Page 145 of Omega's Heart

It was a shame. I liked it here, with the warm weather and the smell of green growing things, a hint of the ocean underneath it all. I liked meeting the packmembers, finding out how they lived their lives.

With Kaden’s enthusiastic approval, I spent most of our stay there exploring the shops on the pretext that I wanted to pick up a few little gifts, but mostly to meet and talk to the shifters in the pack without it seeming like an interrogation. We were an excellent team--while Kaden sat with the Alpha and talked numbers and projections and plans, I wandered about the enclave and, well, snooped.

I was a bit shocked to learn that only about ten percent of the pack was responsible for supporting essentially the entire population of Los Padres. In Mercy Hills, it was about forty, maybe a little more, between Abel’s software company, the solar panels, and the many other smaller businesses. It was expected that everyone did something to contribute to the pack, by working outside walls if they could, or by doing things that maintained the pack and allowed the ones that could bring in human money to do so.

In Los Padres, the shops at the front of the enclave were the primary income generator for the pack, but there were only relatively few of the pack who could work there. The rest lived off the stipend provided by the pack. It didn’t seem to be a bad life. If anything, I would call it a life of relaxed comfort. Not luxury, though I guessed that their stipend was probably higher here than it was in Mercy Hills. But the sense of industry that floated over both Mercy Hills and White River was entirely missing in Los Padres.

Violetta had done her best to keep me from wandering away from the approved areas, but I’d managed to slip away from her a couple of times. She probably suspected what I was up to, but I borrowed a little from Bax and from Julius and played like I’d just gotten distracted. I didn’t think I could pull off the barely two thoughts to rub together act, but I managed to leave her confused enough that she didn’t challenge me on my adventures.

When Kaden and I got together in the evening, we compared what he’d been told by the Alpha and what I’d found out in my wanderings. I left him frowning over it while I hung up our clothes and got ready for bed, then chased him into the bathroom to get ready himself.

Later, as we were curled up together and I was absent-mindedly tracing the shape of his chest with my fingertips, we talked about it.

“Magnar talks about a hospital, about training, about buying more land so they can spread out and be more independent with respect to food,” Kaden murmured, his lips brushing against my forehead.

“I wonder how that would go over with the ordinary packmember?” I mused. My fingers hit that wide, slick patch of skin under his left arm and I pulled back—some of his nerves around there were kicking up a fuss and it made the skin uncomfortably sensitive around the edges of that wound. “They seem really comfortable. Too comfortable.”

“You think they wouldn’t want the change?”

“No, I don’t think they’d be against it. But, other than the ones working in the front of the enclave, they don’t seem to mind this.” I propped my chin up on the right side of his chest so I could look at him. “They don’t feel very wolf-like, once you get four or five streets in. That doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t jump up and run with it if it was offered. They might just be numb because there really is very little to be done here.”

“Interesting.” His fingers ran over my shoulder, thumb stroking the top of my spine. “So, not necessarily a bad choice, but possibly not the big impact that we’re looking for.”

“I can find out more tomorrow.”

“Whatever you can.” He gave a contented sigh and chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded.

“I just remembered something Quin said that day at the White House when all this landed on my lap. He was watching Holland and Bax talking to the other guests—you know what they’re like.”

I nodded, because I did. “And?”

“He called them stealth omegas. I thought he was being funny at the time.” He kissed me again, right on my hairline. “You’re pretty stealthy yourself, you know that?”

“Just trying to be a good mate.”

“Succeeding pretty well in my books.” He drew a deep breath. “You smell good. What’s that?”

I flushed, but I was pleased nonetheless. “Eryk, the omega at the perfume place that I told you about? He made me a scent just for me. He called it Omega Sky. Do you like it?”

Kaden burrowed down in the bed and got his nose behind my ear. “He must be talented. It doesn’t smell like you, but I’d never mistake it for anyone else’s scent.”

“But do you like it?” I demanded.

“I do. But you know you don’t need to wear scent for me.”

“I know. But it was a gift and it does smell good.”

He sniffed me again, the tip of his nose tickling my neck. “Wear it as much as you want. Holland will be jealous.”

“I bought something to bring back for him, but it won’t be personalized like this. Eryk actually scented me before he started to make it.”

“Did he?” Kaden leaned back to stare at me in surprise.

I nodded, excited to tell him about this. I’d found it so interesting. “He does this for humans too, and the pack charges a lot for it. They sell the perfume online, and soap and bath salts and other things, all based on the scents that they come up with. But he’s the only one that does these custom ones.”

“Interesting. That puts a different weight on their case for the trust.” He let out a heavy breath.