Page 9 of The Omega's Alpha
Oh, yeah, this was going to be a good one. But my time was up, and I had to get out of the bath and get dressed because it was almost time to go pick Fan up from school, and he would probably be bringing friends and wanting snacks, so I reluctantly stuck a scrap of paper in the book to save my place and closed it.
Chapter Nine
Quin closedup the office just before supper and he, Bax, and Abel walked across to the daycare to pick up the pups. “Quin!” Teca screeched, sounding more like a pterodactyl than a five-year-old pup, and ran across the room toward him, leaping over toys, pups, and a table in her excitement. “Are you coming home with us?”
“Coming for supper,” he agreed.
“Yay!” she said and jumped around. “Let’s get the babies.”
Abel snorted and scooped her up. “Here’s my baby!” He blew a raspberry on her belly and made her squeal, then propped her on his hip. “Where’s Bea?”
“She’s Princess Bea today. She’s in the castle.”
Outside. Duke had built a playhouse-slash-castle out of scraps and leftovers from the houses in his spare time, what little he had. Quin knew it was going to hurt to lose him for the winter, possibly for the next six years depending on Bram’s schedule, even though they had other talented carpenters in the pack. But Duke had started showing a knack for making something useful out of scrap, and in a place where nothing was wasted, that was almost a more important skill than the ability to measure and build to plan.
The castle was a busy spot. Pups ran through the doors in both directions, hanging out windows and yelling at the top of their lungs. Quin saw a knight, a cowboy, and a police officer race in and out of sight in quick succession, and then Bea, in a sparkly blue gown, came tearing out the door straight for them. “Pap! Dabi! Come see the dragon!” Then she came to a full stop. “QUIN!” She giggled and ran up to hug him. “Come see the dragon. We built him today in school.” She grabbed his hand and Bax’s and led them around behind the castle. “See?”
Cardboard boxes, probably scavenged from Supplies before they could be turned to other uses, had been cut and bent and twisted into something that kind of looked like a dragon, then painted to complete the almost-resemblance.
“Wow, he’s great,” Bax cooed.
“He is,” Quin agreed.
“I colored his tail,” she informed them proudly. Quin let her take him over to examine it more closely.
“You did a good job,” he told her and she grinned happily at him, then skipped back to her parents. “Dabi, Pap, can Quin come home with us?”
“He’s coming for supper.”
“Yay!” She ran back over to him. “We can play.”
Quin sent a glance at his brother, a request to be saved from the perils of glitter and baby dolls, but Abel smiled wickedly back. “Sure,” Quin finally said, giving Abel a simultaneous stink-eye. “Unless something comes up. Then Pap will play with you.” His satisfaction at Abel’s expression was almost immediately punctured by Bea’s “Nah. He’s boring. He keeps wanting to build things, but then he never lets me knock them down.” Abel’s thoughtful look in response to the pup’s innocent critique gave Quin hope of escape, and when Bax smiled at Abel, it clicked that Bax might have mentioned the concept of play versus work to Abel a few times. Then Bax smiled at Quin and he felt the knots in this shoulders, so constant he hardly noticed them anymore, begin to unwind.
That omega thing. True Omega. They really needed to dig farther into it—the project seemed to go in fits and starts as the project members got involved in other things. Bram had gotten a lot done in the spring before the twins came, but then it had been put aside once more. And Abel wanted it kept within a small circle of packmembers, at least until they knew what they were dealing with.
Quin had to admit he agreed. If True Omegas could do what the legends said they did, then it might have been better if they’d died out in the Enclosure after all. And it wouldn’t only be the reactions of the other packs they’d have to deal with, but the reactions of the humans as well.
But even knowing it was Bax that had drawn down the tension that never quite seemed to leave him, it still made the decision to skip out on the last of his work today a little easier on his mind. Anything Bax did would be to make things easier for the other person.
His session with the therapist had been profitable, too, at least from his point of view. Maybe today he would take that first step and sniff out how Holland felt toward him.
They picked up Noah and Taden from the baby yard. Bax carried Taden—who was already fussing with Bax’s shirt—and Quin let Noah perch up on his shoulders. It was a twenty minute walk to their home next to the gate connecting the newly expanded section of the enclave. That travel time for people living in the new section itself was going to become an issue. He was tempted to set up a Supplies depot and maybe another small library, so packmembers didn’t have to come all the way in to the main building to make use of those services. The other half of Bram’s duplex was already designated as a clinic, for that moment years down the road when he could take over on his own. Quin wished there was some way to hurry time along.
Talk to Adelaide and see if she’ll let him shadow her whenever he’s here. Should have been doing that all summer.No, he couldn’t have. No alpha in the history of Mercy Hills had ever stolen that first six months from the pack’s pups, and Quin wasn’t going to start it either.
Realistically, he had to find a way to convince more packmembers to go outside walls to get training, but it was hard. Humans were unpredictable, except in that you could be sure something negative would happen. Maybe he should take that photographer’s offer seriously, in the hope that it would ease tensions between the two species. They couldn’t keep on like this, hiding behind their walls. Sooner or later the whole structure would collapse, or implode, and they’d tear each other to pieces in their frustration.
When they opened the door of Abel’s sunny home, now painted a cheerful yellow on the outside, the rich smell of tomato and herbs rolled out to draw them in with promises of a delicious meal. They put the pups down so the young ones could run inside and wash, but the sounds of other pups playing in the back yard proved too great a lure and all of them except Taden and Noah disappeared around the side of the house, forgetting their adult companions in an instant.
Holland came out of the kitchen wearing a wide smile and a blue shirt that made his eye spark like sapphires. “Oh, good, you’re just in time.” His smile deepened when he saw Quin. “I hope there’s enough. I made biscuits to go along with it and I can make garlic butter if anyone wants garlic bread.” He turned and disappeared back into the kitchen, and Quin found his feet automatically padding after him. He barely noticed Abel and Bax turning down the hallway toward their bedroom.
There was something different about Holland tonight. The reticence was gone and in its place was something Quin couldn’t quite put a finger on. Or maybe the difference was in Quin. Lysoon, he hoped so.
Holland moved about the room with quiet assurance as he put the final touches on the food. On the surface, he appeared completely absorbed in his task, but it felt to Quin as if he was being observed the entire time. It was…unsettling in a strange way and also exciting, because it seemed to herald some shift in their non-existent relationship, a change that he’d been hesitant to put into play while he struggled with his memories and Holland struggled with his.
Holland flicked a glance at him from under his lashes and it felt like flirtation, and not that subtle verification of mood Quin had seen both Bax and Holland perform so often. “Why don’t you sit down, Alpha, and I’ll get you a beer.” Holland’s words seemed to caress Quin’s title. He’d always stood tall and straight, only a handful of inches shorter than Quin, but today he wasn’t trying to fade into the woodwork and Quin suddenly wished his brother and all his brother’s family in the Moonlands so he could explore this new, exciting side of Holland. Quin let himself be shown to one of the kitchen chairs and given a beer, ice cold with condensation already beginning to collect on the side.
Abel entered the kitchen and raised his eyebrows at Quin’s beer before helping himself to one. “Smells good, Holland. Do we have enough time to take the babies outside before it’s ready?”