Page 42 of Where the Current Takes Him
“Because…” Beau was very suddenly confronted by the fact that he didn’t actually know why it was a major step in human relationships either. “I mean… What if they don’t like me?”
Loriun laughed. “They will like you because I like you. Why would they not?”
“Okay, well, humans aren’t like that.” Beau imagined introducing Loriun to his parents and winced. Of course, his dad had likely met Loriun already, and he would have his best politician’s mask in place, but his father didn’t like the Mer,and certainly didn’t like having an Omega for a son. Sure, he’d facilitated this entire relationship, but that didn’t mean he’d enjoy having to actually witness it.
His mother… The corners of Beau’s mouth turned down. It was hard to predict what his mother would think. She wanted him to be happy, but it couldn’t be easy to watch your son fall in love with an alien.
Woah, love? Slow down there, Beau.
“Uh, so, you have an Omega dad.” He hadn’t considered what kind of family his new mate came from. Not that he’d really had the time. It was hard to believe this was only his fifth day in Miami. “And what was that you called him?”
“Jaei.It is the Loaish word for an Omega father. I find human terms to be lacking.”
“Jaei,” Beau repeated. “Soriueis an Alpha father?”
Loriun shook his head. The magnificent strands of his fiery hair glinted in the sunlight. “Riueis an alpha mother.”
Beau felt his jaw drop. He’d never heard of a Mer having both a mother and a father, let alone an Alpha mother and Omega father. As far as he knew, Mer stuck to their own gender when looking for a mate.
“Yes, it’s quite controversial,” Loriun agreed with the look on his Omega’s face. “Old-fashioned Mer still campaign against opposite-gender relationships, claiming it will negatively affect children.”
“Negatively affect them how?” Beau asked, startled. “It’s the opposite here. ‘Children need a mother and a father’ and all that.”
Loriun laughed. “Traditionalists claim that children will become confused regarding their sex or gender. They say the only proper home is one with an Alpha and an Omega of the same gender.”
“How would that confuse the kids?”
“Well, two males will only produce male children and two females will only produce female children.”
Beau’s head jerked back. That was new information.
“But I’ve seen interspecies families with both sons and daughters,” he argued.
Loriun nodded. “Human genetics are different. Hybrid children can be any combination. Of course, the traditionalists are furious about that too. But not many of them made the journey from our home planet, and the ones that did will die out soon enough.”
Beau leaned over a pool filled with unnaturally large lobsters. “So, do you think you were confused growing up?”
Loriun grinned. “Can’t say I was. I have never been able to resist a pretty Omega boy.”
“Oh is that so?” Beau teased. “You don’t have any secret kids running around out there I need to know about, right? No jaded exes?”
“Perhaps if Mer children were not so rare, it would be a concern.” Loriun’s smile became slightly pained. “I believe only fifty eggs have successfully hatched in my lifetime, however.”
“Shit,” Beau muttered. “I’m sorry, that was a bad joke.”
Loriun shook his head. “No apologies needed.”
Beau turned at the alligator enclosure and made his way toward the boardwalk. “Do you have any siblings?”
“I have one younger sister, Oiwen. She is also an Alpha. My poor father had his hands full raising two full-Mer, Alpha children.”
“So your sister was one of those fifty eggs that hatched?”
“Yes, she was. My parents could hardly believe it when I hatched out, and they didn’t dare to hope another egg would be viable.” Loriun’s expression turned devilish. “It seems that non-traditional families, like my own, have a much higher hatch rate,you know. Around seventy-five percent of successfully hatched Mer children are the product of an opposite-gender relationship.
Beau smirked. “Bet all those traditionalists hate that.”
“Very much so.”
