Page 4 of His Surrogate Omega

“Avery,” he murmured softly.

His nephew kept moving, covering dishes and pulling out used spoons.

“Avery.”

The boy paused. “If I stop, I’ll—”

The tears came. They spilled over his handsome cheeks as he gasped. Avery was in pain, and he’d held it in for too long.

Gray stepped closer and grabbed Avery before the boy dropped to his knees. The spoons he’d held clamored on the floor tiles, the sound of them sharp in the quiet of the house. Gray slowly lowered them both down. His back against the island, he held on tight, letting the young man mourn his parents.

Eventually, the sobs faded away.

“What are we going to do?” Avery asked, lifting his tear-stained face to Gray’s.

He wished he had answers for Avery.

He wasn’t sure what would happen to them now—four unmated omegas in a world where they were nothing. They were all confined to the Omega Quadrant now and would have to hope they could make it work.

“We’ll find a way through this,” Gray answered, trying to convince both of them his words were true.

Avery nodded before leaning his head against Gray. He held his nephew close, a gentle hand sweeping up and down the boy’s back.

Suddenly, Avery chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Gray asked.

“Wombs with legs.” He sat up and looked at his uncle.

Gray laughed as well. “Well, thatishow most see us. We’re helpless and incapable of managing much else, in their minds. Poor, helpless omegas.” Gray leaned his head back against the island. The fact of the matter was theycouldn’tbe much else, thanks to the rules of their society. Without an alpha, an omega of child-bearing age was stuck in the Omega Quadrant—where there wasn’t much opportunity. Until Avery was freed by his alpha, there was little he could do.

Avery grew quiet a moment. “I want to be more than that,” he said. “That beta you railed against—that wasn’t the first time I’d heard someone say the same exact sentiment today. Over and over again—I bet you can’t wait to find your alpha. As if I had no other alternative. I was so angry, but I bit my tongue all day. Nearly bit it off a time or two.”

Gray didn’t want to tell Avery there were no chances he’d be much more. Not now, when the boy looked so crestfallen. “I’m sorry I made a scene.”

Avery shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. You said the things I’d been wanting to scream all day.”

Gray smiled at his nephew. “Lake didn’t approve.”

“Lake was being an asshole. Which he’s been since… since the—” Avery paused, apparently unable to sayaccident. Crash. The terrible, horrible day the world flipped upside down.

“He’s hurting, and he wants everyone else around him to know how much he’s hurt by making them feel like hell,” Gray said, trying to look unaffected. He wasn’t. “I can forgive the outburst.This time.”

“You’re a better man than I.”

“Then perhaps it’s good I seem to be the focus of his angst, hmm?” Avery sighed before rising to his feet. He offered Gray a hand up. “Let’s get this finished.”

They were silent as they completed their clean-up. It took nearly an hour before they’d filled the dishwasher and washed everything. When it was done, Avery headed upstairs after giving Gray another quick hug.

Alone for the first time in what felt like forever, Gray stood there in their clean little kitchen, everything in order.

Everything was in place, just as it always was.

Tears stung his eyes, knowing everything in their world wasnotin order.

Nowhere close.

Gray went out to his studio—an old converted garage out in back of the house—seeking solace in the paints and scents of his creative space. Bringing brush to canvas, he wanted to bleed through the oils and put his pain there. Anywhere but inside his chest where he couldn’t breathe from the weight of it.

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