Page 36 of His Pretty Omega
“Pretty much,” he nodded, “some are family friends. But when we say cousins, we could mean first or twenty-fifth. It’s all the same to us.”
“Madre, Padre,” Alex called, over the din of chatter in the house, “come meet my Seth.”
My Seth.
I didn’t think I’d ever been anyone’s mine before.
My cheeks flushed at his words, and warmth bloomed in my chest. Before I could dwell too much on my feelings, an older Hispanic couple stood in front of us, smiling warmly.
“Seth, this is mymadre, Claudia,” he introduced his mom, but when he pronounced her name he said it like Cloudia instead of how Americans pronounced it. “And this is mypadre, Eduardo.”
Claudia wrapped me in a hug, and I automatically hugged her back. When she pulled back, she studied my face, then said something to Alex in Spanish I didn’t understand. So, I just smiled, and told myself I needed to start having Alex teach me Spanish.
“Alejandro,” a quiet voice called, “Tráemelo.”
“Myabuelawants me to bring you to her,” Alex whispered in my ear. “She doesn’t speak English very well. Just a few words, so I’ll translate for you.”
“What did your mom say to you?” I asked him, as he led me over to the flurry of activity in the kitchen.
It smelled wonderful, and I was super hungry. Hopefully there were some dishes that weren’t too spicy. Since I had gotten pregnant, my spice level was like a minus fifteen and it was annoying.
He grinned at me, “She said you have beautiful eyes.”
“Abuela,” Alex stopped in front of a tiny omega, who had to be at least eighty years old or even older. Her brown skin was lined with age, her hair white, and braided in one thick braid down her back. He must have introduced me, but the only word I understood was my name.
She stared at me intently, from the top of my head to my feet, taking me all in. I tried not to fidget and clung tightly to Alex’s arm.
“Seth, this is myabuela, Isabella.”
“It’s so nice to meet you,” I said, and listened as Alex translated. She nodded, then gave me a warm smile, so I smiled back, feeling a bit more at ease. Even if we didn’t speak the same language, a smile was universal.
“And what about us?” The woman that had shouted for Alex asked from behind us, standing with her arms folded and looking all kinds of annoyed.
There were four more women with her, all wearing the same expressions. They each looked enough alike, and resembled Alex, I figured they had to be his older sisters.
Alex smirked, “I didn’t want you scaring him off. I like this one.”
They started speaking in Spanish to each other so quickly it almost made my head spin, before they turned to stare at me.
“He’s very pretty,” one of the ones in the middle of the pack finally said, this time in English.
“His eyes are stunning,” another declared.
“He can hear you.” I gave them an amused smile but blushed a little at their flattery. Especially since I had foregone my usual make up and just styled my hair.
I had deliberately not shaved this morning, and dark stubble decorated the lower half of my face. Some people needed to ease into my fabulousness a bit at a time, but I always felt blah when my face was without at least eyeliner on.
“Oh, we know,” another one said with a smile, and I decided I liked them all.
Alex chuckled good naturedly and pulled me closer to him. I loved it when he did that. It made me feel…well, it made me feel all the things.
Subtly, so not to be obvious, I breathed in his scent, letting his musky earth smell wash over me. He kissed thetop of my head, and I swear there was a collective sigh of “awe’s” from his sisters.
“Okay,” Alex pointed to the one on the left, “we have first born, Claudia.”
“Like your mom?” I questioned.
“Just like. It’s not uncommon in our culture for daughters to be named after their mothers,” he explained, “though many will go by their middle names.”
