I stepped out into the room. “What power?”
The whole lot of them looked up at me guiltily. Mac was the first one to come to his senses. He got up from his chair and came over to me, holding out his hands to take mine. “Did you sleep well?”
“I’m fine. What are you talking about?” I let him lead me over to a chair, hastily vacated by Duke. “Is the case going that badly?”
“We can’t tell,” Abel said. “There was some good stuff and some bad stuff. I think Orvin is sticking his nose farther into this case than his lawyer likes, and it means that he’s assuming the judge will understand shifter stuff better than he does, which plays in our favor.”
“And, it doesn’t matter if the alpha was scouting for mates for you,” Garrick said. “Tradition, at least in Mercy Hills, is that the parents are responsible for approving a mate for an omega, and only if they pass that responsibility on to the Alpha can he make any decision about it. Your father says he doesn’t remember it being much different.”
“Where’s Dad?” I looked around without spotting him.
“He’s on the couch. That mess of blankets is actually him. He’s finding this hard,” Mac said in a low voice.
I snorted. “Imagine.” I shook my head. “What were you talking about before Laine left? The only option?”
Mac and Abel exchanged glances, then Mac walked over to the bathroom and picked up a grocery store bag. “This,” he said, putting it down in front of me. “Laine picked it up for us.”
I heard a thunk and the scraping of cardboard. When I opened the bag, I found boxes of hair color—one black, one deep brown. “What’s this for?” I turned my eyes toward Mac, already certain of what he had prepared.
“We run. We head south, across the border, like I said before. We’ll ask for a couple of days to pack up your things, let you have the baby—that’s reasonable, since it’s legally mine and I’ll want to keep it. Then, as soon as we can, we go over the wall like you did and disappear. I’ve got fake documents ready, we just need pictures.” He put his hand on my cheek. “It may not happen. This is a last resort, if everything else doesn’t work.” He ran his thumb over my lips and I could see the pain in his eyes. “I promise, we’ll try everything else first.”
I still had that odd, eerie feeling that everything was going to work out for the best, so all I did was nod, and kiss the thumb still moving back-and-forth across my lower lip. “That’s fine. I trust you.” Then, to push the mood towards something more cheerful, I asked in a plaintive voice, “Did you bring me any supper?”
He laughed and glanced down for a moment, but then his eyes were on me again, as full of love as ever. “Laine brought it back. And he got you strawberry shortcake.”
“Yum.” It wasn’t a milkshake, but it would do. And Mac had a smile on his face again, which was all that I really cared about anyway. But I hadn’t forgotten my question about whatever power they thought I had, and I was going to get that answer as soon as we were done with this stupid case.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Back in the courtroom, the tension was as high as a kite. Mac kept an eye on Jason. He didn’t like his mate’s color—twice that morning, he’d gone from normally colored to pale, then back again, but claimed it was nothing. Practice contractions. Still, Mac worried.
The judge entered and they all stood, then sat again. Mac took Jason’s hand and squeezed. This was it.
Wilson stared down at them all over the rim of his reading glasses. “I had fully intended to come in here this morning and render a verdict. But, I find myself somewhat unwilling to do so. Shifter matters are not generally dealt with in my court—I’m not entirely certain of how this landed in front of me in the first place. One thing I do know, is that it seems very strange that the person whom both parties are arguing for custody of has not had his day in court, or that he wasn’t called by either side as a witness. I would like to hear his side of the story. And while I’m aware that this contravenes, to some degree, the rule of law, I wouldn’t bother appealing whatever my verdict becomes on that basis. Not in the human justice system, anyway. I’m willing to hear it as a contract dispute; others might not.”
Laine tensed and glanced back at them. Mac mouthed What? at him, but Laine shook his head and turned back to the judge.
The judge continued. “Therefore, I would like to ask Mr. Jason… I’m not sure what family name to give you at the moment.”
