Page 97 of Omega's Heart

“It wasn’t a mistake. I honestly was just...” Felix got up on his knees and turned so they were facing each other, Felix leaning slightly on Kaden’s thighs. “We omegas were always kept a little out of the way when we were changing, but it wasn’t like we were out of sight. It was a... kind of a safety thing, I guess? No one likes to be just grabbed, you know?”

“I wouldn’t mind if it was you,” Kaden offered, struck by this simple, eloquent description.

Felix laughed and twined his fingers through the ones on Kaden’s good hand. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he answered gravely with a quirk of his lips. But the humor didn’t last long—only a moment later, Felix sighed and shook his head, staring down at their hands. “No one’s ever looked at me like that, not since I started to grow like I did. I never had to worry about being pinched or having my rear slapped, because no one saw me that way.” He paused, his gaze still resting on their joined hands, and added in an off-hand voice that did nothing to hide his anxiety, “I just thought, What if he doesn’t like what he sees?”

It would have been easy to just brush away Felix’s concerns. Too easy, and that made it smell something like a trap or just a plain old bad decision. Shitty judgment often smelled like this. So he thought about what those words would mean and why Felix had come here, to Mercy Hills, leaving behind everyone and everything he’d ever known. “Would it bother you,” Kaden began slowly, picking his way carefully through this swamp, “if I said it was you more than your body that I wanted to mate?”

Felix slid back down to the ground, but Kaden was relieved to note he never let go of Kaden’s hand. “It wouldn’t surprise me, maybe? I...don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about it.”

Kaden tightened his fingers until he felt Felix squeeze back. “I like you. I want to mate you. I suspect, underneath those neat, modest, not particularly form-fitting clothes you always wear, there’s a body I can definitely appreciate. It certainly feels like a nice one.” A thought occurred to him and he moved their hands over, so Felix could get a solid appreciation for his...uh, problems...whenever his mind started getting ahead of him.

“Kaden!” Felix exclaimed, but his shock was colored with scandalized delight.

“Don’t be so loud,” Kaden said pleasantly. “Everyone’s looking at us now.”

Felix snatched his hand back and this time Kaden let him because he’d seen the look of relief on his future mate’s face.

“Go get some sweets for the two of us,” he urged his omega. “You can run them off me later chasing you.”

That made Felix laugh out loud and Kaden grinned at him, feeling an odd sense of triumph. He’d get the hang of this. All it needed was a bit of perseverance.

“All right.” Felix stood up and leaned over to kiss him quickly on the lips before he turned toward the dessert tables.

Kaden made sure to get in a good pinch before he left. It made Felix jump but when his betrothed strode off, he walked with his back straight and proud and it seemed to Kaden that his future mate looked more comfortable in his own skin. Guess I’ll have to grope him inappropriately whenever I get the chance.

Fifteen years of missed pinches and fondling—he had a lot of work ahead of him.

That was okay—he liked work. Kaden settled himself more comfortably in the chair, not bothering to hide his smile, and began plotting his strategy.

C H A P T E R 5 7

Since they were going to run after, Felix hadn’t disappeared back to the apartment during the dancing like he apparently had been doing since he’d arrived. And he’d watched the dancing with a sad hunger that made Kaden ache unexpectedly for him. He’d fix this because it would make Felix happy. But for tonight, he breathed a sigh of relief when the musicians put their instruments down and the pack began to drift away, shapes changing in the light of the moon.

“Ready to run?” he asked.

“Sure,” Felix replied with his usual calm, but Kaden caught a sharpness to his scent, a hint of anxiety and uncertainty that the big omega hid very well. “Can we go over to those trees there?” He pointed toward a small grove of cherry and chestnut that marked the edge of the park proper.

“Of course.” Kaden wasn’t going to put any obstacles in the way tonight. He wanted Felix to have as smooth a path forward as he possibly could, because the more he came to know about this beautiful creature, the more he suspected that Felix’s over-calm demeanor wasn’t entirely his natural personality, but was at least in part due to the bumps his life had taken in the past.

Felix got behind the chair and gave Kaden a boost any time the wheels got caught in a rougher patch of ground until they were right in the center of the little grove. Off in the distance, someone howled and Felix lifted his head with obvious longing.

Kaden set the locks on the chair and flipped the footrest out of the way to push himself up to his feet. Foot. Oops. He wondered if he should share the joke, but looking at Felix, maybe later. After. Right now, the air was filled with possibility and he intended to take as much advantage of it as he thought would do his omega some good.

He’d made sure to park close enough to a tree that he could just reach out and use it to steady himself as he pulled off his t-shirt and slid his jeans down to the ground. The trickiest part turned out to be getting the sneaker off—he should have done that while he was still sitting.

Then Felix was there to hold the shoe down while Kaden hopped out of it. “Next month, I’ll have the other leg back,” Kaden promised. “Why are you still dressed?”

Felix still knelt in front of him, the shoe in his hand. “Oh, I...” He went red again and his words tumbled down into a disjointed mess.

“Sweetheart,” Kaden said in a tone of reproof. He’d never been given to using endearments, preferring very much to call a spade a spade, but it seemed right in the moment.

“I just want to fold your clothes first,” Felix protested, suiting actions to words. Kaden watched him with narrowed eyes and when it looked like his betrothed was going to try to delay a little longer, he clicked his tongue and shook his head at him.

Felix stared at him for a moment, then nodded, took a deep breath, and pulled his t-shirt off over his head in one supple movement.

Fuck me. Then, Three more weeks. He schooled his face so that none of his sudden avarice would show and merely watched as Felix awkwardly shimmied out of his jeans—that was a glorious sight in and of itself—and finally stood naked in front of Kaden.

Except for the wad of clothing he held defensively in front of him.