“We’ve already discussed this,” I remonstrated. “You have a job. If you go to work, your tea garden won’t get as much attention and might not produce like you’re hoping.”
“So what?” he snapped. “You’retalking tea.I’mtalking having your truck repossessed or something breaking in the house that will cost an arm and a leg to fix. What would we do then?”
The easy answer was to get the money from my parents. I wasn’t kidding when I said they had it, but we weren’t kids anymore.
We should be able to stand on our own two feet.
“How about if I take this under consideration?”
His gaze narrowed. “So you’re saying no.”
“That’snotwhat I’m saying at all. I need to give this some serious thought. You just made very good points, and I won’t push them aside.”
“Promise?”
“I do.”
That was good enough for him.
It left me in a quandary. Part of the problem was that I still didn’t know what was expected of me as Mase’s Dominant.
The following Monday, I went into John’s office.
He smiled as I entered. “Hey, good to see you. Have a seat.”
I sat in one of the leather chairs he had near his desk. I wasn’t sure how to bring it up, so I went straight for the kill.
“How long do you think it’ll be before you can pay me?”
John tapped his pen on his desk. “That’s a good question. I can’t pin down a specific date, but I’mhopingit won’t be longer than another month or so.” He tilted his head to one side. “Can you hold out that long?”
I should probably talk to Mase about it, but I owed John a lot too. “Yeah, we should be okay.”
Fingers crossed.
He smiled. “Why do I get the feeling that’s not the only reason you’re here today?”
The man was smart, that was for certain.
“You’re right, it isn’t.” I took a deep breath. “I need to know about being a Dominant. I want to be sure I’m doing good by Mase.”
John exhaled, then leaned back in his chair, his hands laced over his stomach. “I was wondering when you’d ask.” His brow furrowed. “I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how to answer that. See, when Mason was growing up, his parents’ teachings and his interactions with others were preparation for his role. Everyone knows what an Omega wolf is, so they were told to act accordingly. They gave him orders, taught him that his role in the pack was to bring us together. But then something unexpected happened.”
I leaned in, eager to hear what was coming. “Yeah?”
John’s gaze locked on mine. “You showed up.”
Me?
“What do you mean?”
He scrunched up his face. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain this to you since you became Mason’s Dominant.” He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, fingers steepled. “In our society, there is one Alpha and everyone else is a Beta. However, on very rare occasions an Omega will be born. For the Betas, the Alpha is their Dominant, but they’re not expected to behave any differently than, say, working in an office and reporting to your boss. An Omega, on the other hand, is totally different. Seeing as how they can give birth, they’re exceedingly valued in the pack because they’re usually very fertile. Our females usually only have one or two pups in their lifetimes. An Omega remains able to give birth all the way up until their sixties and they don’t have theissues that women have where they can only get pregnant a few times, then that’s it, the clock stops.”
How had I not known that? “Go on.”
“When Mason was born, we celebrated hard. We were drunk for days, because an Omega was a beacon for wolves to gather around as the pack was blessed. As I said, throughout his life, Mason was being prepped for his role, mostly by his parents, but also by all the teachers, shopkeepers… Well, pretty much everyone was taught how they needed to behave with Mason. He was to be kept safe, but also needed to learn his role in the pack. And it was working out fine… for the most part. Mason was a little more headstrong than the Omegas I’d read about. Eventually he fell into line. John’s lips twitched. “But thenyoushowed up.”
This was becoming a very interesting conversation.
