Omega Moon Rising (Toke Lobo & The Pack)

by MJ Compton

  Luke’s family gathered around the Grant sisters, as if they were Omega now. Ethan and Restin also accompanied the group to Oak Moon.

  Deja vu all over again, Luke thought as they stood in line at the funeral home, D. Sendall, Director, serving the families of Oak Moon for four generations. Only Gary had changed places.

  There were almost as many callers for Gary as there had been for Tina. Some of the same people who’d been at the first funeral filed by. Gary’s co-workers at the brewery turned out in force. Abby claimed she didn’t know those men. While Luke’s hand rested on the small of her back, he kept his gaze on Libby, to gauge her reaction to the mourners.

  As far as Luke could tell, Libby’s problem—ADHD meant nothing to him—rendered her immune to the people around her. She showed no shyness, no hesitation, and accepted sympathy as her due. The girl had no filters. She also jiggled, and fidgeted, and tried to wander away. “Doesn’t Gary look good for someone whose brains were blown out?” Luke heard her ask someone.

  Abby introduced him for a second time to her second grade teacher, her Girl Scout leader, her Sunday School teacher, and her mother’s former co-workers at the grocery store. Gary’s poker cronies were out in full force. “Digger did a good job. I heard Gary was a mess,” Jesse Stetson said to Pete MacDougal, who’d brought his highly aromatic mother. Charmaine MacDougal spent several minutes fawning over Libby, who enjoyed the attention.

  Luke opened his senses to these strangers and was rewarded with static in his head and a stuffed nose from the perfumes battling the floral arrangements. He wished Stoker with his miracle nose or Hank with his super and sub sonic hearing skills had accompanied them.

  Creepy as he was, handling dead bodies and all, at least Digger Sendall had made sure everyone had water available at this session.

  Abby sat stiff and aloof on the drive to the cemetery. She’d been cordial but distant since their talk at the lake. He wanted the old Abby back, the one who had treated him like the best stud the Ancient Ones put on the face of the earth.

  And he wanted her again. Maybe he was a selfish jerk, but if they were married, he didn’t see why she wouldn’t get naked with him. He didn’t want anything to happen to the baby either, but he could be careful.

  His first thought went to photos he’d seen on the Internet, but immediately skittered from there. Ever since discovering his wife in her provocative innocence, he’d lost his taste for his favorite websites. Or maybe marriage to Abby changed his perspective. He squirmed in his seat, trying to ease the sudden tightness in his pants.

  Granny scowled at him—the limo was huge, so the entire family rode to the cemetery together. He wondered how Granny knew what he was thinking. Eww. He didn’t want to think about his grandparents like that.

  But there must have been that; otherwise, the family wouldn’t have been busted to Omega for seven generations.

  And thinking about his grandparents in the throes of passion wiped the idea of a quickie with Abby straight from his brain. He needed to focus on his anger about what had been done to his family now that interspecies mating was no longer considered a crime against the pack.

  Luke had been plotting since Tokarz, whose grandfather revoked Luke’s grandfather’s status, had mated with Delilah. A human. Mighty Alpha double standard. If Tokarz could get away with a human mate—and Stoker, and Hank—without losing status, then Luke’s family deserved their status back. If only he could do something to prove the worth of the people beyond their namelessness—he could force Tokarz to reconsider the elder Garnier’s decision. Granny had proved worthy of status with her midwifery. She was a valuable asset to the pack. And an outcast all the same.

  It was wrong. Plain wrong.

  Luke helped Abby from the car, then cupped her elbow and helped her pick her way to the solitary gravesite. Her mother had been buried next to her father, in another part of the cemetery, next to two small graves Abby said were her stillborn sisters. Gary was nowhere near the Grants.

  “He should have been cremated,” Abby muttered, as a cool wind sliced down the mountain. “He deserves to burn, but Digger insisted. It’s not as if he wouldn’t make money. He owns a crematorium near Fort Collins. But no. Digger and Gary played poker together, so Digger wanted to pull out all the stops for him.”

