Chapter Twenty-Two
Jethro
Miles slept until almost midday the next day. I didn’t have the heart to wake him, especially since we had nowhere to be. That wasn’t true for the rest of the week. I had a meeting with the disciplinary committee, and the AO Office wanted to meet with both of us. And we had to make a doctor’s appointment to get the implant in Miles’ arm removed. But, by my estimation, we had two days of freedom to enjoy before we had to face up to our responsibilities. Responsibilities Miles didn’t yet have the full picture of.
I heard him wake, then the patter of bare feet on the floor before he appeared in the doorway of my bedroom, his hair mussed, rubbing sleepily at his eyes.
“Morning,” he said as I got up to greet him.
“Good afternoon, I think you mean,” I said, pressing a kiss to his lips.
He moaned and clutched my shoulder, deepening the kiss. When we parted, I reached out a hand to drag my thumb across his flushed lips.
“We could go back to bed?” he suggested.
“How about breakfast?” I countered gently.
“Breakfast in bed?”
“Fine, you win.” Putting my hands on his shoulders, I guided him to the table. “You take a seat here, while I do some cooking.”
Miles twisted in his chair to watch me as I rooted through my cupboards.
“What are you in the humor for? Waffles, pancakes, bacon and eggs?”
“You went shopping?”
“Blaise made sure we wouldn’t go hungry.”
Miles grinned lazily. “I like him.”
I grinned back at him. “Me, too.”
After a late breakfast, and some more vigorous bedroom antics, we lazed in bed in each other’s arms.
I walked my fingers across Miles’ stomach.
“They told you about the South’s stipulations?”
Miles nodded, his expression turning serious. “I have to be pregnant within six months.”
“That’s right.”
“Jonathan said it was plenty of time.”
“It is.” It wasn’t, but I didn’t want to worry him.
I circled his navel with one single solitary finger, the teasing touch making him smile and squirm.
“So, does that mean we have to have lots of sex?”
“Oh yes,” I said, keeping my expression as serious as I could make it. “Every day, and as often as possible.”
“Won’t we get tired or bored?”
Grinning, I rolled him onto his back and straddled him.
“Never, I promise you that.”
His arms wrapped around my neck, dragging me down into a kiss, leaving us both breathless and giddy.
It was evening when we finally got out of bed, scrounging up some more food which we ate curled up on the couch.
“So, what do you do when you’re not peacekeeping?”
“Lounge around eating pizza,” I replied.
Miles blinked before shoving me lightly. “Stop teasing me.”
“I’m sorry, you look so cute when you’re confused.”
Miles glared, which only made him look cuter.
“In answer to your question,” I said, wiping a smudge of tomato from Miles’ chin, “when we’re not deployed overseas, we train, and perform necessary duties here. Manning bases, taking part in exercises, helping out during emergencies. There’s plenty to keep us busy.”
“And when you’re not working?”
“Let’s see… I play football with some of the guys on base, I go running. I hang out with Blaise and Roman. We usually have a gaming night once or twice a week.”
“Gaming?”
I nodded, pointing to the games console beside the TV.
“What about you? What do you do for fun?”
“I read, but only stuff my father’s approves of. I play the clarinet. And I paint.” Miles was very hesitant to offer up his reply, so I probed gently.
“What do you paint?”
“Mostly our garden; plants and trees.”
“That’s what you like to paint?” It seemed very limited.
“It’s the only thing Father thought appropriate. I used to paint things from my head, or scenes from stories I read but…” He shrugged and I filled in the blanks.
“Your father didn’t think it was acceptable for an Omega.”
“No. It was the same with the books I read and the music I played. I remember painting something for Ben, my brother’s, birthday. It was from his favorite children’s story. Father tore it up. Ben cried and…” He paused. “I’m sorry, you don’t want to hear this.”
“Of course I do. We’re in each other’s pockets now. I want to know everything about you, the good and bad, all the things that make you who you are.”
“There isn’t much to know,” he said. I knew that wasn’t true.
“Would you like to play a game?” I asked, nodding to the console.
“I’ve never played before. I won’t be any good.”
“You can’t know until you try.”
As I set it up, Miles tidied away our plates. He came back to sit next to me, listening patiently as I explained how to play.
After we lost the first campaign, we took a break.
“What does it mean, Alpha Prime and Omega Prime?” Miles asked me, drawing his legs up to sit sideways on the couch. It wasn’t the most straightforward of questions, but I gave it my best attempt.
“Do you know anything about wolf packs or lion prides?”
“Not really. Why?”
“Well, there’s a sort of hierarchy in them that parallels the hierarchy in human Alphas and Omegas. The Alpha in a wolf pack is top dog, so to speak. And in a lion pride, there is a single adult male who leads the pack and sires the cubs.”
“So you’re…” Miles paused. “I don’t get it.”
“An Alpha Prime is an Alpha who is powerful enough to found a clan once he’s bonded to an Omega. And not just any Omega, but an Omega Prime.”
“Are you sure that’s me? I don’t feel like I’m a Prime-anything.” Miles’ face fell as he spoke.
I cupped his chin and kissed him, running my other hand across his mark.
“You are the Omega Prime,” I murmured in his ear. “There’s no getting away from it now.”
Miles stole another kiss, then sat back. “What happens now?”
“Well, we can play another game or go back to bed…”
“No, I mean the clan. What happens with that?”
“Once the AO Office recognizes our bond and approves our application to establish a clan, we’ll be given the deeds to the clan house and the estate. They’re about ten minutes walk from here.”
“Why so close?”
“Traditionally, Alphas were conscripted into the military as a matter of course, like in the South. It’s voluntary now, but it’s still about sixty percent or so. The military base was built in proximity to the clan house rather than the other way around.”
“And it’ll be ours?”
“It’s held in trust for us, so if we’re permitted to form a clan, we’ll be allowed to live there alongside any other Alphas or Omegas who join us.”
Miles frowned. “That seems like a lot of responsibility.”
“If there’s one good thing we can say about your Father, it’s that you are well prepared to shoulder responsibility.”
“Even this?”
“Especially this.”
His frown disappeared, his smile making his eyes sparkle.
“I hadn’t thought about it like that.”
I could see that he liked the idea of drawing something positive from all the negatives. This was it, the start of our new life together. And I couldn’t wait.