Chapter Text
Things have been going well after visiting my old home. Too well.
I have the dreadful feeling that it can’t stay like this.
Also, I’m a little discontent about the outcome of the visit, but I can’t tell Marco.
He promised me that he’ll mate me in my next heat. I just have to trust him.
But I have to confess, I thought he’d talk about this with my father and then talk about it with me, again.
I can’t bring it up just like that. I was waiting for an opportunity, but fate seems to be against me.
I thought that maybe someone would say something about the missing bite mark at my neck. And I saw Dad’s gaze linger there.
The other omegas were fully occupied with making exclamation about my clothes and then being happy that the baby still liked me.
His father told me that they’re thinking about naming him after me. I feel honoured but also slightly uneasy.
I’m not even the first brother who was named Linus as a toddler, my oldest brother was also named Linus.
He had moved out shortly before my naming ceremony.
I detect a theme here. But it’s their business. It’s not my name anymore and it's not particularly special to me, so they can do as they please.
I’m more concerned about being mated or well, the possibility of not being mated during my next heat. And now he’s invited his grandmother.
Yes, I know, I reacted really cool about that and I even meant that, but since then I’m slowly freaking out inwardly.
I can deal with unpleasantness. I can even try to be polite for a couple of hours and not let it touch me, although I’m sure I’ll manage to fuck up somehow.
But I’m still pretty sure she’ll never accept me. In hindsight it was never about me. She seems to hate omegas and redheads and I’m the combination of both, but that’s not what defines me.
If she hates omegas and redheads and is unpleasant because of that, I can deal with it.
If she tells Marco that I’m lazy and ugly and useless, that’s another thing entirely. Because I believe she’s right.
And he may have been blind to that for now- thank God!- but what if she manages to open his eyes to that before he mates me? What if he puts it off again?
The hormones from our scent compatibility and from bonding surely will vanish someday and without the bite he’s going to wake up to some not-right omega in his bed, that’s no help whatsoever in the house and realise that he can’t possibly want someone like me.
These kind of thoughts are spiralling in my head for days, Marco always near enough to stop me from freaking out completely with touches and scenting, before the day of his grandmother’s visit finally comes.
I’m looking forward to it by now, at least the uncertainty will be over afterwards. I will have some new dark thoughts to obsess about then, yay.
Breakfast is weird that day, we’re both way to quiet and tense. He sighs, mid-feeding me. ‘I’m sorry for putting you through this. I know she’s rude and impossible. But she’s still my grandmother. And I know she mostly means well. I wouldn’t be at uni if it wasn’t for her. She always helped me with my homework and made sure I had food with me-’, he breaks off.
I’m curious about the background of that story- like, what about his parents?- but I tried asking and he blocked me two times so he doesn’t want to talk about it and I have to accept that. It’s not like I’m volunteering any information about my presentation as omega or the various punishments my father had, to force me, or well, help me, to fit into society more.
I kiss his cheek. ‘It’s going to be ok.’, I tell him, because one of us has to say it and one of us should believe it. That would be him, then.
He smiles his easy smile that always comes when I am even remotely nice to him by myself and I wonder for the millionth time about the power of alpha instincts and bonding hormones.
I dress in my lightest jeans and a white button-down shirt of his. He raises his eyebrows at me but I just shrug.
He comes over to kiss me and holds me close for a while which helps calming me.
We settle in the living room and are both quiet and tense until the doorbell rings. Marco jumps up and tells me to just stay in the living room.
I can hear him open the door.
‘Is he sick or why are you opening the door?’, is the first thing his grandmother says to him. Great!
‘Can’t your grandson greet you? It’s not like I didn’t know who’s coming or were expecting official visitors.’, Marco replies neutrally and she scoffs.
I hear her take off her shoes and stand up when she enters the living room.
She raises her eyebrows at me.
‘Hello.’, I say and she looks displeased. I sit down again when they both sit.
She turns to Marco, who’s sitting next to me.
‘You let him sit on the furniture?’, she asks and I feel like someone punched me in the gut.
Marco’s hand is on my thigh immediately, stroking me while he answers with a sharp edge to his voice. ‘Yes, grandmother. Of course. He’s not an animal, for God’s sake.’
She looks annoyed. ‘Talking to your grandmother like that? You were raised better, Marco.’
Marco sighs. ‘I was. But you deserved it right now.’
We are all silent for a short while, then he looks at her again.
‘Would you like something to drink?’
She nods. ‘What do you have?’
‘Iced tea, orange juice, water or I could make some coffee or tea.’, I tell her while standing up.