  As far as Luke was concerned, doing right by Gary Porter would be tossing him off the side of the mountain for nature’s scavengers to deal with.

  After the graveside service, Luke took Abby home. To his house, not his grandmother’s. The carpenters had been working almost non-stop to get the addition done. Winter was already whispering on the wind.

  “What do you think?” Luke asked.

  The restructuring had changed the entire character of his dwelling. The cabin had been what a homo sapien would call a man cave. It had been Luke’s den. Sole. Lonely. An omega not allowed to mate.

  Which was nonsense on his part. Of course he was allowed to mate. Hadn’t his father? Luke was still young. Tokarz and Stoker were in their thirties before they’d found their mates.

  And besides, Luke had a wife. He liked having a wife.

  “What do you think?” he asked again, when Abby didn’t answer.

  “What I think doesn’t matter,” she replied. Her words were so soft they might have disappeared on the breeze had Luke not been paying attention.

  “Sure it does. You’re going to live here, too.” Then he winced. Right. He’d pretty much told her that after the baby was born, she wouldn’t be living with them.

  “Well, for the baby,” he amended. “We need to pick paint colors and stuff.” He knew he was babbling, like an anxious teenage girl.

  “The baby won’t be here often enough for it to matter. Pick something you like.”

  “What do you mean?” Luke asked. “She’s going to be living here.” When she wasn’t with his parents.

  Abby shot Luke a look filled with a bunch of emotions he didn’t know how to label. All he knew was they were on the nasty side.

  “I don’t know what ridiculous notions are in your head this week, but taking my baby away from me had better not be one of them.”

  “Your baby away from you? She’s my baby, too.” And she’s going to be able to do things you’re not going to understand.

  Or would she?

  Ancient Ones, no one had thought about that. His father and Aunt Macy could turn only on the full moon. Shifting wasn’t an option for them. Luke, being three quarters lycan, was as good as a full blood when it came to morphing to and from wolf form—but it was more difficult for him. Like his senses weren’t nearly as keen as full-bloods, although he knew they were better than the average human’s. His and Abby’s child would be somewhere between half and three quarters. He did the math—sixty-two point five percent human. Who knew which genes would dominate?

  “And why do you think it’s a girl?” Abby asked.

  Luke grinned. “Because I would love a little girl who looks like you. All rosy and golden. Like sunrise. Hey! We can name her Rosie Dawn.” He really liked that. Rosie Dawn Omega. No. Scratch that. Rosie Dawn Thibodaux. The surname he so desperately wanted to reclaim.

  Abby looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “That’s a terrible name.”

  “It’s a wonderful name. Let’s write a song for her.”

  “What if it’s a boy?”

  “I can live with that.” A son he could teach to play the drums. Teach how to be part human in a lycan world.

  Then he got depressed. Rosie Dawn would have a difficult time, like his Aunt Macy. Who had never mated. Who had taught Luke his love of technology. He never stopped to wonder if Macy was lonely. She was always around.

  “I could have a sonogram,” Abby said. “Go to a doctor. There’s a good OB/GYN in Oak Moon.”

  “You don’t need
a doctor,” Luke snapped. “You would hurt Granny’s feelings if you went to a doctor.”

  He’d been thinking about teaching Abby to drive, but now reconsidered. If she couldn’t drive, she couldn’t sneak off to a human doctor who wouldn’t know how to interpret whatever differences there were.

  “I know you love your grandmother, but what if I don’t need to stay in bed as much as she wants me there? I read on-line it's better to be active during pregnancy.”

  Maybe Abby needed to talk to Delilah. Tokarz’s wife had come through her half-lycan pregnancy fine, with only Granny to guide her. And Delilah had been active, too.

  “Let’s talk about this later,” Luke grumbled. “You’re still going to be living here for a while, so you have a say in how the baby’s room is going to look.”

