But damn, they were expecting fancy food from me? I bent over the stroller to hide my grimace. Maybe I’d get lucky and find one of those ‘Sophistication in 5 Ingredients’ books. “All right, pups, let’s go.” I herded them off out the door, keenly aware of Miranda’s gaze on my back. For once, the two oldest stuck close to me. Maybe they’d been weirded out by Miranda too.
I was lucky enough to get two machines at the pack laundromat. I signed for them, watching my few pack credits dwindle even further with a small inward sigh, then started unloading the diapers into the first. Even though I rinsed them at home—home, ha!—I usually ran them through a second rinse here, and then a wash. Then home to dry on the clothes line, because I had little enough income to keep four children clothed.
The second washer got all our light things—mine and the childrens’ combined. I didn’t bother keeping them separate any more—it wasn’t like any of us had anything that didn’t have at least one stain on it. I started the water and tossed some washing soda in with the soap, in the hopes of dealing with the worst of them. “Okay, who wants to sit on the washer?” The big excitement—hanging onto the vibrating washer during the spin cycle.
“Me, me!” Teca cried, holding her arms up.
“I’m the oldest!” Fan yelled, and pushed in front of her.
“Which is why,” I reached around him to pick Teca up. “You should let her go first.” I set her on top of the machine with the diapers in it.
Fan started to frown, and I could see the warning signs of the temper tantrum to follow, which would mean I’d have to punish him, something I absolutely didn’t have time for today. I swooped down on Fan, tickled him, and set him on the other washer, where the little alpha seemed content.
“Up, up!” Beatrice chanted, her only intelligible word, other than ‘milk’ and ‘Dabi’. It had been Fan’s name for me when he was first learning to speak and he’d never grown out of it, so of course they all called me that.
I was already too tired to deal with Fan’s meltdown if he had to share his machine, so I undid the clips holding Beatrice in the stroller and set her on Teca’s machine, keeping one hand on her to make sure she didn’t fall off. I bounced on my toes to keep the baby happy, and disappeared into my little fantasy world, the one where I wasn’t a poor widowed omega with no prospects. In this world, I was useful, and wanted for my skills, though I didn’t quite know what they were. I just knew I was important. And somewhere, in the far distance, was a shifter who liked me for me, not for my omega womb and my omega heats and the fact that I was prettier than most of the female shifters in the pack. A shifter who would love my children and take them as his own, and who wouldn’t care if I never wanted to have sex again as long as I lived.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Once the machines had finished, I escorted my family into the library—really, two rooms sectioned off inside Central, where all the pack’s supplies were kept and the offices that kept track of housing and who still had credit in their accounts were found. Mine was nearly empty—my attempts to supplement what had been left in Patrick’s account were pitiful.
I discreetly dumped the bags of still wet laundry in a corner where I could keep an eye on them. They were still setting up in the tiny room they used for story time, and meetings and whatever else they needed a room for, so I grabbed Teca and had Fan help me push the stroller up to the desk. “Hi, could I book a computer while they’re in for Story Time?”
The woman behind the desk knew who I was—everyone did. They also knew my situation. “Of course, Baxter. You can take number four.”
“Thank you.” I signed her clipboard, took the librarian’s nameplate from Teca and put it back on the desk, and hustled the pups off to the Story Time room. As soon as I got the two oldest settled, I hurried back to the little cluster of computers in the center of the room and logged in. While I waited for the computer to work its way through whatever computers did when they were starting up, I dug into the back of the stroller for the chewy-book, as I called it. It was plastic, and tough as nails, and had been gnawed on by both my eldest two before going to Beatrice to entertain her while she teethed. She took it with a squeal of glee and immediately put it in her mouth. “Yeah, you go to town on that, ravenous little creature.” I tickled her belly, then turned back to the computer.
