Page 134 of Omega's Heart

Gavin nodded and yelled over his shoulder again. “Myra, come out and meet Felix’s mate!”

“I’m coming,” shouted a female voice from the back of the building. “I’m just putting the last of the cheese on.”

“She always puts too much in,” Gavin confided. “You might as well come back.” He started to lead the way, then nodded at the hitch in Kaden’s step. “I’ll admit, we were a bit worried when we heard he’d picked someone who’d been hurt in the conflict, but you seem to be handling it pretty well. We love that boy, and it’s been a right sore spot that he had so much trouble finding someone to look past his size.”

Then why didn’t you do something about it? “I’m well able to look after him. I have my pension, I have the pack, and I have work outside walls, so he won’t want for anything.”

“So Felix’s Dad said, but I wanted to see for myself.”

They rounded the corner into a long galley kitchen, where a tall alpha female was hunched over a pair of ceramic dishes filled with eggs and some spiced meat. She was carefully layering wide slices of cheese over the last couple of inches of exposed egg.”They should be broiled a bit before they go, but I think the chafers will melt the cheese enough.” She straightened and looked Kaden up and down. “Well, I can see why Felix fell so hard. You’ll be good to him, won’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kaden said. “I love him. Not too sure myself what he sees in me, I’m just glad he’s finding something there.”

“That’s because you’re neither female nor an omega,” she said with that maddeningly superior tone that Kaden remembered his mother using on occasion. “Here, you can take this one and send one of the boys off with it. Is that Aston I see hiding at the back there? Send him, he could use the work.”

“Myra!” Aston complained.

“Send him?” Kaden asked, intrigued. “What’s this?” He turned to stare at his packbrothers. “Something you didn’t tell me?”

“Well, you’re not going to let it get cold, are you? You need to send it to the clearing after each house.” Myra scolded. She came out with one of the ceramic dishes and shoved it into Aston’s hands. “You Mercy Hills boys won’t know your way around the enclave, but Felix’s brothers do. Here, Max, you can take the other one with you.” She was back in a blink with the second one and Kaden had to bite the inside of his cheek to avoid laughing at their faces.

Felix’s family was even more something than he’d been led to expect.

After Gavin’s and Myra’s, they went to another of Felix’s cousins, then his paternal granduncle’s, and on in what seemed like a never-ending stream of faces and names and houses, until he thought he’d ‘hunted’ enough food for the entire pack.

“Are we done yet?” Cas muttered, echoing Kaden’s sentiments exactly.

“Lysoon, I hope so,” Kaden replied under his breath. The last two houses they’d stopped at, they’d just loaded and gone directly to the next one, until they were all carrying something. It was promising, as were the smells coming from some of the dishes. His stomach growled in eager anticipation.

Max came up to Kaden carrying a basket of fresh biscuits, still steaming and smelling like a little piece of the Moonlands. “Last trip. The omegas should be about done now. Dad says it always takes them longer than they say they’ll be.”

Kaden valiantly refrained from commenting on the fact that they, too, had taken about twice as long as promised to collect all the food and simply said, “Good. I’m starving,” then watched with amusement as Max struggled not to make an off-color comment about why Kaden would be starving. He’d made that mistake once already.

Kaden met Quin’s eyes over Max’s shoulder. Quin looked like he was going to give himself an aneurysm trying not to laugh at Max’s predicament—it was obvious the White River boys hadn’t been raised in a wolf-eat-wolf environment like Kaden and his brothers.

Oh, this family was going to be fun.

C H A P T E R 7 4

K aden accepted a tall mug of coffee from Max, all the while scanning the clearing for any sign that his mate was going to show up for the breakfast. It was out of character for Felix, but Kaden wasn’t entirely sure of what omegas got up to on the morning after their mating—aside from that very satisfying, if all too short encounter after he’d bounced his new packbrothers out of the apartment that morning.

The food steamed away on the tables clustered at the end of the clearing, filling the air with the smell of things that should be currently getting eaten. If only the omegas would arrive.

His stomach growled.

“They’re late,” Quin said.

“They’re omegas,” Max reminded him.

“Holland’s never late. Neither is Bax, for that matter.” Quin frowned and checked his phone again.

Kaden wasn’t going to admit it, but he was starting to wonder if something had gone wrong. An accident? A protest? Felix was convinced he wasn’t likely to be accosted by someone only just now figuring out his worth, but what if Felix was wrong? “I’m going to send him a text. It’s probably nothing.” He repeated the last line silently as he typed out the message.

His reply came back after a short delay that had him pacing the clearing. We’re at my Gram’s. We had trouble with the sheets.

Trouble? Oh, reading the sheets. Nothing bad, is there?

That’s why we’re talking to Gram. There was some argument about it. Then, about thirty seconds later. Gram says you can come over if you want.