Page 94 of Omega's Heart

“It’s gorgeous. But it’s very red. I’m wondering if we made a mistake.” Felix carried over their plates, including one with plain meatballs for Hunter, and sat down.

“Need an opinion on it?” Kaden asked, curious. And maybe just poking the wolf a little, because it was fun when Felix put him in his place.

“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” Felix told him, his tone severe. “Eat your food before Hunter gets it. You know he’s faster than he looks.”

Kaden gave Hunter the side-eye and prudently moved his plate an inch or two away from their foster pup. Hunter shot him an expression that very clearly said that if Hunter wanted Kaden’s food he could easily snag it, being a soldier himself.

Felix shifted on his chair, moving a little closer to Kaden, and his scent drifted to Kaden’s nose, even over the smell of the sauce on the meatballs. Kaden smiled at him and made a show of enjoying his food, but his mind had wandered off to thoughts of mating outfits. He planned to use the old family one for himself, the same one that Abel had worn when he’d mated Bax. But the traditional omega’s tunic that the alpha clothed the omega in at the end of the ceremony had been a problem. The family tunic had fit Bax and Holland pretty well—it wouldn’t come near Felix.

Holland had offered to solve that problem for him and, under the guise of searching for fabric for the tunic that Felix would wear as an unmated omega, Holland had promised to find something rich and worthy of Kaden’s mate and to have it made into a tunic that would make Felix as proud of himself as Kaden was of him. He’d been teasing Kaden about it ever since, which made Kaden even more anxious to get to the ceremony. If that was even possible.

Thinking of being mated, though, he had some more news to share. “You know, I didn’t just go shopping for ribbons today.”

Felix raised an eyebrow at him. “No?”

“No. Do you want the good news or the surprise first?”

“I don’t think that’s how it usually goes.”

“I’m not your usual alpha,” Kaden reminded him. “Which do you want?”

“Hmmm.” Felix stirred the contents of his plate and frowned as if it was a difficult decision and needed a lot of thought. He took long enough that if Kaden had had both of his legs, he’d have been hard pressed not to dance with impatience, though it probably wasn’t really all that long.

Then he noticed the slight curl at the corner of Felix’s mouth, almost hidden. “You tease,” he accused his future mate. “Serve you right if I made you wait until tomorrow.”

“An ordinary alpha might do that,” Felix agreed complacently and Kaden burst out laughing.

“You’ve been spending too much time with Holland,” he complained. “Okay, if you won’t pick, I will.”

“I don’t mind.” Felix leaned over to push the beans that Hunter was trying to hide under the rim of his plate back to where the pup could get them in his mouth. “What do you want to tell me first?”

“What am I getting into?” Kaden wondered aloud and was rewarded again with that tiny curl at the corner of Felix’s mouth. “Okay, well, the first thing your exceptional alpha—” Felix let out a noise, quickly choked off, but Kaden suspected it might have been a laugh. Magnanimously, he ignored his betrothed’s silliness and continued. “As I was saying, I spoke to Quin and Holland while I was driving home and we were talking about the issue with Saffron Green Moon and her grandmother. So, I’ve managed to get us a choice of one of the new places when they knock down the Enclosure homes, or one of the townhouses in the new section, two rows down from Ori. Three bedrooms, all one level in the townhouse, or four bedrooms and more choice in floorplan if we’re willing to wait for the Enclosure houses. I’m voting for the townhouse—we’ll be able to move in as soon as we’re mated. And it means that we can move Saffron into the guest apartment with her grandmother and move Julius over here. Cale can take your bedroom when he’s here, or if he promises not to cut me to shreds with that tongue of his, the spare room in our place. At least until we fill it.”

Felix dropped his fork on the table. “You are an exceptional alpha,” he proclaimed and leaned in for an impulsive kiss.

The kiss reminded Kaden that they had the evening to themselves and he cradled the back of Felix’s head so the omega couldn’t escape. Like any reasonably intelligent alpha with betrothed of this quality, Kaden wanted to be sure Felix understood just how difficult it was going to be for him to stop at kissing tonight. But Kaden would do it if it killed him. It couldn’t be any harder than clearing out a nest of insurgents with half your ammo already gone.

Something rattled on the table and Felix jumped back. “Hunter! You have your own food!” He gazed at the remains of one of Kaden’s meatballs in disbelief before he pushed what was left across the table to Hunter with a resigned sigh. “I’ll get you a new meatball,” Felix said and got up to go back to the kitchen.

Kaden leaned back in the chair and watched him idly, just enjoying being home again. “You still haven’t said if you want the three bedroom or the four bedroom.”

His betrothed paused in the middle of scooping not one, but two meatballs out of the pan and looked over his shoulder. “I’m happy with whatever you want.”

“But what would make you happy?” Kaden fended off Hunter’s continued interest in their plates and propped an elbow on the table to block the pup’s determined attempts to help himself.

“I’d like to have my own home. But this is our home too.”

“In spring there’ll be three of us.”

“I know.”

The satisfaction and anticipation in Felix’s voice brought a smile to Kaden’s face.

Felix brought the replacement meatballs back to the table and tipped them onto Kaden’s plate. “Can we still get a larger place later, if we outgrow the smaller one?” He squeezed Kaden’s hand before slipping away to go back to putting up their meals.

“I don’t see why not.” Kaden backed the chair up and rolled over to gather up silverware and glasses. “And the surprise is that I also got the first of my pension payments,” Kaden added casually. “So I think you should grab Holland and Ori and whoever you want and go shopping for the new house.” He shrugged and grinned at Felix’s pleased expression. “I’m only an alpha. What do I know what we’ll need?”

They ate then and caught up on each other’s lives. It was only once the meal was done and they were comfortably ensconced on the couch that Kaden brought up the one possible issue he could foresee in the next couple of weeks.