Page 23 of An Omega in Trouble

“Of course, it is. I love you, my alpha. I love how you’ve opened my world and shown me how love really works. And the club scene, and the release I can get under your hard palm.”

He shuddered.

“And that I can make you react like that.” Tipping up, my face for his kiss, I whispered, “Anytime you touch me, I get mush inside and hard in the best places.”

“Is that an invitation, omega?”

“What do you think?”

His lips crashed down on mine.

The next morning, my friends escorted us to the helipad in a golf-cart parade that had tears springing to my eyes. They’d attached balloons and streamers and banners with silly sayings to the carts and someone had a boom box blasting oldies about love and forever.

All my dreams were coming true. I was moving with my mate to where his job and home were, to where we would begin our life together as a family of three. But joy was tempered with the sadness of leaving behind these males who had come together to be my chosen family when I had arrived broken and alone. They all hugged me, and we promised to stay in touch, until Azlan drew me gently away.

“The pilot is waiting, omega mine.”

I sniffled and nodded.

“We’ll come visit. I promise.”

“Yes, alpha.” He meant it, but he’d shared how hard it had been to get away at all. My mate was a valued member of a law-enforcement team whose work helped others harmed by criminals, and how could I deny others freedom from violence and fear? “And we can talk on the phone and by social media.” It just wouldn’t be the same as seeing my friends every day, sharing adventures, and helping each other through the hard times. I wouldn’t give up my mate for anything. But I didn’t want to give up my friends in my daily life either. Nobody can have it all, I reminded myself. And I had so much more than I had ever had before. Gratitude swelled, tempered by longing as we boarded the helicopter for my new life.

“We will come.”

I hugged him. “Of course, we will.” But I waved frantically as we took off for the airport. Bye, friends. It’s been sweet.

It would be great. We agreed I shouldn’t work until at least after the baby came, so I’d be taking care of our home and my alpha and myself while he saved the world.

Happy days ahead. Not a cloud on the horizon. So…why was I nervous?

Chapter Twenty

Azlan

Returning to the precinct after my time off should have been fine. I was certainly refreshed and anxious to, as my omega called it, “saving the world.” Most of my job was nowhere near that dramatic, but I liked to think I made positive changes, which had been my goal since the beginning. But something had changed. For one, my supervisor had not been allowed to fire me, and he lost no opportunity to let me know how disappointed that left him.

In the past, the long hours and lack of personal time had chafed, but not to the point where I would consider making a change. The criminal underbelly of our town didn’t work nine to five, and, as everyone knew from watching TV, the first forty-eight hours after a crime were the most critical. So, in all logic, I’d work most of those then lapse back to a more reasonable schedule. But, with a pregnant omega at home hoping to feed me a hot dinner, the lack of “reasonable” became clearer.

I could quit.

Finances certainly offered no issue, but my desire to be helpful in the world continued to dominate. I was bringing a child into it, and any bit better I could make it was worth almost any cost.

Almost.

And then one night, after a very bad day, I got home at eleven to find Trace curled up on the sofa, dinner dried up on the stove, and something broke inside me. He’d never complained once about being left alone. Our friends at Cuffed did their best, the other omegas often reaching out to invite him to lunch or shopping or just coming by to visit, and I knew it helped. But friends shouldn’t have to make up for an alpha’s lacking, and a decision was going to have to be made. For all our sakes.

My supervisor’s derision about the length of time it was taking to resolve a case involving a prominent family had pushed me hard earlier in the day. He wanted it to take prominence over a case involving a vulnerable family without the money and power it took to get attention. The situation was not new, it happened way too often, but it reminded me strongly of the world of privilege I grew up in.

Not in a good way.

But maybe I didn’t have to save the world. Maybe it was enough to be a good alpha and take care of my family.

As I stood there, on the cusp of some kind of big change, my phone rang. I snagged it from my pocket before it chimed again and woke my sleeping omega.

“Azlan?”

I took a few steps away and into the hallway, not hard in this small space. We were going to have to move before the baby came or be cramped. “Yes. Hello, Talon. How are you and the family?”