Page 30 of Omega's Heart

Quin shrugged. “There’s Jason. Things grow around him. People stay calmer and happier.”

“He’s my preferred babysitter,” Cas added. “No one else keeps Madoc as happy, except for Raleigh.”

“What about Raleigh?” Kaden asked, wondering what secrets his younger brother was hiding.

Cas shrugged. “We haven’t noticed anything. It doesn’t seem to be all of them, just a few family lines. Raleigh’s not related to Jason or Holland on either side, so maybe he didn’t get hit with the lucky stick. But we’re having to be careful about that research too, because we don’t want to start a free-for-all of alphas stalking the ‘lucky’ omegas. Like we don’t have enough to deal with as it is.”

If they could trace the lucky bloodlines… what a bonus that would be to a pack, if all this was true and not pie in the sky thinking. “Who else? I’m guessing Holland can do something, or you wouldn’t be so damn twisted up about him.”

“I’d rather not say. But yes, Holland has some talents.”

“Quin…”

Quin shook his head. “It’s not that easy, Kaden. And it’s not my thing. I don’t talk to anyone about Holland until he okays it.”

That sounded ominous. “So how do we get him to okay it?”

Quin shrugged. “We ask. And take it with good grace if he says no.”

“He’s that scary?”

“No. And yes. Though not for any of the reasons you’re thinking now.” Quin leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. “He’s got a good heart. And it’s complicated. I’ll ask him, but in this, I’m going to put my paw down as Alpha. You will not bring this up with him, or with anyone else. Understood?” The smothering weight of Quin’s alpha power pressed down on Kaden for a moment before lightening into something that spoke of love and respect. It was a strange thing to feel from an alpha, but Kaden suspected it was also something that made Quin very good at his job.

A car’s engine roared outside and Kaden heard the sound of two doors slamming. Cas went stiff and bolted for the living room. Quin followed more slowly and with an air of resignation. Kaden, still borrowing from his wolf, felt his wolf-ears twitch forward and tagged along to see what was up, walking carefully to avoid irritating his stump any further.

He found Cas standing in the living room, right in front of the door. An alpha that Kaden had never met stood on the threshold. That must be Degan. Kaden glanced over at Cas again, then at Quin, who looked like he was waiting for some sort of alpha pissing match to start, which told Kaden a lot about the situation little brother Cas had gotten himself into.

The large omega from this morning had crammed himself into the tiny clear space at the foot of the stairs and looked startled and immensely uncomfortable. Which was truly unfair to him.

“Let me take Madoc,” Kaden told Cas. “You two need to talk about Little Mischief upstairs, I’m guessing.” He didn’t wait for Cas to agree or disagree, simply reached out and plucked the still sleeping baby out of Cas’s arms. “You know,” he added, with a look at Degan. “It’s kind of fun to see Cas get his comeuppance. The number of spiders I picked out of my pillows when we were pups, let alone gluing my shoes to each other and adding ‘art’ to my school assignments, I think he deserves this.”

Degan’s expression changed from tense and irritated to surprised and a bit amused. “No one ever told me that.”

“Yes, Kaden, thank you very much for being the family broadcaster,” Cas ground out between gritted teeth. But the tension between Cas and Degan dropped, and Kaden didn’t care that it was only so that it could be replaced by Cas’s irritation with him. It would pass, and this didn’t seem so much different from introducing a new squad member to old ones who’d already formed that bond that so often kept them alive out in the field.

Felix slipped away from the base of the stairs, surprisingly unobtrusive for his size. “I’ll look after him,” he offered, holding his hands out for the baby.

“I’m okay,” Kaden said automatically, more shocking because it was true. But still, he let Felix take the baby to cradle against that broad chest. He looked good like that. Content, even if there was a hint of sadness in the set of his mouth. What was his story? Kaden realized he didn’t know, and maybe he should.

He’d ask Quin. Or maybe make that his excuse to talk to Holland. Killing two rabbits with one lunge—he liked the efficiency of it.

Degan’s eyes followed the baby for a moment, then flicked toward the stairs.

Felix’s soft voice broke into the silence, pitched so it wouldn’t carry up the stairs. “I wouldn’t reward her with attention. She’s clever and she likes when people tell her so. If you go up there now, it just feeds that. But if you wait until tonight when Raleigh is back and the three of you sit down to talk with her, it’ll take a lot of the fun out of it.”

Quin rubbed his upper lip, but Kaden saw the smile behind the hand. Cas stared at Felix for a moment as if the table had sat up and started spouting political rhetoric and Degan looked like someone had finally turned on a light bulb in his brain. Kaden found a chair and settled in to watch, fascinated by the way the addition of Felix into the conversation had turned it completely around.

Maybe that was why he was here. Kaden decided he needed to find out.

“That is an idea,” Degan said. “We should probably get our stories lined up before we talk to her though.”

Cas looked thoughtful. “We could meet somewhere. We’d need someone to watch the pups though. Raleigh’s not back until suppertime.”

“I don’t mind,” Felix offered. “I can stay, or come back. If Kaden doesn’t need me for anything.”

Kaden opened his mouth to tell them that he didn’t need a minder, but the words that came out weren’t the ones he’d intended. “I need to talk to Quin and Cas for a bit, but then I’m going to nap for the afternoon. Still takes it out of me, getting used to the leg,” he added shrewdly, guessing that the omega would hover if he didn’t have a reason not to.

“You’re coming for supper tonight,” Quin told him. “Felix, if you’re going to come to look after the pups, make sure you eat before you come down here.”