Mac tried balancing Fan on one foot and had to catch the laughing pup as he fell off.
Duke snorted in appalled amusement. “No wonder Jason worries about you breaking Macy.”
“Naw, she bounces real good.” Mac lifted Fan up on top of his feet again. “You never know until you try. Look at me and Jason. And there’s nearly as many years between us.”
Man, how he wanted to. Just hearing Mac tell him to try was nearly enough to send him barreling across the grass to body slam the younger alphas out of the way. But Mac’s omega was exceptional, way older than his actual twenty years, and despite Mac trying to convince him that the eleven years between them didn’t mean anything, Duke was skeptical. Bram was…Bram. And Duke was himself. And as much as it drove him wild to watch Bram cozying up to the younger alphas, he knew in his heart that it was best for both of them.
“Seriously,” Mac said, refusing to take Duke’s silence for the wishful no that it was. “You can’t know until you ask him. And it’s just a dance.”
He could ask. What would it hurt? Above them, the clouds twisted and reformed, from islands, to turtles, to something unrecognizable. Felt kind of like him, if he thought about it. He’d been aware of Bram, like most of the pack were, on the periphery of his life ever since Bram had been born. After all, he was Mac’s cousin, and Mac had been both proud and worried and baffled when it had happened, which meant he’d talked a lot about this omega miracle. But sometime since Bram’s sixteenth spring, Duke had realized that his interest in Bram had changed its shape, kind of like the clouds had, and Bram wasn’t just Mac’s interestingly different little cousin now, but someone who was just…interesting. But what would a seventeen-year-old want with a man who’d turned twenty-eight?
“Well?” Mac said, as annoying as summertime mosquitoes. “The worst he can do is say no.”
True. But still… “He’s not even eighteen yet. Maybe in the spring.”
Mac made a sound of disgust, then carefully dropped Fan onto his feet and sent him back to the daycare pack. He sat up and tossed a handful of grass in Duke’s face. “You’re going to give the other guys a six month advantage?”
Duke sat up as well, wiping the tickling grass off his face. “I’m letting him become an adult.” He couldn’t help his eyes going to the crowd of young alphas and betas surrounding Bram, and the obvious flirting happening. Damned Justin Montana Border sauntered up and Bram turned to him with a beaming smile, and Duke wanted to cry challenge right there and then. Bram glanced over at them, and Duke quickly looked away to hide his anger and frustration.
Mac watched Bram and his suitors for a moment, his expression thoughtful, then turned back to Duke. “I think Bram’s closer to being an adult than he lets us think, though he drives Jason crazy some times. But he’s trying to figure it out on his own, and, to be honest, Jason’s not much help, because he doesn’t fit in as a traditional omega either and Bram’s parents have started to keep Bram away from him. Bax is taking a hand, but with the pups, and the new baby coming, he doesn’t have the time. And well, you know how Bram can be. If he had someone he looked up to, to lead him in that direction…”
Duke got to his feet, careful not to look over by the playground equipment. Well, after one painful glance that showed Justin actually putting his hand on Bram. “I don’t want to be his father.”
Mac stood as well. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Whatever.” Duke waved him off, his heart aching, and Mac mercifully dropped the subject. “I need a drink.”
“Water or beer?”
“Water, idiot.” But Mac’s goofiness peeled away a layer of tension. “Then beer.”
Mac slung an arm over his shoulder. “Let’s go grab that workaholic cousin of yours and see what Jason’s got in the fridge.”
“Yeah, alright.” He needed to get away from uncomfortable play going on in front of him anyway.
Puppy whoops sounded behind them as they turned away from the playground. Duke and Mac half-turned to see Fan barreling across the grass towards them.
CHAPTER THREE
“So you’ll save me a dance?” Edmond asked eagerly.
“I’ll have to check my list,” I told him gravely. Poor guy really didn’t get that he didn’t have a chance. Though tonight, he might get one. The way I felt at the moment, I’d dance with everyone—as long as Duke was around to see it. He’d completely ignored me while I was over there. I flicked a glance over Edmond’s shoulder to where Duke was lying on the ground in the shade of a tree, talking to Mac. His mouth was tight, the corners turned down. He glanced over my way and it tightened further, then he looked away again.