Okay. What do I search for? I tried easy and sophisticated, then party food, then tried finger food. The baby burbled and waved his hands around, then spit up a tiny bit. Absently, I wiped a cloth over both of us as I read through the recipes, becoming more depressed with each one. I knew the Alpha would want what he called ‘a spread’. Good food, and lots of it. Why they had to pick on me, instead of getting one of the more talented shifters to do it, I couldn’t imagine. There was really only one reason that I could think of…
No. They wouldn’t. Noah wasn’t even five months old. Would they really mate me again so quickly? Sure, I’d been thinking that I needed too, but the sudden reality of it sent a chill down my spine. I shrugged that train of thought off, but found myself wandering away from the cooking websites.
Search: Mercy Hills Omega.
A list of websites came up, some of them news, some blogs, some of them those kinds of sites that I didn’t go to anymore. The kinds that thought all shifters should be just walled up and left to fend for themselves, and shot if they went outside walls. Or even just shot. Period.
I clicked on one of the good ones, meaning only to read one story before I got back to looking for food ideas, but then there was a link… and another link… Soon, my whole hour was gone and I had to pick the pups up, and I hadn’t accomplished anything.
Except to know that Mercy Hills had used tradition and human justice to fight the rule of pack law for this omega, and it seemed they’d done it because he was in love and it was the only way he could be happy.
Imagine that ever happening here.
I glanced at the clock and realized I’d gone over my time. If I didn’t move now, I was going to be late starting lunch. I gathered up my things in a panic, and wondered if I could sneak back down again tomorrow morning, early enough that Miranda could still get whatever supplies I would need. Probably not. I was going to be in so much trouble, and that familiar tight panic began to smother me.
“Baxter? Are you okay?”
I looked up from tucking Beatrice’s rabbit in beside her and found the librarian watching me with concern. “The Alpha asked me to make food, finger food things, for a meeting he has with a potential new pack member. I just couldn’t find anything I thought I could do.”
Her expression said that she was thinking the same thing I’d thought earlier—the Alpha was crazy to ask me to produce anything fancy in the kitchen. She patted my arm. “I have just the book for you. Follow me.”
I grabbed the stroller and wheeled it behind her to the other side of the room. She walked down a shelf, fingers ticking off each book in turn, until she came across one with a wide white spine, with green letters sprawling along it. Then she pulled out another, smaller, not much more than a leaflet. “Here, you take these. They’re all easy, and you can bring them back after you’re done.”
I stared at the books, promised salvation, but… “I can’t. You know I can’t sign for them.” I needed a not-omega if I wanted to take anything out of their tiny library.
“I’ll sign them out for you. I trust you to bring them back.” She pushed them into my arms. “It’s not like I don’t know where you live.”
I laughed, part relief, part not-so-funny humor. “Yeah.” Then, softer, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Fan came running up to me and crashed into my leg. “Dabi, can we have more stories? Can we? Can we?” He jumped up and down in his impatience. Teca toddled out in the middle of the small crowd of pups, her head turning this way and that as she looked for her family. Finally, she spotted us, and she hopped over as if her legs had been tied together. Fan was still jumping up and down like h
e had to pee, wanting another story, and the baby started to fuss at the noise. I threw a grateful smile at the librarian and began maneuvering the stroller in the direction of the exit. “No, Fan, not right now. You’re going to play in the back yard. Do you want to invite someone over? I think there’s still some cookies in the box.” I knew there were, because I’d put them up on the highest shelf on the wall in our porch. No way Fan was climbing up there.
“Can we have candies too?”
“I don’t have any. Maybe next disbursement day.” I’d have to find some more work somewhere, but there just wasn’t that much extra money going around that people could afford to hire me for anything, especially when they could probably do it better themselves. And I sure as hell wasn’t taking up any of the other…offers…that had come my way. Though if I couldn’t find any other way to earn credit, I might be forced to start earning it on my back. The thought made me sick, but I had four pups to think about, and human welfare wouldn’t be enough to keep us fed and sheltered. My situation didn’t leave much room for scruples. That knowledge, though, made the idea of mating again soon a little more palatable.