I can finally prove that I can do something.
She thinks for a while and I dread that she wants something special to make life difficult for me, but then she decides on an iced tea.
I go to the kitchen and take the pitcher out of the fridge. I’m trembling but I manage not to show it while I fill her glass and offer it to her.
She takes it without looking at me.
Marco lifts his brows in disapproval and I can see some similarity between them, which is completely disturbing.
‘You’re not really complaining about everyone being impolite all the time and then you forget to say thank you when someone gives you a drink, are you?’, he says calmly and my heart nearly jumps out of my chest.
Surely he’s not allowed to talk to her like that? Surely she’ll start yelling now and at the end it’s my fault somehow. That he even has the nerve to tell a beta to thank an omega!
My breath hitches as they both look at me. She clears her throat.
‘I clearly forgot my manners, just now.’, she says. ‘Thank you.’
I stare at her for what feels like eternity until something in her face changes.
‘You’re welcome.’, I reply softly and she turns back to Marco with a sneer on her face.
‘Shy, is he?’ she asks. Marco looks like he's trying very hard not to roll his eyes. He’s relaxed but at the same time he’s tense. His scent is hella confusing to me right now.
‘He’s right there, you know?,’, he says, but then answers nevertheless. ‘And everybody would be shy after meeting you like this. That wasn’t cool, grandma. You were basically breaking in and molesting him in his own home. How would you feel if someone just came into your apartment and started complaining?’
I don’t know how he’s able to confront her so coolly. He doesn’t even sound cross, as if it’s a normal conversation. His grandmother pouts a bit, but then shrugs.
‘I understand.’, she turns to me. ‘I’m sorry for that.’ We both know she’s only saying this for Marco’s sake. This time I reply instantly.
‘It’s ok, ma’am.’, I say and am glad that I was able to surprise her with my decent behaviour.
They talk a bit about his father and that he shouldn’t live alone – Marco is weirdly intent on changing the topic-, his father’s practice and that Marco is such a good help - he tells her that we’ll start a pack and he’ll need less money because we’ll share everything and the members will pay a little rent, so his father should start looking for another back office person- and his studies – I didn’t even know his major until now, I’m such a bad spouse.
The she wants to know his plans for his birthday. Somehow I get involved into the discussion because Marco repeatedly asks for my opinion, to his grandmother’s obvious displeasure.
Apparently his birthday is next Thursday, which is a nice information to have, because I didn’t know that as well. I’m sure he knows my birthday by heart. Just shoot me now.
It is decided that we will go to a restaurant, that I’m absolutely allowed to sit at the table with them and there will be no discussion about that – I’m awfully glad and a little turned on by my alpha’s strict no-nonsense tone – and that we will have a timeframe of two hours for this event because if he has to spend a longer amount of time with his father something bad will happen.
I knew that he knows that his father is an asshole. I didn’t know that their relationship was that bad.
Then Marco has to go to the toilet. I freeze in my seat as soon as he stops touching me. I feel my mind slip into panic mode as soon as he left the terrace.
I force myself to take even breaths, aware that his grandmother is watching me.
‘You’re an anxious little thing, huh?’, she tells me as if we were talking about the weather.
‘It’s no wonder, really. A ginger omega and then with your body type, that must have been hard growing up.’
In another context, her words could be seen as kind or reassuring, but her tone is pure poison.
I hang my head and just pray for Marco to be quick. I look through the open door to watch out for his return and hear her inhale sharply.
‘Oh, he hasn’t bitten you yet even when you were in heat? Seems to have a couple of brain cells left. You couldn’t manipulate him that much, then.’, she states.
I frown and - because I’m me- rise to the bait.
‘What do you mean?’, I swallow the ‘Ma’am’, that’s on my tongue because apparently we’re only polite when Marco is around. Two can play that game.
She manages to look very arrogantly for her answer.
‘You’re not for him. Clearly, you must know that. You smell good to him, but that will fade. He will meet someone who’s more fitting and forget all about you. I guess he knows that unconsciously and so didn’t mate you. What, boy? You don’t really think he’s serious about you?’
I flinched at her words, but something about them touched me.
It’s almost liberating to hear her voice my worries. At least someone understands them. But something’s wrong nevertheless.
‘I know, that I’m not good enough for him.’, I say softly and she’s clearly surprised by my words.
‘But I’m serious about him. I’d never manipulate him. And I can’t change our scents. As long as he’ll have me, I’ll be his and there’s nothing you can do against it. Ma’am.’
She frowns and opens her mouth, but just then Marco reappears.
