Page 151 of Omega's Heart

Though tonight, Kaden was just as happy to have an hour free of that particular distraction.

He made sure to goose Felix firmly as soon as they were out of the car and chuckled wickedly when his mate jumped and scolded him. “There’s more of that waiting for you upstairs,” he said and even he felt the alpha thrum in his voice as he pulled Felix against him. “And we have a whole hour without an audience.”

“Then what are you waiting for, Kaden?” Felix asked, amused. His eyes shone in the last of the sun’s light, his hands sure as they glided over Kaden’s shoulders and down his back.

“I should have parked the car in front of the building and to the Barrens with anyone who complained,” Kaden growled after he’d kissed his mate firmly into submission. “Come with me.” He took Felix’s hand and led him back to their home.

C H A P T E R 8 2

K aden’s second trip to Washington in the senator’s staff came not too far into November. It was a nearly exact replay of the first one, a week-long whirlwind of faces and names and questions about his service and what he was doing for the senator, all while he did his best to look less like a shifter and more like an over-worked civil servant. It wasn’t even that much of a lie—in the office he sometimes didn’t feel like pack at all. It was only when he came home to Felix that he felt like himself again.

Protective coloration at its finest.

Crammed into a corner of the senator’s Washington office with one of the secretaries, he took advantage of a short break in their schedule to get some more work done. A bit of rummaging found him a highlighter, but when he uncapped it and ran it over a passage he wanted to put a spotlight on, the color that came out was almost as pale as the paper. He frowned at it, then launched it in the general direction of the garbage can and gave himself a mental pat on the back when he heard it clunk inside. All those hours tossing rocks at someone’s helmet overseas were finally paying off in a reasonably useful skill. Now, if only he could monetize it.

A knock interrupted his search for a newer highlighter and he looked up to see David Acosta, who had something to do with press liaison, in his doorway. “Have you seen the file for the new pesticide law? The senator wants it.”

“I think Paul has it,” Kaden told him. “Tell the senator I’ll have the brief for him on the hospital wait times by the end of the day.” There wasn’t much left to go into it—he probably wasn’t talking from his tail.

Kaden lost track of David when his hand landed on the barrel of another highlighter and he went back to picking out the gold from the pyrite in the research before him.

He’d just uncapped the highlighter when his phone rang and he let it drop in exasperation. Honestly, he hadn’t expected to get any phone calls at all when he took this job, but it seemed that the novelty of his shifter status had worn off. John had told him just the other day that one of the other senators had referred to him as ‘that furry fellow who gets shit done’. Which was, Kaden guessed, a sort of compliment.

Didn’t make the constant interruptions any less irritating. “Hello?” he about barked into the receiver.

“Bad day?” Felix’s voice reverberated pleasantly against his eardrum. “I can call later.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I wasn’t expecting to get this much attention here, is all. How are you doing?”

“Wellll,” Felix drew out the word. “How hard would it be to get the next couple of days off?”

It was Thursday afternoon—what did his schedule look like? “Are you...?” Kaden murmured, unable to even say the words for fear of jinxing them.

“Pretty sure I am,” Felix said with satisfaction. “So, if you can’t get away now, what about tomorrow?”

Kaden shook his mouse to wake up the computer and clicked frantically to bring up his schedule for tomorrow. “I’ll have to see.” He gritted his teeth and reminded his heart not to explode. “How long do we have?”

“Four days? I’m sure it’ll be fine if all you can manage is the weekend.” But the disappointment in his mate’s voice matched the disappointment currently souring Kaden’s mood.

“Can I call you back?” Kaden asked gently. “Soon as I can talk to the senator?”

“Yeah.” The line went quiet, then Felix said, “I love you. If it doesn’t work this time, there’s another chance.”

He meant his second heat. And knowing when this one had come, it would be easier to plan for the next one. Except Kaden didn’t want to wait. “No, I’ll get home. Don’t worry about it.” And in a soft, soppy voice that he tried not to pull out when he was in the office, Kaden told his mate, “I love you too. And we’re going to have a pup in the spring.”

They hung up and Kaden tidied away all his sources, packing his folders into his briefcase and locking it, the old Army habits just as useful here as they’d been overseas.

A young woman with dark curly hair and a square face manned the desk outside the politician’s office—his Washington secretary. “Is he busy?” Kaden asked quietly. “I just need a minute.”

“Yes, he is,” she said, folding papers and stuffing envelopes without missing a beat as she spoke. “You can either have a seat,” she gestured at one of the hard chairs against the wall across from her desk, “Or come back in ten minutes. I’ll let him know you’re looking for him.” She smiled professionally but with more warmth than she showed to the general public, so Kaden guessed it was just her demeanor as the person who guarded access to a man in a position of importance.

“I’ll wait.” He didn’t want to leave and lose his opening.

Kaden took one of the chairs, leaning back and closing his eyes. He tried drawing on his wolf to see if he could listen in on the office but it was his left ear that was closest to the door and that ear wasn’t much use even with the hearing aid.

A sharp thunking noise from the direction of the secretary’s desk made him open his eyes again. She wrapped the now neatly stacked envelopes in an elastic and put them in a basket to be picked up with the rest of the mail, then smiled over at him when she saw him watching. “How are you finding Washington?”

“Busy,” he said. “Louder than home.”