Page 78 of Omega's Heart

His expression relaxed and he grinned. “Oh, good. I didn’t want to have to cry challenge on a human, even if it would be a fair fight. Since I’ve only got one leg.” He ran a hand up my arm, then leaned to the side to peer behind me. “You can get that look off your face, Duke. I heard about you and Bram last full moon.”

The dark shifter cracked a sardonic laugh and pushed off from the wall. “Let me know if you need someone to help you figure out how to do it right.” He faked a punch at Kaden as he passed by and Kaden defended himself admirably in my opinion.

But as soon as Duke was out of earshot, I turned to Kaden and asked, “Do what right?”

He raised his eyebrows at me and spun his chair toward the building. “Come hang out in the office with me for a while and maybe I’ll give you some hints.”

Given that his answer was accompanied by a sharp smack on my ass, I thought I was right in thinking he was talking about Duke and Bram enjoying their mated rights with each other on Full Moon. “Don’t get too cocky,” I told him. “We’re waiting, remember.”

“Yes. You’re still planning to be well-rested that night?”

I opened the door and winked at him. “That would be a good plan for you too,” I told him and followed his laughter back into the building.

C H A P T E R 4 7

T hey won, or ended up with something they considered a win. Julius had been convicted—hard not to convict him, given how black and white the law was. But he was being returned to Mercy Hills for the remainder of his sentence. And if he stayed within the limits of his ankle bracelet for the first year, he could apply to the courts to have it removed, since the walls and the gate were nearly as good as a prison. Kaden read that last bit as a face-saving measure for the human courts, but in the end, it didn’t matter. They’d gotten what they wanted and that was all that mattered.

As a bonus, Julius’s parents couldn’t make him go home to mate whoever it was they’d had picked out for him, which had the tiny omega dancing around the enclave in jubilation.

Now to work on getting the same deal for Minnie, once her trial was over.

One thing about being employed by a senator who had a staff full of smart, well-connected people —back channel leverage could move mountains in a surprising number of situations. It was simply a matter of figuring out who needed to be moved, and what lever they had that might work. Mike was looking into that for him, Lysoon bless him.

When Kaden had gone over the job offer, he’d been looking only at the direct benefits. Seemed to him now that the indirect benefits were the ones which were going to be worth the risks they were taking.

It had some personal benefits too. When the staff found out about the run-around that Kaden was getting in starting his military pension, word trickled to the ear of the senator and then, by devious means, to the ear of the president himself. Within a week, Kaden had been approved on the basis of his current medical records to be medically discharged and the paperwork for his pension was being expedited.

On top of that, the surgery to correct the bone overgrowth that made his prosthetic such a trial to wear got scheduled for the beginning of the second-last week of August—a sudden cancellation, the hospital said, which he didn’t believe for a moment. But when he tried to thank John and the senator, they brushed it off with a casual “Oh, I just mentioned it to someone over golf.” So Kaden had to settle for being appropriately grateful and working twice as hard as he had been before to make sure they knew he appreciated it.

With that scheduled, and if he healed well, he could stand on his own two feet when he mated Felix the first weekend of September. Not a moment too soon for Kaden’s liking. Or Felix’s, though it stressed his omega betrothed out trying to coordinate a mating ceremony in another enclave, organize his rozvennya, and find a mating outfit.

The only disappointment in the whole situation was that Julius’s request to go to White River to be in the rozvennya was denied. Which they’d pretty much expected, but it was a damper on the mood of his little family. The senator promised to look into it, but Kaden didn’t figure there was much hope, so he didn’t mention it to Felix. Better to not hope and have it spoil the month left until their mating. And Julius, Lysoonka bless him, was taking it all in stride—the young omega was growing up in leaps and bounds.

Four more weeks, and he was looking at the end of his bachelor days. Until then, he had his job and all the learning that came along with that, which kept him away from the enclave more than he’d anticipated when he’d agreed to take this position. Combined with the hour-long commute each way, it had resulted in Kaden borrowing the couch at the pack’s city house for a couple of days the week before he was supposed to head off for his surgery. He hated being away from Felix for that long, but if he was going to take time off for the leg and maybe eke our an extra day or two off after the mating, he needed to cram at least two weeks’ worth of work into one. Sure, they’d come looking for him in the first place, but that didn’t mean he could afford to take liberties. He’d rather they didn’t dump him as useless once his initial purpose was completed.

“You heading back to Mercy Hills tonight?” Duke asked Kaden over the evening meal that Friday night.

“Yeah.” Just thinking about it made the corners of his mouth curl up into a smile and he hastily shoved one of Bram’s meatballs into his mouth to hide it.

“Could you take some things back for Seosamh and Julius?” Bram asked. He was eating with one hand, redirecting one of the twins toward their meal with the other. “Duke, could you please do something with Jedrick? He’s dropping everything on the floor and it’s not like we’re humans with a dog to eat it.”

Duke turned a squinty eyeball on his son and the little pup grinned and dropped another handful of green beans on the floor.

“You’re cleaning that up,” Bram told his mate firmly, but with a smile.

“Eat, Jed,” Duke rumbled.

Kaden muffled a chuckle and took a forkful of his own beans. “He doesn’t know what he’s missing,” he said. “They’re good, Bram.”

“Thank you.” Bram speared a chunk of potato on his fork and waved it around. “So, could you?”

“Could I what?” Kaden asked, momentarily lost. “Oh, take stuff back to the enclave? Sure, you know that’s not a problem, you just have to ask.”

“It’s just some clothes for Julius. Now that the trial is over. I thought it would cheer him up— Holland says he’s having trouble seeing that we’ve still won, even if he was convicted. And Seosamh asked if we could send in a new comforter set for him.”

A pup as sheltered as Julius wouldn’t recognize how big a deal it was that he was being sentenced to stay within walls until his sentence was up. Though it did kind of show what some humans really thought about the enclaves. Still, it was good for Julius and the pup would eventually figure out how much ground they’d won that day, even if right now he was more focused on his sister.

Kaden was more curious about Seosamh’s request. “Have we run out of blankets? Or is Seosamh’s heat broken?” Seosamh was living in the tiny apartment that hung off the end of Abel’s house. Someone had mentioned it had been built for Holland, before he and Quin had entered the circle together, but had since been passed on to whoever needed a roof and didn’t need a lot of space. It didn’t look like it would be a hard space to heat, but maybe hanging out there on the end of the house, it got cooler than it looked.