Page 14 of His Pretty Omega
He shrugged, “Shay was giving me a panicked look, and I assured him I had only been kidding about the day drinking. Besides I’m driving, so I would never.”
Nodding, I knew he wouldn’t. Shay’s ex had been a bastard of an omega, an abusive alcoholic. He had ultimately lost his life in a drinking and driving accident just a few months ago. Shay still had a shit ton of trauma to work through, but he and Bennett were working through it all, together.
“So,” Bennett hedged, after sucking his fingers clean of a bit of melted chocolate, “you’re not keeping the baby then?”
“What? Of course, I’m keeping it!” I cried, my tone conveying my outrage at his very sensible, logical conclusion.
Okay, where the fuck had that come from?
I hadn’t really had time to think about what I wanted to do yet, but in that split second, I knew I was keeping the baby. My hand traveled to lay across my still flat stomach, resting there lightly. Correction, I was keepingmybaby, notthebaby.
Bennett smiled knowingly, reaching out and taking my free hand and giving it a light squeeze. “You know you aren’t alone in this, right? You have me and Shay, Asher and Gabe. The Musketeers, and your family. They love you, Seth, they will support you in this. We all will.”
He named off my boss and his mate, along with our group of close omega friends in our chat group dubbed The Musketeers. And yeah, my family was wonderful, I had to admit. My whole middle child syndrome thing I had going on was all on me, and not really anything my parents or siblings had done.
But I’d had five years of being the baby before my younger sister, Gilly, had come along. And even though I loved her dearly, I didn’t always like her, and I was still a bit salty about having my throne usurped. I knew my family would support me, though I’d probably see some disappointment in my mom and dad’s eyes. But only for the fact that I wasn’t mated, like my siblings, before Ipopped out a grandbaby for them to love on. My parents excelled at being doting grandparents to my two nieces and I knew they would absolutely adore my child.
“And the alpha dad?” Bennett hedged carefully, “Do you think he’ll want to be involved?”
Rubbing at the slight headache I had, probably due to all the throwing up I’d been doing and the fact that I knew I was slightly dehydrated, I grimaced. “Yeah, about that.”
“If he’s a dickwad, he doesn’t need to be involved,” Bennett assured me. “But I know how you felt when I didn’t tell Shay I was pregnant right away. I know you, Seth, you’ll want to tell this guy. But that doesn’t mean he needs to be involved if he doesn’t want to. We’ve got this.”
“It’s not that.” Picking up my cup, I took a sip to have something to occupy myself. “I…” Blowing out a long breath, I looked at the pattern of the tiled floor, feeling slightly ashamed. I rarely, if ever, felt ashamed about anything I did, but I had never imagined I would be in the predicament I found myself in.
Sure, I had a lot of fun as a single omega, not ready to make any commitments to a mate. Settling down with an alpha had never really appealed to me, honestly. I liked having my own career, coming and going as I pleased, and doing things on my own terms. If I wanted to get laid, I went out and did it, no strings attached. The alphas never needed to worry about anything beyond one night with me.
And I was always, always careful to keep up with my birth control. Usually I had a-wrap-it-up-or-get-the-fuck-out policy for the alphas, but I was pretty sure I remembered this alpha and me skipping over that part. Yeah, I definitely remembered we had. Even if I hadn’t remembered, the fact that I had dried cum on me the next morning, and it was still dripping out of me, was a clear sign.
“I have no idea who he is,” I admitted, feeling my cheeks heat. “No name. No way to contact him. It’s the guy I hooked up with on New Year’s. The guy I was with at the hotel when you went into labor.”
Bennett just nodded, and there was no censor in his green eyes, but he did have his thinking face on. “Maybe Jamie can find him. Or Becks?”
Jamie Sinclair used to work for the government, as did Sweet Alps’ current sheriff, Grayson Beckett. Both men were also mates of good friends of ours. “I feel like they can find anyone. They have tons of resources.”
“Maybe,” I hedged, though I wasn’t too hopeful. It wasn’t like I had a lot of information for them to go off of. What did I say? He was a really hot Latino, with a great cock, and he was fantastic in bed. From what I could remember. Because I’d been slightly more than tipsy and might have gone into a weird, early, shortened heat? That might have melted my brain for a bit? Possibly,from what I could remember. Yeah, I didn’t think that was enough for them to find the guy.
“Wait! I have this!” Grabbing my discarded cell phone, I quickly thumbed through my pictures. After a minute of frustrated scrolling, I muttered, “Goddess, I take a lot of pictures of your kids!”
Bennett shrugged, unapologetic, “I have cute kids.”
“Facts.” Shoving my phone in his face, I exclaimed, “I found this on my phone when I was looking through all the pictures I took of Brodie in the hospital, after you had him. I don’t even remember taking this picture.” At Bennett’s raised eyebrows, I scowled, “What? It was New Year’s Eve. I drank a lot, okay?”
Bennett grabbed my arm, taking my phone and holding it away from his face so he could focus on the picture I had found the day after I had left hottie McHottie sleeping in the hotel room. Okay, in my defense, I had left a note. Not much of one, but it had to count for something, right? Right. It totally counted.
The picture was of the two of us, looking rumpled and mussed in bed, both of us smiling like idiots. It showed us from the waist up, both our naked chests visible. My head rested in the crook of the arm he had wrapped around me, while he took the picture with his other arm. A memory niggled at my brain each time I looked at the picture–which was more times than I wanted to admit–ofme laughing and telling him his arms were longer, and he should take it.
Bennett’s brow furrowed, and he used his thumb and finger to expand the picture, focusing on the alpha’s face, his long hair tousled, his lips curved into a wide, happy grin. Then my bestie started laughing, startling me. I didn’t like the fissure of anger that shot through me, thinking my bestie was laughing at my…my…
Mate, my cougar supplied in his not at all helpful way, and I gulped.
It wasn’t the first time my cougar had insisted the man was our mate. Could he really be my mate? As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I couldn’t deny the undeniable attraction I felt for him. The pull. The electricity that raced across my skin when he touched me. The way he had smelled, the rich musky scent enough that it had started my slick gushing.
I had brushed it all aside, coming up with plausible excuses for it all. But the heat that had turned my blood to fire, that had muddled my thoughts, my insatiable need to be filled by him…to be knotted by him…it had felt like I was in heat. I had brushed the notion aside when it had flittered across my buzzed brain, knowing my heat wasn’t due for months and months. But…could he–we–really be fated mates, like my cat kept insisting?
“Seth!” Bennett jerked me out of my thoughts, as he tried to grab my phone back because I had yanked it fromhis hands. But I stubbornly held it above my head, out of his reach. I wasn’t tall by any stretch of the imagination, but Bennett was even shorter than I was. Sitting on the cold floor, it was well and truly too high for him to take back and laugh more at the only picture I had of my nameless alpha.
“What?” I snapped, because…because…Goddess, was this what Bennett had felt the times I had been shitty to Shay, when I thought he was causing my friend emotional pain? Wow, I needed to think more about how my actions affected others.