Damn you, Duke Mercy Hills. I shifted my weight to one leg so my hip stuck out attractively and smiled up at Edmond. “I know I shouldn’t dance them, but I think I still have some of the later dances open.” The lover’s dances. Definitely wasn’t supposed to dance them, but as long as I could keep out of arm’s reach of my parents, who cared? I didn’t. “I’ll save one for you.”
“I hope that’s not your last one.” Justin’s drawl came from my right, and I spun and smiled up at him. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Duke watching us, and—was that pain mixed in with the disapproval? I thought it was—I hoped it was—and it set off a small fountain of triumph and joy inside me. Just come over here and demand a dance! But apparently being alpha didn’t make you telepathic. That, or I was reading stuff into his expression that wasn’t there. In frustration, I turned back to Justin.
“Nope. Still one or two, I’m sure.” I’ll make sure. “But I only have the lover’s dances left,” I told him breathlessly. Oh, he was hot. Just looking at him made me want to grab him and pull him down on top of me. Of all of them, he was the only one who could give Duke a run for his money, though for very different reasons. With Duke, I wanted to bring out the beast, the wild man and his wolf, that I sometimes sensed underneath the easy-going appearance. I dreamed of the day he threw away all the polite social conventions and grabbed me and demanded his rights. Even thinking about it made a shiver run over my skin.
Justin must have assumed he was the one to make me shiver, because his grin widened. “Well, I’ll take whatever you have left, darlin’,” he said, and ran the back of his index finger over my cheek. I almost forgot Duke at that moment—I’d always found Justin fun and exciting. Dangerous, even. He treated me so differently than the Mercy Hills shifters did, like I was a grownup, ready to mate right now, instead of in six months. Like I was an omega from another pack, where they let them mate earlier and treated them like adults. More importantly, he treated me like I wasn’t just the novelty Mercy Hills thought I was, but a sexy man. He gave off the impression that he could have me at any time, except he was choosing not to. Like I was so special I could make a bad boy behave. I’d decided that maybe there was a heart of gold underneath there, though it didn’t always show.
Or, at least, that was the story I told myself when I was mad at Duke. Which was most of the time, to be honest.
If Justin hadn’t been from Montana Border, I’d have been tempted, but I didn’t want to live the way Jason described it. I liked my luxuries. I liked not having to scrape and wait for things to be fixed. I liked having a job, which Montana Border would take away from me. I especially liked the idea that, if Bax could have an important job that took him outside the enclave, then maybe I could have one too. So, really, Justin was just a bit of fun, and a stick to poke Duke with until he finally wolfed up.
Speaking of… I lowered my eyelids so I could peek at Duke without anyone noticing. Yeah, he was mad. But the question was, why? Mac’s face was interesting, too. He seemed just as frustrated as I was, and it all appeared to be directed at Duke. Maybe I had a chance…
I opened my mouth to say something provocative and see if I could push Justin to do something that would make Duke do something, and that was when I saw Fan running toward Mac and Duke again. “Excuse me, I have to chase him down.” I didn’t wait for a r
eply, but ran after Fan. Not that I thought he’d get in trouble, but this habit of charging off without telling me first was driving me crazy and I was trying to break him of it. Also, I didn’t want Justin feeling too sure of me. After all, I was a prize, right? And you never knew what might happen if I was close enough to Duke. He might say something that would lead to something that would lead to something else… right?
“Hey, Fan!” Duke said and held out a fist so Fan could fist-bump him. Fan complied, so seriously I nearly laughed out loud. I wondered if I should ask Duke to dance with me, since we were both here. But if I did, and he said yes, how would I know he wasn’t just humoring me? And besides, he was the alpha, right? I couldn’t count the number of times I’d been told that a proper omega waited to be asked.
Anyway, I had to deal with the pup first. “Fan, did you run off without telling me again?” I glanced over my shoulder to check on the rest of the pups, but everything seemed fine. Half of them had moved over to the slide and the sandbox while I was chatting with the alphas, so the potential for squabbles had gone down enough that I could risk staying this far away.
