Chapter 28 Angus
Chapter twenty-eight
Angus
“That look in your eye’s making me nervous,” Colt said.
“Is it?” I asked, patting the bed beside me. “In a good or a bad way?”
“In every way,” he said, sitting on the bed to face me.
“I had it more in mind for you to lie down beside me,” I said, taking his hand, surprised to find his palm damp with sweat. “Colt, I’m not going to try to get you to do something you don’t want to do.”
Licking his lips, Colt said, “Okay. I wish I could give you what you want.”
My heart clenched. “You do. And I’m sorry if I’ve made you think otherwise. Now, come here and kiss me.” I puckered up.
Colt laughed. “You look like Ben.” Leaning in, he kissed me softly.
As the kiss deepened, we fumbled with pajama strings until we had each other in hand.
Our soft moans filled the room, and our kisses became sloppy until Colt stilled, cum splattering on my wrist and forearm.
When he recovered, he used it to finish jerking me off, and, arching my back, I grit my teeth as pleasure overwhelmed me.
We were cleaning up when there was a soft knock at the door. “It’s me,” Ben’s voice said.
“Come in!” Colt called, and Ben stuck his head around the door. “Ben, why are you knocking? This is your room, too.”
Color filled Ben’s cheeks. “I was afraid I’d interrupt. Besides, the guys are in our living area. We’ve been talking. Can you two join us? We have something to tell you.”
Colt looked at me, a question in his eyes, and I gave him a look to convey I didn’t know what it was about.
“We’ll be right there,” I said.
After Ben shut the door, Colt and I got dressed in silence. I, for one, was trying to think what Ben and the other omegas could want to talk to us about that could have arisen in the past hour, and I was pretty sure Colt was doing the same.
When we entered the living area of our side of the house, all ten omegas sat waiting for us, along with Maddox, who shrugged at me when I looked at him, and Bertram.
“What’s going on?” I asked, perching on the arm of the couch because there wasn’t anywhere else to sit and I was too old to sit on the floor like Colt was doing.
“You tell them, Ben,” Elliott said before leaning into Keane in the chair they shared and hiding his face behind the other man’s shoulder.
Ben began telling us about Elliott’s history. When he got to the part where Elliott’s birth father had been abducted with him and never seen again, and that he was something called omega x and that both Ben and Elliott thought they were, too, my heart began to pound.
“I’ve never heard of omega x. Does Laura know about this?”
Ben shook his head. “Only Elliott knew until tonight, when he told me.” He gestured to the other omegas. “We just told them a few minutes ago.”
“Have you told us everything now?” Maddox asked.
Ben looked at Elliott. “I have.”
Slowly, Elliott moved from behind Keane. Careful not to meet the eyes of any of the alphas—none of the new omegas were very comfortable around them, most especially Elliott—he said, “There is one more thing.”
The rest of us waited in silence.
“I remember, after they killed my alpha father, my omega father told our captors that he knew what they wanted and he would cooperate with them if they would leave me alone. He said I was not like him. I guess he was trying to protect me.” Elliott’s bottom lip trembled, and Zeke took his hand in his.
“What happened while you were with them?” I asked.
Elliott’s face fell. “They tried to get me to admit I was special in some way,” he murmured.
Ben looked at me entreatingly, and I dropped the subject.
“I don’t know what all this means,” I said, standing up, “but I’m glad you shared it with us.”
“Did the kidnappers have anything to do with the government, or were they working on their own? Does the government know about omega x?” Colt asked, looking at me, then Maddox.
Colt said, “I think we need to talk to someone in charge in the SOS. Are they aware of omega x? If they are, what are they doing about it?”
Looking around the room, it was apparent from each expression that no one knew the answer to that question.
“I’ll call Laura in the morning,” I said.
***
As it happened, an unexpected change of direction in the weather sent a snowstorm during the night rather than the continued flurries that we’d expected.
When I got up in the night to get a glass of water and saw the snow coming down, I woke everyone up and we spent the next couple of hours securing the animals from the cold.
The seven omegas were stranded until the city could clear the road, and as we weren’t at the top of their priority list, that would be a while.