Wilson’s eyes landed on Jason, and Mac felt the convulsive movement of Jason’s fingers before Jason stood and said, in his friendliest tone, “Jason is fine. I think of myself as Mercy Hills, but I know there’s some confusion.” He bent to kiss Mac, smoothing away the frown between his eyebrows with a loving touch. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered, and he stroked Mac’s cheek before making his ponderous way through the gate and toward the witness’s chair. He sat down with an audible sigh of relief and smiled up at the judge, who smiled back.
“I’m going to ask you to put your left hand on the bible and repeat after me.”
“Of course.” Jason did as he was asked, and moments later he had been sworn in.
The judge looked him over, and Mac held his breath, wondering if he’d be someone who was disgusted by the idea of a male carrying a child, or if he’d be intrigued—it seemed to go about fifty-fifty with the humans. But the judge smiled at Jason, and commented, “I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first child. The last couple of months, I only felt safe if I was bringing her food or foot rubs.”
Jason grinned and leaned in, though they could clearly hear him. “It’s pretty much the same at home right now.” The audience laughed and Jason sat back, stroking his belly in slow, mesmerizing movements.
The judge shook his head. “And where is home, according to you? Remember, you’re under oath.”
“I know. I don’t like to lie anyway. I had to do too much of that before, and it makes me feel kind of dirty now when I do it. So I don’t.” Jason turned his head to meet Mac’s gaze, and his lips curled into a fond, sappy smile. “Home is Mercy Hills.”
“And why is that?”
Jason turned back to the judge. “Because I’m happy there. And I feel safe.”
The judge sat back in his chair and regarded Jason with interest. “What would you say if I offered you the opportunity to go anywhere, with a pack or without, to raise your child without the interference of either of these alpha shifters. If you knew that they would never bother you again.”
“I’d go back to Mercy Hills and bother Mac myself.” His face took on that pale, distracted look, his eyes focused on something Mac couldn’t pick out. A faint, disturbing suspicion began to grow in Mac’s chest. Then Jason was back, and his gaze, when he glanced around the room, was sharp and encouraging. “I’m happy there. I have a garden, a fantastic mate, and soon I’m going to have a pup to snuggle.”
“And that’s different from your old pack?”
“Very. My old pack wasn’t very well off. Our house wasn’t in good shape and there were a lot of fights, so I spent a lot of time scared. I like Mercy Hills better.”
Interesting. That wasn’t the story that Jason had told Mac. And apparently Orvin’s lawyer knew it, because he stood up. “Your Honor, I don’t believe that the witness is telling the entire truth.” Even more interesting, that Orvin looked like he was trying to shut his lawyer up. Had Orvin not told the man the entire story? Mac sat back to watch how it played out.
The judge turned grimly back to Jason. “You know there are penalties for lying under oath.”
Tears welled up in Jason’s eyes. “I didn’t want to be mean. As long as I get to go home with Mac, I can forget what happened in Montana Border.” He bent his head and began to weep, clutching his belly, and Mac was half out of his seat to go to him before Laine caught his eyes and motioned for him to sit down.
“What exactly are you trying to say?” The judge handed Jason a tissue. “Would you like some water?”
&n
bsp; Jason shook his head and wiped at his eyes. “No, because then I’ll have to pee and I already spend half my life in the bathroom.”
The judge’s lips twitched. “All right. Can you explain to me now what it was you were trying to hide from me? You said you don’t like lying.”
“No, I don’t.” Jason sighed. “It’s kind of an omega thing. You see, we’re treated different. I was the only male omega all the way through, so I guess I got it worse than the girls, because they only started the omega training when they showed that they were omega, when they got to be teenagers. All my life, it’s been lessons about looking after babies, and how to cook, and how to clean. And then my heats came, and like the other omegas, they locked me away in my house so I wouldn’t accidentally get mated. But my second season, I didn’t wait until it was completely done and I snuck out to go to the bonfire, and the Alpha found me. And he got mad, because he said I was supposed to mate him, and he’d better mate me now, because if I kept sneaking out, someone else would catch me first.” Jason paused, and looked innocently up at the judge. “I think he was drunk.”