“Can I go with Mac and Duke, Bram?” Fan asked, reaching for the alpha’s hands.
“No,” I told him. “You’re supposed to be in daycare. Mac and Duke have things to do.” Even saying his name made a shiver run up my spine.
“I’ll call Dabi and ask,” Duke rumbled, in that sexy deep voice of his. “We’re going to go disturb Abel anyway.” His glanced up at me, then just as quickly away, and I was confused once more, because I could have sworn he’d looked at me with longing.
I just wanted to shake him.
He called Abel and got the okay, so I handed Fan over to them. Duke was really good with him—he’d make a great father some day. For some lucky shifter who probably wasn’t me.
Duke didn’t even say goodbye when he left.
I sighed and turned to trudge back to the rest of the pups. I didn’t even feel like flirting any more.
CHAPTER FOUR
Rosie dropped by at the end of my shift. “Come to Supplies with me!” she said gleefully and grabbed my arm.
“Why?” I asked, but was there really any point? Rosie was as headstrong as Fan, and I was going to Supplies, whether I wanted to or not.
“There’s new cloth in, and they’re saving me a bolt.” She jumped in place and giggled.
“What’s so special about this cloth in particular?”
“It’s a perfect color for both of us.” She dropped my arm and whirled around in front of me. “I’m going to make a blouse, and you can make a shirt, and we’ll be twins!” She grabbed my arm and hung off me again.
“We don’t look that much alike,” I told her. Apart from our coloring, and something about our noses, we didn’t resemble each other at all. Rosie was round-faced and pink-cheeked—hence the Rosie, since her real name was Gertrilda, or something equally horrible. My face was leaner and more square. She was also a hell of a lot shorter than me. I pried my arm out of her grasp and went back to putting away the last of the toys from free-play time so that Tayana wouldn’t have to clean up at the beginning of her shift.
“Close enough,” Rosie said. “Come on, it’ll be fun. We can go back to your place and start putting them together.”
“My place?” I stopped and put my hands on my hips. “Why my place?” Not likely. My parents would be sooooo happy to see me settling down, doing traditional omega stuff, like they even really knew what that was. Bax had been telling me different things he was learning going through the old histories, and being a stay-at-home bearer wasn’t the only thing an omega could do. But my parents were convinced that I was going to find a nice alpha or beta wolf and settle down with him or her, and then we’d start producing pups for them to spoil.
Okay, maybe I did want pups, but I didn’t want to do just that for my entire life.
Rosie huffed. “Well, if we take it over to my place, we’re going to have the brats all up in our business and then someone will get a pin stuck in them, and it’ll be all hell to pay after that and we’ll never get anything done.” She blushed a little. “And I really wanted to try out this new pattern I found. It’s seeeexyyyyyyy.”
Rosie wanting to be sexy? Now I wanted to see this blouse. “Fine. But we’re not both wearing the same color at the same time, like we’re some sort of twins from different mothers.”
“As long as I get to wear it tomorrow night. Ales asked me to dance with him.”
“Whooo!” She’d been talking about him on and off for about a year. Nice to see she’d finally gotten through to him, little socially-unaware nerd that he was. Or maybe he’d gotten through to her—who knew? But Ales had just started with Abel’s software company, and Rosie liked tinkering with the insides of computers, so once she got her training they’d be even more perfect for each other. I was absolutely willing to help my friend out with that. “Deal. But you have to help me pick out something to wear tomorrow night. And help me finish cleaning.”
“Yes, sir!” she said, and saluted. “What do you want me to do?”
“You can wipe down the tables. There’s a spray bottle and rags in the cupboard over there.” I handed her my keys, and went back to putting everything in its place.
We ended up getting four different kinds of cloth, which we then spread out over my living room floor—Mom was home and that meant that my bedroom was off limits, because the moon forbid I have anyone up there without a chaperon or someone to make sure I didn’t do anything I shouldn’t be doing.
