My heart constricted in my chest. She wanted to go home. I understood—it was where she felt the most comfortable, where she thrived. It wasn’t her fault that it broke my heart. I wasn’t sure I could survive giving her up a second time though.
After a small pause, she looked around at us all. “But I like you guys too. I don’t want to goaway, but I want to go home.”
Poor Kitten. Torn. It was a feeling I knew well. The scent of her sadness had me bundling her up and placing her on my lap before my forebrain even caught up to what I was doing. “We’ll follow your lead, Omega. Prop you up while you find your feet. Then the decision is up to you.” She buried her nose in my chest and breathed me in, appeasing us both a little.
Beckett placed a plate of waffles in front of Darius, kissing him softly on the top of the head with the casual affection of a couple who had been lovers for years. I wanted that casual affection with Kitten too, not this awkwardness. We’d had that once upon a time.
Beckett placed the second plate in front of Kitten. “There’s some more for you guys over there,” he said to me, tilting his head toward the kitchen counter. Then he cut a piece of waffle, making sure to get the perfect amount of melted chocolate and strawberry chunks on the fork. “Open, Kitten.”
I wasn’t sure how much Lorso had schooled Kitten on Manix ways, or if we’d even mentioned Manix courting habits to her back when we were teenagers. But feeding an Omega was a significant act, and Beckett was declaring something silently, to us, if not to Kitten herself.
As she took the bite into her mouth, moaning as the sweetness of the breakfast food hit her tongue, I had a feeling that she didn’t know the real statement behind the gesture.
We’d tell her eventually, but not now. At this moment, I was happy to just watch her experience this first, hopefully one of many that we’d get to see firsthand.
She looked at Darius with wide eyes. “Oh my Goddess.” She babbled something in her weird bastardized version of Latin, and it made Beckett grin. I was rusty. Once upon a time, when we were teaching her English, she was teaching us Kittenese. Beckett obviously had a better brain for languages than me.
Cooper grabbed a plate of waffles for himself. “How are you feeling now, Kitten? Apart from overdosing on sugar from Beckett’s pastries.”
She froze, and I gave Cooper a stern look. I held her tighter, and eventually she relaxed. “I’m an Omega.”
I was glad she was looking at Cooper and not me, because I couldn’t keep the pleased look off my face, and quite frankly that was an asshole thing to do.
Cooper’s dirty look in my direction when she wasn’t looking confirmed it. He softened his expression when he nodded at her though. “Yep. Did anyone explain what happened?”
She frowned. “Maybe? During the…” She let the words trail off.
“Sexfest?” Darius provided helpfully.
A snort. “Yes.”
Cooper nodded, giving Beckett the stink eye again too. Yeah, he wasn’t going to stop being pissed anytime soon. Unlike Darius, we couldn’t just feed him, hug him, and send him all the good Alpha pheromones to make him feel better.
Cooper pointed to the plate of waffles. “Have some more and I’ll explain what I know. When the guys first arrived with you, I called down to Doc and he answered some questions. Apparently, the doctor who came to take care of Bonnie called it a mass survival event. Our species was slowly dying out, so evolution or mother nature or the Goddess—whoever you want to attribute it to—decided to kick it up a notch. When the Huxley-Grey Pack came across a female Omega, it was the first female Maxton had had inside its borders in nearly a century. When she went into heat a second time, it triggered something in the female Betas that forced you to evolve.”
“Like a Pokémon?”
I barked out a laugh, and Kitten threw me a furious stare.
Darius too. “You taught her about Pokémon but not the courting habits of the Manix? Figures,” he grumbled. “But she isn’t wrong. They kind of leveled up like Pokémon.”
I was looking at Cooper, who I expected to be furious but he just seemed a little more smitten. The man did love his classic anime. Anime,notcartoons—don’t even get him started.
He cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. But that makes it sound like Betas aren’t as important to the Manix as Alphas and Omegas, and if Radic proves anything, it’s that Betas can wield just as much power, with considerably more tact. Don’t tell him I said that though. He’ll get a big head.”
Now it was my turn to snort. Radic knew who he was, knew the exact amount of sway he had. He didn’t need to be reminded.
Cooper reached out and squeezed Kitten’s fingers. “Do you have any questions?”
12
KITTEN
Did I have any questions? I had a million.
“The heat will happen again?”
“Yes. But you can prepare for it so it isn’t such a big deal like it was this time around. You won’t be taken by surprise again.”
