Page 217 of Omega's Heart

“Oh, I know,” Logan said. “It’s a risky path you’re following. Don’t let the zcerneb get you.”

The senator shot a questioning glance at Kaden, and Kaden made a gesture that he hoped the human read as I’ll explain in a minute.

The conversation ended very shortly after that, and the senator hung up the phone with a thoughtful stare for Kaden. “It’s a start.”

Kaden nodded. “It is.” The words, But can you finish it? hovered on the tip of his tongue, though in the end, he swallowed them. The human in front of him was a subtle one--he’d follow the line of Kaden’s thinking on his own. “I should get back to work.”

The senator waved him toward one of the chairs. “I still have questions.”

Surprised, Kaden settled in the one closest to the door, just in case. “Shoot,” he said casually, and was delighted and relieved by the spark of amusement in the senator’s eyes.

The senator tapped the side of his chin, his brown drawn down thoughtfully, then let his hand drop and leaned back in a more relaxed posture than Kaden had ever seen him take. “What, exactly, is a zcerneb?”

C H A P T E R 1 1 1

I could happily have chased Kaden into a thorn bush when he finally got around to telling me about the senator and Logan, four days after the whole conversation had happened. It was, possibly, the first time I was ever truly angry with him. Leaving me worrying about his job and even his safety, out there without his pack around him. His response had been to take me into his arms and kiss me until I couldn’t be angry anymore, but I did make him promise to never keep anything like that from me again.

Or maybe that was just my nerves--Veronica was arriving today. Kaden was going to pick her up at the airport, just like the last time.

And she wasn’t going to be staying with us.

We’d found a place in the pack—Garrick’s apartment, actually. He’d offered to move in with his human lover for the three weeks she’d be here, which put her about as far from all of her pups as it was possible to put her without sending to live in the woods in the north of the enclave.

It still made me anxious. As my time grew closer and the baby stole more and more energy from me, I worried that I wouldn’t actually have the stamina to handle her. And the four of us omegas had agreed that she was going to make a beeline for me, being the bearer of her latest grandpup.

Why had I agreed to this? I was an idiot.

At least Mom’s paperwork had finished processing. For two weeks’ time, just a couple of days before Bram had guessed that the baby would come. I’d called her and asked if she could try to change her travel days, but we were still waiting on the Bureau to approve the request. And in the meantime, I was doing my best not to let Kaden see how uncomfortable this all made me. After all, I’d agreed to it. Suggested it, even. I couldn’t really start complaining now.

I was cleaning the kitchen cupboards against Kaden’s wishes when my phone rang with Mom’s text. Got the date moved up a week. Sorry I couldn’t be there sooner.

I texted back, Thanks. I’ll be fine. I wasn’t so sure of that, but I didn’t want her to worry any more than she already was.

Don’t let her get you down. I know you won’t fight with her, so don’t. She sounds like Jonah and Martina’s packdaughter.

I puzzled over that for a few minutes. Chrysanthemum had been a couple of years older than me, a pretty, pretty beta who’d mated into the pack from Jackson-Jellystone. But with that Southern charm had also come a subtle, vindictive temper. I’d avoided her mostly, which hadn’t been a huge problem as she didn’t see omegas as anywhere near equal to her.

And when I couldn’t avoid her, I outdid her.

Well, Veronica didn’t learn when you fought with her. Every interaction she had with Holland proved that. Maybe it was time to try something different.

Maybe I just needed to… outdo her.

That afternoon, I gathered Holland, Bax, and Raleigh up and we descended on Garrick’s bachelor’s apartment and cleaned it from top to bottom. I’d expected the typical young male’s room, but it was almost barren, and clean except for the dust on any unused surface. We traded out the mattress for something in better shape and I put my experience with small household repairs to work making sure the bed frame was tight and didn’t squeak. Well, didn’t squeak too much, anyway.

New curtains and bed linen, new towels and a rug in the bathroom to cover the worn flooring, and it really wasn’t that bad a place to live in.

If you weren’t our packmother, anyway.

Holland’s phone went off a half-dozen times while we were there. His expression stony, he sent the calls to voicemail every time and returned to our work. It didn’t take a lot of effort to figure out that it was his father. I wondered who had made the call to tell him that Green Moon had gotten the trust and hoped it wasn’t Holland.

Kaden got home with his mother late afternoon. He took her directly to Garrick’s apartment and made sure not to bring her home with him that evening. “She needs to rest,” he’d explained to me and winked. He knew I was anxious about this because I couldn’t hide anything from him, no matter how hard I tried. He also knew that I wanted to find a way to make this work. I loved my mother—I couldn’t imagine not being able to have her in the same room as my mate. I wanted it to be the same for Kaden.

But that was the last moment of peace I had.

Kaden started taking Hunter to work with him. We’d talked about this—it was a good experience for Hunter, to get used to behaving around strangers in a place where Kaden could keep a close eye on him. And the less Veronica had to do with Hunter, the better. I already knew her opinion on the pup’s presence here. I didn’t need to hear it every day and I was pretty certain I would.

Veronica and I fell into a rhythm as the days passed and I put my plan into motion. Shortly after Kaden and I got up, she’d walk down from the apartment to have breakfast with us. As long as she was polite, I tolerated her and was polite back. Then, as soon as she started telling me how Kaden and I should be living our lives, I started doing exactly what she wanted me to do.