Page 11 of The Omega's Surprise Baby
And it didn't take long until Shane joined me in the kitchen.
“Sorry again about that,” he said even though I'd told him twice now that I didn't mind.
“It's fine,” I reassured him again, searching the cupboards for mugs. “Is she a relative of yours?”
“My little sister, yeah.”
“She looks a lot like you.”
He gave me a small smile and reached over me to open the cupboard with the mugs. “There you go,” he said. “If that was what you were looking for?”
“Yeah.” I took the mugs from the cupboard and placed them on the counter. “Is everything all right with your sister?” I wasn't sure it was my place to ask, but I couldn't get the sound of her crying out of my head. She sounded so horribly heartbroken, and I didn't wish that kind of pain on anyone.
“She'll be okay,” he said, even though his expression turned to one of concern. “But she'll have to stay here for a little while. I know it's going to get cramped, and I'm sorry for that, but I can't send her away.”
“I wouldn't ask you to.”
“Her mate is divorcing her,” he explained. “And I don't know if you've noticed, but she's pregnant.Andshe's omega.”
I cringed in sympathy. “Oh, no, that's horrible. How can he leave her when she's pregnant?” And considering that she was a female omega, it was very likely that she was carrying more than one baby too. No wonder her sobs had sounded so desperate.
Shane's forehead creased in anger as he started setting the table for breakfast, probably just to keep busy. “I don't know, but if the bastard shows his face around here I'm not sure I'll be able to control my fists, quite frankly.”
I licked my lips. “So you're taking her side?”
He whirled around to me. “Of course I'm taking her side!” He actually seemed insulted by the idea that he might have acted otherwise.
“I'm sorry. It's simply that where I grew up—“
“This isn't Goldstone, Indiana!” he cut in, getting right up close to me. “And my sister is not a second-class citizen.”
I blinked, surprised by his vehemence. “Okay,” I said slowly.
He relaxed, but he didn't back away. Not yet. “You're not a second-class citizen either, you know?”
“I know that!” That was why I had run. I'd tried to leave all of that behind me, but still... I smiled at Shane.
He tilted his head, obviously confused by my reaction. “What?”
“Not a lot of alphas get angry on behalf of oppressed omegas. Especially when those omegas are celebrities,” I added. Regular people often assumed we were above discrimination. They had no idea. If I wasn’t omega, my career would not be lying in shambles now. The sad truth was that I could run from places like Goldstone, but I could never really escape.
Prejudice would follow me wherever I went. It wasn't like non-Vinist people didn't have it. They only knew to hide it a bit better. Some of them weren't even aware of all the prejudice they held, but it was there. It often came out at the worst moments too. Like that one time I'd had to throw up in the morning after a night of partying. Someone had uttered the words 'morning sickness' and the tabloids had caught on to it.
Thathad been fun.
“I don't care that my sister's an omega and he's an alpha. At this point, all I care about is that he's an asshole. And every alpha who thinks of omegas as less is an asshole too.”
A gasp came from the entrance to the kitchen. Both of us turned to the door to see Mary stand there, clad in pink pajamas. “Bad word!” she said with all the righteousness of a three-and-a-half-year-old who caught her parent doing something forbidden.
“Oh, I'm so sorry, honey.” Shane broke away from me to pick up his daughter and kiss her cheek. The two of them made a cute picture. Shane was a good dad. A good guy. Nick had been right about that. Not all alphas were bad. It was just difficult to find the ones that weren't assholes. Shane was a lucky find.
Or was he?
I'd gotten a bit carried away in my head. Pouring the coffee I'd made into the mugs on the counter, I reminded myself that I wasn't here to make out with the host. Not even if he was really hot and kind and treating me like a person. Suppressing a sigh I took a sip of the coffee, letting it burn on my tongue as I watched Shane tickle his daughter.
Thank God I was only here for two more nights. If I stayed any longer, I was sure I would do something stupid.
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