Page 25 of Omega's Heart

P ride had won out over comfort and he’d put the leg on and let the pantleg fall down to mostly hide the steel shank of it. And he hadn’t complained at all when Quin suggested a walk around to familiarize him with the enclave in its current form, even though he knew it was asking for trouble.

“There have been a lot of changes since the last time you were here,” Quin had told him gravely. “We’re moving a lot of things around.”

Quin then proceeded to drag him all over Mercy Hills, showing off the gardens and introducing him to Jason and Jason’s brood, then over to the daycare to discuss another expansion, past the daycare to where the old tumbledown houses built by the first Alpha of Mercy Hills still stood, or most of them anyway. Quin began to wax almost poetic at that point about the foundation being laid for an apartment building and rows of townhouses, explaining that they’d made the change so they could eventually build a recreation center with swimming pools and maybe even a real movie theater.

While Kaden was still gaping at that idea, Quin dragged him across the enclave again to see the restaurant and the new pizza place that a couple of shifters from Green Moon—now Mercy Hills— had put together in what used to be a townhouse. It smelled amazing, and both places were busy even at this time of the day, which surprised Kaden. He didn’t remember the enclave having that much leisure time or that much in the way of spare credits that a shifter could afford to pay someone else to do their everyday work for them.

It left him in a thoughtful mood as Quin practically force-marched him down the road in the direction of the gates. Admittedly, he’d been the better part of two decades away from the place, but it did seem to him that Mercy Hills—on top of the projects that Quin was showing him that stemmed from the human money—was doing a lot better than Salma was.

What really impressed him, though, was the hospital. Four stories, backed right up against the cleared section that had to be maintained between the walls and the community. Lots of windows, wide doors, smooth floors.

“We need a couple of doctors to come to work here, and nurses trained. Bram’s going to the nurse practitioner program, but he has to work as a nurse for a few years first. Adelaide will be here, and Cale is talking about medical school. It’s not enough.” They stood in the lobby, with its desk and its places for computers, cables hanging everywhere, looking at blank walls that would soon be covered in pictures or posters or what?

A left turn past the desk took them down a warren of corridors, every inch of space used for something. Emergency, a new clinic for Adelaide, X-ray, physiotherapy, other hallways that didn’t have signs on them yet. Physio would be good—his knee was starting to hurt again and something in the stub ached with a sharp, sickening pain. It was a conscious effort not to limp as they walked. He’d padded the spot that seemed to rub raw each time with extra gauze before he pulled the little sock they’d given him over it, but it wasn’t helping as much as he’d hoped.

“We won’t be able to use it all, or even much of it until we have staff,” Quin said, gesturing at the clean white walls. “All the wards are on the other side, there’s more stuff upstairs at this end. I let Bram and Adelaide fight this one out with the architect for the most part. They knew better than I did what they wanted here, and the kinds of things they’ve wished they had.” He smiled and rubbed a hand over the high counter of a nurse’s desk. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s great. I never imagined we’d have anything like this,” Kaden said quietly. Quin was so proud of this, for good reason. And underneath that pride, Kaden could smell a hunger that wasn’t physical in his brother, a ravenous desire for more things like this hospital. And that kind of desire in a shifter was dangerous.

Quin took a step toward the door. “You want to see Cas? I think he’s home right now with the baby. Or are you too tired?”

“Please,” Kaden said dismissively. I’m exhausted, I haven’t slept right since the grenade and I want to chop the rest of my leg off to stop the pain. “I’m Army. Takes more than a bomb to stop me.” He grinned, putting a bit of wolf in it, and threw an arm over Quin’s shoulder. “Worth it to see little Cas playing Dada.” He saw Quin’s nostrils flare and wondered if Quin was just scenting how tired he was, or if it was something else.

“I’m going to get Mac to bring the truck around after,” Quin told him. “We can drive back.”

“I’m not an invalid,” Kaden reminded him tightly.

“You will be after you meet Pip,” Quin promised with dark humor.

He wasn’t kidding. Cas met them at the front door with an expression of relief uncharacteristic of him. “Kade!” he cried and wrapped Kaden up in an unexpected hug. “Glad you’re back, come on in.” He ushered them into the house, one of three townhouses in the group. “Want something to drink?”

Subtle movement on the stairs caught Kaden’s attention. He squinted in that direction and made out the eyes and nose of what he thought was a little girl.

Cas paused and then his head swiveled in the direction of the stairs. “Get back up there,” he said, his tone flat. “Your Papa said upstairs, and that’s where you’re staying until he says otherwise.”

She didn’t move, not until Cas took a step toward the stairs, then she huffed and scurried back up the stairs again. The slam of a door reverberated through the house, followed closely by the rising wail of a disturbed baby.

“Dammit!” Cas muttered. “I’ll be right back.” He took the stairs two at a time, disappearing like he’d been whisked away by the Wolf of the Wind who stole bad pups who strayed from their dens.

Quin shook his head and pointed at the couch. “Just check it before you sit down. They’re a busy bunch, though most of that is Pip.” He lifted the cushions and looked underneath them, and nodded at Kaden that the couch was safe.

“It’s just like clearing new territory,” Kaden said, checking under his cushion before sitting down gingerly and putting the partially eaten sandwich he’d found carefully on the table in front of them. “Never thought I’d miss the bomb dog.”

“Only glitter bombs,” Quin said. “Cas and I were supposed to meet this morning before I had breakfast with you, but Pip apparently filled all the soap bottles in the school with glitter yesterday, so they sent her home until she apologizes.”

“If she’s anything like Cas, that’ll be a long vacation.” It felt good to sit.

Footsteps sounded behind them and then Cas walked into the living room with a sleepy pup blinking at them from his shoulder. “Sorry. But at least you get to meet Madoc.” He smiled at the baby and crouched in front of Kaden. “Look, it’s Uncle Kaden. So when you puke again, that’s where you want to aim, okay? He likes that sort of stuff.” His voice was sickly sweet, with that same undertone of claw and fang that Kaden remembered from when they were teenagers and Cas was, once again, the undersized runt in the fight. It was the voice he used to use to tease the older brothers when they’d annoyed him to the breaking point. What did I do now? But it wasn’t Kaden after all that was the source of Cas’s frustration.

“I just got him down,” Cas said with a tired sigh. “Pip’s doing everything she can to convince me that what Papa doesn’t know won’t hurt me. Except Papa knows everything, and I’ve been scrubbing glitter off our entire house all morning, just from what she brought home on her clothes. I’m seriously considering burning the place down—I’m a shifter, I don’t want to live in a sparkly fairyland. Besides, it’s not professional when you file paperwork that’s covered in purple glitter.” The baby whined and flailed his arms and Cas got to his feet, rocking tiredly back and forth. “And every time she has a tantrum, she wakes her brother up.”

“You want us to come back another day?” Quin asked, and something in his tone of voice put Kaden on alert, like an almost-heard sound on deep patrol.

Cas shook his head no. “But if one of you could hold Madoc for a minute, I’ll make coffee and then maybe there’s a chance I won’t fall asleep on you.”

Quin got to his feet. “Give him to me, then.” He examined Cas closely as they traded the baby, who got louder briefly then quieted in startled dismay at being passed over to someone else. “I can have Cale or Felix come down and spell you, or one of the teenagers. I thought he was sleeping through the night already?”

“He is,” Cas said with a yawn and a stretch. “Or was. It was all a trick, to get us to lower our guard.”