Page 21 of Omega's Heart

“Give him to Kaden,” Quin suggested casually, ignoring Kaden’s panicked glance. Just an older brother tormenting a younger one.

His niece? Nephew? Was it that bad that he couldn’t remember which one it was?”Sure,” Kaden said, accepting his inevitable defeat with as much grace as he could manage. “Bag’s are black with wolf paw tags on them.” But never go down without a fight. Or at least a last shot in the other guy’s direction. “If Quin’ll push.”

“I can do that,” Quin said and moved around behind the chair.

Holland bent and laid the baby in Kaden’s arms. “He’s figuring out how to use his legs right now. Don’t let him launch himself off the chair and into space.”

“I won’t,” Kaden promised and found himself staring into the little boy’s eyes instead of watching his packbrother’s ass as he walked away from them. Which was kind of a shame, but there was something amazing about the little wolf’s smoke-blue eyes that wouldn’t let go of him. “Pretty good job you did here, Da,” he said, nodding at the pup.

“I think so,” Quin said laconically and undid the locks on the wheels. “Why the chair?”

“Still getting used to the leg.” Kaden nodded at his empty pant leg. “Didn’t want to try to get through the crowds on it. Besides, this way I get a driver.”

Quin cuffed his head lightly and laughed. “Let’s go. You need anything in the city? We have time to stop somewhere before we head north if you’re low on anything.”

Kaden shook his head. “Bax called me before I checked out of the rehab center and I gave him a list.” It felt strange to have family to depend on again, but it had unraveled a knot of tension in his neck that was a relief to see the end of.

They waited fifteen minutes by the front doors for Holland to reappear with the suitcase. The baby did indeed try to launch himself into space several times while they were waiting, which led to Kaden promptly christening him ‘Astropup’ and predicting a long and illustrious career in space for the little stinker. Not only did the baby seem determined to fly, but he had his very own noxious exhaust that only long exposure to the Army had made tolerable to Kaden.

“Found it,” Holland said as he stopped by the chair. “It doesn’t look like a lot.”

“I travel light.” Kaden stared at it for a moment, then sighed. “If I carry the baby, would you mind bringing that along? I don’t know that I won’t drop it or get it tangled up in the chair if I try.”

“I don’t mind. It’s nice to be able to walk without the pup hanging off me. I’m developing a very obvious lean to one side,” Holland said dryly, and the alphas laughed. “Let’s go, then. Maybe stop for burgers on the way home?”

Burgers. Real, fatty, made fresh from flash-frozen beef burger. Kaden’s mouth watered. “I vote for that.”

They made it to the car with only a brief argument between Quin and Holland about how heavy the bag was, which Holland won by the simple tactic of picking the bag up and walking off with it. “Now, you see,” Kaden ribbed Quin as they followed along in the omega’s wake. “If you’d gone into the Army, you’d have been too fast to let him get away with it. Or smart enough to see that coming.”

“Do you want to hop the rest of the way out to the car?” his brother asked evenly and jiggled the chair.

Kaden settled down after that, but he couldn’t resist humming the tune to Peter Cottontail as they rolled through the doors and out into the sunlight. The sun’s beams struck his cheeks and his bare arms, and he tipped his head back, eyes closed, to enjoy it. Home. It didn’t smell like Salma, but it didn’t smell like dust and rock and hot metal, or antiseptic and sterile cotton and pain either.

“Holland will bring the car around.” Quin locked the wheels and Kaden opened his eyes to find his brother crouched beside the chair. “How are you, brat?” Quin said, sticking his finger out for the baby to grab.

“Aaaaah!” the baby squealed. His tiny feet pushed against Kaden’s thighs as he tried to stand up and he waved his free hand excitedly as he, once again, attempted to launch himself into space.

“Come here, then, wild pup.” Quin swung the baby up against his chest and stood up. “He’s never happy unless he’s moving. Good exercise, but I’ll be glad when he’s self-propelling.”

“You mean that isn’t?” Kaden pointed at the baby’s toes, digging into his father’s chest. “I’m sorry, I forgot his name.”

“Lonnie,” Quin said absently. “Oh, look, there’s Bakir.”

“Bakir?” It didn’t sound like a name he’d ever heard.

“Holland speaks the old language. It’s one of the words for an omega bearer.”

“Huh.” Kaden chewed on that idea as a big silver car pulled up to the curb and the trunk opened with a subtle popping noise as his packbrother climbed out. “I didn’t think anyone still spoke it.”

“Spoke what?” Holland asked, scooping the baby out of Quin’s arms. “Let’s get you trapped in your re-entry seat,” he said to the baby and opened the back door.

“We were talking about the old language,” Quin told him. He picked up Kaden’s bag with an efficient jerk of the straps that hoisted memories to the front of Kaden’s mind. He shook them back into his past and rolled toward the back of the car in Quin’s trail.

Holland’s voice floated out of the back of the car. “Are you interested in it, Kaden? We don’t have organized classes or anything, just get together once or twice a week to practice.” The baby wailed and, peering around the shape of his packbrother’s body, Kaden could see the little body frozen into a tight arch, head and feet the only parts touching the seat. For a moment he thought it was a seizure— one of the fellows in his ward had had regular ones like this before Kaden got moved to rehab—but before he could say anything, the warm fur-smelling brush of Quin’s power teased his inner wolf on the way by and the baby sank back into the seat with a defeated look on his face.

Quin slammed the trunk and came over to Kaden. “You need a hand getting in?”

“Naw, I’m good with that.”