Chapter Text
‘How was school?’, I ask Luca, as soon as he comes into our room. I’ve left uni early today, to be here when he arrives. He flinches hard when he sees me. Maybe I should have told him?
‘I- ehm, yes, good?’, he answers, clearly flustered.
I stand up to go to him, but before I’m finished, he murmurs ‘I have to use the bathroom.’, and leaves the room. Weird.
Maybe he’s one of those kids that can’t take a dump in school? It would explain why he wasn’t comfortable with using the en-suite while I’m in the bedroom. Huh.
I shrug and sit down again. Leaving uni early doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot to do.
When I look up next, 30 minutes have passed and my omega is nowhere to be seen. He didn’t even greet me with a kiss before. And his scent is barely there.
I decide to look for him.
The house is dark. Tom picked Luca up from school and let him out at home, but I know he immediately left again to meet some love interest.
Matty is trying to court Simon and treats him to dinner, somewhere.
Simon told me this, half asking for permission, excited about the aspect of finally eating a real burger at a real diner again after a lot of years.
I told him to have fun and be nice to poor Matty, which made him laugh.
I’m pretty sure he’s a decent human being, by now, but he’s just, really, really complicated.
Thank God he’s mostly Matty’s problem!
Luca isn’t in the kitchen, nor in the dining room. I pause in front of the bathroom.
Is he still in there? I don’t want to embarrass him by speaking to him through the toilet door. I always hated it when my grandmother did that when I lived with my father.
I silently move on. That’s when I hear the noise. As soon as I recognize it as a sob, I start to feel Luca’s devastation through the bond.
Holy shit! What did they do to him in that school? Is he hurt? Didn’t he want to be close to me because they did something to him and he feels like it’s his fault?
Without further thinking, I open the bathroom door.
Luca sits on the closed toilet, fully dressed, and cries, trying to muffle it with his hands.
There’s a towel on the floor in front of the door and now I know why I didn’t smell his distress sooner.
I open my mouth to ask him what’s wrong when I see the thing in his hands.
My brain needs a minute to recognise what it is. Then I take it from him.
He whines and flinches back. He has stopped crying abruptly, his face still swollen and his cheeks wet and now he stares at me, expressionless.
I look at it. There’s two stripes on it. I have no idea what this means.
‘Are you crying because it’s positive or because it’s negative?’, I ask him, more harshly than I wanted to.
He flinches again. ‘Positive.’, he whispers and then puts his hand in front of his mouth when he starts to sob again.
I go to my knees in front of him and take his face in my free hand. ‘Baby. Baby. Listen. It’s not the end of the world. I love you. You love me. We can do this.’
I have no idea how we do this, but I’m pretty sure we’ll find a way. I mean, we have nine months to prepare. I guess. And babies don’t eat that much. At first. They drink- oh.
I reach out and Luca freezes and watches me pull up is t-shirt. There’s dark patches of skin, looking like bruises or maybe insect bites, trailing in two neat rows from his nipples down. A nice, useless remain of the evolution.
‘Fuck, Luca. You have been worried for weeks.’, I realize and he sniffs and nods. I let his shirt fall again, put my hand on his knee and look up to him.
’Why didn’t you tell me?’, I ask.
He sniffs and shakes his head. ‘I- I’m, Mar- alpha, I- it could be the guard’s.’, he cries, barely understandable under the sobs.
‘Or’- he hiccups- ‘or Matty’s. I- I’m so sorry. Please don’t make me leave!’, the whites in his eyes are red from crying and make his eyes look greener than ever.
‘Darling, I’d never leave you. If you want this, then I want it.’
He pauses, mid-hiccup. ‘If?’, he asks. ‘Marco, it’s illegal to-‘, he trails off, staring at me, shocked.
I shrug. ‘I care about you. Fuck, I love you so much, Luca. If this isn’t bearable for you, I’ll help you in any way I can. I don’t want you to suffer, baby.’
Part of me is shocked, so, so shocked, that my partner could be pregnant from his rapist. Or by his best friend, from the one time he went full alpha and tried to bite him.
In hindsight, it’s a fucking miracle Luca isn’t totally traumatized.
Or it could be mine.
I mean, I didn’t lie. As long as it’s his, I’ll be happy about it. As long as he’s happy.
But, holy shit, it could be my child inside him!
But, how did this even happen?
‘It thought you were on birth control?’, I muse, partly to myself, while I stroke Luca’s back. Luca tenses, then shoots up, looking at me bewildered.
‘I told you I was running out.’, he says.
Yes, he did, and then- ‘And I told you it would be at the pharmacy a couple of days later.’
‘Yes.’, Luca says slowly. ‘You told me and then you never picked it up. And then all the other stuff happened.’
‘Oh.’, I say. ‘I thought you would be picking it up.’
Luca scoffs. ‘Yes, that’s completely reasonable. Because I leave the house on my own all the time.’, he says, completely sarcastic and angry all of the sudden. I didn’t even know he could sound like this.
