Page 34 of His Gentle Omega
The baby practically flew into my brother’s arms, where he laid his head on Asher’s chest with a soft sigh. Asher nuzzled the top of his head, placing a soft kiss on the baby’s thick light brown hair. His mate bent down, and my brother turned his face up to meet his lips. They shared a brief kiss that was sweet, yet still full of passion and intimacy, that made me feel like a voyeur just witnessing it.
Happiness for my brother warmed me, along with a tiny bit of jealousy. What would it be like to have that, whatever that was that you could almost see between Asher and his mate? To have someone to share your burdens, and secrets, and the joys and trials of raising your children together? To have someone who kissed you, touched you, because they wanted to and for no other reason than they loved you? Not because they wanted something from you.
What would it be like to kiss Bennett? Were his lips as soft as they looked? Would he taste like cinnamon and sugar? Stop it the fuck right now, Shay!
I had to stop thinking about doing anything with Bennett! Bennett was everything in the world that was good and kind, and I didn’t want him anywhere near the mess that was Edward and me.
“He just had his meds,” Gabe settled the other baby–Rafe–comfortably on his hip, “but he’ll probably be a leech until they kick in. He’s been super clingy since he woke from his nap.”
Asher nodded, leading them all into the small dining area. “Shay, this is my mate, Gabe Carmichael, since we didn’t do proper introductions earlier. Gabe, my little brother, Shay.”
The man shook my hand with a steady and firm grip, his light brown eyes looking me over. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Ouch.I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing and could only imagine what conversations he and my brother had had about me. “It’s nice to meet you.”
They both sat, each holding a baby, and managed to eat at the same time. It was interesting watching my brother, seeing him with a mate and children. The last time I had seen him I’d been a senior in high school, and he had been twenty, away at college, studying for the MCAT. We had both been so much younger then, neither of us truly grown men. There were a lot of lost years to make up for. A lot of hurt, and no doubt anger on Asher’s part, to work through and get past. But I felt like there was hope for us to do that.
“Should I get the kids a bowl of noodles?” Bennett hopped up from his seat, ready to be a gracious host.
“I fed them before we came over,” Gabe shook his head. “My step-mom makes an incredible mac and cheese, and now that’s all they want to eat. I’m afraid my boxed kind didn’t quite measure up, but it worked in a pinch. They should be good.”
Bennett was about to sit back down when his cell phone started ringing. Picking it up from the kitchen counter, he gave Asher a look I couldn’t decipher, and said, “It’s Alex. I need to take this.”
Chapter Twelve
Shay
“Hey Alex,” Bennett said into the phone, taking the call out of the room, where I couldn’t hear his side of the conversation. Something ran up my spine and then flared in my chest.
Who was Alex? Why was he taking the call where we couldn’t hear him? Was Alex his boyfriend? Was I jealous?
Not sure what the weird feeling was that was turning my blood to anger, I stirred my soup with my spoon, staring down at the yellow broth, and watched the carrots and celery bits swim around the rich noodles. My appetite had suddenly vanished.
“You want one of my crackers, Tristan?” Lucas’s voice brought me out of the funk that had come over me. Glancing over, I saw him offering a cracker to his cousin with a smile. The baby reached out his chubby hand and snatched the proffered cracker, holding it against his chest like a treasure, but not eating it.
“Thank you, Lucas,” Asher smiled at my son and my heart warmed, marveling over what a good person Lucas was growing into. “He’s not feeling his best, so he might not eat it.”
Lucas shrugged, “It’s okay if he just wants to hold it. Sometimes when you don’t feel good you just like to have something close to you. I have Mr. Rabbit. He always makes me feel better. But I didn’t bring any other stuffies, or I would let him have one.”
My nostrils flared at my child’s innocent remark, reminding me that we had next to nothing and all he had left behind. A bedroom full of books, clothes and stuffed animals, and another entire room devoted to nothing but things for him to play with. It would be a long time, if ever, that I would be able to replace everything he had left behind.
Asher gave me a look, one full of understanding tinged with sympathy, and I couldn’t hold his gaze for long. The lump that had clogged my throat earlier with too many emotions was back, making it hard to breathe. I hated seeing my brother look at me that way. It made me feel small, and ashamed, and like I had fucked my life up beyond repair. Deep down, I knew Asher didn’t mean for it to hit me the way it did, but all of Edward’s cruel words he had tossed so easily my way, knowing just how to hurt, were still embedded in my skin.
Changing the subject, I asked, “Does Bennett have a boyfriend?”
Subtle Shay, my tiger grumbled.
Flexing my shoulders, I tried to determine if I felt the need to shift, since my tiger had decided to finally come out of his self-imposed hibernation. But there was no telling tingle beneath my skin, no urge to shed my human side and shift into my powerful cat. I guess after six years of being dormant, I couldn’texpect him to want to come out and play just like that. Just the fact that he was talking to me again made me happy enough.
Asher and Gabe exchanged a look, and it annoyed me and made me anxious at the same time. There were a fuck ton of secretive looks flying back and forth across the table. It felt like there were entire conversations being had around me, about me, without actual words being spoken and I didn’t particularly like it.
“Not that I know of,” Asher finally responded, looking over at Rafe with a fond expression. The baby had decided he’d had enough of being quiet and was happily banging his little fists against the tabletop. Gabe murmured in the baby’s ear, and Rafe babbled happy nonsense to his alpha father.
I wanted to demand to know who Alex was but before I could, Bennett returned, placing a piece of paper on the counter before taking his seat. Instead of asking, my eyes gave him a sharp glare. To my surprise, he didn’t take my look personally, just raised a dark brow at me, his lips pursed into a thin line.
Yeah, I was definitely annoyed knowing he’d been talking to another man. Which was stupid. We barely knew each other. And I didn’t even know that he had been talking to a man, or even another alpha. Alex could very well be the name of a woman. Bennett might even be attracted to women. But we were fated, so that meant he at least liked men too. Ugh, all of this–my jealousy, possessiveness, whatever–was probably only caused by the fact that I knew he was my fated mate and nothing more.
“That was Alex,” he addressed my brother and not me, and that irritated me even more for some reason.
