Page 46 of His Sassy Omega
“It was the way things were done back then.” She shrugged like it was no big deal. “Your father and I respected each other, and we grew to love each other eventually. I loved him. I did. Was I in love with him? I’m not sure, honestly, and it’s something I’ve thought about over the years. I loved many things about him, but I don’t think I wasin lovewith him.”
I sat back, stunned.
I didn’t know what to say. I remembered my parents laughing together, kissing, there was never any arguing, or none that we had heard between them. Had I just assumed they had been in love with each other? Had I imagined some epic romance of theirs in my head? I was starting to question everything about my life.
“Jamie tells me you’ve met someone,” my mom said softly. “Is he the reason you’re so snarly this morning?”
I wanted to smack my baby brother upside his gossipy head. “Jamie has a big mouth.”
“Well, yes,” she agreed with a small cackle. “And we adore him for it. He’s always got the juiciest pieces of gossip to share with me.”
She could speak for herself on that one. Adore was not a word I was willing to put in the same sentence with my brother right now. I ran a hand through my sweaty hair, pulling at it and probably making it stand out all over my head. I wanted to get up and pace, my wolf was twitchy and restless beneath my skin. “His name is Quinn. He’s…like no one I’ve ever met before.”
My mom clapped – actually clapped her hands – in delighted glee. “Did you have one of those…oh, what are you kids calling them? Meet cutes? Did you two have a meet-cute?”
I choked on the coffee in my mouth, spitting some on my hoodie. “We had the exact opposite of a meet-cute.”
I spent the next half hour relaying how Quinn and I had met, and the events that had followed. Well, I left out the part of me fucking him in his bakery kitchen, on top of his tasting table. Because, my mom, and ick.
“He sounds lovely.” Was she serious? I’d just told her how he had banned me from his bakery, and she thought he soundedlovely. Whose side was she on anyway?
“He’s a pain in the ass!” I snarled. “He’s moody and full of sass, and he pretty much does whatever he wants, no matter the consequences. He’s independent, headstrong, and stubborn as hell. I think we are fated mates, but he refuses to even discuss the possibility. Won’t even say the words!”
I spent another half hour telling her what I’d felt when Quinn and I had touched the first time, and all the other feelings I was now having. The overwhelming need to be with him, to protect him, to see to his well-being, to drown in his scent.
My mom raised a blonde brow at me. “He sounds like he’s just what you need.”
I stopped in the middle of my venting. “What? What do you mean by that?”
My mom pursed her lips, then sighed a little. “Lachlan, you know I love you. You’re my firstborn – “
I rolled my eyes. “If only I’d shoved Brendan out first.”
Narrowed brown eyes aimed my way, and I shut my trap. Even at thirty-eight, I cowered at that mom look.
“As I was saying, I love you. But, well, son, you need to let yourselfrelax, and just beyou. Since I can remember, I’ve felt like you were always hiding parts of yourself away, where no one could see them. You’re so closed off sometimes, worried about doing everything so damn perfectly, that younever look like you’re having any fun. You needed to be shook up, and your Quinn sounds like he’s doing just that. Fate knew what she was doing.”
Fate seemed like she was drunk AF, as far as I was concerned. “He tossed me out of his bed! At two in the morning! Who does that? I was sleeping!”
My mom looked at her pink-painted nails, then out the window, then gave a little shrug like I was making a big deal over nothing. I realized she had essentially done the same thing to some poor alpha this morning. “Perhaps he’s as confused by all of this as you are, and maybe he needed a bit of breathing space.”
Breathing space. The words hit me hard, and probably not in the way my mom meant them to. Lisette had needed breathing space. Nathan, the omega I’d been seeing before Lisette, had told me I was too much. “You’re just too much sometimes, Lach. I need to breathe.”
“They all say that about me,” I mumbled, swirling the dregs of my now cold coffee.
“Who says what about you?” She sounded just like she had when I’d come home from first grade in tears, because some snot-nosed kid had made fun of me. Mama Bear in the house. If she was a bear.
I threw my hands up in the air. “Everyone I’ve ever dated more than a month. Nathan and Lisette both told me I was‘too much’,” I used air quotes, “that they needed space to breathe. Fuck, Lisette flat out told me I was too nice and boring for her. How can you even be too nice? Nathan said he felt like I was his dad because I wanted to take care of him. Wanted to make sure he was safe or had dinner if he was working late. Made sure he had a car if he went out with his friends to the club, so he got home safely.” Once I started, I couldn’t stop my babbling. “I tried the match-making service, and that was a complete disaster! That omega should have been perfect for me, just what I wanted. A traditional house omega, quiet, meek, and it was wrong in every way.”
My mom’s eyes narrowed, her mouth turned down. “A traditional house omega? Lachlan, that is thelast thing you need.”
“I have a responsibility to our family. As the Alpha, I have a duty,” I sputtered. “Quinn is completely the opposite of what I need.”
My mom looked annoyed. “Says who?”
“Dad!” I yelled, breathing hard. It was the first time I’d said the words out loud. Pointed a finger. Admitted to myself that I had been living my life in hopes of making a dead man proud.
“Lachlan, your father is dead. And that nonsense he used to spout at you, was just that. Absolute elitist alpha rubbish. I can’t tell you how many times he and I fought about that shit he was spouting in your ears. But he was a lot older and set in his ways. I didn’t realize it was still affecting you, and I’m sorry for not noticing,” she said. “If you love Quinn, then he is exactly what you need.”
