The Omega's Heart (Wilde Creek Four) (16 page)

“Do you respect me?”

She looked surprised. “Of course! You’re my
mate. You stood up for me in front of your pack. You protected me
against crazy odds. You’re sexy and sweet and amazing. Rank doesn’t
matter to me. The only thing I care about is that you’re
happy.”

He echoed her earlier statement. “I’m
happy.”

“You could’ve fooled me,” she said, snorting
in disbelief. She turned to face him, folding her arms across her
chest. “What would make you happy?”

“Us naked.”

“Really? Don’t make me roll my eyes.”

He groaned. “Shit, Honey, I don’t know. I
guess I wish that things were the same but different.”

“That’s impossible, you know.”

“No, I mean I was aggravated with how much
work I was doing as an omega, but now Acksel’s talking about taking
away my identity entirely. All I’ve ever been was an omega, and…”
He didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

“So tell him no. He offered to let you rank
fight, but you don’t have to agree with it. I’m sure your pack has
wolves who choose to be omegas even though they could be
protectors.”

He nodded.

“Let’s get in the apartment. It’s starting to
get chilly out here.”

He could have kicked himself for letting her
get cold. Hustling her into the apartment, they cleaned up and
climbed onto the lumpy pull-out. She burrowed against him until
every inch of her naked body was pressed against him.

“I want to make a good life for you, Honey,”
he said quietly.

“It already is, Jeremiah. We’re mates and
that’s all that really matters. Everything else is just
details.”

He held her while she drifted off to sleep,
but he couldn’t rest himself. His mind was a jumble of thoughts. He
wanted to make the best choice for his mate and their future
family. If Honey had never been snatched, then he wouldn’t have
found the trigger for his half-shift. Things would have been the
same and he’d have been internally bitching about that, too.

He thought about the woman in his arms. She
was gorgeous, in her human form and her wolf form. He’d never been
so singularly attracted to a female before, and he supposed that
was the way it was meant to be with mates. No one had affected him
the way that she did. It wasn’t just her beauty, though. He felt
like they were old souls, like they had known each other forever.
They could each sense when the other was upset, and she had an
uncanny knack for calming his wolf. She wanted to help with the
retirees. She had a big heart, and even though she had no reason to
trust him, she’d agreed to be his mate without reservation.

He was damn lucky.

His heart swelled as he thought about her. He
was standing on the edge of falling in love with her. He could
honestly say he’d never been in love before, and he was glad that
she would be his first and his only love.

Because she liked him for who he was and not
what he was, he knew the best thing to do for both of them was to
continue to be an omega. He didn’t need status when he had her by
his side. He’d just take Alfonse’s advice and learn how to say no.
To everyone but Honey – he’d never say no to her.

* * * * *

The sky was clear when they woke in the
morning, and Jeremiah was glad that he hadn’t needed to grab the
snow blower or shovel anyone’s sidewalk or driveway. They had a
leisurely breakfast, which Honey insisted on cooking for them. She
made the best scrambled eggs he’d ever had, and he wasn’t just
saying that because she was his sexy mate.

“We have two houses to see this morning, and
if we don’t like them there’s another couple we can check out on
the other side of town,” he said as they readied to leave.

“I’m sure we’ll like one of them.”

“Do you have an ideal house in mind?” He
pulled open the apartment door and followed her down the metal
stairs into the noisy garage.

“Not really. I liked your bathroom, it was
really big. And I really liked your back deck. I enjoy sitting
outside in the summer and reading, although I guess I won’t have a
ton of free time now that I’ll be doing omega work.”

He bit back the snarl and said, “You only
have to be as busy as you want to be. Kammie is extremely busy, but
she loves what she does and actively seeks out things to do for
people. There are females who hardly lift a finger outside of
bringing food to the full moon parties.”

“Why is the workload so uneven?”

“Maybe because no one really enforces it.
When people are willing to pick up the slack, the others don’t have
to work as hard.”

