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.
Chapter Three
Xias hid his face against Zhuang’s neck, embarrassed by the tears he couldn’t seem to stop from sliding down his cheeks. He didn’t know this man, and yet Zhuang was offering him every dream he’d ever had on a silver platter.
He was afraid to believe it was true. His luck just didn’t run that way. He had always been picked on because he was smaller, but his life hadn’t truly begun to suck until he hit puberty and shifted for the first time. His pure-white fur was a dead giveaway that he was an omega.
Life had been hell from that moment on. He had been forced to live as a virtual prisoner, not allowed to associate with anyone except those the alpha trusted with his care. He hadn’t even been allowed to see his parents.
Considering how much his alpha had salivated when he found out he was an omega, Xias had always been surprised the man had waited until he turned eighteen before forcing him to provide cubs. He had been lucky in that respect and he knew it. Others hadn’t fared so well.
Now, Zhuang was telling him that everything the alpha had done was against shifter law. Xias still didn’t understand what that meant for him or his cubs, but he prayed it was true. It wasn’t as though he wanted revenge on the alpha—although that was still a possibility—but more that he wanted something that would keep the man away from him and his cubs.
“How can he break so many laws and just get away with it?” he whispered.
He didn’t understand that. Shouldn’t there be some sort of checks and balances? What good was a shifter council if all it did was make laws? Shouldn’t it enforce them, too?
“I don’t know, Xias. It’s not supposed to happen this way.”
“I don’t know how to stop him,” Xias said. “He won’t stop coming after us until he gets what he wants.”
“What does he want?”
“My cubs, but just the boy. He wants to kill the girls.” Xias knew his alpha wanted him, too, but just so he could produce more cubs, male ones. Xias had no doubt that any girls he gave birth to would end up dead if his alpha got his hands on them.
“This guy sounds like a real ass.”
“You have no idea.”
Zhuang’s sigh was deep. “I think we need to go see my father.”
Xias leaned back to look at him. “Why?”
“Well, for one, we need to register you with the council. We also need to register our mating. It’s important that as many people as possible know we’re mated. Having a paper trail will help back that up.”
Xias gasped. “You want others to know we’re mated?”
Zhuang frowned. “Of course I do.”
“But…” Xias was so confused. He had always been the dirty little secret, hidden away except for when his alpha wanted to try and get cubs off of him.
“I want you to remember this,” Zhuang said. “I can almost say with certainty that anything your former alpha said is wrong. How he has continued to remain an alpha, let alone became one in the first place, is a mystery I doubt we’ll ever solve, but the man is clearly an idiot.”
