas said fervently.

“You love her,” Kaden reminded him. “Don’t think I didn’t hear about you sneaking out of the house to dig up worms last quarter moon, and what you two did with them.”

“Worth it,” Cas said smugly and then they were at the front door of one of Felix’s cousins. Kaden vaguely remembered Felix saying something about needing credits to fund this, that it was tradition in White River that the alpha’s family provided the materials for the mating breakfast and the omega’s family made the dishes.

“So, we have to wander around the enclave until we’ve picked up everything for breakfast?” Kaden asked. “Won’t it get cold?”

“They’ve got warmers set up at the clearing,” Aston said. “And you need to hunt for your mate. Plus, the family all want to see you.”

“Didn’t they do that last night?” Cas asked in a reasonable tone.

“These are the ones that couldn’t go or weren’t invited. It’s part of the tradition.”

That was true. Felix had been torn between a large mating with half the pack invited, or a smaller, more intimate one. In the end, he’d decided that a crush of relatives was more than he wanted and given the amount of time he’d had to organize this, Kaden thought he’d made the right choice. At the same time, he remembered Felix explaining that the family would want to see him and be certain Felix was mating someone who would take care of him.

The mating hunt was usually half a joke in White River because by the time a couple got to mating, both families were pretty familiar with each other. This time, Kaden thought, it was deadly serious.

At Max’s nod, he took a deep breath and knocked.

The door opened and he was faced with an alpha easily as tall as Felix. “Good morning,” Kaden said evenly, while his nerves thrummed with threat warnings. “We’re here to pick up breakfast.”

“You’re the alpha who mated my cousin?” growled the alpha.

“I am.” Was there something else he was supposed to say, some traditional line that he hadn’t been told about? This was ridiculous.

In the Army, there were two ways he would have dealt with a situation like this, faced with possibly hostile locals and no intelligence—back off and come at it from another angle, or go at it full barrel. He was dealing with an alpha here, so... “Look, I don’t think the omegas will be that long and from what the boys were saying, we have a few houses to hunt from. I don’t want Felix sitting there in the clearing wondering if something’s happened. Are we doing this, or do I pass you by so I can be sure I’m back in enough time that breakfast is ready and waiting for him when he gets there?” Then, under his breath, “Dammit, the man needs his breakfast.”

The alpha’s eyebrows climbed his forehead and for a moment Kaden thought he’d misjudged the situation. Then the man cracked a grin and stepped back. “He’s all right, Myra. Got right up in my face about upsetting our Felix without even a by-your-leave.” He held out a hand and then, when Kaden took it, pulled him in for an exchange of scent. “I’m Gavin. More rightly Felix’s dad’s cousin, but we don’t make too much distinction around here.”

Up close, Kaden could smell the getting-to-be familiar musky odor of marijuana and realized this must have been one of the cousins Felix had mentioned that ran the greenhouses. “Kaden,” he answered by way of introduction, though it wasn’t likely anyone here didn’t know his name.