“Then I’m assuming you never met a representative from the shifter council?”
Xias shook his head. “Whenever strangers came to visit the clan, I was hidden away. The alpha said it was for my safety because others would try to steal me.”
What an ass!
“He was lying.” Zhuang’s jaw clenched when he thought about what his mate must have gone through. There was a system in place just for situations like this. “The shifter representative is there for you. He’s supposed to make sure you’re safe and not being abused. He makes sure that your alpha is following the omega laws.”
Xias settled back on his butt, shaking his head. “I’ve never even heard of them.”
“You do know you don’t have to be mated in order to produce cubs, right?”
Xias nodded.
“Omegas are nurturers by nature. In the past, when they were being separated from their cubs, they started to die out. The council decided, in the case of omegas, any cubs they gave birth to belonged to them.”
“I want to tattoo that on my alpha’s forehead.”
Zhuang chuckled. “I’ll hold him down for you.”
As small as it was, Xias’s smile was blinding. It stole the breath from Zhuang’s lungs. He had thought Xias was beautiful before. Smiling, he was stunning.
“Are there any other laws?” Xias asked, drawing his attention back to the conversation.
“There are. All omegas have to be registered with the council so they can prevent kidnappings and abuse. They don’t want someone stealing an omega and claiming them as their own.”
“How do I know if I’m registered?”
“You’re not,” Zhuang replied. “I can almost guarantee it.”
“How?”
“If you were registered, your alpha would have been forced to let the council representative see you. Since that never happened, I doubt anyone outside of your clan even knows about you. Well, except me.”
Zhuang knew he needed to do something to change that before Xias’s alpha tried to steal him back. “As soon as this storm clears, we’ll go to council headquarters and have you registered.”
Xias’s dark eyebrows rose swiftly. “You’d do that?”
“Of course. You need to be protected, as do the cubs. Until you’re registered as an omega, we have no hold on them.”
Xias swallowed tightly before saying, “They have blue eyes.”
Zhuang grinned as he looked at the small pile of cubs curled together just beyond Xias. “Yeah? All three of them?”
Xias nodded.
“That probably means they’re all alphas.”
“If I don’t give you alpha cubs, you won’t—”
“Stop.” Zhuang held up his hand. “As far as I’m concerned, those are my cubs. You are my mate, an omega shifter, and those are my cubs. You and your cubs come as a package deal. I know that. If we have more cubs, alphas or omegas or whatever, they will be my cubs, too.”
Zhuang didn’t expect Xias to jump into his arms or wrap around him like an octopus. He grunted as he fell back onto the floor.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Zhuang smiled. “No thanks needed. You’re my mate.”
He never actually thought he’d say that.
