Page 15 of The Sad Omega

“You’re not angry with me?”

“Of course not. Thank you for telling me though.”

A pause.

“There’s something else.”

Another pause.

I waited, still holding him close, comforting him. His chest expanded and he drew himself up taller, firmer. I heard his teeth set together, saw the muscles tighten in his jaw, and his Adam's apple bob. He seemed to be steeling himself, as though he had to draw on all his courage to make the next admission. His head came up. Brown eyes looked into mine from under long lashes, resolute. As soon as he spoke, I understood why this was so difficult for him. He was betraying his mate.

“Zarbius told me I had to find out where you keep the key to your quad bike. He’s going to send one of the betas to steal it.” His voice was barely a whisper.

He maintained eye contact for a beat, and when I didn't immediately say anything, his head dropped. Poor omega. It must have been difficult for him to betray his mate. A mate bond was strong. And what would it cost him now that he’d done so? When Zarbius found out, this was something he would surely be punished for.

I stroked a soft curl off his forehead, the fine strands silky across my fingers, and encouraged him to look at me.

“Thank you for telling me, Isca. I know that must have been difficult for you.”

Under the office lights, his eyelashes glistened with moisture. “I couldn’t do it, sir,” he whispered. “Not to you, not to Irian. You’ve both been so kind to me.”

I had an idea.

“Come with me,” I told him, and I led him to my desk. He came with me, still with one arm clinging to me. Opening one of the drawers, I pulled out a piece of faded red plastic attached to which was an oddly shaped key. I held it out to him.

“This is the key to an old quad bike we still have. We don’t use it. When you go home today, take the bike. It’s yours. Like I said, we don’t use it anymore. I just hadn’t figured out what to do with it. Now I have.”

Isca stared from the key, to me and then back to the key. He made no move to take it.

“I can’t, sir!” he protested, his voice no more than a faint stirring of air that without my wolf's hearing I wouldn't have heard.

“Yes, you can,” I insisted and pressed the plastic into his palm. “I want you to take it. Irian will show you where it is. You need to take it or you’ll be in trouble for defying your alpha. Tell him any story you like… tell him you stole it, or that we gave it to you. Say whatever you need to. Just be safe, Isca. Irian tells me things are… not easy for you in your pack.” I cared about the little omega, and as much as I wasn’t sure his alpha mistreated him as badly as Irian seemed to think, I didn’t want to take any chances.

Isca threw his arms around me and there was a fresh bout of sobbing. Then he pulled away, sniffing but with his delicate pink lips curled up in a watery smile.

“Thank you, sir,” he whispered. “I can see why Irian loves you so much.” He looked at me as if the sun shone out of me, and I had to turn away.

I shoo-ed him away. “Go and find Irian,” I told him. Then, just as he reached the door, I added, “And one last thing. Stop calling me ‘sir’. Call me by my name.”

“Yes, Talius,” he said, meekly, and then with a small rustle of fabric he was gone, leaving only a trace of his sweet omega scent hanging in the air.

Chapter 06

TALIUS

In the weeks following Isca’s confession to me about the thefts, no further items disappeared. Possibly because of the gift of the quad bike, but probably because I instituted daily and nightly patrols of our perimeter. Now that it was clear our neighbors were not to be trusted, there wasn’t any choice but to take precautions. There was nothing to say they wouldn’t be interested in taking over some extra territory too.

Isca was spending more and more time with us. Zarbius was away a lot for business purposes that Isca knew nothing about, other than he had to travel interstate for days on end. I thought the omega was simply taking advantage of these absences to spend time with his friend, but apparently there was more to it than that.

Isca had just left our place one Sunday, an unusual day for him to visit.

“Isca has been spending a lot of time at our place lately. I thought you said his mate didn’t let him off the property much?”

“Oh, Zarbius is away again,” replied Irian. Then he added, “Isca doesn’t feel safe when there’s no-one in charge.”

That was odd. From what they’d told me, there were plenty of betas in their pack.

“What do you mean?”