“Careful of Bertie,” Trey said.
“I thought you said the omegas were here?” I asked.
“When I told them what your text said, Laura took them home.” David looked at Trey. “Come on, I’ve put the portable crib in the guest room for him. Then we’ll get you cleaned up.”
I followed them down the hall.
In the light of the room, I could see that Trey’s face and hands were covered in a dusting of black soot.
“I’ll get him a pair of my pajamas,” I said, and ran back to my room to find some. When I returned, I passed through the kitchen where our alphas were having coffee and talking. I helped Trey change into my pajamas and then David and I lay down with him on the bed.
I slept an hour or so but woke up wanting all the pillows on my bed around me. Slipping out of the room, I walked the shortest way to our wing, which was through the kitchen. The house was quiet, and when I looked out the window, I saw the sun hadn’t risen yet. I was willing to bet that Colt, Angus, and Maddox hadn’t gone to bed at all and were already out doing the morning feeds. As Bertram hadn’t been in the room when I woke up, I was sure he was helping them.
Realizing it was useless to get back in bed for only an hour or two, I decided to make breakfast.
As I was cracking eggs into a pan, David joined me, yawning.
“You can sleep in,” I said.
David shook his head. “I can’t sleep well.” He turned on the oven and began buttering bread for toast. “How did you know they were in danger?” he asked me. “And how did Elliott know?”
“I can’t speak for Elliott, but I just woke up suddenly sure that something was wrong and knowing it was about Trey.” I shrugged. “I don’t know anything more than that.” I was anxious to talk to Elliott, though.
David and I stuck close to Trey all day. When the news got around that he and Bertram had lost their house in a fire and were staying with us, neighbors came to see them, bringing clothes and essentials.
Angus, Maddox, and Colt insisted that Bert, Trey, and the baby stay at our house as long as they needed to, which we all knew would be through the winter. It was too late in the year to do anything about the house.
In fact, it was flurrying by late afternoon when Laura pulled her Honda Pilot in front of the house. All seven omegas tumbled out and, when we opened the front door, they hurried in to hug Trey.
“We wanted to come earlier, but Laura wouldn’t let us,” Ren said.
“Well, excuse the animals for having to eat and be cared for,” Laura said teasingly.
“We wanted to see you,” Riku said to Trey. “We did our chores as fast as we could.”
“Thanks for coming,” Trey said, blushing almost as red as his hair.
When Colt came in from the mudroom, he stood surveying the ten of us piled up on the couch together.
“You could spread out a little,” he said.
I shook my head. “No. We need to be touching like this.” I didn’t know why, only that it was true. When I looked at the others, they all nodded.
Looking at Laura, who was seated in a chair scrolling through her phone, he raised a brow. “Omega bonding?”
Laura nodded.
“I just wish Jackson was here,” Trey said. “It’s like we’re incomplete.”
“I feel that way, too,” David said.
“I feel that way and have only met him on the phone,” Keane put in.
I wanted to ask Elliott about his experience last night, but something held me back. I waited until a couple of hours later when everyone had broken off into groups, Ren and Riku with David and Trey in the nursery, Camp and Zeke playing a game of Scrabble by the fire with Maddox and Angus, and Colt and Laura going through a couple of books with Keane and Solomon.
“Elliott, come in my room a minute,” I said. He followed me, and when we got in there, I invited him to sit on the bed with me.
“David said you came over last night with the others because you felt something was wrong. Tell me about it.”