He looks from her to me with raised brows but as we’re not strangling each other and nobody is crying he seems to think it wise to just ignore the tension in the air.
They talk for a while, Marco mechanically rubbing my back, then she stands up to leave.
To my astonishment she says goodbye to me and even uses my name before Marco accompanies her to the door.
He comes back and flaps down next to me, instantly drawing me to him. We melt into each other and just exist for a while.
He smells comforting and safe for me, the hint of anxiousness that lingered on him the whole day is slowly fading.
He moves to plant a kiss on my forehead and drink something, then makes me drink something as well.
‘I don’t understand.’, I tell him after we brought the pitcher back into the kitchen.
He pauses. ‘What, darling?’
I’m not sure how to voice my thoughts but in the end it’s just one big question: ‘How could this family produce you?’
He snorts softly and pulls me on his lap in the kitchen chair. ‘They weren’t always my whole family. And there’s some background story to some of her stereotypes. I grew up knowing about it, so I was able to see it as stupid stereotypes instead of the truth early on.’
I turn my head to look at him quizzically. He sighs and plants some kisses along my jawline before he continues.
‘You know, Grandmother hates Omegas, because my Nonno, her husband, he- well, he was an alpha.’, I flinch and he laughs humourlessly.
‘Yes, that was quiet the scandal at that time, an alpha with a beta girl. Apparently he was in love enough to marry her and produce my father. But society convinced him that he wasn’t normal if he didn’t want omegas. Or maybe he really wanted them. Or maybe he was just a bastard and would have been the same if he were a beta. Ehm, anyhow, he betrayed her a lot with omegas over the years and told her it was his nature and she shouldn’t complain so much.’
The poor woman. That must have felt awful. I still don’t understand why she’s hating omegas instead of alphas then.
‘What happened to your Nonno?’, I ask.
Marco shrugs. ‘Nothing. Well, he died a couple of years ago. Too much red meat and cigarettes. They were married until the end, but he had moved out before I was born. I liked him as a kid and spent a lot of time with him. It’s why I speak Italian.
Well, so my grandmother doted on my father, because he was at least there. And he always fought with Nonno when the three of them were together, picking grandma’s side.
The more the disappointment, when he found a nice omega wife, and grandma thought he at least wouldn’t feel the need to betray her, just to have history repeat itself.
My father is very fond of brothels, you must know. He’s also not against chatting up young omegas in pre-heat in the street.
He’s the reason most omegas aren’t allowed to be outside alone, when it would be fairer to not let alphas like him out instead.’
I snuggle into him and rub my nose on his neck to comfort him.
He reciprocates the gesture and we’re just a heap of cuddly animals for a while, which feels great. Animals don’t worry half as much as humans.
‘So, why does she still like your Dad, then?’, I finally ask, because Marco stays quiet and I have to know the whole story. He chuckles dryly.
‘Well, he’s her only son, her everything. I think she couldn’t live with him being the bad guy. So in her head it was all my mother’s fault. She must have done something wrong to make him stray from her bed and all that bullshit. So my Dad started to complain about my mother a lot, to justify her way of thinking.
But on the other hand, he had made my mother completely dependent on him. She was fifteen when they meet, way too young, but he’d made her go into heat and then she was his. And at first of course she was welcomed with open arms until that changed.
By then she was pregnant, which of course was another reason for him to sleep around.
And she had to cut ties to her family when she met my father, so he was her only person of reference.
In hindsight I think she went into depression after she had me. She was a good mother, always there for me but she cried a lot and they fought a lot and she stopped eating and doing much in the house, which of course was another reason for grandma to meddle.
One day, when she was picking me up from school, we met her parents. It was completely by chance.
They nearly missed each other because she was so skinny and looked so unhappy and different than as a teenager.
Turns out my other grandfather was a powerful and rich alpha, similar to your father. He was outraged by my father’s behaviour.
Not even his infidelity, but that he wasn’t able to care for his omega.
I just realized it when I met you, Luca, but it’s not normal to not care when your omega is unhappy. Something isn’t right with my father.
They were bonded and mated and he still hurt her again and again. That’s, like, sociopath behaviour.
I always wondered if I could have inherited it because I had no interest in omegas before outside from presenting and the two ruts I had.
But then I met you and now everything is as it should be. You have no idea how terrified I was at first and how relieved I was when we just clicked.
Ehm, yeah, well- her father gave her this house and she moved here with me.
She still met with my father and he came over for dinner sometimes and they were way more decent with each other than when we had lived together.
