Page 40 of Omega's Heart

“About what? I’m not actually eavesdropping this time.” Cas paused in his work and raised an eyebrow at Kaden. “What?”

“Quin says the president wants to give me a medal.” As an afterthought, Kaden put the phone on speaker.

“There’s more to it than that,” Quin added. “This man’s been good to us as shifters, as much as he can. It was through him that we got our hands on those old books about the pack and on the Mutch money. It smells like a plot to me, but to what end, I don’t know.”

“Politics.” Politics had been the bane of Kaden’s existence for years. “You want to know what he’s up to?”

“I want to get ahead of it if I think it’s something that’s going to hamstring us in the future, yes. You got a few minutes to come upstairs?”

Cas leaned over the desk and raised his voice so it would carry to the phone. “Kaden’s busy breaking himself right now. Felix is coming down to take him to see Adelaide.”

“For fuck’s sake, Kade, what did you do now?” Frustration and anxiety warred with each other in Quin’s voice and Kaden couldn’t be certain if it was big brother Quin or Alpha Tarquin who was speaking. Maybe both, fighting for supremacy.

“The damn prosthetic,” Kaden told. “Calm your balls, old wolf. I’ll get it sorted out. If the grenade couldn’t kill me, this won’t either.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Gotta go, Quin, I’ll drop up later, bye!” Kaden shouted and ended the call without waiting for Quin’s reply. “Come in,” he called to whoever was at the door.

Cas jammed the rest of his paperwork into the desk and locked the drawers.

The office door opened on Felix and that damned chair. Kaden sighed. “Thanks, Felix. I can take it from here.”

The omega just smiled at him. “No worries. I was bored anyway.” And with those words, he rolled into Kaden’s day and took it over, quietly and unobtrusively, but like a wide river, impossible to ignore.

C H A P T E R 2 5

T he first thing I did was convince Cas to let me handle his brother. Kaden didn’t want anyone to go with him up to Adelaide’s clinic, but I took one look at the bloody sock covering his stump and dug my heels in. I thought I knew him well enough now to be certain he’d play it down, even with the amount of blood that had seeped into the cotton. And also that he’d be more likely to let me go with him than his brother. His stubborn independence seemed to melt a little when I pushed, which I took full advantage of when he was being too alpha for his own good.

How had it gotten that bad, anyway? He’d been walking on it off and on, I knew that for sure, because every once in a while I’d stop in to make him something to eat and he’d snap and tell me he wasn’t hungry. And I’d feed him anyway because I didn’t know what else to do to make him feel better. I couldn’t take the pain away.

He’d never bled before. At least, not that I knew of. Suspicious, I watched him as we rolled through the pack building and into the elevator. Would he tell me if I asked? Hard to say. I found him easy to talk to—too easy, sometimes. I thought he also found me easy to be around.

I know I tried hard to smooth his transition back into civilian life.

“You don’t need to stare a hole in me,” he said casually as he pushed the button for Adelaide’s floor.

I watched him from the corner of my eye for a moment, then decided that this wasn’t a time to be the dutiful omega. “I was trying to figure out if you’d tell me the truth if I asked.” He liked it when people were honest with him, a trait I found refreshing. And uncomfortably attractive.

“Depends.” The elevator door opened and he threw me an ironic look before he rolled out into the corridor. “You also don’t need to come with me. I’m sure Adelaide can scold me without your help.”

I followed him anyway. “Yeah, and if you don’t a have a witness, you’ll tell the world whatever you want.” I glared at him in a good-natured way and waited expectantly for him to open the clinic door for me. After all, he wasn’t helpless and it was proper manners in an alpha to open doors for omegas. It was good to remind him, too, that I still saw him as an alpha. I knew he sometimes doubted himself.

He stared at me for a moment, puzzled, until I’d glanced between him and the door a couple of times and I saw the understanding grow in his eyes. He laughed and opened the door. “After you, Omega White River.”

“Thank you,” I said as I crossed in front of him.

He grinned cockily and rolled after me.

The waiting room was full, with a few shifters standing against the walls. We stopped to chat with the young gamma working at the desk, to let him know why we were here and that Adelaide was expecting us.

“She did mention you’d be up,” he said and typed something into his computer terminal. “It’s probably going to be about an hour.” His eyes drifted over the room and he sighed. “You can stay here if you want, or I can call you when the person ahead of you goes in and you can come down. You’re still in the apartment on the Alpha’s floor, right?”

“I am.” Kaden surveyed the room and nodded briskly. “No need of me being here taking up space. You have my number?”

“Pack issued phone?” the gamma asked.

“No, mine.”