They buckled in and headed toward the first
rental home. “Stacy said in the old days that everyone lived in one
huge house and the alpha pair were like the father and mother of
the whole pack. The omegas did all the domestic stuff and the
ranked males did the hunting and patrolling.”

He made a face. “I don’t know if I’d like to
live with the pack like that.”

“Me, either.”

He drove to the first house, a two-story on a
tiny lot. Although the interior was nice, Honey took one look out
the back door and declared she didn’t want to stare into someone
else’s backyard every night, and he agreed. The second house, a
Cape Cod style with three bedrooms, had a better yard, but the
interior was hopelessly stuck in the seventies, complete with shag
carpeting and mirrored wallpaper in the bathroom.

Before they moved onto the two other houses,
he pulled out his phone to double-check the addresses and noticed
he’d missed a call from Acksel. He almost ignored it; it was his
and Honey’s day to house-hunt and he didn’t want his alpha to ask
him to do anything outside of their plans to find a place to live
that didn’t smell like grease and tires.

Letting out a sigh, he returned the call. He
hadn’t been the best guest the night before, and he didn’t really
want to be on his alpha’s shit list.

“Are you house-hunting?” Acksel asked.

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“I’d like you to meet me at 287 Leap
Road.”

“Uh, okay. We’ll be there in a few
minutes.”

Acksel ended the call, and he tossed the
phone into the cup holder. “That was weird.”

“What’s at that address?” Honey asked. Her
sharp hearing had allowed her to overhear the conversation.

“It’s been empty for about a year; a retired
mated couple left the pack to live with their oldest daughter in
another state. It’s in the retiree development.”

“Maybe someone new is moving in? Anyone in
the pack retiring?”

“I don’t think so,” he mused as he drove
toward Leap Road. It wasn’t something that wolves looked forward
to. Unlike humans, who seemed to love retiring, when a wolf retired
from the pack, it meant they couldn’t handle even the simplest act
of hunting. Although wolves were naturally immune to most human
diseases, they did age and bodies wore down; arthritis could set in
and prevent even the most active of wolves from shifting without
great pain. Eventually many of them stopped shifting
altogether.

“Getting old sucks,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“You have to wonder why some wolves age
without issue and some don’t. There were wolves in my former pack
who were in their eighties and never stopped shifting and hunting,
and then there were some in their fifties who couldn’t handle the
pain of shifting.”

“I suppose it’s the same way with humans.
Some never have aging problems and some have them too soon.”

“I hope we’re the sort that never have
them.”

He chuckled. “Me too, sweetheart.”

Pulling to a stop in front of the house,
Jeremiah turned off the truck and got out, looking at the ranch
home as he walked around the front of his truck to help Honey out.
It was in need of some repair, but it was still in pretty good
shape. Acksel’s SUV was in the driveway, and Jeremiah and Honey
walked up the sidewalk to the small front porch. He opened the door
and followed Honey inside, finding Acksel and Brynn in a small room
to the left.

“Hey!” Brynn said, smiling brightly.

He and Honey greeted the alphas, and Jeremiah
looked around with a critical eye. The house was furnished, but
someone had covered everything with sheets so it reminded him a bit
of a haunted house. They were clearly in the living room, and
across the foyer was a formal dining room.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked you to
stop by,” Acksel said.

“It crossed my mind,” Jeremiah said.

“First, I wanted to ask you if you’ve given
any thought to fighting for rank.”

Jeremiah looked down at Honey at his side and
she smiled at him encouragingly. He took a deep breath and said, “I
don’t want to fight for rank and become a protector. I want to
remain an omega with my mate.”

Brynn elbowed Acksel and said, “I told you
so.”

“My smart mate,” he said, bending to kiss
her. He straightened and said, “I was speaking to the elders last
night about this situation, and I was reminded of a time in our
pack’s history when the elders were watched over by specially
chosen pack members. These special members were called stewards.
When a pack member decided to retire from the pack, they were
watched over by the stewards. Their needs were taken care of,
whether it was food preparation, home cleaning, or repairs. Our
pack hasn’t had any stewards in several generations, but I’m told
that it was a position of reverence.”

