Page 167 of Omega's Heart

Adam frowned and tapped a pen against the pad of paper. “We’ll have to see about that. Not sure we can find you a place that will allow a dog.”

“He’s a former bomb dog. We were fostering him, and Felix couldn’t let him go in the end.”

“Can you find someone to look after him if you can’t bring him with you?”

“Don’t know. Probably. I think Felix would prefer not to, and honestly, given his history, we’d rather not disrupt his schedule. He came back home in worse shape than I did. Mentally.”

“Will he be safe to be around? You’ll be sharing this place.”

“He’s gotten a lot better since he came to live with us. I wouldn’t say he’s a hundred percent, but I’m comfortable leaving him with my mate.”

“I’ll talk to John.”

Their server came with their breakfasts and they fell to eating. In between bites, they discussed the current business of the office and the issues around medical resources for the packs.

As they walked out after they’d finished eating, Adam said, “Call your mate and talk to him again. I’ll call John. We’ll get this sorted out. We want this to work.”

“I will. Thank you.” Kaden buckled himself into the passenger seat and took a pre-emptive grip on the handle above the door. Adam laughed at him, and then they zoomed off into traffic.

C H A P T E R 9 0

C hristmas Eve. Twelve noon at the Memphis office. Everyone else was gone, just Kaden and John left.

Every year, the senator shut down the office between Christmas and New Year’s—an entire week and a half that Kaden could spend at home. He’d flown in last night but had arrived too late to make it back to the enclave through the holiday traffic. So instead of spending the night in his mate’s bed, he’d spent it on Cale’s couch at the pack house, the rest of the place being filled to the rafters with shifters training in whatever courses they could get into that the pack could use.

It had been a poor substitute.

The only positive had been the opportunity to get just a couple more gifts before he drifted late into the office like the rest of the staff. Midwinter Wolf was going to be a damn generous wolf this year. He owed it to his ever-patient mate, and he was going to start repaying that debt when they both went back to Washington in January. Adam had found them a place to stay close to the senator’s office and smoothed out any issues with the Bureau. It was a good neighborhood, quiet and safe, and they’d promised they’d try to make time in Kaden’s schedule so that Felix wasn’t trapped at home all the time. Kaden and Felix were now city wolves.

Meanwhile, Kaden waited impatiently for John to finish up the phone call that had kept the man busy for the past forty-five minutes. He’d already shut down his workstation, locked up the file cabinet, and reset the phones with their Christmas message, but John was the one with the key to lock the door.

It had been two weeks since he’d last seen Felix, and only four since they’d both agreed that Felix had to be pregnant. Their families had been over the moon when he and his mate had broken the news, and Kaden’s coworkers weren’t all that much less excited.

The ladies had been absolutely enthralled by the concept of a male bearing a pup. Kaden had been baffled by their obsession, though the male humans in the office seemed to have a better grasp of at least the humor in the situation. After the first couple of days, Kaden had shrugged and ignored the giggling, though Felix told him that the female complement of the office staff seemed to have adopted him after Kaden had gone back to Washington.

Certainly, the number of emails they sent Kaden with suggestions for Christmas presents seemed to bear that out.

Apparently, the humans were now planning a baby shower, which he vaguely remembered was some sort of party to celebrate a baby on the way. Felix had taken the clamor with his usual calm after he’d had a chance to meet everyone once and had gotten over the worst of his nerves. Now their phone calls always seemed to include some reference to something said by one of Kaden’s coworkers or their wives.

“Delilah asked me if I wanted to volunteer for the campaign,” Felix had said last week. “I don’t know how well that would work with two pups in tow.”

“Think about it,” Kaden had told him, hiding his reluctance. I am not jealous of the staff. I’m not. Of course they like him, he’s Felix. But he still found himself getting growly, even after a night’s reflection led him to the conclusion that he just didn’t want to share what little time Felix and he seemed to manage together with anyone else. Still, if Felix wanted to volunteer, Kaden would do whatever he could to make it possible. It was what a good mate and a good alpha would do.

After what felt like forever, he heard the click of John’s phone and a sigh as the man released whatever tension it was that the caller had filled him with. Then the rustle of a few papers and the most welcome sound in the world—a folder being dropped in a file cabinet and the clunk of the lock.

John came out of his office looking like he’d been dragged fighting backward through a thicket, despite the pin-straight neatness of his everyday business suit. “Kaden,” he said, surprise obvious in his voice. “I thought you were heading out with the rest of the staff.”

“You were on the phone. What if someone had come in?” Kaden said in an easier tone than he was feeling. He wanted to go.

“Well, get going, back to that mate of yours. First Christmas is always special. I’ll make sure we’re locked up.” John ushered him to the door, wished him a Merry Christmas, and then Kaden found himself outside on the sidewalk in the chilly December air.

“That was quick,” he muttered, amused. If he strained and maybe borrowed a bit from his wolf, he could hear John moving about the office, checking doors and windows, desk drawers and filing cabinets. “Home,” Kaden sighed and headed to his car.

He had another stop to make first, back at the pack house, before he could make a last foray into the holiday shopping crowds. Duke and Bram had offered to take everything with them when they went up yesterday, but he didn’t want his gifts sitting around in the apartment or cluttering up someone else’s space until he could retrieve them.

For the first time ever, they were leaving the house unattended, though Duke would be back on Boxing Day to gather up anything that he and Bram had missed in their move back to Mercy Hills permanently. Kaden loaded the car and then did his own walk-through, checking doors and windows, making sure anything that could be locked was locked down tight. They had cameras now, new ones that uploaded to one of Abel’s servers, and he logged in to make sure they were set to record on movement, just in case. He doubted anyone would bother breaking in—it was known to be the pack house and that they never left it empty. Also known that they didn’t really have anything of value to steal. But having the cameras there made them all a little less tense about this foray into being just another citizen, going home for Christmas.

Home. It felt weird still to be Mercy Hills—he’d been Salma for so long, or Army. He wondered if his mother was serious about wanting to move back to Mercy Hills, now that the relationship with the brother of White River’s Alpha had fizzled out.