Fan stopped walking, his face set in stubbornly determined lines, and crossed his arms over his chest. “No!” he yelled. “I want candies.”
“I don’t have any.” Thank you, child of mine, for telling the whole world how poor I am. “Come on, now. It’s nearly lunch.”
“No!” Fan yelled, even louder this time.
I glanced around at all the curious stares. Probably I was only imagining the judgment in them, but still, I cringed. I crouched down beside Fan. “We can’t get anything here. It’s a library. Come on home.”
“No!”
The baby started to cry, and suddenly I’d had enough. I looked Fan straight in the eye. “If you don’t come right now, the next time we go anywhere, I’ll carry Beatrice, and you’ll have to ride in the stroller.”
Fan’s eyes went wide, and I could see the wheels turning in that smart little brain. His eyes went to the stroller, and Beatrice happily waving her rabbit about, then back to me, perhaps to see if I was actually serious. “Fine,” he spat, the word laughably incongruous in his little boy’s voice, and stomped toward the door.
Grimly, I grabbed Teca’s hand and followed my son outside.
CHAPTER NINE
Mac got home just as it was getting dark. He’d have to leave again before midnight for his shift in the security building farthest from their home, but it was okay. He’d have supper with Jason and Macy, grab some sleep, perhaps curled up with his two favorite shifters, and then head out to his second shift of the day.
This mating-price worried him. Jason’s attitude toward it worried him even more. As much as his mate tried to prove he wasn’t bothered, and that he had every faith in Mac and Abel finding a solution, Mac had been living with him for almost seven months now. He’d started picking up the signals.
“I’m home,” he called quietly as he came in the door. He didn’t want to wake Macy if she was asleep, which the newborn did a lot.
“Hey.” Jason came around the corner of the kitchen, stirring something in a bowl. He sidled up to Mac, the bowl held off to one side, and lifted his face for a kiss.
“What are you doing out of bed?”
“I’m fine, it’s been a week.” Jason kept his voice low, and Mac looked around for the baby. He found her on the floor behind the table, tucked into a woven basket, and wrapped up in one of the blankets Jason had made before she was born.
“I know, but it wasn’t exactly a perfect birth. And you promised me until Friday.”
“It’s Thursday evening. I’m okay. How did the harvest go?”
“There’s still some left for tomorrow, but it’s about done. Bumper crop this year. We’ll all eat like kings.”
Jason laughed and turned back into the kitchen. “I’m making muffins, and there’s stew on the stove.” He began ladling the soupy mixture from the bowl into a muffin pan. “You go wash up and I’ll have supper on the table when you come back down.”
Mac kissed him on the side of the neck, careful not to touch him with his still dirty hands. “It smells fantastic.” Then, just because he could, and he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to in six months, he said, “I love you.”
Jason smiled fondly at him. “I love you too. Go wash.”
Mac took a quick shower, scrubbing at his hands until the dark stains left by the soil he’d been working in were mostly gone. He got out of the shower to discover that Jason had been upstairs and left him a comfortable pair of jeans and a T-shirt, clean underwear, and freshly darned socks. Mac smiled as he dressed, and made sure he cleaned up after himself before heading back downstairs. If he didn’t, Jason would be upstairs wiping up the puddles before he’d feel comfortable sitting down to eat.
True to his word, Jason had the table set and two bowls of savory stew set out on the table, with fresh baked bread and butter.
“This looks fantastic.”
“Thank you.” Jason sounded truly pleased, as if he didn’t expect his efforts to be praised. And once again, Mac wondered what had gone wrong in Montana Border to create a shifter with so many talents, who believed he was nothing without an alpha’s approval. Or maybe it was Mercy Hills that was the odd pack out—it wasn’t like there was a whole heck of a lot of travel between the packs to get to know them.
