Page 158 of The Other Omega

“I can't see the lighting specifications.”

Lucien looked far too serious for a man talking about nursery lights. It was adorable.

“I'd like to know how much the brightness can be adjusted, whether the colour temperature can be changed, and how much light they give at the lowest setting.” He enlarged the image of the lights I'd chosen. “You'll be feeding our daughters throughout the night, my darling. I would prefer that you weren't subjected to bright lights each time you wake.”

My heart did another little flip. “But I really like those ones. I don't want to choose different lights.”

“Then you shall have them, my darling.”

“We can have them made to meet our requirements,” Leon added.

All five of them spent far too long talking about those lights before eventually choosing an engineer they trusted to change them.

“You needn't concern yourself with any of it, sweetheart,” Leon said. “I'll have the lights delivered directly to the engineer and ensure they're installed in the nursery when you want them.”

“Thank you. That would be perfect.”

I squeezed his hand and tried not to fall asleep. Somehow, a detailed discussion about lighting had completely drained all my excitement and replaced it with the need for a nap. There was only so much I could care about lamps.

Once they finally finished with the lights, Darius moved on to something much more Darius.

“I'll conduct full security checks on everyone involved in making anything that enters their room.”

That woke me straight up.

“I didn't know we could do that.” I pushed myself more upright. “Can we really do that?”

His face said yes before he did, but my brain had already gone somewhere awful. Somebody could hide something inside the furniture or deliberately make something unsafe. They could send something dangerous straight into my daughters’ room, and I hadn’t thought of any of that.

“I should've thought of this.” The words came out under my breath, more to myself than any of them. “How did I not think of this?”

“Why should you, my love?” Caius asked. “You've never been part of a Pack whose positions put them at such risk. You haven't had years of security training, nor should you expect yourself to know what we do.”

“Many families never have cause to consider such threats,” Lucien added. “Our circumstances are different. Alaric remains the favourite to succeed Magnus as High Lord of House Vaelor when he retires. All five of us hold positions that require us to assess threats every day. We're accustomed to identifying weaknesses and addressing them.”

Darius leaned forward slightly. “Nor do we wish you to burden yourself with such matters, sweet Omega. This Pack's security is my responsibility. There are always vulnerabilities to identify, measures to assess and precautions to check, then check again. I give it my full attention.”

“We also have resources very few Packs could draw on,” Caius said. “The personnel assigned exclusively to our Pack already form a considerable force, even without the Legion I command. I've earned my soldiers' loyalty. If I called on them to defend you or our daughters, they wouldn't hesitate to answer.”

Leon squeezed my hand. “And Alaric commands the entire Army of High Mountain, sweetheart. Between us, we have spent decades anticipating threats and preparing for them. Lucien has Intelligence, Darius has Internal Security, Caius has his Legion, Alaric has the Army, and I have extensive resources of my own. We have the means to keep you safe.”

A watery laugh escaped me, and then I cried anyway.

“So please,” Leon continued more softly, his thumb moving across my hand, “don't punish yourself for failing to anticipate a security concern. Trust that when you overlook something, one of us will see it.”

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped my cheeks. They all carried one these days. Pregnancy had turned me into someone who cried constantly, and my mates had adjusted.

The fear in the bonds began to ease, and I could finally feel some relief beneath it. I trusted them. That was the thing. I really did.

I didn’t have to think of every possible way someone might hurt me or our babies. I didn’t have to notice every threat or know how to stop it.

They did.

“We shall need to account for the second cot,” Alaric said, changing the subject so quickly that I looked up. “We can have one delivered to our private apartment at Vaelor Manor.”

“I can have my team collect it and bring it here without anyone observing the transfer,” Caius said, as though I hadn’t almost cried myself into a puddle less than a minute ago.

Lucien nodded. “The records would then show two separate deliveries to two separate residences.”