Page 125 of Bully for Sale
A balloon in the sky.
“I don’t know.”
“Signing changes nothing except for allowing you a choice. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me to.”
A niggle of doubt ate at Ezer. “Is this because you want freedom? Another path?”With a better omega?his mind whispered.
“I already told you. I’m going to wait for you always. I saw you that first day at school, and I knew you were the only omega for me. But it’s okay that you didn’t feel the same. Maybe you will one day and maybe you won’t. I’ll let you find me in your own time.”
“I’ve found you now,” Ezer whispered.
“Then be brave with me. Sign the contracts. Be free. Choose me again when you’re sure.”
Ezer licked his lips, tears welling in his eyes. “I’m scared.”
Ned kissed his forehead. “We’ll be scared together.”
The contracts were on a tablet. Ned read them aloud to Ezer as he nursed Ollie, and then Sundy, and then watched his sons kick as they lay on their backs on the floor at their feet.
“Ready?” Ned said, when the contract had been fully recited. “Or do you have questions?”
“Will you still love me?”
“Always.”
Ezer chewed on his lower lip, trying to decide what to do. “What if I don’t sign?”
“I need you to sign, Ezer. I want to be chosen, the way I chose you. I deserve that, don’t you think?”
Ezer’s throat ached as he took the tablet from Ned’s hands and signed the blank space by a red mark indicating his signature was needed. Twice more he signed, and then it was done.
They were no longer committed to each other by law. They’d undone the web their parents had woven. Ezer was free. It should feel good. It should feel right.
But Ezer burst into tears and fell against Ned, letting him hold him close.
Epilogue: Freedom
Ollie and Sundy’ssecond birthday passed at Heath and Adrien’s big home by the seaside. The twins loved to play with their older cousins Michael and Laya, and Ezer and Ned enjoyed being in the company of a couple truly in love with each other.
It wasn’t long after Ezer had signed to cancel his and Ned’s contract that Heath had fulfilled his promise to introduce Ned to attorneys whose sole focus was on omega rights’ cases. These men had taken Ned under their wings, encouraging him to switch schools to be nearer to their firm so he could invest in an internship there. It wasn’t a hard decision to make. Nothing held either of them at the home Lidell had chosen.
Around the same time, Heath had offered to guide Ned more solidly into manhood and asked for them to move into a cottage on Heath’s seaside estate. It was a more modest lifestyle, but they both liked it well. Earl and Simon were also delighted to finally live near one another for the first time in years. It also allowed for Adrien and Ezer to become friends, and for the children to learn to love each other. All in all, the change was a good solution to a big problem.
The Fersee family continued to be messy, but one of the attorneys Ned worked with, a man with five brothers, had told him that was how it often was in big families. Still, there were some resolutions and changes that were, in Ned’s opinion, for the better.
Flo moved in with Amos to avoid any further attempts by their father to control his fate. Those two were learning to forgive each other for the dissolution of the family due to his choices with Finn.
Yissan had left with John, joining a group near the desert, where a community of beta and omega couples used several alpha “bulls” to handle heats. It sounded titillating and sordid, and Ezer always wanted to know more than Yissan willingly shared. Ned didn’t know how he felt about Ezer’s curiosity about all of that. He hoped Ezer wasn’t tempted to go wild and join them.
Rodan was well, and Pete was pregnant again. Ezer had met with Finn and found him wholly unimpressive all over again. He often told Ned that he couldn’t see what his da had found so compelling he’d risked everything for the man, but Ned supposed that was the nature of love—unruly and unpredictable.
As for Shan, the news was thin on the ground regarding his fate. He’d been given to an alpha who lived in a remote mountainous region, and who’d made his fortune in the mining business. The area was isolated, lacking stable internet or phone connections, and messages from Shan were few and far between. Flo fretted over him regularly, worried he’d been impregnated, worried he’d been forced to give birth alone. He passed those fears on to Ezer whenever they talked, and Ned wished there was more to be done, but without legal grounds, they were helpless. And so was Shan.
In these ways, the Fersee family was torn asunder, but in others it was healthier than ever. Everyone knew the boundaries, and everyone stuck to them. The fears for Shan’s well-being were the only negative to their current situation as far as Ned could see.
As for his little family, Ned was proud to say that everyone was happy. Ned had mentors in the attorneys he worked for, and in Heath. Heath had a protégée. Adrien and Ezer had support, childcare, and friendship between them—and a plan to start an omega school together. They wanted to support teenage omega parents who wanted to continue their education, and they’d also supply childcare to help make that possible.
The idea was one both men were passionate about as young das themselves, and which both of their alphas were highly supportive of. Heath in a rather condescending way, of course, calling it their “little project,” and Ned wholeheartedly, loving the joy in Ezer’s face when he spoke about teaching math. Adrien didn’t scold Heath for his mild disdain, though, since he was ponying up the cash all the same.
