Page 38 of Taming The Omega

“We’ll be done in a minute.”

“Oh, yeah,” Caleb started. He realized that with Seth breeding, it was time to implement the plan to approach the Canadian ferals. “We’re actually not going to be going back into the shed.”

Kyle looked startled at first, then nodded. “Oh, right. I’ll get a pallet fixed up for Seth in the communal bedroom.” He gave a signal to the sigmas and took off for the longhouse.

“I don’t understand,” Seth said against Caleb’s chest.

He turned him in order for them to look each other in the eye. “There’s something I need to tell you.” He explained about his mission for the pack to find more members who could offer up protection, how urgent it was to go right away.

“I’m sorry to spring this on you, but there didn’t seem to be any point telling you until after your heat was over.”

“I understand.” Even as he said the words, his gaze skittered away. “The pack’s safety comes first.”

Caleb nodded. “Yeah, it does. And, I’ll be back soon, before you whelp certainly.”

Seth nodded, absently, already withdrawn as he’d been after they’d mated. “I’ll be fine.”

“Of course, you will. Better for you to be inside the longhouse, though. You understand, right? I can’t have you being in the shed on your own. If there should be any trouble—not that there’s going to be—you’d be too vulnerable out here by yourself.”

“I understand.” He still wasn’t looking at Caleb anymore. Instead, he studied the ground between them as if it held some great fascination.

“Good. That’s good.” Except it didn’t feel that way. It felt bad and all kinds of wrong. He’d just knocked up his mate, and he was taking off for a long journey. “It’s important to the pack that I go.”

Who am I trying to convince here, anyway?

Feeling awkward and stupid and tongue-tied, he changed tack. “Come on. I don’t have to leave right this second. I want Andrea to take a look at you.”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m sure you are. Nevertheless, I’ll feel better leaving you after you’ve had a check-up.”

“Yes, sir.”

Fuck! The closeness they’d forged over the last few days had disappeared. Seth was pulling away from him emotionally and falling back into old habits. Trying to appease a dominant shifter, naturally. There really was no time to fix that, however. There’d be a chance for that once he came back. They had a whole lifetime to rebuild trust and even affection. This separation might do them good, too. He knew he could use some space, some time to absorb the enormous change in his life.

“Come on.” He didn’t try to gain the omega’s approval. He simply guided him over to the longhouse, the way he expected he’d be guiding his mate for the rest of their lives.

****

“He’s going to need extra feedings. The pup will take what it needs in the way of nutrients, but we don’t want Seth to become malnourished again after making such great strides.”

Seth sat on the exam table, letting the healer’s kindly words wash over him in a drone that he barely registered. It didn’t matter what she said anyway. Most of it was directed at Caleb. As his mate, the gamma had control over every aspect of his life, like his feeding. As if Seth were livestock or something that needed fattening up and was so stupid he wouldn’t know when to put food in his own mouth. Too bad Andrea wasted her breath. Caleb was leaving. He wouldn’t be there to do any of it.

Oh, and there it was. The gamma was explaining how he had to go. And naturally the healer was saying that was okay, that she and the others would look after Seth. Because again, being an omega meant being silly and brain-dead. Maybe they were right. He’d been the one with the bright idea to run away from his old pack even though he had no idea how to live alone. He’d been the one to run into another pack’s territory and get chewed up so badly that he’d required the mercy of a strange gamma to survive.

And, he’d been the one to fall in love with that gamma even though the guy had been really clear on how he didn’t want to get involved with anyone in that way.

Yeah, he loved his mate. As he’d huddled in the cave after mindlessly running away from what amounted to his own breeding, he’d still hoped for Caleb to come find him soon and bring him home. The Rogue Pack was where he belonged now. There was no denying that he felt safe and wanted here. More, he felt safe and wanted enough in Caleb’s arms. The gamma might not want him, not really. But Seth could no longer ignore that somewhere along the way of their whirlwind acquaintance, he’d fallen in love with the guy.

Now Caleb was leaving and although he knew the gamma was too honorable not to return to him and the pack, some part of him worried anyway. What if Caleb never came back? Something could befall him. The idea of his mate dying gave him a pain deep inside. He placed his palm against his flat belly. The pup and he would be cared for by the pack. He had no doubt of that. Sooner or later, though, his heat would come again. He didn’t think he could stand the idea of anyone other than Caleb mounting him.

“Seth?”

He jerked in surprise and looked up at his mate and the healer. They obviously were waiting for him to say something. “I’m sorry?”

A concerned look crossed Caleb’s face. “Andrea was asking if she should put together a diet for you to follow while I’m away. What do you think of the idea?”

Did it really matter what he said? He doubted they’d agree if he insisted he was capable of figuring it out on his own. Then again, maybe they were right. He felt disconnected from the rest of the world right at the moment.

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