Page 212 of Omega's Heart

Holland went off in a peal of laughter, gathering us curious glances as we turned through the gate in the old wall. “I’ll have to tell Quin that tonight. He’s been worried about her because she’s been quiet lately.”

She hadn’t been particularly quiet on our end, but she mostly spoke to Kaden about whatever it was that she wanted. Her texts and emails to me were perfectly polite, if a little naggy about looking after myself and looking after Kaden. She was going to be here in a week, staying in our old apartment until after the baby came. Maybe. We were still trying to figure out where to put my mother —while I was happy to have her in my house, even Kaden agreed that it would likely set his mother off if we didn’t offer a room to her too. And I didn’t think I could live under Veronica’s paw for three weeks. “It’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll ask Mom to wait until Veronica is gone, then there wouldn’t be a problem.”

An expression of guilt flashed across Holland’s face and he stopped me before we could climb the steps to Bram’s clinic. “The last I heard, she’d asked about maybe making the move to Mercy Hills permanent.”

Oh.

The possibility had always been at the edge of my thoughts, but she seemed so disapproving of everything Mercy Hills stood for I’d never really taken it seriously. At least, not as seriously as the probability of a weeks-long visit.

Holland must have read my shock because he put his arms around me and gave me a reassuring hug. “I think we’re going to call a family meeting before that decision is made. Quin’s put her off for now, we have time to figure this out.” We stood there for a moment, then he whispered, “I don’t want to cut Quin off from her. I can see that this hurts him. He deals with her fine, mostly, it’s just me that has the problem. I can’t find a middle ground with her.”

I squeezed him back. “Don’t lie to yourself. All the boys have issues—why do you think Cas runs and hides whenever she’s brought up?”

Holland choked on a laugh. “You’re right. Old habits die hard, especially mine.”

Yeah. I’d met his father. And his mother. I understood better now why Quin was so protective, while at the same time he kept pushing Holland to seek out new paths to wander.

The door to the clinic opened and Bram stuck his head out. I hadn’t seen him since the last full moon. He’d cut his hair, a short, almost alpha style, but his smile hadn’t changed. “Hey, thought I saw you two. Are you coming here?”

Holland walked up the steps. “Could you ease his poor mate’s mind and give Felix an idea of when the baby is going to come, so Kaden won’t go lunar?”

Bram snickered. “Can’t have lunar alphas roaming around the enclave. Sure, come on in, it won’t take long.” He held the door open wider. “Just so you know, though, I’m not a hundred percent accurate yet. So you can’t sue me if I’m wrong.”

“We can write that into the contract,” Holland said dryly and turned to me. “Coming?”

I laughed and followed them inside.

C H A P T E R 1 0 9

K aden laid out his folders on each of the packs on the table in front of him and set his briefcase out of the way against the wall. Quin’s kitchen table was too small for this meeting, so they’d set up in the conference room two floors down. Quin, Holland, Bax, Abel, Kaden, Felix, Seosamh, and four humans—Jesse Mutch, the lawyer Ava Mutch, some sort of financial guru, and Jesse’s oldest son, also called Jesse. Raleigh had given Bax his proxy, and Julius had given Holland his. Ori had come down with a cold and didn’t want to risk giving it to anyone, according to Felix, so Felix was carrying his list of choices.

Garrick and Laine were supposed to be coming too, but no one had seen either of them yet, and from what Kaden had seen the last time he’d been face to face with Garrick, he wouldn’t be surprised to see the pack lawyer confined to a hospital room.

The door opened and Kaden looked up to see Abel ushering Bax through the door. “You’re early,” his brother said.

“I wanted to get organized before we got into the discussion. I’m not expecting this will be easy.”

“Probably not.” Able held Bax’s chair for him and then slid into his own next to Kaden’s.

“Where’s Felix?” Bax asked.

“Keeping a lid on Holland, if Quin’s read on the situation is right,” Kaden said with a grin. “They’ll be here in a few minutes. I think Felix pleaded pregnancy cravings and dragged Holland off to get food at the café.”

The door opened again—Garrick and Laine. Garrick still looked like shit, in Kaden’s educated opinion. Laine was a little better, but he watched Garrick in a manner very much like Felix watching Hunter when Hunter wasn’t feeling well. Need to talk to Quin about that after.

Shortly after, everyone had arrived, the humans being the last, accompanied by Holland, Quin, and Kaden’s mate. “You’re a sight for sore eyes,” he murmured as he ushered Felix into the chair on his other side.

“You saw me at supper,” Felix murmured back, but he rubbed his cheek quickly against Kaden’s in greeting.

Quin stood up from his place at the end of the long table and nodded to Holland, far away at the other end. “Since everyone’s here and it’s probably going to be a long evening, we should get started.”

Kaden took his cue from his brother and began passing out copies of his reports on each of the packs. While he did that, Holland got quietly to his feet and began writing the name of each of the packs on the board.

The last one he wrote was Nevada Ashes and Kaden watched him hesitate before he drew a line through their name.

“We haven’t even started talking about them yet,” the human who’d taken the seat to Holland’s left objected. “Why are you crossing them off already?”

“They refused us. Said they were fine and there were other packs that were more in need of the funding. They’re willing to wait until some of the others have gotten a trust. Which, after our evaluation, I agree is a logical and generous statement on their part,” Holland said evenly. Then in a more natural tone, he added, “It really is fine, Jesse. While I’d like to see them have the option to shut down the houses, that has to be their choice. They’re financially stable, their infrastructure is well taken care of, and the Alpha and his Mate care ferociously about their well-being. We can try again with the next one, but there’s no point in wasting our time this round.”