Page 24 of Single Omega Dad
But I’d made this mistake before, saying yes to a hardened Alpha thinking I could soften him, change him. Drayden could never quite be reached. Our mate-bond never fully formed though he’d dated me while I still lived on the chattel farm, then taken me away in a whirl. It had been what all my Omega friends and I had dreamed of together, to one day meet the handsome Alpha who would sweep us off our feet.
Drayden and I stayed together to make a family and after the boys were born, he was the provider and I was maid and nanny. And a convenient hole for his Burns. I was sorry it hadn’t been more, yet I was happy I had my boys plus two more on the way.
Would Mathias simply be a repeat of my habit? My tastes ran to dark brooding Alphas with broad shoulders and maybe a grudge or two against life.
I needed to be careful there.
As I changed from jeans to suit slacks and a clean white shirt, I listened to the boys down the hall in their own room getting ready.
I went into the bathroom and forced my hair back from my face, spraying it to stay in place and not droop into my eyes. I hadn’t had a haircut in a couple of months but it looked okay longer, made me feel younger.
For the second time that day I shaved, just to be sure. Many Omegas didn’t shave at all, their body hair sparse even around their genitalia. I’d never been sparse, but I wasn’t a bear, either. I didn’t grow any hair on my chest. At least, not so far in my twenty-seven years.
I slapped on some aftershave before I realized what I was actually doing. Here. Right now. It was as if I were preparing for a date. Primping and preening for Mathias.
I froze, shocked at my behavior. The boys had me exhausted and I was pregnant. What was I thinking? I didn’t need this added drama in my life.
Rolling my eyes at my own reflection, I swept from the bathroom and moved quickly down the hallway to the boys’ room.
“Are you guys all set?” I asked, leaning in their doorway.
“Daddy, can I bring Teddy?” asked Luke, holding a fuzzy, stuffed brown bear.
“Not to dinner tonight, okay? I’ll tell you what. Let’s bring your coloring books and some crayons with us.”
He dropped his bear on the floor, immediately distracted by the prospect of coloring. Luke loved drawing and coloring pictures. “Okay.”
Tybor stared just past me into the hall. He kept his mouth in a thin line. He was still mad at me, I assumed.
“Come on, then. You got your jackets?” I could see they already had them on, but I always asked them for confirmation. It was the way they learned obedience and verification they had correctly done what they were asked.
“Yes,” said Luke.
They each had matching sport jackets, Luke’s blue, Tybor’s red. Side by side, they looked absolutely adorable and there were some days I still couldn’t believe they were mine, these two sweet boys.
Together we all traipsed to the front of the house. As we passed the kitchen I gathered their coloring supplies and put them in a tote.
When we arrived at the diner, the sun was setting, already gone behind the mountains to the west leaving streaks of bright pink and orange across the lower sky. The air smelled of car exhaust and grilling hamburgers. It blew cool against my hot face, but did nothing to cool the rest of my body.
Was this how I was going to be every time Mathias asked for some financial meeting me? I hoped not, for I already resented that I was required to have a financial guardian. My pride was a bit ramshackle and I didn’t need to further damage it by playing into this crush, if that was what this was.
But as we walked through the front doors of the restaurant, my gaze didn’t even need to scan the room. It landed instantly on Mathias sitting with his laptop open in a booth by a window. It was as if all my senses knew where he was without needing any more cues than his presence.
The host greeted us and said, “Table for three?”
“We’re meeting him.” I pointed in the direction of Mathias and as I did his head came up and he met my gaze and nodded. Dark-eyed, face neutral, the cheekbones and jaw firm, chiseled, the hair sleek and black against his scalp where it was always pulled back into a tight braid. He looked almost posturing. Intimidating. So my type.
The host let us pass.
As we arrived at the booth, I realized I hadn’t thought through the seating arrangement. If we were going to conduct any business, I needed to face him. It would be easier. This put us in the position where one of my boys would need to sit next to Mathias.
“Should we get a table? Would that make this easier?” I asked, looking down at my kids.
Mathias glanced at them as if they were nothing. But then, in a supremely unexpected gesture, half his mouth quirked as if in the beginnings of a smile, and he reached alongside him on the seat and brought up two packages of coloring books and crayons. Each package had its own book and pack of crayons. One had a red cover, one blue. The clear cellophane sealing them was decorated with gold ribbon. He held out the red one to Tybor and the blue to Luke.
“For me?” Tybor asked. Those were the first words he’d spoken since his earlier time-out.
“For me?” Luke asked.
