Page 8 of Tending Our Omega (Saved by the Alpha Pack #1)
Heath
Our date had parameters. Honestly, I was glad. Our omega knew what she wanted and what her boundaries were.
Not more than an hour away from town.
She was bringing her son with her.
There was no movie theater in town and even if there were, that wouldn’t give us time to talk to her, and little ones, from what I knew of them, would only pay attention to 1 percent of the movie. Especially a shifter cub. They had the most wiggles of them all.
At least that’s what my mother said to all of my brothers and me.
“I’m nervous. I can’t remember the last time I was nervous about seeing a female.” James paced the living room. He’d been prepped and ready for the last hour and now was bugging the fuck out of us.
He wasn’t the only one nervous, but saying it out loud did none of us any good.
“Well, knock it off,” Seth barked. “It’s not making anything easier for us.”
We’d all pitched in for the meal. More than seeing Romi, I was anxious about what I’d made , but my wolf wanted to participate. He wanted her to eat something from our hands, even though none of us were sure how it tasted or if she would like it.
I was also wondering about her son. Romi mentioned that he was hearing impaired, but that was it.
We’d gone online to find out all the information we could.
The last thing we wanted was to offend him or Romi.
I’d never been around a shifter who was hard of hearing, but we wanted to learn how to accommodate him and her the best we could.
If Romi accepted us as her pack, which I wished she would, then that would mean accepting her son as well.
We would help to raise him. Love him like our own pup.
“Everything is packed in the ice chest and the basket. Can we leave now?” Heath asked.
“We’re early,” I said, checking my phone. “But maybe we can get there and pick a good spot for the picnic. Close to the playground, but with some shade.”
“Let’s go.”
Seth was keeping it cool, something he did well. If it wasn’t for the way he looked at Romi, I would think he wasn’t so interested, not as the rest of us. But he was. His smell sweetened and got more oaky when she was around us.
He wasn’t as much of an ass either.
Quiet, but not an ass.
We arrived at the park later than we thought.
When we parked, Romi and her son were just getting out of the car.
Her vehicle was older and, while not beat up, it wouldn’t be long before it petered out for good.
That was okay. Once she was ours, we would take care of everything for her.
Buy her a new vehicle. A new house. Whatever she and the pup needed.
“Good afternoon,” Romi said then crouched down to talk to her son. The way she looked at him was loving and patient. The young boy smiled at his mama and kissed the tip of her nose.
She was adorable with him.
“Maddox, do you remember Mommy’s friends, Heath, James, and Seth.” Each of us reached out and took Maddox’s extended hand. He shook with us like a little politician. Adorable. She’d raised a young man with impeccable manners. “Wanna go play while we get lunch set up?”
The little one ran for the playground, immediately going to the rope spiderweb apparatus and playing. All with his tongue out. He was working hard.
“He’s cute,” James said. “It’s the tongue for me.”
Romi laughed, a wind chime singing a song that went right to my heart. “He’s a handful but I love him to death.” She looked down. Whatever she’d said struck a chord. “You brought food?”
James held up the ice chest and the basket. “Seth has the blanket.”
We worked together to lay out the blanket and set up the food. I almost didn’t take out my cucumber sandwiches, but Romi spotted them. “You guys made all this yourselves?”
“We did. Not sure how much of it is edible. You might want to start with James’ food if you’re interested in taste. He’s the chef among us.”
She sat down and took one of my sandwiches instead. This was it. The sandwiches that not only lost us our omega but broke up our entire pack. Great. “This is interesting.”
Seth popped one in his mouth. “Dude, these suck.”
I took the plate and slid it back into the ice chest. “I tried.”
“At least you tried.” Romi put her hand on my forearm, and suddenly I wished I had made several inedible things just so she would touch me again. Her perfume filled the air, even here, in the park, and I couldn’t help the purr that rumbled from my chest.
“Tell us about your son. And you and how you are here. We’d like to get to know you better,” I said.
She blew out a breath and glanced at her son.
Even though she ate and talked to us, she’d had her eyes on him almost the whole time.
She was a good mama. I was proud of her.
“My mate, my alpha, our mating, and marriage were all arranged by my parents and the pack he belonged to. We didn’t mate for love or even the slightest bit of affection.
I talked to him for five minutes before we were mated.
He was kind and, less than six months later, I was pregnant with Maddox.
He was only a few months old when Andrew, another alpha, challenged my alpha for me.
I didn’t understand it. My mate had to constantly defend me and Maddox because of his hearing loss, so why someone would want me as a mate was beyond my understanding. ”
Because she was drop-dead gorgeous and smart and brave and determined. She didn’t see her worth, but we did.
Seth grunted at that part of the story. He would correct that later. All of us would.
“And what happened?” James offered her one of his sandwiches, and she took it. Yeah, it was better than mine by three thousand miles.
“They fought. In wolf form. They killed each other in the process. I was left with my son, and no one else in the pack wanted to be my mate. They shunned Maddox and ridiculed him for what they considered his weakness, and I didn’t want him raised with a pack who made fun of him.
So I took all my money out of the bank and ran.
” Tears welled in her eyes as Maddox came over.
He was sweating, and his face was red. “Mama!” He landed in her lap with a thump.
“Eat?” He had hearing aids, so he could hear us, but I wasn’t sure how clearly.
I also wondered if learning sign language would help him at all.
Us, all of us learning to sign. I’d seen Romi sign a couple of words, but not many.
Maybe we were on a similar wavelength…not that I should be jumping eighty-five steps ahead.
“Yeah, let’s get you something to eat.”
James helped her fill a plate for the little one. Cheese cubes. Pepperoni bites, which he called spicy, and some other things. He ate with his hands and studied us in between bites.
“Has he shifted yet?” Seth asked, refilling the tyke’s plate like he’d been doing it for years.
“No. He’s showing signs, but not yet. And apparently eating like a pig.”
Maddox’s answer to Romi was to snort and put a whole cookie in his mouth.
“Has he been around any other alphas?” I asked.
“Not since he was a baby, and that wasn’t a pleasant experience.”
Romi told us she worked at the bar to afford the bare minimum.
She’d used the last of her savings from her alpha to buy Maddox’s hearing aids, but he would need better ones soon.
She lived with an older woman who helped her with Maddox’s care when she was working, but she was concerned that he was wearing the kind lady down.
She only had a place to live because this older woman let her stay at her cabin for expenses and charged zero dollars for the care of Maddox.
The time between leaving the pack she once belonged to and now was a period of surviving. Holding her breath. Running on empty.
We could and would change that for her, if she let us.
She deserved to work only if she wanted to. To go to school or take up a trade. Whatever she preferred. Relax. Heal from the bone-deep trauma she had clearly gone through.
If she would let us in.
“We brought something we thought Maddox might like,” Seth said.
“What is it?”
“The best thing for entertaining children of all ages,” he said, getting up to dust off his ass. “Bubbles.”
She gasped. “I’m not sure I’ve ever shown him bubbles.”
“Oh, it’s on now.” I stood. Romi let me take her hands and haul her up to standing as well. “We did our research. Kids love bubbles, and,” I whispered in her ear, “I kind of like them too.”