A boiling wave of rage and pride swamped Mac. He knew how omegas were viewed, and he’d assumed Jason’s flight had had something to do with an over-aggressive alpha. But he hadn’t expected this. The only thing that kept him in his seat was watching how Jason used this story to coax the judge to their side, leaking the details out as if he were being forced. But Mac knew his mate, and he recognized the signs of Jason tweaking his words to have a particular effect.
It was brilliant. And working. But Mac’s shifter side didn’t like it, hated that Jason was crying, and it was in a frenzy of worry about their pup and that recurring distraction in Jason’s face. Mac laced his fingers together and tightened his grip until it hurt, and used that pain to remind himself that Jason wasn’t really in danger. Except that he was, if they lost. But they hadn’t lost yet.
He squeezed even harder.
Expressionless, the judge glanced over at Orvin’s table. Mac followed the direction of his gaze, and had to fight not to laugh. Orvin was whispering vehemently with his lawyer, and the expression on his face was frantic. His lawyer looked pissed. Then the judge returned his attention to Jason.
“And what happened then?”
Jason licked his lips and looked down at his belly. His calm stroking sped up, like he was agitated or scared. Mac was starting to have trouble reading him, between his own worry and Jason’s body language. It made him restless. He caught Abel’s eye, but Abel shook his head and reached out with his own power to squash Mac’s desire to grab Jason right in front of the judge and run. That was just as painful, if not more, than what he’d been doing with his hands, but Mac welcomed the pain. It kept him focused on the now, and not the future.
In a small, shaky voice, Jason began filling in details of that night. “He caught me up against a fence. There was a nail sticking out—everything was always broken there, the alphas were always messing around and fighting. The nail stuck in my…butt.” He put a hand absently on the back of his right hip, where Mac knew he had curved scar, rough and ragged. “He was pulling on my jeans—”
“Your Honor!” Orvin’s lawyer broke in. “Is this really pertinent?”
“Yes, it is. I’m walking a fine line here, attempting to respect your culture—and you don’t make it easy—while also respecting the rights of this young man here to live a safe and happy life.”
“There’s no proof!”
“I can show you proof.” Jason stood up and reached for the fastenings of his pants, hidden beneath the roiling curve of his belly. He glanced down at it. “Hush, you. We’re almost done.” The curve tightened and rounded and Jason gasped, putting a hand on the judge’s desk for support.
Mac stood up. “He’s in labor.”
“I’m fine!” Jason snapped. He shot Mac a disapproving look. “Sit down. It’s still early. We’ve time to get home.” His hands started working at his pants again. “I want this done. I want to go home and have our pup in peace.” His earlier tears had disappeared before they fell, but these didn’t, creeping down his cheeks.
The judge reached out to stop him. “You don’t have to take your clothes off in front of him. We can have a bailiff take a picture.”
Jason laughed, and the pain in it wrung Mac’s heart. “It doesn’t matter. I’m an omega, what I want doesn’t count. He’s already inspected me for flaws, he’s not going to see anything new, except the baby.”
A cold rage swept in to take the place of the hot one Mac had been fighting. He nearly missed the judge’s incredulous, “Inspected you for flaws?”
Jason sat down as if all his strength had left him. “It’s normal. A flawed omega gets sent away somewhere. Only the good ones, the healthy ones are allowed to mate.” He paused, and added offhandedly, “I gave him the scar on his face. That’s why he didn’t manage to mate me. And I ran. The next day, he made my family move out of our bungalow into a shack. The roof leaked, and my window fell on me the day we moved in. We ran away the next night.” He went back to stroking his belly, the tears gradually drying on his face. “I want to feel safe. I want my baby to be safe.” He turned to the judge. “I know you have to follow that law. I don’t expect you to do anything different. But, if you have to send me back to him, can you make sure Mac gets our baby?”
