Page 149 of Omega's Heart

It turned out to be Jason, holding a basket filled with fresh vegetables. I opened the door for him. “Come in.”

“Did they not send anyone else down to help you?” he said when he realized there was no one else in the apartment.

“It’s not that big a place.” I cleared a spot on the table for him to set down the basket. “This was nice of you. Thank you.”

“Mac and the pups are bringing the rest in,” he said. “Sorry you had to give up your apartment for this. That must have been hard.” His eyes drifted to Hunter, then back to me. “You don’t have to give him up, you know. Kaden is the Alpha’s brother.”

Now, where had he heard that I was worried about Hunter? But as soon as I thought that, I realized that Kaden knew, and Kaden had likely spoken to Holland, who would have talked to Bax, who was as thick as thieves with Jason. Communication by omega.

I shook my head. “All the more reason not to ask Quin to make a ruling. This is for the good of the pack, which means I have to be an adult and deal with whatever happens.”

Jason made a face. “Makes me happier than ever that I didn’t end up mated to Abel after all. I like being a peon.”

“Mated to Abel?” I demanded in surprise. “When was this?”

“When I first landed here,” he grinned. The door banged open behind him and we winced in unison. “My family,” Jason muttered and smiled ruefully. “Don’t bring the building down around our ears,” he called toward the front of the apartment.

A little boy’s laughter filled the air and then a small, rapidly-moving bundle of legs and arms rocketed through from the living room and ran straight into Jason’s legs. “Da’s bringing boxes.”

Jason leaned down and ruffled the boy’s curly brown hair. “I know. I left them for him.” He smiled up at Felix. “That’s my boy. Say hi, Seb.”

The little boy grinned. “Hi, Felix!”

“Can someone get the door?” a man’s voice, slightly muffled, called from the front of the apartment.

“Did you close the door on your Da? Run open the door again, okay?” Jason said and shooed the little boy back out of the kitchen. “Come on, I’ll help you empty these boxes out.”

We started filling the refrigerator and moving the contents of the boxes into the cupboards. Jason’s mate, Mac, came into the kitchen, trailed by their daughter Macy, a little red-haired girl with her bearer’s curls and the cocky strut of an alpha. “You sure you don’t need me?” Mac asked, setting his stack of boxes on the table. His gaze swept the room, taking in the mess.

“No, we’re good. But thank you.” Jason pointed their daughter toward the bathroom with her box, then kissed the corner of his mate’s mouth. “You three go have fun. I’ll be along soon.”

Mac shook his head. “Stubborn omegas. What am I going to do with you?”

Jason laughed. “Do as I say, stubborn alpha. And go have fun. This won’t take us long.”

“All right.” Mac hugged him quickly, then corralled the pups. “No, Seb, Hunter can’t come with us.”

“But it’s a dog movie! It’s his people!”

“He needs to stay with Felix.” Mac shot him a rueful grin, then pushed his pups out the door.

“Do you want him to take Hunter?” Jason asked. “I can grab him before they’re gone.”

“No.” I swallowed hard. “I think he should be here when they arrive, you know?”

“Yeah,” Jason said softly. “I guess. Bax says he’s really settled in with you.”

“I know it makes us look weird,” I told him as I started opening cupboards to put away the dry goods I’d picked out so their kitchen wouldn’t be empty when they arrived.

“A little, I guess. Not to me, but I spent a quarter of my life pretending I was human. Pets are normal out there.” Jason emptied out another box and started to break them down, careful not to bend the cardboard. “I don’t know. Holland asked me if I’d be interested in helping humans that are willing to come work in the enclave, help them learn how to get along. I don’t really want to, though.”

“You already do so much.” His gardens were huge, much bigger than I’d expected, and there were smaller ones tucked into every corner of the enclave that he looked after as well, all growing like they were trying to take over all the space inside walls. Dad had tried to recruit him already to work in the greenhouses in White River, but so far hadn’t been successful. I was glad of it—I liked Jason. He was a homebody, like me, more interested in his family and his pups than in the trail-breaking that the rest of the omegas seemed to be determined on.

“I’m the logical one. I mean, I lived out there. I have some idea where they’re coming from. But any of the ex-military guys would be just as good, I’d think.” He emptied out the last three of the boxes, piling things haphazardly on the counter and the table.

He didn’t seem happy talking about the idea, so I changed the topic back to something I was more curious about anyway. “So, you were betrothed to Bax’s mate at one point?”

Jason laughed. “I was, sort of. Except neither of us wanted each other, but I was determined to settle down and have a safe place to live. So I made a deal with him to stay here and mate him, so my birth pack couldn’t take me back. Except he kept throwing Mac at me until it stuck, and well—here we are.”