Page 33 of His Pretty Omega
“No, you didn’t, Mama,” Seth came to stand by my side, unpeeling one of my hands and twining our fingers together.
All right, I mouthed and he gave me a shaky smile, but nodded, his hand on his stomach, before continuing to speak to his mother.
“I’m not some nitwit kid, who can’t make a sound decision. I’m a grown man, and I certainly wouldn’t be coerced by some alphahole to keep a baby I didn’t want. You’re right, I didn’t want kids, and I don’t know what to tell you other than as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted this baby. I can’t guarantee I’m going tobe popping any more out for you, you’re gonna have to rely on Toby and Kyle for that.” Seth winked at Toby, who grinned at him.
“Or Regina and me,” Gilly said softly. “That’s the news we have. Regina is pregnant.”
Regina gave us a smile, but her eyes showed distress at her mate’s behavior. Perhaps it was a case of Seth and Gilly’s personalities just not mixing, and Gilly was a tolerable person away from my mate. She must have some redeeming qualities to have a mate as lovely as Regina.
“Well, that’s splendid news,” Nate said, but quickly turned his attention back to me. “But I have some questions for Alex.”
“Dad,” Seth groaned loudly, “I’m twenty-nine, not sixteen. You don’t need to interrogate my mate.”
“Sure I do,” Nate sat back down, implying I should do the same, so I did.
“Ask away,” I told him.
“When is this move happening? We’ve just met you and now you and Seth are moving in together. I don’t like it.”
Seth sat back in his seat, and I raised my brow at him. “We–”
“My lease is up June first. So before then.” Seth supplied, pushing his plate away from him. Reaching over, I moved it to the other side of me, so he didn’t have to be assaulted by the rare steak. Though it really had been delicious.
“And I know you’re a lawyer but is there stable money in family law in Sweet Alps?” Nate asked.
Seth huffed, annoyed by his dad, and crossed his arms defiantly over his chest, but I didn’t mind the questions. What I heard was a dad who was concerned about his omega son. There was a ton going on in this family under the surface, but there was also a lot of love. I dealt with family dynamics daily and was a pretty good judge of things.
“There is,” I told him. “Divorce, child custody, domestic violence. I do a lot of pro bono work for the battered omega shelter. When I practiced in New York City, I worked mostly high end divorce cases. It allowed me to amass a nice nest egg. Seth will be well taken care of, I assure you.”
“Do you love my son?” Nate asked bluntly.
“Dad! Enough!” Seth stood up. “And now we’re leaving.”
“It’s okay.” I reached for his hand, but he was already marching towards the door.
“Congrats Gilly and Regina,” he called, opening the door. “Thanks for dinner. The part I didn’t hurl up was great. We’ll do this again soon, Mama and Dad, without the side of interrogation. Byeee.”
“You pushed him too far, Nathan,” Rachel told her husband, patting his hand gently. “You always do.”
Nate had a sad look on his face. “I don’t mean to. I just don’t know how to talk to him. I never have. He’s always been so different than me, than everyone in the family. Wanted different things. I just wanted to make sure–” He gave me an imploring look. “I’m sorry if anything I asked offended you, Alex. It’s just that Seth can be headstrong and doesn’t always make the best choices. I know you said you’re fated, but that doesn’t mean you won’t break my boy's heart. He puts on a brave front, like he doesn’t have a care in the world, but he’s got a sensitive soul. I worry.”
“I won’t lie and say that things haven’t been fast between Seth and me, because they have. But I will take care of your son, I promise you. I will protect him with my life. He means a great deal to me.”
“That wasn’t an I love him,” Gilly pointed out and Regina whispered something harsh in her ear.
Staring Nate in the eye, I told him, “I love your son. But I haven’t told him yet, because I don’t think he’s ready to hear those words from me yet. Seth is someone that puts more value on actions than words. He’s probably had more than one alpha declare their love to him, but they were meaningless words that vanished in the light of morning. I’m not going to do that. But we haven’t been together long enough for me to have proven myself to him yet.”
Turning to gather mine and Seth’s light jackets we had worn, I offered a quiet warning to Gilly.
“I let you speak to him that way tonight because I didn’t want to overstep between the two of you, with it being the first time meeting your family. But don’t ever speak to him like that again. You won’t like how it ends. Your cat might be bigger than my wolf, but I can be ferocious when it comes to defending my mate.”
I found Seth leaning up against the passenger door of my car, rubbing his arms against the cold chill that had taken over the night. Holding out his jacket to him, I helped him get it on, then settled him in the car, cranking the heat.
“I’m sorry,” he said, fiddling with the preset radio channels. He’d listen to ten seconds of a song, then hit the next button and do the same thing. “I shouldn’t have acted like that.”
I snorted. “Honestly, I was glad to see you start to act like yourself. You seemed to shrink into yourself when we got in the house. You’re always so, I don’t know, when I think of you, it’s always full of color. And that version of you was dulled around the edges. I didn’t like it.” I admitted to him.
“I don’t like it either,” he admitted. “I let Gilly get in my head.”