‘Yeah, but you wanted-‘, he cuts me of: ‘Why the fuck is it always the person with the womb that needs to think about stuff like this?’, he tells me, agitated.
I raise my brows. ‘Because, clearly, you’re the one with the changing body who’s hiding in the bathroom, crying.’, I tell him, pissed off, and immediately regret it.
‘Darling, I-‘, I reach out to him but he’s out of the room faster than I can react.
I hear the main door slam shut.
I should follow him. An omega shouldn’t be out alone. Especially not in that state.
Instead, I lean against the wall and groan. I close my eyes for five minutes, suddenly exhausted and close to tears myself.
Then I stand up and follow my omega out of the house.
I find him on the swing on the deserted playground at the end of our street and sit down on the other swing.
‘I’m sorry.’, we say, simultaneously and then both have to chuckle.
Luca reaches out to me and I hold his hand.
‘Do you want me to quit school to save money?’, he asks.
I shake my head. ‘No. We will manage. I can work more hours for my father. And finally carpool with Matty. You can ask your fathers for old baby clothes. And I bet your dad would be fully involved in babysitting, like, eight nights a week.’ Luca snorts softly.
‘So, how was school?’, I ask him, in a desperate need to find some normality in our lives.
‘It was nice.’, Luca says softly. ‘I think I made a friend. His name is Oriol.’
He tells me about his day until it’s dark outside. I take his hand in mine, kiss him softly on the mouth and we go home.
We decide not to tell the others, especially Matty, yet and in bed I worship Luca’s nipples with my mouth until he’s a heavily breathing, sweaty mess before I start to fuck him more gently than I ever did and slowly, carefully knot Luca into a lazy, drawn-out orgasm that makes him cry a little, before we fall asleep, cuddled against each other.
When I come back from the toilet at night I can see that he has goosebumps, because it’s getting colder – finally- and I vow to lay out his PJs for him tomorrow. I love that he’s ready and approachable for me in bed, but I don’t want him to be cold. Especially not now.
I totally forgot that we invited Grandma over for cake a couple of days later. She and Matty developed some kind of totally confusing understanding when they got Luca out of the centre and me out of prison and he immediately told her about his new omega, whom she’s now dying to meet.
She arrives way too early, of course, and sits on the bench in front of the house when I drive into the driveway, after picking up Luca from college.
She looks him and his backpack up and down. Then her gaze sticks to his neck.
He starts playing with his hair, that I may have opened during the drive, self-consciously.
‘Finally. I told you to mate him ages ago.’, she tells me. Luca’s face almost makes me laughs out loud. ‘No, you didn’t, grandma.’, I answer, good-naturedly. ‘You told me to look for another omega before it’s too late.’
I can feel Luca struggle to decide if he’s indignant or amused.
Grandma scoffs and trails after us into the house. ‘Well, how was I supposed to know you were that serious about him?’
I roll my eyes while I press a kiss to Luca’s cheek. ‘Go and wait in the kitchen, baby.’
He nods and leaves.
I hang up my and Luca’s jacket and backpack and turn to her. ‘Why wouldn’t I be serious about him, grandma?’
She purses her mouth. ‘You’re so young. Both of you. And you haven’t known each other for long.’
I frown. I know that. I’m still sure about him. There are enough betas that marry young and make it work. And they don’t even have those whole biologic bonding and hormones stuff.
I shrug her comment off and lead her into the kitchen. Luca sits on the bench with his knees drawn in and his arms around his legs.
I put the kettle on while grandma sits down on a chair.
‘So, where did you just come from?’, she asked, nosily.
Luca tells her about his sewing and Italian classes haltingly and she even seems impressed and tells us both that it’s a good idea.
Funny, I’d always have thought she would find education wasted on omegas.
We drink some tea together and I’m even able to offer a package of biscuits, that hasn’t been found by my sweets-loving spouse before, when the rest of the pack stumbles in.
Tom grins and waves at grandma and is met with an unimpressed frown that has Luca giggle next to me. Matty smiles and says hello to her and she even smiles back before looking Simon, who was half-hidden behind Matty until now, up and down.
Simon’s face is completely neutral. He bows before Grandma before he sits primly and meekly next to Luca. Oh, yeah, he has people knowledge alright.
‘Now, at least this one looks like a proper omega!’, Grandma states.
Matty looks proud, which is ridiculous, because firstly, she just insulted Luca and he fucking loves Luca and secondly, Simon is still weirdly reluctant to accept him as an alpha instead of just a goofy pack member.
Luca winces and I can see Simon reach for his hand immediately, which touches my heart.
Matty reacts to Luca’s wince, at least, and stops looking proud.
‘That’s not a nice thing to say.’, he tells Grandma and to everybody’s – except his- utter surprise, she apologizes.
‘Why isn’t he collared?’, she asks Matty and Simon reaches for his neck, that’s still bandaged. It’s his turn to wince, now. It’s so quiet that only Luca and me can hear it, though.
