Page 5 of Jake and Conner
"Please, call me Conner. And you're very welcome." I stepped around my desk to shake the teen's hand. "You don't have to face this alone, okay?"
"Thank you," Mark said again before leaving.
When he was gone, I leaned back against my desk and rubbed my face. While pregnant teens weren't rare, they rarely came to us. Often that was because they didn't realize theycould, but even more often than that, it was because they were ashamed and preferred to suffer in silence. It was silly, really. Most of these teenage pregnancies resulted from heats and teens being utterly unequipped to handle the intensity of their emotions--or to give too much thought to the consequences once their brains were soaked in hormones.
Many of these issues would go away if they got better sex education--or if heat suppressants were more readily available.
But that was neither here nor there.
I couldn't completely change the system, I could only focus on helping the omegas who came to me. Omegas like Mark.
And so I sat back down behind my desk and resumed my work.
There wasn't much I could do for Mark until he'd made his choice, but there were other files for other omegas on my desk, and they all needed attention.
Honestly, there was never a shortage of work at this shelter.
But it was all work worth doing.
I reached for the file right under Mark's, which documented the story of an omega in his thirties who'd recently come to us because his ex was stalking him and their children. We were going to have to get the police involved on this one, which was always fun. Sighing, I started skimming the file to refresh my memory, and then I went to work for the next couple of hours.
I was just filling out paperwork for a restraining order when the ringing of my phone interrupted me. I’d called the police department earlier and was half-expecting them to call me back with a new problem, but it was my stepfather's voice that greeted me on the other end of the line. "Please don't tell me you're still at work.”
"I would, but I don't want to lie to you."
"Oh, Conner, what are we ever going to do with you?" Kade said in mock despair. "You know this is the second time in a row you’ve blown us off in favor of work."
Blown them off? What was he talking about? Oh drat. I glanced at the calendar on my desk. It was half-buried under paperwork, but that didn't matter. I already knew what Kade was talking about. I was supposed to join them for dinner.
"Honestly," Kade said, "Your schedule is busier than mine is. You need to take a breather, and you need to get your butt over here and see your family."
I sighed. He was probably right about that.
I looked at the time on my phone. "I can be there in thirty minutes."
"You had better. Your father and I miss having you around."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Be on your way." With that, Kade ended the phone call.
I glanced at my computer, at the file I'd been working on, so tempted so spend just five more minutes on it, but my stepfather was right.
I had to be on my way.
* * *
My family had actually waitedto start with dinner until I got there, and that was even though my youngest sister, Hope, had invited a new girlfriend to the house. Apparently, though, it wasn't the first time. As my dad informed me, the only reason I had never met Layla was because I was never around. He said this while cutting into his piece of steak and without any judgment in his tone--which somehow made it all that much worse.
As if the fact that I was never home had already been established and accepted.
"It's just a very busy time at work," I said quietly, moving a boiled potato around on my plate.
"It's okay," Mary, my other sister, said. "You do important work."
"But it would have been cool if you'd come to the Circus with us like you promised," Hope, pointed out. She was only sixteen. Almost the same age as Mark.
I couldn't imagine my baby sister getting pregnant anytime soon.
