be a pussy, just like Miller had said, backing down from a fight. Except what would he be fighting for? The right to buy a gaming system he had no intention of buying?
“I saw someone walk in here.”
“It’s a store. People come in. Some of ’em even buy something.”
“It looked like someone I knew.”
“Trust me when I say it’s no one who wants to know you.”
So it had been his father. Who didn’t want to know him. Well, that was fine. Saul didn’t want to know his father either. He just wanted to know what kind of trouble his father had in mind, coming to Galvetta and meeting with a guy who was known to be against them.
He left the store, the harsh jangle of the bell bidding him farewell as inhospitably as it’d greeted him. He rubbed his chest as he walked down Main Street, wondering how far the bond carried, whether Jasper could feel his anxiety all the way over on the farm.
The library was housed in an old mansion. Likely it’d been somebody’s real house once, but the interior had been remodeled to give it a more open feel. The spacious front porch hosted a row of rocking chairs. Saul recognized an older gentleman nodding off in one and shook his hand before going inside where it was cool and quiet. Silence echoed through the high-ceilinged foyer, and shelf-lined corridors stretched away at all angles, as if the foyer was the head of an octopus. At its center stood a reception desk, round like it was the octopus’s eye, and behind the desk sat Elias, the eye’s pupil.
Elias grinned when he caught sight of Saul coming toward him. Something was growing between them. It wasn’t as strong as the bond Saul had with Jasper, but growing was better than deteriorating. They would get to where they were meant to be.
“Is it okay if I bother you?” Saul asked when he was close enough to keep his voice down. “I know you’re working.”
“Let me show you around. Technically, that’s part of my job.” Elias propped up a sign that said ‘ring for service’ and led Saul into one of the octopus’s tentacles.
ELIAS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elias loved this library. He loved all libraries, but especially this one. He loved its dim interior; loved its nooks and crannies, every one of them crammed ceiling to floor with books; loved its giant card catalog, made of oak and perfectly organized; loved the spiral staircase that gave access to the second floor. But what he loved most of all was the section he brought Saul to.
Galvetta had the most extensive collection of information on hybrids he’d ever seen. It was all here, filed under History, though some of it was clearly more legend than history. Facts and fantasies mingled together on the shelves, and cultural references stood next to sociological studies. Elias had been going through the collection book by book, ostensibly to sort it into a more sensible order, but he dipped into every book as he catalogued it, scrounging for whatever he could find that would help them form their pack.
He presented the collection to Saul proudly, as if he could take credit for it, pleased when Saul seemed interested. Saul especially liked the more fanciful books, the ones full of tales of derring-do from ancient alphas who might or might not have actually existed, and he let out a quiet wolf whistle at the drawings of near-naked omegas illustrating a treatise on omega physiology. The text of the book was pure rubbish. Someone had found a way to pass off porn as science, that was all.
“Of course Jack Henry’s better than any of them,” Saul said as he handed the book back. He adjusted himself, trying to be discreet about it, but Elias could smell his arousal. The omegas in the drawings struck poses not dissimilar from Jack Henry’s dance moves, which meant the pictures made Elias horny too. He shelved the book and moved on to another treasure.
“This is what Jack Henry looks like inside,” he said as showed Saul an anatomical drawing of the omega reproductive system. “Hopefully.”
According to the diagram, uber-omegas had egg sacs—the omega version of an ovary, except they only had one, not two. During heat, an egg would descend from the sac into a fertilization chamber located about halfway up the omega’s channel. If the egg was fertilized, it would make its way down a tube and into the womb.
“So for this to work,” Elias explained