Page 39 of Omega's Tempting Fate
I scooted as far to one side of the bed as I could, then patted the empty space. “Come here…”
He looked at me. “I… I shouldn’t…”
“It’s my hospital bed, and I want you in it with me,” I said softly. “Please. Let me hold you.”
Slowly he got up, then climbed into the bed with me. I turned to wrap my arms around him, and finally started to feel complete.
My omega was there, his warmth against me, where he belonged.
“Tell me about them,” I said, running my nose against his blond curls. “The alphas you never knew.”
He shuddered in my embrace. “Grandmama met granddad back during the Vietnam War. He’d been drafted and was about to head out for basic training. Then grandmama happened to take a trip to where he lived. Knowing that he was leaving so soon, they didn’t fight it at all. There were campaigns urging couples not to mate before deployment, but they decided that it was safer if he wasn’t fighting off the mating urges. She extended her trip, they consummated their bond, even had a civil wedding, and they spent two weeks together.
“Then he was off to training, and she returned to her home. They exchanged letters all through basic, and even when he was deployed. Then… they stopped two months after he left the US.”
Cody paused.
“Apparently it took nearly a week for grandmama to wake up, and doctors didn’t know whether she’d live or die the entire time. They’d prepared for emergency surgery to save papa in case she passed before giving birth, but they didn’t dare take him early, knowing that he was the sole reason her body was fighting at all.
“She was given the confirmation of granddad’s death while still in the hospital.”
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured, kissing Cody’s hair.
He took a deep breath. “Papa… well he was a bit luckier. He met dad when he was nineteen, and they mated soon after. I have two older siblings, and one younger. Everything was good, then, when I was four, I remember papa collapsing. Everyone went crazy. Papa didn’t wake up, and people told me that dad had been in an accident and would never come home. I might have to live with grandmama, or grandpapa and granddad on dad’s side if papa didn’t survive. It took nearly three weeks for him, my baby brother only about six months along when dad died.”
Cody hiccupped. “Papa was never the same. His smiles were always empty, and the sadness never left his eyes. A part of him died with dad that day. He survived for us, but we could never escape the whispers. People would see him, and say that it was why young omegas often passed when their mates did.”
“You can’t really think that it would happen to you too,” I said softly as I held him close.
“Why not?” he cried. “What are the chances that fate would pair two couples from the same family, then separate them so cruelly? Fate must hate us.”
I lifted his chin and looked into his eyes, my heart breaking at how bloodshot they were from crying.
“I love you Cody, and fighting this won’t change that. Wars happen, and so do accidents.”
“But I can’t lose you,” he hiccupped.
“Who says you will?” I asked.
“Today was a warning…” he started.
I shook my head. “Today was today, that’s all.”
Tears slid down his cheek, and I brushed them away. “Cody, don’t you want to treasure any time we do have? Nobody knows what the future holds, but isn’t it better to face it together, rather than alone?”
“I don’t want you to get hurt…”
“I don’t want you to get hurt either. But we can’t let fear hold us back. We might have a few years, or we could have decades. I personally plan on being with you until we’re both old and gray.”
“You’ll get tired of me before then.”
I laughed. “You’ve tried to push me away for more than a week. Don’t think that I haven’t figured out how you act.”
“What do you mean?”
I ran my hand up and down his back. “That fear, it makes you push people away, even those whom you have no interest in romantically. I see that, so I’ll always know that there’s something else going on.”
He started crying again, and buried his face against my chest.