  “Since when do I have a say in anything?” Abby asked. “I’m twenty-one years old and have never been allowed to make a decision in my life. But that’s about to change. This is your place. I have a house in Oak Moon, where Libby, the baby, and I will be moving when you decide to get your divorce. Or maybe I should move home now. Gary’s gone. There’s no housing council deciding what rooms should be what. If I want to paint every room in the house black, I can.”

  The sun, low in the sky, crept through a window and nested in Abby’s hair.

  “You won’t,” Luke said. “Black isn’t in you. There is no darkness in you. That’s one of the things that first attracted me to you. I thought you looked like a valentine.”

  “Don’t,” she said in a low voice. “You made it real clear the other day. We’re temporary. And that’s okay. I don’t blame you at all. But why prolong it? Gary’s dead. I have the house in Oak Moon. Libby and I can move back. Why go through all this . . . fakery? To put on a show for your family and friends? ‘Luke got the girl pregnant, so he’s doing the right thing.’ Fine. You married me. The kid will have a last name.”

  Luke winced at that.

  “There’s no point in prolonging any of this. Paint your new rooms whatever color you want. Libby and I will be moving to Oak Moon in the morning.”

  Abby turned as if to head back to his truck, but Luke caught her arm.

  “No.” He couldn’t lose her. Not now. He wasn’t ready to go back to being single. He liked having Abby around. “You can’t move back to Oak Moon. Gary’s killer—”

  Abby stopped. “You think Libby and I might be in danger?”

  “I’m not willing to risk it.”

  “You’re not willing to risk the baby.”

  “Or you. Or your sister.” Luke’s tone was sharp. Where had Abby gotten this notion of worthlessness? “You have to stay in Loup Garou. You’re safe here.”

  “You can’t guarantee that.”

  “Oh, yes I can. Let me explain to you how this is going to work, darlin’.” He hated that he sounded like Tokarz had in his early days of being mated to Delilah, but now he understood why Tokarz had taken that tone.

  “You’re going to pick out some colors to paint the new rooms. The housing council will do the painting. Once the fumes are gone, you and I are moving back here.”

  He steered her toward the largest room in the new addition. “This is going to be our bedroom. I don’t want you climbing those steep stairs to the loft. I’m moving my computer and drums up there. I’ll be working with the FBI for a while, and the loft is going to be my home office. The room next door is going to be the nursery. I’d like to see it yellow and pink, but if you’re carrying a junior, he might not like that. Little Rosie Dawn, on the other hand, will love it. Libby is going to be in the third room. My folks love having her, like the daughter they never had, but she belongs here with you and me. You can ask her what color she wants her room painted. We’ll stop at my folks on the way back to Granny’s.”

  Abby opened her mouth to argue, so Luke did what any self-respecting werewolf would do, and kissed her. He clutched her other arm and pulled her closer. He released his grasp and slid his arms around her waist. One hand cupped her oh-so-soft bottom.

  He broke off the kiss—Abby had participated—and rested his forehead against hers. “We’re going to live here. Together. I’m going to work upstairs. You’re going to grow our baby. Now, maybe this is sexist of me, but we tend to be conscious of gender roles here in Loup Garou, so yeah, I expect you to clean and cook and stuff. Not all of it. I know how to wash clothes and put food on the table, but the majority of the housekeeping is your area.”

  He was so hard in his dress slacks he thought he was going to explode. “We’re going to share a bed, and if we’re real careful, we’re having a sex life. I did some on-line research, and I think Granny’s only afraid that if you climax, the contractions will hurt the baby. So I’ll have to make sure you don’t—”

  Her palm connecting with his face shocked him. First of all, it hurt. Nor had he seen it coming.

  “I am not your toy,” she said, her voice shaking. “I refuse to be anyone’s plaything again. Not for pictures, not for gratuitous sex. Libby and I are moving back to Oak Moon tomorrow.”

  Luke shifted his jaw back and forth. Abby certainly packed a wallop. “Yeah?” he asked. “How do you plan to get there? Because I’m not taking you. There’s not an individual in Loup Garou who will drive you and your sister to Oak Moon.”

