Page 41 of The Safest Place She Knows

Allor wasshaking with amusement, and Venka was grinning.

Noh walked inwith a tray of sandwiches and a bowl of soup.

Allor said,“There are better ways of increasing her calories than just dumpingsugar in her coffee.”

Noh shrugged.“I needed a starting point, and she was falling asleep sittingthere. It must be your conversational skills, Allor.”

Allor smiledand held the cup up again.

Lya looked atTamara and sighed. “It is like being stuck in a locker room.”

The alphasaround her grinned, the delta snickered, and Tamara smiled shyly.“They do seem to want you healthy.”

Lya didn’tmention why they might want her healthy. “Yes, but I wish there wasa way of getting the calories in without actually eating them. I amout of practice.”

“What have youbeen eating?” Allor murmured as he got her to take another slug ofthe coffee-flavoured syrup.

Tamaraanswered, “Protein shakes. I haven’t seen her eat anything solid inweeks.”

“Cooking takestwo hands. Having one sucks,” she muttered.

Tamara lookedat her phone and started to hop excitedly. “The promo justdropped!”

Lya winced.“Uh-oh.”

Allor asked,“What’s this?”

Noh smiled.“Our omega participated in the engineering round of Alpha versusBeta.”

Allor asked,“Did you win?”

“No clue. Thisround was done on execution and style points. There was only oneperson removed, and it was because of hostility to the otherparticipants.”

“Ohmygod! Mom,you can ride a motorcycle?” Tamara was getting excited.

Lya chuckledand finished her coffee. “Yeah.”

“Can you teachme?”

Two alphas bothsaid, “No!”

Allor chuckled.“It seems that you two are livening up the household, and you havebeen here for less than an hour.” He firmed his voice. “Can someoneget me the link to that promo?”

The astonishedalphas were watching over Tamara’s shoulders.

Lya sighed.“Don’t worry. I don’t make a habit of doing that stuff, but it wasfor a children’s charity. They asked me, and I went through thetrials and ended up with the placement. They assigned long-termchildcare for Tamara.”

Noh was staringat the tiny screen. “You wanted to do this?”

“Yes. It wasfun and for a good cause. Nothing disastrous had happened in mylife, and I was getting by with my leather work and costume repair.I wasn’t getting rich, but bills were paid. There was no harm intaking myself out for a spin.”

Tamara frowned.“You said the challenge was engineering.”

“It was.”

“They haveswitched it to mechanics.”

“Nice. That’sgood. I am not, nor have I ever been, an engineer.”

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