Brynn said, “It makes sense to me. Almost all
the retirees live on the same street, but no one is specifically
looking out for them and them alone. If my dad was a pack retiree,
I’d want to know that someone was checking on him and making sure
he was okay.”

Jeremiah’s brow lowered. “I don’t
understand.”

“We want you and Honey to become our pack’s
stewards. You’ll technically be neither omega or protector, but
instead unranked but important members of the pack. You’ll still
hunt with us on the full moons and take part in the celebrations as
any other pack member does, but you’ll only be helping the
retirees. You spend a lot of time helping them already, but your
duties are vast enough that you can’t focus just on them. It’s
about time someone started looking out for them, and we think you
and Honey would be perfect for the job,” Acksel said.

Honey’s gasp of surprise was echoed in
Jeremiah’s mind. He was shocked. He looked at Honey, and she was
smiling so broadly that he knew she was happy with Acksel and
Brynn’s news.

“I don’t think we need to discuss it, do you,
Honey?”

“I’m with you whatever you do,” she
promised.

“Aw, that’s so freaking sweet,” Brynn
said.

Acksel made an annoyed sound. “You guys can
get mushy later. Is that a yay or nay on being stewards?”

“Definitely yes,” Jeremiah said.

“Good. You can begin your new duties on
Monday. You’re entirely in charge of what you’re doing here. I want
you to check in with my Dad once a week and let him know what
you’ve got going on. He’s in touch with the older wolves in the
pack and may know of some who aren’t yet ready to retire, but need
help. If you need extra help for projects, tell him and he’ll
organize it for you.”

Brynn elbowed him again and he rubbed his
ribs. “Would you stop doing that, woman?”

“The
thing
.”

“Oh, right. Brynn would like it if you’d be
willing to still help with the wedding. She threatened to turn into
a bridezilla if you said no, and I can’t emphasize enough how much
I don’t want that to happen.”

Jeremiah chuckled. “We’ll be happy to help
with the wedding.”

“Yay!” Brynn cheered and hugged Honey.

“Why did you bring us here?” Jeremiah asked
Acksel.

Acksel tossed a set of keys to Jeremiah and
he caught them. “It’s yours.”

“What?”

“The house. It’s being exchanged for your
property, which is going to become an extension of our woods once
spring comes and we can get it bulldozed and planted. Whatever
furniture you don’t like you can toss. You’ll continue to be paid
through the pack funds, but now Honey will also draw a salary. You
two should be really comfortable here, and you’ll be close to the
people you’re going to help.”

Jeremiah squeezed the keys in his hand and
blinked at the sting of tears. He was absolutely not going to cry
in front of his alphas. “Thank you, Acksel.”

Jeremiah hugged Honey with one arm and
reached out and shook Acksel’s hand.

“I’m sure you want to get out of the garage
apartment. If you need any help cleaning, I’m certain you can find
some omegas willing to help.”

They said goodbye and left. Jeremiah looked
around the room and then down at his mate.

“Holy freaking crap, we’ve got a house,” she
said. “I want to go look at the rest of it!”

He grabbed her before she could get too far
away, and drew her close. Her eyes darkened as their gazes
locked.

“Honey, where would I be without you?”

“I don’t know where I’d be either, but I know
I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now.”

“You’re the part of my heart I didn’t know
was missing. I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

“Oh, Jer,” she whispered, her eyes shining
with tears. Their lips met and she melted against him. A weight
lifted off his shoulders as he held his mate in their new home. He
didn’t have to change his whole life because he’d suddenly become
able to shift. He was right where he wanted to be, with his mate by
his side.

“Let’s go see the rest of the house,” he
said, breaking the kiss.

“I can’t wait.” She smiled.

Clasping their hands together, they headed
down the hall toward the kitchen, ready to see their new home.

Chapter 13

On Sunday afternoon, Honey was scanning the
tops of the kitchen cabinets to make sure she’d gotten up every
last bit of grime and dust.