4- Secrets. Secrets

I knew Adrian the moment I turned 13. He lived around our family estate and made it a point of gazing at me whenever he was opportune to see me. He wasn’t the first man I slept with— but he was the nicest.

So seeing him pouting and sad wasn’t a comfortable sight. “You can always talk to me, you know? I have always listened to your desires, haven’t I?”

Unlike the other male’s that surround me, Adrian is funny. He’s calm and loyal and so wonderfully devoted. He's everything an Omega could want in a lover. Which is exactly why this conversation was going to hurt.

“Baby,” I said softly, reaching for his hand, “I know what you're thinking.”

Adrian pulled away, just slightly, and the sting of that rejection was sharper than I expected. “Do you? Because I'm not sure I know what I'm thinking. You of all people know what this means for me— for us. If you have a child for me, he’d have to let us go. We’d be free. You’d be free. Aren’t you tired of… of this?”

“Not exactly, no,”

Adrian’s eyes crinkled. “No? He locks you up here.”

I sighed. “It’s really not that bad. The world outside isn’t safe for me either. Omega kidnappings are growing daily but we are safe here because the Veyr family is powerful—”

“We? I’m not safe. He could get rid of me at any moment,”

I sat upwards, my face scrunching up in disapproval. “I don't like when you do that. You know I won’t allow it.”

“The fact that you’re so comfortable carrying my child and thinking you won’t get some kind of punishment—”

“How are you even so sure it’s yours?”

Whatever last shred of hope Adrian was holding on to vanished. I could see his insecurities resurfacing, his fear that one day, he’d be nothing to me. “Did you… did you really sleep with him?”

I had many lovers. Well, four others. But Adrian fought his way to stay at the top and worked hard to keep himself there. He learned everything I like, served and catered to my every whims.

But he was a Beta. And I, an Omega, this was never going to work. “Yes.”

He swallowed. I watched how the descent began. His eyes darkened as thoughts filled his head. I reached out for him but he already rose from the lounge, his hand going over his face. “May I leave for a moment?”

I wanted to tell him that he was loved. He always would be. He was one of the few things I had that I cherished because he loved me for me, but I knew that wouldn’t be what he wanted to hear. “Of course.”

I watched him walk away, the sight of him leaving my room suddenly starting the onset of a headache.

What really was I doing?

I was satisfied, wasn’t I? He satisfied me. I had everything I wanted. I baked when I wanted. Slept when I wanted. Took naps when I wanted. Read when I wanted. So why? Why was I so determined to make Killian suffer?

The sound of a knock echoed through my room. I laid on my lounge, ready to send whoever it was away before I heard, “I’m here to administer your vitals, Mrs Veyr?”

Elias? “Come in.”

When he walked in, I noticed the briefcase in his hand. Noticed he looked far more relaxed with only me in the room.

Which meant he would be more fun to poke. But I no longer was in the mood. “You already checked my vitals today. Did you miss me, Darling?”

His scent once again caught my attention as he drew closer. Why was it so… endearing? Was it him? Was he just an Alpha with the scent of an angel? “That was a standard procedure… but I also came to check on you.”

“Come. Sit closer. I don’t bite.”

Elias's lips twitched, a ghost of a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. “I've heard that before. Usually right before someone tries.”

But he sat anyway, perching on the edge of my chaise lounge like a man who expected to be attacked at any moment with his briefcase rested on his knees.

I studied him.

The way his fingers drummed against the leather. The way his gaze kept flicking to my face and then away. He was nervous. Perhaps with attraction towards me… but something else. “You can tell me what it is you want to say. I am, if not anything, unafraid of whatever news you hit me with,”

He looked uncomfortable but he nodded all the same. “The night you... conceived. Killian was intoxicated, yes?”

“Very.”

“And you were not?”

I tilted my head. “I was sober enough to remember every detail. Why?”

Elias pulled a tablet from his briefcase, swiping through screens. “I ran some tests on the sample Killian provided. Standard paternity protocols. But I found something... unusual.”

My heart stuttered. “Unusual how?”

“His bloodwork shows trace compounds that shouldn't be there. Sedatives, primarily. Mixed with a synthetic pheromone suppressant— the kind that's been banned in most territories for decades.” He looked up at me, blue eyes sharp with concern.

“Rosalind, someone drugged your husband that night. The amount in his system would have made him highly suggestible. Possibly even altered his perception of who he was with.”

The room tilted.

I gripped the edge of the lounge, steadying myself. “You're saying someone wanted him to sleep with someone that night?”

“Someone wanted him to sleep with you specifically.” Elias's voice was gentle, but it didn’t feel the way. “The illness he has makes it impossible for him to be intimate with an omega he’d normally find repellant so they have something to suppress it. It's... it's how they used to force pairings, back before the reforms.”

And if he heard about this, he’d strongly believe that I drugged him.

My hand unconsciously reached for my stomach, an act that drew my attention before I took it away and looked at him. “Does he know?”

He studied my face. “I haven’t… told him…”

“Don’t.”

“Mrs Veyr—”

“He’ll blame me. He will. I know he will,” Why were my hands suddenly turning cold? Why was I shaking? Maybe it was because Killian had always seen me as some evil woman and with my last deal, it didn't look good. “Fuck. Well, fuck. This is a problem. He’s going to be so mad at me—”

His hands found mine. “Rosalind, I don’t think—”

“Can’t you see it?” My heart was racing so loudly I could barely breathe. “He already finds me manipulative. This is a stepping stone to him attacking me. And after he finds out? Then what? He yells at me? Reduces my contact with people—”

He pulled me into his arms.

I froze, unsure of what was happening until I heard him say quietly, his face buried into my neck as he held me tightly. “I won’t tell him then,”

He smelled like the fresh winter morning— but now, there were slight traces of soft jasmine. And rain. And I knew almost immediately. “Elias? Are you… are you an omega?”

He pulled away— but I saw it. The tinge of red in his eyes, the way he looked flushed as he tried to block his face and move away though I didn’t let him as I got even closer. “And going into heat?”