When I was thirteen, she became pregnant again. My father slept over sometimes and I never saw her with another man.
I had presented by then, so I would’ve smelled another alpha. My father insisted that it wasn’t his child, though. I still don’t know why he’d do such thing.
He stopped visiting and Mom was miserable. She only ate when I forced her and became weaker and weaker. She- she and the baby died in childbirth.’
Marco stops speaking for a while and I whimper against his neck and start licking his scent glands to comfort him.
He sniffs a little but is very silent otherwise.
I look up at him and his mouth meets mine at once. I let him and then kiss his tears away, which makes him snort a little.
‘Funnily enough, my Nonno was the one that taught me how to cook so I could look after my mother. He died soon after she died.
I’d loved to have lived with him, but then I had to move back with my father. Thankfully he was working most of the time or we would have killed each other.
I was really angry for a while. Then I became kind of numb. My grandmother made me go to school and do my homework at her place.
She also made me speak to the school social worker, which helped me a lot after a while. And she let Tom stay over whenever he wanted, even though she hates him.
My mother’s father died soon after and apparently I inherited this house for when I would start a family.
I didn’t even know about this until after I fe- smelled you in the park.’
He shifts a little on the chair and strokes my back. ‘So, now you know my fucked up family background.’, he says after a while.
I hum against him. ‘I’m so sorry, Marco. And I’m proud of you. For opening up. And for living through that. And for not becoming like them.’
It’s his turn to bury his head in my neck and I kiss his ear.
I hesitate, then speak up again. ‘You know. I- I don’t need much. If it’s that hard for you to work with or for your father, then- well, I just want you to know you don’t have to because of me.’
He looks up at that and smiles. ‘God, you’re exceeding my expectations every fucking time, honey.’, he tells me. Honey. That’s a new one. I like it.
Then he shakes his head. ‘It’s ok. I’ve always worked there. I’m good with the system, I like the co-workers and most patients and I think the omegas are glad when I’m there too and it’s not only him and the betas. But I will cut down on the hours when Tom and Matty join us. I want to be home more often. And I really need to study more often, too.’
We cuddle for a while, then my stomach grumbles, which makes my alpha laugh. He manhandles me onto the other chair and gets up.
He goes about the kitchen, doing various things and I watch him. He’s graceful in some feline, almost dangerous way that most other alphas lack because of their size.
He stretches to get something from the top of a shelf and his shirt rides up, revealing his flat stomach and I can feel –something- build in my chest.
I have been naked or part-naked inside for a long time, still am, because I’m used to it and I love how Marco’s eyes light up when he sees me that way, even though I still don’t understand why.
But Marco is almost always dressed and it’s oddly arousing for me to be surprised with my alpha’s naked skin during the day. Apparently.
He catches my eyes and grins. ‘Not hungry anymore?’
I tilt my head. I am hungry. I could also do with some heavy petting. My life is full of hard choices.
Marco’s grin grows wider. ‘You know, this needs to cook for a while. And we already inaugurated the kitchen table.’
I don’t need to answer, because the smell of slick that spiked up in the kitchen is all he needs. He makes sure that nothing is going to burn before he tosses me over the table.
He pulls down my pants and I hear his zipper and it feels wrong in the most delicious way that we’re both almost fully clothed for this.
His finger dips into me and he makes a satisfied noise and removes it, making me whine.
He laughs softly. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get the real deal, baby.’, he tells me, which makes me moan.
My moaning increases when he makes good on the promise seconds later. I’m fucked into the table.
He has pulled up my legs and my arms are buried under my upper body so I’m just able to take it and that’s exactly what I need right now.
My alpha is taking his pleasure from my body and that’s just right. His hands are on my back while he fucks me, then work their way around my sides and lift me up.
He helps me stand and I lean over the table with him behind me. He kisses and licks my neck and I start to scream his name when he softly bites my scent glands.
‘Of, fuck, Luca. Fuuuck.’, he groans and then knots me, which makes me fall over the edge as well.
He gently massages my shoulders while we wait for the knot to subside.
‘I can’t wait for your heat.’, he tells me and he almost sounds a little sheepish.
I chuckle. ‘Don’t you think we have enough sex?’, I ask him lightly and he chuckles as well.
‘We have the perfect amount of perfect sex, my perfect omega.’, he tells me solemnly, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
‘But I can’t wait to mate you.’, he explains then, and I love to hear those words.
‘And it has to be during your heat. It’s way more effective that way. But don’t you think you aren’t mine until then.
We belong together. Nothing changes that.’, he adds and I’m glad he can’t see my eyes well up right now.