  “You’re keeping us prisoner?”

  “We’re keeping you safe.” Luke insisted. “Stop being so stubborn and admit you need help.”

  “I had a plan,” Abby shouted. “Sell my songs to Toke Lobo and move as far away from Colorado as the money could take me. And you thwarted that.”

  If Luke hadn’t taken a few steps back, Abby might have pummeled his chest. Her face was dark pink, and not in a healthy way.

  “Calm down.” Granny would have his pelt if she knew how riled Abby was. Abby would be stuck in that bed for the rest of her pregnancy.

  “Don’t you tell me to calm down. You’re the one who got me into this mess.”

  “I’m the one who got you out of a worse mess,” Luke reminded her. “If I hadn’t gotten you pregnant and you and your sister out of Gary’s house do you think your life would be better right now? Tokarz can’t afford to pay you enough money for your songs to get you and your sister out of Colorado. Even if he wanted them. Which he might.”

  “You showed him the songs?”

  “Yeah.” Luke didn’t want to think about the humiliation of that bus ride.

  “You couldn’t have told me that?”

  Star points of lights flashed in Luke’s vision. “I’ve had other things on my mind, wife of mine. Like seeing you naked on the Internet. Kind of wiped out everything else for a while.”

  “Right. You’re an undercover FBI agent trolling porn sites for under-aged girls. How silly of me to have forgotten. Everyone in the world thinks you’re the drummer for Toke Lobo and the Pack.”

  Fine line between the truth and what Luke wanted her to believe. Needed her to believe.

  He clamped his jaw shut. Arguing with her wasn’t accomplishing anything except making both of them crazier than they already were.

  “I don’t want to fight with you,” he said. “I’m not supposed to tell you what I’m up to, but you need to know.”

  “Because of Libby.”

  “Because of Gary and what he did. To you. Maybe to Libby.”

  Abby flinched.

  “Why do you think the cops were so eager to arrest me for his murder?”

  “Because you kept saying you were going to kill him.”

  “Right. Before I ever found out about the . . . pictures. Because of what he did to you. Each and every time I threatened to kill him was because he was mistreating you.”

  He let her think about that for a few minutes.

  His phone rang before she responded.

>   He checked the caller ID and turned his back on Abby before answering. It was Mitchell Jasper.

  “You’ve looked through all that footage already?” Luke answered the phone.

  “No. I’m giving you a heads up. The FBI obtained a warrant to talk to the kid sister.”

  “We got the kid sister out of danger as soon as we were aware of the problem. I got her out before I even knew there was a problem. My wife is Libby’s legal guardian, and—”

  “Your wife knew there might be a problem and didn’t do anything.”

  “My wife was a victim herself.”

  “It won’t work, Omega. The FBI wants Elizabeth. Tonight.”

  Luke disconnected before Jasper could tell him any other details.

  “Come on,” he said, grabbing Abby’s hand. “We need to see Tokarz. Now.”

  Chapter 15

  The whole family except Colette, who’d stayed with Libby, was gathered at Tokarz’s house. “There’s nothing I can do,” Tokarz told them.

  Abby still couldn’t figure out why they’d come to the mayor. They needed a lawyer, not an up-and-coming country music star. The only thing Tokarz could do was hide Libby better than she was already hidden.

  “The only thing we can hope is for Abby to be with her.”

  “Abby shouldn’t be stressed,” Granny said.

  “Too late,” Abby muttered. A wolf howled in the distance, and she shivered.

  “They’re not going to let Abigail sit in on the interrogation,” Tokarz said.

  “Even more stress.” Granny was on a roll.

  “I can, though,” Luke said. “I’m working this case.”

  “And Restin,” Tokarz said.

  “Restin doesn’t need to be there,” Luke argued.

  Restin had been a quiet force at both Gary’s and her mother’s funerals. Abby didn’t understand why Luke was so adamant Restin not be involved.