Page 38 of Omega's Heart

“You’re welcome.”

Kaden finished his meal and watched Felix clean up the dishes while he finished his coffee. He shouldn’t get this comfortable--he needed to be doing things for himself. But it was hard to say no, especially when it seemed to give Felix so much pleasure. “What do they have you doing today?” he asked, mildly surprised at his own curiosity.

“Holland was looking for volunteers to put together curtains and blankets and rugs for the new houses. There’s a group of us getting together in one of the empty floors in the building here to do the sewing for the curtains today and when those are done, we’ll take all the scraps and start twisting them into rugs.” Felix moved efficiently around his little kitchen, drying dishes and setting them in their place, wiping down the countertop, cleaning the sink. Like he’d lived here for a while. Kaden supposed it didn’t take omegas long to settle into a domestic environment, though seeing Felix doing these small homely chores always gave him a start of unfamiliarity—he was just so tall.

“I might go down to talk to Cas for a bit,” Kaden mused.

“I’m sure he’d be happy for any help he could get,” Felix said. “Do you want more coffee before you go?”

Kaden shook his head. “I’m good.” He took the mug into the kitchen and put it in the sink, then watched in amusement as Felix immediately snatched it out and began to wash it. “That could have waited, you know.”

“I like to leave my kitchen clean when I go out.” Felix’s hands jerked and then he corrected himself. “Whatever kitchen I’m in, anyway.”

“You keep this place as clean as if you’d been trained in the military.” It was meant as a compliment; he hoped Felix would take it that way.

Felix chuckled. “To hear my cousins talk about it, being raised by my mother was very similar to being in the military. She wanted to be sure that my skills were top-notch. Especially once…” His voice trailed off and he began to move brusquely around the kitchen, drying things and putting them away precisely in whatever cupboard he’d decided they were best suited for. “Anyway,” he said brightly after a few uncomfortable moments, “If it means it makes you more comfortable, I’m glad for all the occasions Mom made me do something over again for the fourth time because I’d missed a spot.”

Kaden had grown adept at ignoring these moments when Felix stumbled over his reason for coming to Mercy Hills. Didn’t mean he wasn’t getting more and more irritated by them, though. The more he got to know Felix, the stronger his conviction became that the alphas of Winter Moon were idiots. “I’d be proud to have you in my squad.”

The omega blushed again. “Thank you. Will you be back for lunch?”

“I think I’ll bother Bax and Abel today for lunch. You go enjoy your sewing.”

“I will. If there’s anything you want from Supplies, too, I’m going to stop by there at the end of the day.” Felix wiped down the countertop one more time, then hung the towel over the edge of the sink to dry.

“No, I think I’m good. You keep me pretty stocked up.”

They fell silent for a moment and Kaden discovered an odd reluctance to leave the apartment. He was comfortable there. Probably the leg, and knowing how much it was going to hurt by the end of the day. And with Felix, he didn’t feel like he had to put on the mask—Lysoon knew, the omega had already seen Kaden at his ugliest, before Kaden had gotten a grip on himself and remembered that he was a grown alpha. He made sure now, though, to keep that particular side of him locked away, no matter how sore or frustrated he was, especially around Felix. “I guess I’ll head out. Enjoy your day.”

“You too.” Felix’s warm smile somehow soothed Kaden’s anxiety about his knee and he walked the omega out of the apartment feeling a little better about the challenge ahead of him than he had when he’d made the decision.

C H A P T E R 2 4

K nowing that once he got to Cas’s office, he’d likely be there for the duration and his plan to build up some tolerance to the leg by using it would go up in smoke, Kaden took the long way to the small building that housed the pack’s lawyers. Which meant he did the circuit of the park, stopping only to watch the pups playing outside the daycare and then taking a side-trip through the trees to see the old pond before he decided he’d had enough and turned back in the direction of the pack building. All in all, he probably spent an hour strolling about the enclave, ignoring the steadily sharpening pain in his leg. Determined to be a good soldier, to be as whole as he could.

By the time Kaden made it to Cas’s office—and it wasn’t even that far away—he knew there was something seriously wrong. This wasn’t just a case of his stump losing muscle mass and needing more padding.

Not if the slight squishing noise he could hear was anything to go by.

He limped up to the door and knocked loudly.

“What?” Cas snapped from inside, the sharp response muffled slightly by the rustling of papers.

“It’s Kaden. Can I come in?”

He heard the scrape of a chair and then Cas was opening the door. “I don’t know where you’re going to sit, but—” The rest of Cas’s sentence was bitten off when his little brother got a look at him. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Find me a chair, will ya? I need to check something.” He had to grab for the doorframe when he put weight back on the leg—just that moment of waiting for Cas with his weight on the other foot had been enough to let him forget how much it hurt. Then he forced himself inside and fell onto the chair that Cas set out for him.

“That doesn’t look good, Kade,” Cas said solemnly. “I’m going to call Adelaide.”

“Let’s see first, okay?” Except he was pretty sure he knew what he was going to find. What in the hell was wrong with this leg? Other soldiers got the same model prosthetic as him and had no trouble at all.

Carefully, he broke the vacuum on the rubber sleeve and rolled it down until he could pull the entire leg off.

“Holy shit,” Cas said. “I’m calling Adelaide.”

Kaden stared at his knee in despair. I am a grown shifter, a soldier, and an alpha. I will not cry in frustration like a five-year-old pup.