Page 70 of Omega's Heart

Felix’s eyes went wide and his brows quirked in a way that Kaden suddenly realized he’d seen before when Felix was making a compromise with himself. The omega’s next words proved he’d been right.

“We don’t have to wait if you really don’t want to…”

Kaden shook his head and went back to his breakfast. “No, I’ll survive.” He stabbed a piece of ham, taking out his frustrations on the helpless piece of meat. “I think.”

A muffled laugh made him look up again.

“Well,” Felix said, wearing a fond look as he leaned toward Kaden. “If you see the ghost wolves coming for you, just let me know and we can find a quiet corner.” He kissed the edge of Kaden’s mouth, more confident today. “I kind of wonder if I made the right choice too, but… I don’t know.” He sat back and picked up his coffee, frowning into its depths.

“If you’re enjoying looking forward to it, then it’s the right choice.” Kaden reached over and squeezed Felix’s knee. “But do me a favor?”

“What?”

“How fast can you plan a mating?”

Felix’s eyes crinkled and he grinned as he accepted the challenge. “Let’s see.” Then he leaned in to kiss Kaden again.

Shortly after, Kaden was on his way, with Felix thoroughly kissed (in public this time), the wheelchair tucked safely in the back seat, his papers on the front seat beside him. There’d been some worry about getting them approved on such short notice, but one call from John and they’d popped up in Quin’s email within an hour.

This job could maybe be more useful than he’d realized.

The morning was spent in a whirlwind of introductions and small talk, summaries of what everyone did and why they did it, getting to watch how the office dealt with the constant stream of people wanting things—paperwork, to talk to the senator, to have a phone call made on their behalf. To buy a chocolate bar from the charity box on the front desk. Which Kaden also did, setting it aside to bring back to Felix.

The afternoon filled his brain with logins and passwords, phone numbers, databases, forms and any number of things that he knew he’d have forgotten by the next day if he hadn’t been taking furious notes the way his old Staff Sergeant had taught him to.

Before he knew it, the day was over and the staff was closing the office. Computers were being shut down, phones forwarded to answering services, paperwork dumped into locking drawers with sighs of relief and good-natured laughter.

Adam dropped by his desk. “How was your first day?”

“Good. Busy.” He thought Adam might have been looking for something more, but his brain was too tired to come up with anything. “Better than Basic,” he added lamely, but it made Adam laugh, so maybe it had been the right thing to say after all. These guys weren’t the least bit like soldiers— except when they were.

John came out of the back door, where his office and the senator’s hid behind the shield-curtain of the staffers. “Kaden, how was your first day?”

“Good, Sir,” Kaden said simply. He fished the chocolate bar out of the drawer he’d hidden it in and tucked it into his jacket pocket. “It’s a lot to catch on to.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll be fine,” John said with a laugh and a casual hand on Kaden’s shoulder. “Come on, I’ll walk you out to your car. You staying in town or driving back to the enclave tonight?”

“Driving.” He felt the weight of the chocolate in his pocket and it made him smile. “I should let you know, I guess. I’m getting mated later this summer, but we haven’t picked a date yet, so if there are any weekends you’ll need or want me here, I can avoid them no problem.”

John came to a dead stop, right there in the doorway. “Congratulations! Who’s the lucky lady?”

Kaden had been thinking about how to handle this, but really there wasn’t any option but straight talk. “His name is Felix,” he said simply and rolled out the door. Now, they’d either change their mind and tell him not to come back, or tomorrow he’d get called into a meeting on the political correctness of his choice of mate.

Or they could do what John did, which was follow Kaden out into the parking lot and clap Kaden on the shoulder again. “I didn’t know you were gay. Well, congratulations again! You’ll have to bring him down to see the place once you’ve got your bearings here.” He squeezed Kaden’s shoulder then let go. “Don’t worry, we’ll make you look good for him.”

A flush of relief washed over Kaden and he shook John’s hand with more enthusiasm than he’d felt for anything else during the day. He did wonder if he should try to explain to the humans the differences in how shifters viewed matings, but then decided he’d quit today while he was ahead. “Thank you, sir,” he said, and they parted ways, John to walk down the line of storefronts and Kaden to attempt to cross the parking lot to get himself into the car.

As he was driving down to the end of the lot to get to the least busy-looking exit, he noticed a store selling bunches of flowers at the end of the mall. On impulse, he pulled into a parking spot in front of it and hopped out—literally—to go see what they had.

He didn’t have the first clue about omegas. Did they like flowers? More importantly, would Felix like them? He used to have gardens back when he lived with his parents, Kaden knew. Fuck it, I’ll buy him some flowers and if he doesn’t like them, we’ll give them to someone else.

Fifteen minutes later, after a tougher decision than he reasonably thought it should have been, he was back on the road, and the car smelled of carnations and other sweet growing things, mixing with his thoughts of home and Felix.

My phone buzzed. On my way. A happy flutter filled my chest and I put away the book I was reading and went looking for my shoes.

Cale peered out his half-open bedroom door at me. “Sweetheart coming home?” he asked slyly and I laughed. I could laugh now, especially when I thought about all the times that I’d thought it was Julius who Kaden had been interested in.

“Yes. I’m going to start dinner for him. Or do you want some help here? We can make extra and I’ll just keep a plate aside.”