Luca squeezes his hand and I put my arm on my omega’s shoulders and stroke Simon’s arm with the backside of my hand.
‘The centre’s collar hurt his neck and we wanted it to heal first.’, I tell grandma.
‘Let me look.’, she demands. Simon hesitates and looks to me for guidance. I shrug and nod at him. She’s worked in a doctor’s office for years.
He reaches for the bandage, then hesitates and stands up. He stands next to Matty, his gaze lowered and Matty positively beams as he starts to unwrap the bandage.
‘You know that it’s dangerous to wrap a bandage around somebody’s neck?’, she asks and I nod. ‘Look, it’s not too tight but can neither loosen up to catch somewhere. It’s as safe as a real collar would be. And he’s seldom alone.’
She watches the bandage being unwrapped and nods.
The bruises around Simon’s neck have faded into a yellowish blue. The scratches have mostly healed or are at least scabbed over. They won’t scar.
Grandma had her eyebrows drawn together. ‘The collar from the centre did that?’, she asks and I nod.
She pulls out a little notebook and starts writing in it. ‘I’m going to talk to the director. They need to change their collars.’
‘The brothel.’, Simon speaks up, hesitantly. Grandma pauses. ‘What did you say, omega?’
Simon inhales a little shakily. ‘The collar was from the brothel, not from the centre itself. Ma’am.’
Grandma frowns but doesn’t react to that shocking statement otherwise. ‘Who’s the brothel owner?’
‘My alpha’s name was Georg Snider.’, Simon says tonelessly.
Grandma crosses out whatever she had written down and scribbles something else under it.
‘Noted.’, she says. ’But don’t speak without being spoken to.’
Simon looks like he’s biting his tongue and bows his head.
‘His neck needs fresh air.’, Grandma tells Matty and me. ‘It would be better to collar him and let it heal like this instead of keeping it bandaged.’
There are no more open wounds and I suppose the bruises equally hurt, if he’s wearing a collar or a bandage, so I nod when Matty looks at me for guidance. ‘Now?’, he asks.
‘What do you say, Simon?’, I ask gently.
I noticed him start to tremble when the bandage was removed, even thought Matty had a firm grip on either his wrist or his neck. He’s falling apart.
‘Please, pack head.’, he says softly, without looking up.
‘You heard him.’, I tell Matty and he’s out the door immediately.
Simon’s legs seem to grow weak and I stand up to catch him, if he’s keeling over, just as he sinks to his knees. I look at Luca, but he seems calm enough, so I walk over to the other omega and stroke his neck, keeping my wrist near his face.
Grandma stands up. ‘This is an intimate moment for your pack. I should go.’
I look at her, ‘You don’t have to. You’re my family, so you’re also pack.’, I tell her.
She seems touched and smiles a genuine little smile. ‘That’s kind, Marco, but completely unnecessary. I don’t really approve of pack bonding. Or of allowing a whore into the family. But that’s your decision. I’ll let you young people alone now.’
The front door closes just as Matty comes back downstairs with the box that holds the collar.
I stop stroking Simon’s neck and make a step to the side. Simon’s hand shoots up and I take it into mine. Tom goes to Simon’s other side and takes his other hand. Luca kneels behind Simon and embraces him, smiling at me.
Matty clears his throat and I see his hands shake a little when he takes the collar out of the box.
He pauses and looks at me. ‘Are you sure that I should be doing this?’, he asks.
‘I’m sure.’, I say. ‘If you’re not sure, you should ask Si what he wants.’
‘Matty.’, Simon says clearly, before Matty even has time to react to my statement and he looks like a weigh is leaving his shoulders.
He gently strokes Simon’s jaw with his fingers and then makes him tilt his head.
‘That’s nice, omega, you’re doing so well.’, he says softly and Simon looks up to him with rare need in his eyes.
It takes my breath away and I can hear from Matty’s intake of breath that he’s equally touched.
He closes the collar after putting it around Simon’s neck. It fits perfectly and looks good. Unusual. Just like our pack.
Matty smiles at Simon and pulls him to his feet, leaning down to kiss him softly on the lips. Simon opens his lips a fraction and welcomes the kiss without further reaction.
Luca watches them, curiously, then his gaze meets mine and he mouths a kiss at me before he moves forward and also kisses Simon softly on the lips. This time, the omega moves his lips and smiles at my omega.
Then he turns to me, expectant. Matty growls as I lean in. I look up to him, unimpressed.
‘Really, you’re going to do this now?’, I ask and he has the grace to look sheepish.
Simon’s mouth curls up and then our mouths meet and I use a little tongue, just because I can. Luca feels amused through our bond, so that’s ok.
‘The best is last!’, Tom states and picks Simon up to turn him around. Simon laughs, startled and like that the tension in the room is broken.
Simon kisses Tom passionately, still laughing and Tom winks at Matty, who rolls his eyes and shakes his head.