Page 124 of His Forsaken Alpha

Nearly everyone gasped. Avery lifted a hand to cover his mouth, eyes wide. Both Wilder and Vaughn looked sick. The expressions matched the way his gut had twisted learning it himself. His omega had been a mere babe.

A childhood stolen.

“Oh gods,”Gray whispered on Wynter’s other side. “You werea child.”Gray cringed. “You were… the same age as Auggie is now!” He eyed Avery. “Could you imagine?Auggiepregnant?”

“No…” Avery said.“He’s still a baby.”

More tears slipped down Wynter’s face. Cav wiped them away, caressing his mate’s cheeks.

“That wasn’t your fault,” Gray said, adamantly, squeezing Wynter’s arm.“It wasn’t.”

“It happens, and too often it’s considered shameful,” Cav said. “In almost every place I’ve ever traveled, a young omega’s heat was vilified and condemned. The omega treated as if it was their fault somehow. Thirty-five years ago, it was even worse than it is today. How anyone can blame an omega for his nature—I don’t understand. We don’t blame alphas for theirs.”

“We’re often blamed for things outside our control,” Avery said. “Alphas don’t want to have any blame focused their way nor do they want to come up with solutions, in most cases, so we suffer the indignities. Too often in silence. I wasn’t willing to suffer them, and I ended up being tossed into prison for simply wanting an education and the right to provide for myself and my brothers. Our whole system is ridiculous.”

“I’m amazed it took so long for things to change in this province. In parts of Europa and in the west, omega rights have spread like wildfire, yet here and the surrounding provinces, you’re stuck in time,” Cav said. “I’m glad the spark has finally been lit.”

Wynter chuckled. “I remember you said Omega Rights would hit the entire Palatinate in a decade. Yet here we are thirty years later and it’s only just begun.”

Cav shrugged. “I was a bit off on my prediction, but not wrong—thanks to your son-in-law.”

“Yourson-in-law,” Avery said to Cav with a grin and a twinkle in his eye. Emory whimpered in the small bassinet beside Avery, stealing the omega’s focus for a moment.

“I hope you two don’t…” Wynter said, turning to Wilder, and then Vaughn. “I…” He paused, struggling.

Wilder slipped from his seat and knelt in front of Wynter, taking one of his papa’s hands. “You havenothingto be ashamed of. The only people who should be ashamed are Warden’s parents and yours for forcing the mating in the first place and treating you the way they did. It wasn’t right. And it wasn’t your fault.”

Wynter leaned forward and pressed his forehead to Wilder’s. He slipped his hand from Cav’s and took Wilder’s head in his hands. “Thank you for that. I feared telling you—and how you might see me after.” He sat back, his gaze drifting to Vaughn.

Vaughn’s face was impassive, and Cav clenched a fist, the protectiveness within roaring to life once more.

“Vaughn?”Wilder asked, lifting a brow.

“It’s hard for me to say I wish they’d never done that to him, knowing had they not been mated, I wouldn’t exist,” Vaughn said. He looked away, dragging in a breath. “But it wasn’t your fault, I guess. Whatever it is you need me to say, consider it said.”

Cav growled but sensed that was about the best they’d get from Vaughn.

“How old was Warden?” Gray asked, perhaps trying to fill the awkward tension left from Vaughn’s comment. “When all that happened?”

“Twenty-five,” Wynter replied.

Wilder rose, pressing a kiss to Wynter’s head before returning to his seat beside Avery. He wrapped an arm around his omega and tugged his mate close.

“He was an adult,” Gray said. “So there was an imbalance there, as well.”

“Warden had the upper hand for a long time. I was so young and accustomed to living under my parents’ rule. I was expected to do as he commanded, so I did. When I got older, I’d had moments of rebellion, but he always managed to find a way to get me back under his thumb.”

“So there you were. Fourteen and a new papa,” Gray said. “With a child you didn’t want. I don’t say this to hurt you, but… that explains a lot about your relationship with Jamie, too.”

“I wasn’t ready to be a parent. I was terrified of it, in fact. I was a baby myself when Jamie was thrust into my hands, and I was expected to know what to do when no one had taught me what to do. I grew incredibly depressed, slipping deeper and deeper into it. I attempted to take my life when Jamie was still small.” Wynter pulled up his long sleeves and displayed his wrists. “It’s why I always wear long sleeves or bracelets around my wrists—to hide the scars from everyone.”

Silence hung around the room as Wynter pulled the sleeves back into place. Gray silently took Wynter’s hand at his side, and Cav felt the sob vibrate through his mate. “I was sent away to a facility where I heard the words Postpartum Depression for the first time. I felt better when I left, but Warden refused to allow me to continue any treatment once I was home. He promised I could, but later refused. He feared we’d be found out and I’d somehow be seen as lacking in the eyes of society.” Wynter turned to Gray and Rohan. “None of what happened was Jamie’s fault–—logically, I know that—but we started off on shaky footing and it got a lot worse before it got better, though it was never really better.”

“Your papa abused you, Wynter,” Gray said. “You were never shownhowto be a good papa. Then you were expected to be oneas a child, after being taken and claimed by a man whowasn’t even your mate, which I’m sure had been terrifying.” Gray shook his head. “I can’t imagine enduring that… and then to find your fated alpha and have that ripped from you by your family? Forced to return to the man who’d taken your childhoodandfuture from you?” Gray eyed Avery before turning back to Wynter. “It explains a lot. It does. But there’s one thing that has made me so angry at you over the years and I need to understand why. Why you weren’t at Jamie’s side at the end. I might find a way to forgive you for the mistakes you made, but that one? I don’t know I can.”

At the end?

Cav searched Wynter’s profile, stunned.

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