Behind him, where the crowd of onlookers had been sitting in hushed silence, Mac heard a sob, and whispers began in the audience.
Laine stood. “Your Honor, in light of Jason’s current condition, perhaps we could recess and continue on another day?” He seemed happy.
“Sit down, counsel. I’m ready to render my verdict. I just wanted to be sure of where the young man wanted to be. There are two areas of pack tradition at play here, even if you ignore the issues around the contracts. I have looked at them and they seem clearly designed to allow Jason to visit Mercy Hills, and allows for further negotiation over his…mating, should he find someone he wanted. And this is where the difficulty lies—in contract law, the rules of the original contract have been contravened. Jason was mated without the proper negotiations concerning an exchange of appropriate value. Which leaves Mercy Hills in the situation of either returning Jason to his birth pack, or compensating them in the traditional manner. Montana Border has placed a value of half a million dollars on the omega shifter in question. I find that to be rather excessive—we’re talking a bride-price here, not human slavery.” He cast a withering glance at Orvin’s table. “The likely value of his contribution, should he mate within his pack of origin, is set at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mercy Hills, you have six months to either pay this compensation to Montana Border, or negotiate compensation in kind. This is my recorded verdict.” He slammed the gavel down and looked over at Orvin again. “Don’t let me hear about you appealing this, until they’ve failed to compensate your pack.” The judge stood and left the courtroom.
Mac raced to the front of the courtroom to pick Jason up and whirl him around. Then he put him down and guiltily asked, “Shit, did I hurt you?”
Jason laughed. “No, but I want to go home!”
“We will. How far apart are your contractions?”
Jason shrugged, obviously unconcerned. “Long enough. About fifteen minutes now. There’s time.”
Abel put a hand on Mac’s shoulder. “Come on, we’d better go. I sent Duke to get the car.”
Laine shouldered his way into the conversation. “Congratulations.” He looked down at Jason. “And more congratulations. You were superb.”
“It was all true.” Jason wrinkled his nose and grunted. “Crap, that’s uncomfortable.”
“Another one?” Mac asked, spreading his hand over Jason’s belly. “It feels like a bowling ball.”
“Yeah,” Jason said in a tight voice. “I’m fine. There’s time, it can take two days sometimes.” He whistled through his teeth. “Little Mac better be here a damn sight faster than that.”
One of the co
urt security guards approached them. “Excuse me. The judge has asked to see you in chambers.” His nod took in the entire Mercy Hills group.
They looked at each other, and Laine asked, “Did he give a reason?”
The guard shook his head. “He said it would only take a minute.”
“That’s all it had better take.” Laine tugged on his shirtsleeves and shrugged to settle his suit jacket on his shoulders. “I’ll gather my papers and we’ll be right there.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I’d expected the judge’s chambers to look more like the ones I’d on TV—dark wood paneling, fancy antique-looking lights, big desk with a couple of trays in it for important papers. What we got was a tiny room with bare white walls, cheap fluorescent lighting, and every horizontal surface covered in folders overflowing with closely typed papers. It was a disaster.
I kind of wanted to clean up for him. Poor guy, he needed his own omega. Then I looked up at Mac, and decided that I had enough on my plate. Let the human find his own.
The judge stood up from behind his desk as we came in, and came around to pull out a chair for me. “I won’t keep you long. I know there aren’t any hospitals here that will take shifters, though I don’t understand why. You’re a large group.”
Mac helped me down into the chair. My womb was giving me a break, but I had to pee again. If we didn’t get to a bathroom soon, I’d end up lifting a leg against one of the ugly bookcases behind us. Still, I smiled sweetly and said, “I’d rather be home anyway. Thank you for not letting them take me.”
“It was a difficult decision. They were probably smart to bring it to civil court, instead of pressing charges in criminal.” Wilson sat down behind his desk again. “Part of the problem is that we in the courts are not well versed in shifter law, so determining precedence in these cases can be tricky.”
Mating the Omega (MM Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 1) Page 15