Mac shook off the thought and sat down to eat. Jason was better than that. It was only at odd times that he got like this. Generally, he was more alpha-like in his manner, except that he was the diplomat, the soother of feelings, the grease that kept tempers from running high. Mac glanced across the table, to meet Jason’s gaze. Jason smiled, and Mac smiled back, his mouth full of bread and stew, and his heart full of happiness.
They’d find a way to pay that mating-price. If worst came to worst, he’d set Jason on them, and Jason would have them all eating out of his hand.
CHAPTER TEN
I loaded a platter up with the stuffed mushroom caps I’d pulled out of the oven not ten minutes ago and carried it out to the living room, where Roland, Carl, Salvodoro, their mates, and Sebastian, the potential new pack member, discussed the world, politics, and the state of the pack system. Deftly, I exchanged it for the empty one where the phyllo bites had been, and retreated with a pleasant smile plastered across my face. As soon as I made it to the kitchen, I slumped against the wall and closed my eyes. I was sick with the strain, but so far everything had gone to plan. I hadn’t fucked up any of the food, and the pups had been well-behaved, distracted in the porch by a movie on the small television Roland had borrowed from another pack member.
Drinks. Their glasses had been near empty when I was out there. Bourbon, white wine, and beer enough for all the men—they were really going all out. They must have thought he was a good doctor. Although, any doctor would be better than what we had. I carried everything out to the living room and filled glasses, being perfectly unobtrusive, completely omega. The only person, in fact, who seemed to notice me was the new shifter. I caught his eyes on me several times, watching my hands as I served, my ass as I bent to place something on the table, my mouth the few times I spoke. I’d dressed well tonight, in some of the clothes I used to wear when Patrick entertained, though so many of them were designed to accommodate my belly that there hadn’t been much choice. Still, I thought I looked good, in deep green cotton and black dress pants, a necklace Patrick had given me when Fan was born glittering gold and emerald around my neck.
After the past five miserable months, the stranger’s attention was like balm to my soul, and I preened under it.
I did a last sweep of the room, picking up dirty plates and taking them with me back to the kitchen. They should have been all right for a while, and I should have taken the time offered to start on the clean-up, but I was curious to hear what they were saying when I was out of the room. So I put the tray on the counter by the sink, and snuck back to the door to eavesdrop.
; Roland’s voice drifted out the opening. “…was surprised when you agreed to speak with us. I’d heard that you were also considering Mercy Hills.”
Sebastian answered, “I was, but I didn’t care for the Alpha’s attitude there.”
Roland chuckled. “Well, we’re not a huge community, Not like Mercy Hills or Los Padres, but it does give you a chance to really get to know your patients. We’ve got a site picked out not far from here where we can build you a house with an attached clinic, or we can set the clinic up in Central, and just build you a house. Whichever you find more convenient.”
“I’m sure whatever you decide would be fine. There are advantages to both plans.”
“I’ll have someone do up a sketch of both ideas and present them for your approval.” The conversation paused to allow for the clink of cutlery against plates.
A new house! I wasn’t certain when the last one was built, but it had been a while ago. Most of the pack lived in barracks, or cheap mobile homes from the seventies, or the few apartment buildings the pack had. I wondered how big the new house would be. They would want to impress the new shifter, keep him happy, so probably close to the Alpha’s house in size. Although, part of the reason for the size of the Alpha’s house was the guest accommodations built into one end. The rooms this doctor would be staying in tonight.
I bit my lip, wondering what the best option would be. Miranda had made it plain to me this afternoon that I needed to impress this potential pack member, not that I hadn’t come to that conclusion myself. She would miss her housekeeper, but she wouldn’t mind not having an unattached, attractive omega under her mate’s nose all the time either.
And I wanted my own house again, so badly. I really didn’t doubt that my smartest move would be to attach this man, as soon as possible; I was willing to be what he wanted to have that security for my babies. The question was, would he rather have an omega that couldn’t wait to get into his bed, or one that waited obediently for the mating night?
Abel's Omega(Gay Paranomal MM Mpreg Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 2) Page 4
