Mating the Omega (MM Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 1)
Page 16
“We appreciate your attention to detail with respect to shifter tradition,” Laine said in his smooth, courtroom voice.
“I’d like some more detail.” Wilson pulled a couple of business cards out of his desk and handed them out, one to Laine and one to Abel. “I’ve only got a couple more years left on the bench, and I’ve had some interest from several law schools. Not big ones, no Yales or Harvards, but respectable. I’d like to learn more about how your legal system works, perhaps eventually teach a course in shifter law, as it works inside the packs, and how our laws affect you.”
I gaped at him, and looked up to see what Abel thought. He was turning the card over and over between his fingers, eying the judge like he was a rival Alpha. “You’d be setting yourself up for some trouble,” he finally said.
“I know,” Wilson said, and he pointed at Abel. “But less trouble for me than for you. All progress has to start somewhere. I can’t be the only one thinking this.”
Abel smiled. “I’d be glad to help, though Garrick here—” He passed the card along to Garrick. “—has a law degree. He just hasn’t been permitted to take the bar. He might be a better choice.”
Then Laine spoke up. “And perhaps I might help?” He gave a deprecating smile. “I found this entire process absolutely fascinating. And I hate to think they almost got away with it, simply because of my ignorance of the topic.” His smile stretched into a hunter’s grin—I could almost picture him running on full moon with us—and he said, “This could become a new specialty. And I do so love to be at the head of the pack.”
Little Mac took that moment to complain about how tight his quarters were and I nearly peed myself right in that chair. “Oomph!” I bent over and focused, counting backwards from ten until Little Mac got tired and my fears of embarrassing myself lessened.
“We’d better get him home,” Abel said.
Yippee! I stood up, probably faster than I should have, and toppled into Mac, which was kind of nice. My plan for the drive home was to be wrapped completely around him, once I had my chance to pee, so I took advantage of my inadvertent early start and kept my arms around his waist.
“I just have one last thing to say, if you can spare another thirty seconds.” The judge had stepped around his desk again.
I checked my bladder—I could handle another thirty seconds, no problem. “Yes, sir?”
He took my hand and I had to pinch Mac to keep his adorably alpha reactions in check. This was not the time to go wolf on someone just for touching your mate, even if your mate was feeling the start of another contraction in the near future.
“My wife wanted me to wish you well. She said some things yesterday evening that made me rethink how I wanted to handle this case, what precedents I wanted to set. You know what she told me?”
I shook my head dumbly. Who was his wife?
“She said the issues surrounding your case paralleled some of the issues we deal with in human law, even if you aren’t technically human. That the way we treat others who aren’t of our species can only bleed into the way we treat our own, and why should you not have the right to choose who you would spend your life with? And that if I didn’t do something to encourage the love she saw between you and your mate here,” he glanced up at Mac before looking back down at me again. “I’d be sleeping on the couch for a very long time.” He grinned and leaned in, as if to whisper a secret.
I pinched Mac again, and tilted my head to listen.
“Don’t tell anyone I told you that. We’re supposed to be impartial, but when dealing with issues around the very basis of humanity, sometimes impartial is the path to injustice, and allowing our hearts to have a say lets us see the truth of the matter. Take care of that pup. Now get going. I don’t want to be responsible for what the cleaning lady finds if you have it here on my floor.”
I hugged Mac closely and whispered back, “I will. And thank you again.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The mood in the car was one of triumph, and happiness, and excitement, despite the looming mill stone of my mating-price. I couldn’t wait to get home—and now I really could call it home. Montana Border had no more claim on me. Mac snuggled me close and Duke put my favorite music on the CD player. Laine would be driving Garrick and Dad home in a couple of hours, after they’d had a chance to finalize whatever legal things there were left to do.
I didn’t even mind when the next contraction hit, and the next one, lasting a little longer each time, coming closer together with every set of pains. The skin tingled and burned at the base of my belly, where my omega line lay like a geologic fault in my flesh. All I wanted was to get home and into our house and have our baby and be home with my mate and my family. Yes, I was getting a little giddy, but with so much excitement and stress, it was a wonder I wasn’t lying in Mac’s lap in a flood of tears.
Abel and Duke were talking about putting aside a small apartment if Laine was truly serious about getting involved in educating humans about shifters, and I had just lifted my head to suggest inviting him for next full moon, when I saw the car coming at us.
There wasn’t time to yell, or warn anyone, or anything. Just to stare, startled, as a huge old Lincoln came barreling at us from a side road, heading straight for Mac’s door.
I didn’t remember the impact. I didn’t remember the car spinning, throwing me first across Mac’s lap, then onto the floor because I’d been too stubborn and uncomfortable to wear my seat belt. The next memory I had was lying on the floor, Mac unconscious and bleeding above me, and my belly hurting like I was dying.
“No, no, no, no, no!” I struggled up and checked Mac’s pulse. Yes, it was there, strong, but fast. The blood wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, mostly cuts from broken glass I thought, but he had a lump on the side of his head that I didn’t like the look of. My belly cramped up again and when I touched the front of my pants, my fingers came back red with blood, but not blood—it smelled different. Shit, the baby’s coming. Mac had a cell phone. I undid his seatbelt and was trying to make him comfortable and search for his phone when someone wrenched open the car door and dragged me out by my hair.
“Fuck, what the fuck?” I yelled, and my womb tightened into a screaming ball of pain. I looked up as well as I could with that hand in my hair, and felt my blood go cold. It was Orvin.
“Hello, omega. Understand, you’re going to pay for all this, right?”
