Page 188 of The Other Omega

“Recovering. The physicians want him to stay another night.”

Four days earlier, someone had poisoned our Pack mate. Each day since, Elowen had called him and asked whether he was eating properly and getting enough rest. Each day he had answered from House Vaelor Medical and told her his work was keeping him away.

On the night he was poisoned, while he lay unconscious in Medical, we had told her he was too exhausted to travel home and that the journey would cost him the sleep he needed. She had immediately insisted that he remain at Command so he could rest, just as Lucien had known she would.

I still struggled with guilt whenever we used her concern for us to keep the truth from her, even when I knew it was for her own benefit. Our mate was too gentle for this world.

Three Months Later

Midmorning by the pool had become one of our favourite ways to spend time together. I sat with my pad resting on one knee, watching Elowen move through the water with Seren in her arms. Beside them, Vaela splashed happily in Eira’s arms as they waited for Caius to surface.

He emerged with a growl, pretending to be the ‘Loch Ness monster’, and both girls squealed with laughter. Elowen and Eira laughed with them, while even Darius looked up from the displays on the table between us, smiling at the sound.

“Daddy’s going to get you! Oh, no! He’s gone again!” Elowen said as Caius disappeared beneath the water.

The girls quietened and watched for him. When he surfaced again with his arms raised and another growl, they squealed all over again.

Alaric had recovered fully and approved the pool, much to Lucien and Darius’s dismay. I suspected our Head Alpha needed to give her something he could deliver. We still had not found her sisters.

Darius had used the construction work to reinforce the dome’s glass and install concealed defensive positions and independent communications. The pool had its own temperature controls, and he had screened it from the guards’ view, resolving our objections to Elowen’s swimwear. Even the swim dress she considered modest was unequivocally scandalous.

It was difficult to watch Caius play with our daughters without thinking of what awaited him later that day. Alaric’s Army, including Caius and his Legion, would strike every one of House Tureen’s research facilities and detention centres simultaneously. It would be the largest military operation since the end of the Cold War.

Caius would lead the assault on the most heavily defended facility. Intelligence placed the largest number of captives there, including children and male Omegas. He would enter with the first wave.

“Has the casualty estimate changed?” Darius asked in Kottarsht.

“No.”

His gaze returned to Caius.

Across the water, Elowen and the girls kept laughing as Caius roared once more. Alaric had given him this morning off before the operation. Elowen did not yet know he would be leaving in a few hours, much less how dangerous the mission would be or that he hoped to rescue both her sisters from a breeding programme.

“The Omega wards,” Darius began, then stopped as Elowen glanced towards us.

“I recognised the word Omega. Are you talking about me?”

“Only of how beautiful you look, sweet Omega.”

She laughed and splashed water our way. “You keep that flattery going. I love it.”

Later, dressed for departure, Caius waited beside the girls’ cots while Elowen brought him each daughter in turn. Vaela slept through his kiss. Seren opened her eyes when his purr began, and he stayed bent over her until she settled again.

Elowen rested her palm between his shoulder blades and waited until he was ready. At the lift, she checked his collar, smoothing an edge that needed no attention. Caius stood still beneath her hands.

“It was lovely having you home.”

“I wanted to be here, my love.”

“I know.” She rose onto her toes, and he bent to meet her kiss. When she drew back, her fingers remained curled in the front of his uniform. “Come back safely. We’ll be waiting.”

His hand settled against her cheek. He rested his forehead against hers and spoke too quietly for me to hear. She nodded, kissed him once more and finally let him go.

Caius watched her until the lift doors closed. Her hand stayed lifted after he could no longer see it. When she turned, I held out mine, and she came straight to me.

“I wish they didn’t have to go so often.”

“I know, sweetheart.”