Page 2 of The Omega's Secret Baby
“Are you all ready to go?” I asked the dogs. The smallest of them, a Yorkshire terrier who'd been with us for two months, stood up on her hind paws and yipped at me. I laughed. This wasn't the life I'd dreamed of, but it wasn't bad. I could forget my problems while I was with my furry friends--sadly though, that didn't mean they ceased to exist.
* * *
It was justten minutes before my lunch break when I heard the dreaded sound of my phone ringing. These days, thatnevermeant good news. It was either going to be someone wanting money from me or Jake's school.
And with how things had been going with Jake lately, I found myself praying for the former.
I had no such luck, of course.
The familiar voice of the school's secretary greeted me when I picked up the phone.
“Mr. Stephens?”
I gulped, feeling almost like I was the one in trouble rather than my kid. “Yes?”
“It'd be of great help if you could come down to the school. I'm afraid Jake's punched one of the other students.”
I sighed. Jake was such a sweet kid when he was at home. Why could he never behave around other children? He wasn't stupid. In fact, all his teachers agreed with me that he was pretty smart. Just not smart enough to know how to handle social situations, it seemed.
“I'll be there as fast as I can,” I said, glancing at my watch. If I was lucky, I could make it back before my lunch break was over.
“The other child's parents will be here as well,” the secretary informed me.
I suppressed another sigh. It was bad enough being the single omega parent. It was even worse to be the single omega parent of a misbehaving child. Made everyone feel vindicated in their beliefs that omegas should not spend their lives unmated.
I ran a hand through my hair and ended the call. Nothing I could do about it now. This was how things were. Especially in a small town like Oceanport where everyone had their nose in everyone else's business.
Just the week before, my brother had informed me he'd heard that people down at the pub were making bets on who would finally manage to put a claim on me.
I shuddered, recalling that conversation. There weren't a lot of unmated alphas in town, and none of them appealed to me in the slightest.
And none of them would have been a good father for Jake.
There was only one man who could fill that role, and he... wasn't even aware of Jake's existence.
It was better that way. It was the choice I'd made after thinking about it long and hard all those years ago. I couldn't change it now.
Or so I thought.
Deciding to leave my dog at the shelter for the duration of the lunch break, I headed out to my car. Not, of course, without being scolded by Harold as I passed. “Coming late and leaving early?”
“Family emergency,” I responded, biting back every comment I wanted to make about not coming early. Not that I’d seen a lot of action in the years since Jake had been born. Or rather, since Jake had been conceived.
“You always got some sort of emergency going on,” he huffed.
I chose not to respond to that as I sat in my car, a beat up blue Ford, and pulled the door shut. The school wasn’t a long way—nothing really was in Oceanport—but if I wanted to be back by the end of my lunch break, I had to get going now.
Pulling out of the shelter’s parking lot, I went on my way.
It started snowing just as I drove onto the main road leading me back into the heart of the small town, big white flakes sailing onto the front screen of my car. Idly I wondered whether I’d thought to put a scarf on Jake this morning, and then whether he’d wear it. The boy often left his coats, scarves and mittens behind when he ran out to play, no matter how loudly I reprimanded him. I loved him fiercely, but he’d always had a mind of his own. I could only hope that it wasn’t going to become too much of a problem for him. After all, I could remember a time when I hadn’t listened to anyone else either, and that hadn’t gone too well for me.
I reached Oceanport’s elementary school after a short drive and got out of the car. At this point, I was already familiar with the way to the principal’s office, so it didn’t take me long to get there either.
As I had feared, the other child’s mother was already there when the secretary led me into the office. I recognized the blond head of the kid my son had fought with instantly. Mike, or Miles, or something like that. Jake didn’t like the boy, and he made no secret of it when he talked about school. I was reasonably sure the other boy’s last name was Foster. His father ran the town’s supermarket, and at the moment, his mother was regarding me with an air of disdain that was almost palpable. It was nothing new, although she usually hid her opinion of me a little bit better when we ran into each other during school events.
Ignoring her for now, I looked to the principal, Mr. Stein.
“What happened?”