They weren’t big bolts of cloth—sometimes we got stuff that was deliberately ordered, but most of the time we got things that were the stuff left over after a business was done with them. I didn’t mind—it usually meant a lot of choice, and I was good enough with a needle that I could put something together that you’d never guess had been made out of scraps.
“I love this,” Rosie crooned, stroking a length of chocolate brown velvet.
“You know,” I told her, tugging over a piece of cotton the color of coffee with tons of milk in it. “We have enough between this and the other cotton and that velvet to make a dress, not just a blouse.”
“But then there wouldn’t be enough for you!”
I shook my head. “I think I can take this turquoise—” I lifted a corner, shiny and slippery like satin, and shook it. “—and use it to change up one of my old ones.” I did have one that I’d grown out of years ago, black, with embroidery over the front and the sleeves. It didn’t fit anymore, but with the extra material I could make it work. And the turquoise was a good color for me; laid against the back of my hand, it made my skin look like rich cream with a hint of caramel in it.
Rose looked doubtful, but the lure of brown velvet eventually won. “Well, I’ll have to owe you, because the velvet’s way more credits than the blue, and I spent a bunch of mine last week on money to buy stuff on Amazon.”
“Buy me lunch next time you get your disbursement.”
“Deal.” We shook on it and I got my measuring tape out.
Mom left and Dad came home. It didn’t make much difference—it was more a changing of the guard than anything else. Another reason I liked having outside work—I could do what I wanted when I wasn’t around them. And I was tired of being treated like I had no sense.
In the small gap of time between Mom leaving and Dad walking in the door, though, Rosie and I had a conversation about my stupidity this morning.
“So, yeah, he’s pissed now. I think. But even if I had a chance, I’m pretty sure I screwed it up big time,” I told her glumly as I sketched out the pieces for a wide A-line skirt with a nub of white chalk. My sewing was a lot better since Jason got hold of me. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it, but I deliberately refused to do it because it was pushed on me so hard as a traditional omega skill. But now I could resize and adapt clothes, and even design something if it wasn’t too complicated. Like the dress I was planning for Rosie.
She paused
in cutting out a section of the top. “Duke, pissed? That doesn’t sound like him.”
“It is when he’s around me.” I set aside my chalk and reached for my big scissors.
“Well, any wonder?”
Ouch.
Rosie kept going, her tongue moving as fast as her fingers as she pinned the pieces of the top together. “And besides, he’s related to Dad on his mom’s side, and he’s just like my cousin Landon. Total peacekeeper, looking after everyone around him, making sure everything goes fine. He’s like an alpha, without the asshole.”
“Hey, Abel’s not an asshole!”
She raised her eyebrows at me. “Really? You remember his mating ceremony? He wanted that fight. Abel just hides it better than most.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she was right. And honestly, though I’d never really thought of it like that before, that lack of assholiness was what I found so intriguing about Duke. I was diva enough for the two of us.
Rosie clinched her argument with, “And he grew up in Quin and Abel and Cas’s shadows. I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought you didn’t like him, because there’s so many guys always trying to dance in the limelight for you.”
Ouch again. “I’m going to have to apologize.”
“More than that.” Rosie bit off a length of thread and wet the end, then peered at me through the eye of the needle. “I think you need to ask him to dance, and tell him straight that you think he’s the best looking man in the pack and if he wants you, you’re his. And then drag him into the trees. I’ll run interference with your parents for you.”
“I couldn’t!” It was one thing to flirt and push against the rules when I was in plain sight, but if I dragged Duke into the trees… “Rosie, you’ll ruin me! I can’t do that!”
“Would you if he said he wanted you?”
I opened my mouth to say no, but the words wouldn’t come. Because the truth was, if Duke said he wanted me the way I wanted him, I’d throw him over my shoulder and carry him away. Well, I’d try. Most likely, I’d immediately be crushed beneath him, but I thought it would get my point across. And I absolutely wouldn’t mind being crushed under Duke. “You’re right,” I said, and then frowned at Rosie’s exaggerated gasp and recoil of shock. “Oh, stop. It’s not like I’ve never, ever admitted I was wrong before.”
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 2
