Page 54 of Omega's Heart

T hings went mostly back to normal while Kaden waited to hear back on his next medical appointments. He finished what pack evaluations he could and made his lists of things to investigate for when he physically went to the enclaves, then made arrangements to go visit Jordan’s Bay and Jackson-Jellystone. He also spent a day in the city, talking to the senator, meeting the rest of the man’s staff and, in the end, had come home with a job offer for Cas to look over. And if he’d had to do it all from the foreshortened perspective of his wheelchair, well, it was tolerable. For now, while the golden promise of surgery and the ability to walk again hung before him like the full moon.

Like tonight’s full moon.

Kaden had shooed Felix off to get ready with his omega friends because full moon really was a young shifter’s day. Not that Felix was young, compared the other unmated omegas, but he was younger than Kaden. And he deserved a little fun and frivolity in his life. Something better than looking after a cranky old ex-soldier.

He’d been avoiding Full Moon since he’d landed in Mercy Hills, but tonight he’d been coaxed into joining the rest of the family in the park, at least for the fire and the food. Since he was still waiting for his appointment to get that piece of bone dealt with, he was going to have to go on wheels. Which meant he was guaranteed to spend the evening begging for pushes unless he stuck to the relatively smooth area right across from the main building.

Given a choice, he would have just stayed home, maybe watched something on the television. After all, he still couldn’t run with the pack after, and having to constantly ask for help getting around in the chair was embarrassing and put him in a bad mood. But his packbrothers had been insistent that he get out and spend time with the other members of the pack. There were lots of ex-soldiers in Mercy Hills, they’d reminded him. He’d have no trouble finding someone to talk to. And he needed to stop hiding.

Right.

The nagging—as kindly and gently done as it had been—had gotten so bad that, on the advice of his brothers, he’d finally given in.

What a pain in the tail area this was going to be.

No more stalling. He rolled out into the hallway and around the corner to knock on Quin’s door. A moment later, his brother—for once without a decorative pup hanging off some portion of his anatomy —opened the door. He was half bent over, shoving his foot into a shoe. “I’m almost ready.” He took the shoe off and shook it out. A single block of Lego fell out to bounce across the floor. “Thought I felt something in there. Damn Abel and his Lego obsession, giving my pups ideas.”

“At least it’s not Cas this time.”

Quin paused and cast a wry look Kaden’s way. “No, this didn’t go squish when I put my foot in.” He shoved the shoe on and stamped it into place. “Ready to go?”

Kaden popped a wheelie and spun in the doorway. “Way ahead of you!”

He refused to let Quin push him on the grass. Instead, he picked a spot not too far from the bonfire site and close to where the food table had been set up, then made himself comfortable.

Abel dropped by, bringing Duke, a big dark-haired alpha who’d been Army too, but had left after one tour. Homesick, he’d said, but Kaden knew how isolated a shifter could get out there, allotted one to a squad, and suspected that maybe Duke’s early squadmates hadn’t been as laid-back about their shifter as his had been.

Duke’s entire conversation seemed to focus on the food. “You’ll want to try the skewers on the green plate and the green beans from the big blue dish. Bram tells me Holland did chicken, so unless you want trouble with the Alpha’s Mate you’ll have to have some of that too.”

Kaden laughed at the thought of being in trouble with Holland over something as simple as food, but Duke shook his head. “Okay, he probably won’t get bristly over you not trying his chicken, but if he’s anything like Bram, he’ll be hurt if you don’t.”

That phrase held a lot more meaning for Kaden now that he’d figured out just how hard Holland worked, and how deeply he felt it when he thought he’d failed his pack. Which made it a good enough reason to add chicken to his list, even if he hadn’t already liked chicken. “Where is your mate?” Kaden asked, peering around the clearing to see if he could spot anyone he recognized, but not finding him. He did see Bax with his oldest pup and guessed that the boy, ten years old now, was going to stay for some of the adult festivities before being sent back to the older puppy areas.

Hard to imagine Abel with a ten-year-old.

“He’ll be around. Getting the pups to the daycare can take a while, especially with the twins.”

Right, this was the one that had the twins. That had to have been a shock. “That’s what he gets for having them,” Kaden said glibly and wondered what he’d said wrong when Duke’s expression froze briefly before the corners of his mouth twitched up into a smile.

“Yeah, but they’re worth every sleepless night and moment of baffled disbelief,” the tall dark shifter said humorously. “You know, you should go up to the tables with Quin and Holland to open the meal. You have the right.” He kicked the wheel of the chair gently.

“I won’t run over anyone’s toes.” And by next month, maybe he’d be walking on two legs anyway. Then it was just a matter of learning how to balance on three when he shifted, which was turning out to be much harder than he’d expected. He’d never realized how much of his forward momentum, let alone balance, came from that back leg.

They were joined shortly by a few more of the pack’s alphas, old soldiers who’d done a tour or two to bring in some money before mustering out to come back home. Most of them were still a dozen years younger than him and hadn’t settled down enough to find a mate, and the commentary quickly devolved into discussions of the personalities and physical attributes of the passing females and a few unmated male omegas.

Kaden’s story had already apparently made the rounds of the enclave and he quickly ended up on a nodding basis with a good portion of the pack, even if he was certain he wouldn’t be able to put a name to most of them by tomorrow. A steady stream of young females seemed to find a reason to drop by his chair, wishing him hello and occasionally lingering within line of sight before drifting away again. His popularity with the young unmated crowd probably stemmed from that, and Kaden made plans to get away from them, for his own sanity.

Bax stopped by with Fan. “Hi, Uncle Kaden,” Fan said.

“Hey, Mad Wolf,” Kaden said back, then grinned up at Bax.

“I’ve asked you not to call him that,” Bax reminded him.

Fan sighed heavily. “It’s just a joke, Dabi. I’m not mad. Can I get food?”

“Wait for Quin and Holland, please. It’s their job to start the evening.”

Fan nodded glumly and leaned against the side of Kaden’s chair. “Can I go find Austin and Trey instead?”