Like fuck I was. “I doubt it.” I’d learned a lot those six years on the run. True to my omega nature, I’d rather run and hide than fight, but I’d learned how to do that too. I swung my arms in a circle in front of me, twisting them around Orvin’s with all the force I could manage in my adrenaline-fueled state. It ripped his fingers out of my hair, taking a clump with them, but I was free. I kicked him in the balls and slammed my arms down on the back of his neck, then bolted for the trees that lined the side of the road before any of the others could react.
I ran, and ran, and ran, crying so hard I could barely see, stumbling over rocks and tree roots. A stream cut across my path and I jumped into it, following the direction of the water until I found some rocks I could climb out on. All those years of watching adventure shows and documentaries were paying off. I’m sorry, Mac. I didn’t want to leave him behind, but there was the baby, and he’d want me to protect the baby first. It was a part of the alpha personality, and it was a part of Mac too.
The next contraction sent me to my knees and I keened with the pain, my blood thundering in my ears. Please don’t let Orvin find me. I hoped they were searching in the wrong direction. I hoped they’d lost me in the stream. I hoped they’d all fallen off a cliff and died.
A huge pine had fallen over on the edge of a small hill. It made a nice little hollow, mostly hidden from random passers-by. It wouldn’t hide me from Orvin or anyone, but the contractions were coming on hard and fast now. The front of my pants was soaked and instinct drove me to find a den for myself and my baby.
This would do.
My belly bulged, pear-shaped, and I let my head fall back, focusing both on not screaming and on not dying or passing out. Fuck, this hurt more than I’d expected. You’ll never remember it, my ass. This was going to be imprinted on my brain forever, and somebody was getting a stern talking to when I got back to Mercy Hills.
I wanted Mac.
The demon in my belly let go and I collapsed against the wall of my den, practicing my breathing. A few tears escaped as I considered how alone I was, then more as a wave of longing for Mac’s arms hit, just before another contraction caught me off guard. I lost awareness of anything but my body, the pressure of the baby forcing its way through layers of muscle toward the now-open gap in my belly.
I thought I was hallucinating from the pain, then Mac touched my ankle and I yelped.
“Jason? Did I hurt you?” He crawled the rest of the way into my den and reached out for my face.
“It’s you! You’re real!” I started to say something else, I don’t know what, but the next contraction hit and I grabbed for Mac, holding on with all my might while our baby tried to tear me apart.
“Breathe,” he told me, moving behind me so I could lean on him.
I wanted to tell him to fuck off, but the next contraction followed hard on the heels of the last one, and I felt a weird stretching between my hips. “He’s here,” I gasped. “You have to catch him!”
“Shit.” But Mac moved me gently up against the wall and slipped in between my legs. “I can see him!”
The contractions were never-ending now, going from one, straight into the next. I caught sight of the top of our baby’s head, then a glimpse of shoulder, and moments later, Mac was holding her. Her.
We had a daughter. And fuck, could she wail.
He laid her on my pants, filthy as they were, and that’s when I noticed. “You’re naked!”
He grinned up at me, still wiping the blood and other fluids from our daughter. “I tracked you in wolf form. Duke and Abel took both sides upstream.”
“Downstream was easier.” I lay back and closed my eyes for a moment.
“That’s what I figured. They’ll probably be along when they don’t find you.” It was quiet for a moment, except for the sound of the baby’s cries. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired.” I opened my eyes and lifted my head. “Lighter. Happy.”
Mac smiled and brought the baby up to me. “Here she is. We’ll have to come up with a new name—can’t keep calling her Little Mac.”
“Why not?” I cradled her in my arm and fell absolutely, entirely in love. Not that I hadn’t loved her before, but until now, she’d just been an idea. Now she was real, and she had my heart wrapped around her little finger as surely as Mac did. I smiled up at him as he sat beside me and pulled me close to the warmth of his body, but it wasn’t long before both our gazes were drawn back to the now sleepy baby in my arms.
This. This was everything, and worth all that had come before.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Mac brought me another cup of tea—decaf, now, since the baby fussed when I drank anything with caffeine in it. “Have you decided on a name for her?” He set it on the table beside me and came to lean over my shoulder and fawn over our child.
“I thought we were doing that together?” I rocked Little Mac, even though she was already asleep, had been, for at least fifteen minutes. I couldn’t bear to put her down.
He kissed the top of my head. “We need to register her soon.”
I gazed down at her beautiful face. “I think she’s going to have your hair.”
“Poor kid.”
I smacked him, but secretly I loved the idea of her having Mac’s hair. “What about Mackena?”
“You’re really trying to name her after me?”
“I like your name.” I liked all of him. And once my omega line was fully healed, I planned to show him. Actually, if the baby napped as well this afternoon as she had yesterday, I might see if he’d let me give him a blow job. I missed Mac, in that way anyhow. In every other way, he was entirely present. “What names do you like?”
“I don’t know. She’ll always be Little Mac to me. You can call her Mackena if you want.”
Yeah, but he didn’t like that. “What about Macy? It’s a little old-fashioned, but it’s got a ring to it.”
He looked thoughtful. “Macy,” he said, like he was tasting it. “I like that. Want me to call and make sure there’s no one with it already?”
“Sure.”
We stayed there for a moment, just the three of us.
Our family.
☻Brought by Kiti for Superiorz.Club☻
About Ann-Katrin
Ann-Katrin loves to write, read and dream. In her spare time, you can often catch her hunting wild plot bunnies in the fields of her imagination. In her other life, she’s a mother and a translator, but writing about men and the men they fall in love with is so much more fun!
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Other Books by Ann-Katrin
Mercy Hills Pack
Mating the Omega (Book One)—Review it here!
Still to come:
Abel’s Omega (Book Two)
Duke’s Baby Deal (Book Three)
Legally Mated (Book Four)
Fires of Fate
Under the Dragon’s Spell (Book One)
The Dragon of His Dreams (Book Two)