I called Laura as soon as I could and told her everyone was fine and then what Elliott and Ben had told us the night before.
Laura was astounded. “I mean, my colleagues and I have always suspected that Elliott was hiding something, but we never imagined it was anything like that,” she told me. “Omega x? What could that mean?”
“Are you saying you’ve never heard of the term?”
“Never.”
“So, you’re pretty sure the SOS doesn’t know about it either?”
“I would definitely have heard about it if they did.”
“Okay. Don’t talk to anyone about it. Get someone from the SOS to come talk to us. Tell them we know something and use it as leverage to get them here,” I said.
“The SOS isn’t our enemy. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting someone here, but if you want me to keep it to myself, I will,” Laura said.
“I do. We’re talking about Ben here, Laura. I’m not messing around.”
“I’ll arrange for a meeting,” she promised.
Before I hung up, I told her to have fun with Eric and Nova while they were snowed in.
***
As soon as the road was clear enough for Laura to come pick up the omegas, she arrived on our doorstep.
When I opened the door, I looked her over. “Well, don’t you look all rosy-cheeked and unusually satisfied this morning,” I said.
Pushing her way past me, she retorted, “I’m going to be pale and dead if you make me stand out on the porch any longer while you give me a hard time.”
I laughed. “You are so easy to rile up. Seriously. Did something special happen over your week of seclusion with the lovely Borders couple?”
“Shut. Up. Angus.”
Colt helped Laura off with her coat.
“Who are those two big guys outside?” he asked.
I looked out the window. A pair of burly men dressed in black stood beside Laura’s car, looking toward the road.
“Oh, they’re part of the security team the hospital hired. I wasn’t too worried about the boys with all the snow, but from now on, they aren’t going anywhere without security detail. Particularly now, after what you told me, Angus.”
She often referred to the seven omegas in her charge as “the boys” even though they were technically men. It made sense when you thought about it; they’d been kids when she’d started working with them.
In the living room, Maddox greeted Laura.
“Hi, Laura, come sit by the fire. It’s cold out there, isn’t it? You, Nova, and Eric get through the blizzard okay?”
“What makes you think we were together? I have my own cabin,” Laura snapped, then immediately looked contrite. “I’m sorry, Maddox. It’s your grandfather and his teasing I’m irritated at, not you.”
Belatedly, I rethought the wisdom of alienating the person who was taking care of my pregnant omega.
Wiping all humor from my face, I said sincerely, “I’m sorry. If you say that there is absolutely nothing romantic going on with you and our new neighbors, I believe you. I won’t tease you about it again.”
Laura sat stiffly on the chair near the fire, staring into it.
I was taking a seat on the couch, hoping she accepted my apology, when Laura suddenly blurted out, “Oh, fuck it! We’re together, all right? We mated a few days ago.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared at me like she was daring me to say I told you so.
“Congratulations!” David, who had heard her announcement as he was bringing in a tray of tea, said excitedly. “I bet Kate and Jeremiah are thrilled. They love you!”
Laura’s face softened, and she smiled. “I love them, too.”
After we congratulated Laura and told her how happy we were for her, we drank our tea.
“I got in touch with the president of the SOS. He told me his secretary would book him a flight, and he’d let me know when to expect him and his spouse-mate, who is the CEO,” Laura told us.
“That’s great. Thank you,” I said.
Placing her cup on a coaster, Laura said, “I need to get the boys back to the ranch. There are loads of chores to be done. Where are they?”
“They’ve been helping me pin together old scraps for a quilt. I’ll get them.” He headed for the hall and the room he used as a sewing room that Maddox had added on to during the renovation. If he hadn’t, there would be no way seven people would fit in it at the same time.
Colt said, “Laura, will you examine Ben? He’s in the bedroom napping. I think you’ll be surprised at how big he is now.”
“Really? In only a little more than a week?” She looked to me for confirmation.
I nodded, glad Colt had thought to ask her. “He’s got to be carrying more than one baby. Maybe you just couldn’t hear the other heartbeat before.”
“All right. I’ll take a look at him now,” Laura said.
“I’ll tell the group you’ll be a few minutes,” Maddox told her.