They made theirway back to the kitchen.

“Oh, it washilarious. Her eyes widened, and she turned crimson when she sawhim. When she found out that she was being given a three-hour headstart and her assignment was to be hunted, I had no clue if she wasgoing to faint or jump in. Turns out it was a combination of both.”She smiled. “We have not been able to keep in touch, but I hope totalk with her after the show on Friday.”

“I look forwardto meeting her. The passes arrived, by the way. For Friday, I mean.One for each of us. Ford is so thoughtful.”

“Yeah, he isthat.”

Tamara lookedup and blinked. “Geez, Mom. Where’s your bra?”

“You find it,and I will put it on.” Lya smiled. “Mine disappeared while Islept.”

Allor grinned.“We went through most of it with Venka. She’s fussy.”

Venka helpedLya sit, and Allor got her the pills and a glass of juice. “Thereyou go.”

With the pillstaken care of, she watched Noh pull together some scrambled eggsand toast. It was an excellent start, and her stomach let her knowit was excited to be getting a delivery.

She gatheredher hair, pulled it over her shoulder, then looked at her arm. Theswelling was going down. “Wow. I had no idea that naps were thateffective.”

Tamara cameover and looked seriously at the arm. “It looks way better than thefirst one when you had sausage fingers.”

Lya smiled.“Well, this time, it was broken by a professional.”

Noh put thefood on a plate and brought it over. “Tamara, why don’t you getyour mom some more juice.”

“Okay, but shewants coffee.” Tamara smiled.

Allor got up.“I’ll get the coffee.”

They got herthings to drink while she ate left-handed. Apparently, Allor was incharge of the coffee prep. He did a slow pour-over, and Lyasmirked.

Tamara cameover with more juice and set it down.

Lya asked, “So,this must all be really odd for you.”

“Oddly, itfeels very normal. I always felt strange letting you run yourselfragged for me. The true happy times were when we watched a movieand I leaned on you. You were relaxed, and it made me relaxed.”

Lya lost achunk of egg back to her plate, and she sighed and went after itagain.

Noh sat next toher and took over feeding her. “That’s the entire design of omegas.To keep their alphas calm and productive.”

“I don’t thinkany of you were running amok before today,” she mumbled around amouthful.

Noh chuckled ashe waited for her to swallow. “No, but we also were not settled. Wewant to be settled and plan for generations to come. We can’t dothat without hope. You bring us hope.”

A small fanfareblew from Tamara’s phone. Lya asked, “What was that?”

“Another clip,or they keep promising the commercial that you did.”

“Who ispromising?”

Allor smiled.“We bought access to the behind-the-scenes videos so that we couldsee as much as possible.”

“Oh.” She tookanother mouthful, chewed, and swallowed. “We all had to design avideo, and then, after the event, we got together with Ford andfilmed it. Me and Zelle both picked a motorcycle, so we split thefilming time. She’s part one, and I am part two.”

They checkedtheir phones and showed an image of Zelle in her mechanic’scostume. The toolbelt around her hips exaggerated her curves.

Lya grinned.“Yeah, that’s Zelle. She must have caught a bug during the projectbecause she was vomiting every chance she got.”