Page 6 of The Omega's Secret Baby
I gave her a wry smile. “I'm nearly thirty, Mother.”
“Nearlythirty.” My mother made an unamused sound, then she rested her head in her hands as if devastated. “You can't live out there as a young and rich unmated alpha. They're going to come at you like a pack of hungry harpies.” Her shoulders heaved.
I thought she was laying on the drama a bit thick, but I wasn't completely unsympathetic. She truly believed all she was saying. There had been a time in my life when I’d believed it myself—that I needed to be married to lead a respectable life, that every omega I ever met would only be interested in my body and my money…
I wasn’t so sure anymore. Every time I tried to remind myself that I shouldn’t look at other men, the image of one particular omega sprang to mind.
Elias.
Elias hadn’t cared about my money.
He’d certainly tempted me to abandon my virtues, though. So maybe there wassometruth to what my mother was saying.
“I’ll be careful, Mother,” I tried to console her, putting my hand on her arm.
She was having none of it and slapped my hand away as if it was dirty. “Is that why you don’t have children? Because you were planning on sabotaging this marriage from the start?”
Sabotage my marriage? “I’ve done no such thing. We weren’t in love. You can’t force these things.” I knew, because I’d certainly tried.
“You have duties to this family!” My mother stopped the fake sobbing to glare at me instead. “If you won’t go back to Danielle, we’ll find you another woman to add children to this family, but don’t think I’ll let you sully our name by living like a bachelor and inviting lusty omegas into your bed.”
“I think I’d rather not jump straight into another marriage.”
I don’t know why I even bothered saying that because nothing could stop my mother when she got like this. She was on a roll now; her opinions and feelings were facts, and there wasn’t anything anyone could say to convince her differently.
“I’m not letting you off the hook so easily,” she said. “First thing tomorrow I’m going to call poor Danielle to see if this can’t be fixed. You can’t give up so easily, Matthew. That is not how your father and I raised you.”
Right. “Do what you must, Mother.” I got up from the chair. “I’m going to go for a walk.”
For a moment, she looked like she was going to stop me, but then she only sighed and waved her hand at me to go. “Be careful,” she said. “There’s ice on the roads. Don’t slip and break your neck. I don’t want you in a cast during your next wedding.”
My mother had always had an odd way of showing she cared.
I knew that shedid, in her own way, but I still couldn’t wait to get out of this town again. There wasn’t anything worth staying for, after all.
Or so I’d thought.
3
Elias
Iwas exhaustedby the time I made it home that evening. Since I’d had to drop Jake home before returning to work earlier, I’d been a bit later in getting back to the shelter than I’d hoped. Harold hadn’t let me hear the end of it all day. Still, I knew I was lucky I even had the option of letting Jake stay home instead of taking him to work with me. That only worked because I was living with my brother.
“Thank God you’re home,” Griff greeted me almost as soon as I opened the door and Fiona charged ahead inside the house. “You can entertain your hellion now. I have work to do.”
“I’m sorry. Was he a lot of trouble?” I bit my lips, hating that I had to inconvenience my brother like this. He’d done all he could to help me and Jake since my son’s birth, and it was perfect that he had a job that allowed him to work from home, but I knew that I shouldn’t abuse that fact.
“He was good,” Griff said. “But you know I can’t focus on my work when he’s watching cartoons.”
“Only because you want to watch cartoons too.”
He smiled and scratched the back of his head. “Busted.” His expression turned serious again. “Tell me though, what did this other kid do that Jake decided to punch him? He wouldn’t tell me.”
I stepped around my brother and went into our small kitchen. “Where is he now?”
Griff pointed at the couch just across from the kitchen island where I found my son fast asleep, clutching one of the throw pillows. “I already took a picture.”
“Of course you did.” Griff’s amusement made me smile. He was a photographer and a graphic designer. He did fantastic work, producing stunning images. If you paid him to do it. Left to his own devices, all he wanted to do was take goofy snapshots of his friends and family.
