Page 1 of His Gentle Omega
Chapter One
Shay
The high-pitched scream of my six-year-old son brought me groggily awake.Fuck!I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. The summer chest cold that was stubbornly hanging on had me exhausted. The non-stop coughing had finally forced me to swallow some over-the-counter cough medicine. The label had claimed it was for daytime use, but my worn-out body had given in as soon as I had sunk down to the twin bed in Lucas’s playroom.
He'd been coloring quietly at his little craft table, and I’d just needed to get off my feet. Needed the coughing to stop for just a minute. I would never dare take anything that would knock me out while Lucas was still awake. Not when Edward wasn’t home. I had no recollection of my eyes even closing and falling asleep.
“Papa, let go!” Lucas’s cry had me springing up from the bed in a panic. Ignoring the way my stuffy head swam dizzily andmy heart pounded way too fast in my chest, I rapidly blinked my eyes to try to clear my vision.
“I wish you’d never been born!” Edward’s hissed words, filled with so much hate, had me nearly seeing red with anger and helped bring my sluggish brain somewhat back online quickly. Usually, Edward left Lucas alone. His anger was always directed towards me. Mainly because I made sure to keep Lucas out of his way–and Edward away from him–as much as possible. With Edward it was very much out of sight, out of mind.
Only I had passed out before Edward had decided to come home for the night. Before I could safely tuck Lucas in bed, where Edward would forget about his existence. No doubt he had come looking for me–his intended target–and remembered he actually had a child.
Swaying on my feet, I determinedly pushed myself in between Edward and Lucas. Grabbing Edward’s wrist, I put enough pressure on it that he released his hold on Lucas. The ever-persistent tickle started in the back of my throat and my lungs tightened, feeling like they were swelling out of my chest. The cough barked out of me before I even had a chance to try to hold it in or cover my mouth.
Spittle, tinged with green goop, hit Edward’s bare arm from the awkward way we were turned, and I wasn’t even sorry about it. Through glassy eyes I saw Lucas frozen in fright. His blue eyes, so like mine, huge in his small, pale face.
“Lucas, go to your room,” I rasped.
The words, so innocent sounding, were anything but. They were a secret code between Lucas and me. He knew when I said them, he was to get to his room as fast as possible and hide in the secret passageway that Edward didn’t know about. I had come upon it by accident when I had moved Lucas from his nurseryto his ‘big boy room’. Quickly realizing the tiny door led to a sizeable cubby, I had placed his bookshelf in front of it, hiding its existence. Leaving just enough room for Lucas to be able to crawl behind the rocker recliner next to the bookshelf and hide away safely until I came for him.
We had practiced it often, waiting for the day I knew deep down would come, sooner rather than later.
Lucas didn’t wait to see what was about to happen–thank the Goddess for that–just took off as fast as his skinny, little legs would carry him. Scurrying past Edward and dodging swiftly when my mate–Goddess that word left a horrible taste on my tongue–reached out to try to grab him when he ran past.
“Bastard, you get back here!” Edward snarled, and I briefly wondered what all his country club cronies would think of the popular, in-demand omega if they could see him at this moment. “Lucas!”
“Leave him alone, Edward.” Coughing, I turned my head away this time, but I still hadn’t released the tight hold I had on his wrist. Edward might be an omega, but he was a strong one. I knew that firsthand and better than anyone. Especially when he’d been drinking. The whiskey fumes on his breath permeated even my stuffed-up nose. At this point, the booze might be seeping from his pores.
“You’re so disgusting, Shay,” Edward mocked, shaking his arm in a silent demand that I release my hold on him. The last thing I wanted was for him to end up with bruises on his wrists from pulling against my hold. He would run to his daddy and tell him some sob story about what the mean alpha had done to him, and I would lose the only thing of importance I still had.
I would lose Lucas.
There was no way I would ever let that happen. I would never leave Lucas to be raised by his monster of an omega father.
Once upon a time, I had thought Edward was the most beautiful omega I had ever seen. Now all I saw when I looked at him was the ugliness of his soul.
We had looked so magnificent together, everyone had said so. Me, the tall, rawboned alpha, with the all-American good looks. Blond haired and blue eyed, with grease under my fingernails. Edward, the dark haired, blue-gray eyed omega, with the dazzling smile, effervescent personality, and Dallas high society money.
Loving Edward had cost me everything.
My dad, my brother, my future. Even my ability to shift. He’d slowly–so slowly I hadn’t even noticed it was happening–taken my family, my friends, my job, and finally my freedom. There were days I thanked the Goddess my mom hadn’t been alive to see the mess I’d made of my life.
But I would die before I let him take Lucas from me.
“You know you don’t want to hurt Lucas,” I taunted him, as we stood staring at each other, both our chests heaving.
Edward’s porcelain skin was ruddy, his blue-gray eyes red rimmed, his cheeks puffy from too much alcohol. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides, his nostrils flared in anger, like a bull ready to charge a matador. I had a good foot in height on him, but his slender, delicate frame was deceitful. He had hard muscles covering his thin bones and he knew how to throw a punch.
Despite that, I could have taken him. Could have put him on the ground and hurt him. If not for the fact that my dad had taught me that alphas don’t hit omegas. Especially your omega. Your mate.
Even thinking the wordmatemade my stomach recoil in disgust.
But I would not–could not–go against what my dad had taught me. And I prayed to the Goddess every single day that my dad was up there in the heavens, looking down with my mom, proud of the fact that at least I had never raised a hand to Edward. Not once. No matter what he did to me.
I knew I had disappointed my dad with my reckless behavior. Just like I knew I had to keep my promise to him in this one thing. It made me feel better just hoping this–me not laying hands on Edward–would make my dad proud even after his death.
“Why do you even care about that little brat so much, Shay?” Edward spat. “He’s not even yours.”
