Sweet Omega

“Oli...”

“That's not all, Mom. Two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant,” her breath stops completely now. She raises a hand to cover her mouth dramatically and looks like she's going to fall to the floor, so Lucinda reaches over to hold her up, “I had my son in my apartment, alone and devastated. I wanted so much to be with you but I didn't want to see Clara or Daniel's face, so I stayed away. Laurie is three years and six months old, he's at home right now, with Rosie.”

My mom doesn't move for almost a full minute as she rattles off the information I just provided, but when she finally does, she pulls away from Lucinda's arms and once again hugs me.

“You shouldn't have gone through that alone," she says when she releases me, "You should have at least called me. You were just a child, giving birth among the humans. That’s so dangerous, Olivia.”

“I called a local midwife. Alison. She took care of me," I say, as if it changes anything. My mom shakes her head again.

“Does Daniel know? That he has a son?”

“No," I shake my head, "I haven't spoken to him since that morning.”

“Daniel deserves to know," Lucinda offers, earning a scowl from me. Daniel doesn't deserve shït from me, “Of course he's a douchebag who played you and Clara, but Laurie is his son, Olivia. He has to know that. Clara too.”

“Give me some time,” I beg, “I'll tell them... they'll figure it out eventually anyway, but I'm not ready yet.”

“What was your plan, Oli? Never to come back? Never to tell us about Laurie?”

“No... to be honest, I didn't even have a plan. I didn't know what to do so I just let time go by," I admit and my mother shakes her head, "I know it just made everything harder, but I couldn't risk seeing or talking to Daniel. It hurt too much.”

“And now?” My mom asks, "Are you ready to see him now? Daniel is part of the family”.

Ouch.

“I'm not saying this to hurt you," she continues, "We see Daniel every day, basically. You could run into him at any moment.”

“There's a chance that he can tell Laurie is his son instantly," Lucinda adds, "So I recommend you talk to him before he runs into Laurie and that happens. The confrontation will be worse in that case.”

Ugh. I don't want to talk about this. I am totally and absolutely not ready to have a conversation with Daniel yet.

I hate confrontation. That's why my life is the way it is.

“Okay, I'll do it soon,” I mumble, but it's a lie and they know it. “I'm sorry! It's just too hard.”

“I can do it for you," Lucinda offers, always ready to stick her hands in the fire for whoever, "I can handle that awkward conversation for you. I can even talk to Clara.”

“That would be better," I nod, feeling a weight lifting from my shoulders, "Yes, Lucinda, please take care of that. And tell Daniel that maybe we can make some deal for him to meet his son at some point, but don't let him come near me yet.”

My mom lets out a regret-filled sigh and walks to my dad's side again.

“Frank, wake up and help me with this one, please," she begs, raising a hand to stroke his unconscious face. “This is a mess only you would know how to fix.”

My father would just force us all to do the right thing. I definitely don't want that.

“Lucinda, I’ll just ask you not to run to Daniel and Clara's house to tell them this ASAP, let things happen as they need to happen,” I beg, earning another reproachful look, “Look, I'm here with Felix. My boyfriend. He's human and I don't want any awkward conversations around him.”

“What?! You have a human boyfriend?” My mother exclaims, exalted and approaching me with wild eyes. I've literally never seen her this angry before, “Why?!”

“Because he's a good man who treats me like I'm a diamond, Mom. He's a man who would never do to me what Daniel did.”

“But... you'll never feel for a human what you felt for Daniel. He’s your fated mate. Having a natural compatibility with someone is the realest thing you could ever find. No one would ever compare," she explains, as if I didn't already know, "You'll never get over Daniel as it is, but specially not with this human. You need another alpha.”

“I know.” I answer. I don’t care, though.

A little while later, we return home and my mom meets her grandson for the first time. There are tears, some complaints and introductions when Lucinda's husband arrives with their little twin boys. Alex and Rio. My nephews. And then Carolina’s husband, my old friend Harry, arrives with their newborn daughter. Hannah.

For some reason in the universe, Daniel doesn't arrive. And I still have the beautiful ignorance of not knowing how many children he has with my sister.

