Page 18 of His Surrogate Omega

“I don’t think I want to go into heat,” Auggie announced. “I don’t want to feel sick every new moon.”

Gray chuckled. “I wish it were that easy.”

Auggie didn’t ask any more questions, which Gray was thankful for. He went back to sipping his tea and focusing on calming his mind and body.

After breakfast was over and Auggie was reading a book as he lounged across the living room couch, Avery tidied up the kitchen while Gray finished his broth and tea. He would need whatever strength the broth could give him over the next days.

“You were up earlier—why don’t you go take a nap? I’ll keep an eye on the boys for a bit and you can spend some time this afternoon with them,” Gray said from his perch on the island.

“Good idea,” Avery said before tossing the dishtowel to the counter and marching upstairs.

He lay across the chaise in the sunroom and closed his eyes, hoping for a bit of peace… until Lake’s loud music shook the entire house. Sighing, he rubbed his temples, not in a mood to argue with the boy.

Gray’s heats were coming on stronger and stronger as the years passed and soon… soon he feared he’d be lost to them. At seventeen, that first heat had been traumatic. One day Gray had been a boy, and by the next, considered a man. He’d been ripped from the only home he’d known and put into safekeeping. Now capable of bearing life… of being a papa… he’d been hidden away. Like many omegas, his first had hit him early—days before the full moon. It had lasted a good seven days andHeat Represshad barely touched the need swamping him.

Now, it was reaching a point where it again barely assuaged the need.

By the time Avery finally returned hours later, sweat beaded Gray’s forehead and the back of his neck. It was a full day before his heat would truly take effect, and his body was already roaring with the desire to mate. Avery eyed him when he slipped into the sunroom.

“Are you not well?”

Gray closed his eyes. “I’m not, Avery.”

His nephew sat at the end of the lounge, near Gray’s feet. “What is it?”

He shook his head. There was no way he’d discuss this with his nephew.

“Uncle? We’re all each other has. If you’re not well, tell me,” Avery said.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Gray murmured.

“Try me.”

“Eighteen years ofHeat Repress.”

Avery frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Eventually… the medicine grows less and less effective. It wasn’t created to keep an omega from his heats this long. For males like you… who await their alpha for a few years… and for claimed omegas between babes—not for an omega who’s been on them for nearly two decades without pause. My body is fighting the medicine.”

Avery said nothing for a moment. “How bad will it get?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like most omegas are very open about their heats. It’s simply not discussed.”

“Will it stop working? TheHeat Repress?”

“Possibly. I’ve spoken to a doctor about it, and even he was unsure what the outcome would be.” Gray eyed his nephew. “Hopefully it won’t come to that point, but…”

He let his words trail off. He knew there was a possibility he’d go mad with the need and beg to be bred. If he became a surrogate, a pregnancy would give his body time off the medication and perhaps it would start working again after the babe was born. But he couldn’t bring that up with Avery.

Not now.

“Why don’t you go rest?” Avery glanced at his phone. “It’s late enough now that I can keep an eye on the boys until they go to bed.”

“That’s too long,” Gray said.

“I’ve got this,” Avery stated. “If I’m to start living as a beta, I’ll have to learn to be stronger. I won’t get to take off four days while I go into heat. I need to learn to suffer in silence.”

Gray shook his head. He couldn’t imagine going through a heat in public. It sounded like torture. “Another good reason why youshouldn’tdo this.”

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