Page 19 of His Innocent Omega
It was also clear to me by the look on Wyatt’s face when I announced that she was mine and he was my omega, that he hadn’t had a clue that we were fated mates. The more I had replayed that night in my head, remembering how innocent Wyatt had actually been, there were days I doubted that he had known.
But it hadn’t changed anything for me. I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I hadn’t even made it down to my car in the hotel lobby before I deleted my profile from the app. I didn’t want a mate. I most definitely didn’t want a fated mate and all that came along with it.
But now everything had changed. It wasn’t even something I could begin to explain to anyone, even myself. Being a father had never been on my bucket list. I’d certainly never planned it at my age. But there had to be a reason Wyatt was in the same town I was, holding my child, and well, maybe having a fated mate wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Jamie had gotten a second chance with his fated mate, and all his brothers had met their fated mates and were living the proverbial happily-ever-after. I’d done all the things on my todo list and then some. Maybe it was my turn to have this, too.
Did I even want it? I thought maybe I did. Seeing Wyatt again…yeah, I definitely feltsomethingfor him. I had never forgotten him. And then there was Julianna. Seeing her had brought out all kinds of protective alpha feelings inside me. She was mine and so was Wyatt.
Fuck, maybe there was something about this town, because there seemed to be a lot of fated mates suddenly walking around it. Fated mates were myths, fairy tales told to children. Then I’d come to this town and met all the Sinclairs, and seen with my own eyes that fated mates truly did exist.
Whatever it was, Wyatt was here holding my daughter, and I wasn’t sneaking out in the middle of the night this time.
The hurt that had flashed briefly in his hazel eyes when he had realized that I had known we were fated, and hadn’t disclosed that information, made me feel like a first class jerk. Which was a strange feeling. I rarely–if ever–felt bad about anything I did. There was no room for it in my life.
Wyatt’s sudden and unexpected return into my world had me spinning. That and the fact that I was a father. A father! I had a baby daughter. She was only a few hours old, but from the moment I had looked down into her red little face I had known I would protect her with my very life.
Leaving the hospital after growling my threat at Wyatt, I drove around aimlessly before pulling into the back lot of Sinful Playgrounds, the kink club Jamie owned. Glancing at the time, I realized it was nearing noon, but Jamie’s cobalt blue Camaro was parked by the back door.
When Jamie’s mate, Sebastian, had resurfaced with their son, Matty, Jamie had changed the hours he spent at the club. He hardly ever worked a night shift now, and was usually done intime to pick Matty up at school.
I was glad my friend was here now, and that without thinking, I had driven to the club. I needed to talk to someone about everything that had happened today, and my best friend seemed like the most logical person. Besides, he had firsthand knowledge of fated mates. And kids. He had two of them now. He’d be able to tell me if all these weird feelings of protectiveness I was having were normal.
Punching in the back door code took less than two seconds, and I was striding down the empty corridor to the closed door of Jamie’s private office. I could hear the low murmur of his voice. Not bothering to knock, I barged on in.
His blue eyes turned to glance at me before they turned back to the chunky baby sitting on the desk in front of him. Ronen was giggling at his dad, blowing bubbles from between his baby lips. The baby was ten months old now, with midnight dark hair that was just beginning to curl on the ends, and big hazel eyes that tended to be more green than any other color.
“Look who’s come to see us, Ro,” Jamie spoke to the baby in a slightly high-pitched voice that people tended to use with babies. Except me. I talked to them in the same tone I talked to everyone. Because let’s face it, my voice was deep and there wasn’t any changing it. “He’s had a super exciting day, yes he has.”
Narrowing my eyes at him as I sank into the leather couch in his office, I tossed a magazine offering the latest sex toys aside. Jamie kept his club well stocked with the latest toys. “What do you know about my day?”
“I know you can add delivering babies to your already impressive resume,” he snarked. “Gonna give my brother a run for his money?”
“How do you know this?” Not that Jamie’s skills for gathering intel weren’t impressive, but even for him it was a little fast to know about the events of just a few hours ago.
“Everyone knows, I imagine. Miss Rose and Gigi were in the line of traffic stopped while you played hero.”
Throwing my arm over my eyes, I groaned. Miss Rose and Gigi were two old ladies who ran the gossip mill in Sweet Alps. I adored both of them, but there wasn’t anything that went on in this town that they didn’t know about. And once they knew it the entire town knew it.
“Exciting stuff,” Jamie blew a raspberry on his son’s belly and Ronen cackled. Smiling despite my mood at the sound, I lowered my arm. Baby giggles really were awesome.
“It wasn’t what I expected when I pulled the driver over, that is for sure.”
“I bet,” Jamie’s shrewd eyes ran over me. “You don’t look too worse for wear. You survived witnessing childbirth better than Brendan did.”
It was well known in the Sinclair circle of family and friends how Jamie’s older brother, Brendan, had passed out in the delivery room when his mate, Ryan, was giving birth to their daughter. Poor guy was never going to live that down.
“I didn’t pass out, thank fuck.”
“It’s actually pretty cool watching a birth.” Jamie shifted Ronen from the desk to his lap, so the baby was now facing me. He grinned a toothy grin from the few teeth he was sporting, drool slipping down his chin. “At least I thought it was. Though Bash made me stay up by his head so I missed all the good stuff. I will say watching them stick him with that epidural needle did make me a bit...” he shuddered broad shoulders, “woozy.”
I had been so focused on just catchingthe baby that I hadn’t really focused on anything else. It was like I was there, in it when it was happening, but I hadn’t been focusing on the beauty of the moment. Or even any of the other things that had been happening to Wyatt’s body. Maybe next time I would feel differently, if I wasn’t the one having to deliver the baby on the side of the road.
Next time?My wolf questioned.You think there will be a next time?
Okay, where that thought had come from, I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to focus on that now.
“I…I’m not sure we had quite the same experience. I was more intent on catching the baby than noticing anything else.”