Felix comes out of my room as we start making a big meal for everyone and he meets my mom, who is somewhat nice to him, but not nearly as nice as she would’ve been if he wasn't human.

We all eat together and I can't help but notice Laurie running around the backyard with his two cousins, playing and pushing each other in the dirt like pups do.

“Those kids run so fast," Felix murmurs in my ear and laughs. I nod and fake a laugh, but I'm stressed because that's another difficult conversation I need to have as soon as possible. I have to be honest with Felix and tell him what I am.

{ Daniel }

I plop down on the couch at home when I arrive, my legs weeping from exhaustion. I'm hungry, thirsty and tired after working all day, tracking the wolves that attacked my father-in-law.

We were close to finding them or at least about them, but we had to stop to rest. We haven't stopped since yesterday morning when the attack happened and I can't let my men go any more hours without rest.

The house is empty and it doesn't seem strange to me at all because Clara is obviously at home with her family, grieving for what happened to her father.

And even though I need to sleep, eat something and take a shower, I decide to get up one more time and get in my truck to drive to the Taffy's house. I can do everything I need to do there.

I need my family right now. I need to talk to Lucinda and Harry about what we found today and eat whatever my mother-in-law cooked tonight.

It's one o'clock in the morning when I get to the house and there are some lights on. I walk straight to the kitchen.

Lucinda, Robert and Harry are sitting at the dinner table when I arrive and they all look up.

“Hello.”

“You look awful," Lucinda says, worried, "Come, sit down before you drop dead.”

“Thank you," I answer and do just that.

“I'll serve you a plate of food," Robbie announces, unable to ignore the way my alpha äss is obviously screaming for help, "Would you like something to drink?”

“Please, Robbie,” I beg and the omega moves across the kitchen to serve me, "How's Frank?”

“The same, he's not awake yet,” Harry announces and shares a look with Lucinda, “All the girls donated blood and it seems to be going well, but they’re still telling us not to get our hopes up too high.”

“Shït,” I complain, but I remind myself that at least he's not dead, “We're going to find out who did this. We're close. We have several leads.”

“Thank you, Daniel, but you need to get some rest. Your eyes are going to disappear into your dark circles.”

“Don't be rude, Lucy," Robbie complains as he sets a plate full of food in front of me. I groan and start eating as if I haven't eaten in more than twenty hours... because it's true.

“Besides, there's something you should know," Lucinda continues and I turn to her, still eating because I literally can't stop, "Today....”

“Lucy," her husband stops her with a hand on her arm. Lucinda turns to see him and they share a couple of glances for a few seconds, “This is not a good time. At least let the man get some sleep, okay?”

“Okay," she agrees, but doesn't look very convinced, "We'll have this conversation tomorrow, when you wake up.”

I have no idea what she wants to tell me, but I honestly don't care. There's so much going on right now that my head doesn't have room for anything else.

Once I finish eating, I say goodbye and head to Clara's room thinking about how pleasant it will be when I can finally lie down to rest my exhausted body and sleep for hours on end.

When I finish climbing the stairs and I'm on the second floor, some different scents come to me. I close my eyes and inhale, trying to decipher where those strange, yet somewhat... familiar scents are coming from.

I start to follow the scent that is most prominent and calls to me the most, but I stop. This is not the time to be wandering around the house when I should be sleeping too, so I head to Clara's room, leaving that mysterious scent behind.

I take a two-minute shower before throwing myself on the bed next to her and falling unconscious.

In the morning, I stay asleep as much as I can, until I have to accept that the tiredness has been dealt with. I sit up in bed and stretch.

It was a good night's sleep. Just what I needed.

I get up and when I grab my phone from my pants I realize it's eleven in the morning. No wonder I feel so rested.

I leave the room and once again, the scent from yesterday floods my head and makes me feel a little dizzy. I have to close my eyes to fill my lungs before continuing on my way. This time the scent takes me downstairs where everyone is and as soon as I get to them, I realize and understand.

That scent. I remember it very well.

Sweet omega.

My omega. My Olivia.