Page 110 of The Omega's Alpha
Holland sighed and reach out to comb his fingers through Dorian’s hair. “I don’t mind, really. It’s good to have family around if you get along. But she sounds too damn much like my mother, and I don’t think I can go back to biting my tongue and holding it all in.” He raised his eyes to meet Quin’s. “I don’t want to fight with her, but these are my pups, and I’m me, and you’re you, and I don’t want to be someone else anymore to make another person happy. I tried that with my family, and I tried that with the ex.”
It struck Quin funny to hear Holland use that very human phrase. “Thank Lysoon. I don’t want to be mated to someone else.” Quin grabbed Holland’s hand and dropped a quick kiss on the knuckles. “No, I expect you’ll put her in her place if she oversteps. Let me know if you need back up and I’ll be there, but I think you can handle her.” He hefted Dorian a little higher on his shoulder. “I’ll put him to bed, and then I can come back and show you how much I like being mated to you.”
Holland laughed. “All right. But I have something to ask you when you get back. Before you start rubbing my back.”
“Are you sore again?”
“Not very. It just feels good.” Holland stretched, reminding Quin of the beauty of that lean body, even with the uncommon roundness of his middle. “But I wanted to talk names with you, now that we know it’s a boy.”
“I still think it’s cheating,” Quin mock-grumbled, for the fun of watching Holland stick his tongue out like a child. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he added in a normal tone of voice and took Dorian to his bedroom to tuck him in.
When he got back, Holland was lying on his side, an obvious invitation for Quin to start a backrub. In one hand, he held a piece of paper, covered in his sprawling handwriting.
Not loathe to run his hands over his mate, even if that was all it was, Quin climbed up to lie behind Holland and began kneading the muscles on either side of his mate’s spine.
Holland moaned in sensual delight and seemed to sink even farther into the mattress. “You’re hired,” he said, his voice blurry with sheer relaxation.
“Good. You’re stuck with me for life anyway.” Quin kissed the back of Holland’s shoulder. “So, now that I’ve dropped my bomb, it’s time you dropped yours.”
“You’re so human,” Holland complained humorously.
“Not that!” Quin laughed and gnawed gently on the soft skin of Holland’s neck. “So, what names were you thinking about?”
“These.” Holland held the slip of paper up and angled it back toward Quin. “What do you think? Do you have anything to add to the list?” He twisted to look over his shoulder at Quin. “If you don’t like any of them, I can look for more, but I called and made sure no one else was already named any of these.”
Quin took the slip of paper and scanned down the list of names while his free hand worked its way up and down the muscled columns of Holland’s back. “Do you have a favorite?”
“I narrowed it down,” Holland said, slumping over to leave more of his back reachable. “It’s not fair if I get my choice and you don’t get a say.”
That was reasonable. Quin read the list over again. “Why is there a line in the middle of it?”
Holland’s ribcage rose and fell in a long respiration. “Above are alpha and beta names. Below it are omega names.”
Quin frowned at the list. “Does it have to matter?” He’d always known they’d have to pick out a name. It had never occurred to him that if the child was omega they would have to choose a different name. “I don’t mind if the name doesn’t match. Why do omegas have to have special names anyway? It’s stupid.” And now he sounded like the pups. Was that what fatherhood did to a man?
“It’s protective,” Holland said. “And it used to be a way to let the other pups know to be careful around omegas. We used to be valuable, you know.” His tone was light, but Quin could hear the undercurrent of bitterness hidden in the words.
“To me, you’re worth your weight in gold.” Quin hugged him and kissed his shoulder and his neck again. “But if you want to pick one of each, we can do that.” He ran his hand over Holland’s belly, pausing to let the baby kick his palm. “I wouldn’t mind an omega. We have a couple of betas already, be nice to change it up a little.”
“You think they’re going to be betas?” Holland asked, surprised.
“You don’t?”
“I think you’re right about Agatha, but I’m not so sure about Dorian. I think he could go either way.” He sighed and snuggled back against Quin. “I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.”
Quin chuckled and spat out a mouthful of hair, using his chin to make a space for himself that didn’t involve being suffocated. “So, pick one of each?”
“Or a couple, but the database people said they’d block them off so no one else could choose them until we decided.” He sighed. “I think we’re getting preferential treatment and it makes me uncomfortable.”
“We probably are. Okay, one of each.” He held the list out so they could both see it. “I like Aaron. Mountain of Strength. Or Serkan.”
“What if he doesn’t want to be a leader?”
“It’s not like your name is your destiny or anything. Why did you put it on the list if you didn’t like it?”
“I don’t know. It sounds nice, I guess. I thought you might like it.”
“Yeah, but if you’re worried that people will put expectations on him, then we can scratch it off.” He looked at the list again. “Valentin?” He shook his head. “I like Aaron the best of them.”
