Her whole body drooped. “Okay... Darn, and I was curious to see this three-way chimera.” She wagged her finger at me. “It’s not every day that we get to see these kinds of hybrids, you know. Omegas have to be at a very special point in their heat, and there have to be two Alphas who definitely do love them, which is very rare.”
“I heard that Omega souls only allow for true love to impregnate them, and that’s why I don’t understand.”
Her eyes went wide, and she smiled like a cartoon character. “Ooh! Ooh, I actually know this one! It’s a form of spiritual protection, and there’s even an old Dragon text detailing exactly what causes this to occur.” She ran over to a bookshelf and pulled out a book whose cover and spine were made out of dragon scales so gunmetal-colored that I had to assume the tome itself was at least a thousand years old. “Here it is, on page 2,439! It says that Omegas can’t get pregnant from a casual one-night stand because their spiritual animal souls are always on the look-out for an actual mate, and this is often misinterpreted to mean soul mates. But soul mates are pretty rare in the world, as you can understand.” She shut the book, and it coughed out a cloud of dust. “It’s only if the Alpha truly loves the Omega that the Omega’s body reacts, receives the semen, opens the uterus for fertilization, and voila: a beautiful little bean-shaped flower sprouts. You know about pheromones, right?”
Stuart shook his head and said, “Actually, I think he was talking about how I got pregnant.”
She blinked. “B-but, I just told you...” If she had Cat ears, they’d have flattened. It’s like every reaction and expression she made was exaggerated.
“No,” I said. “I mean why...” I set my hat back on my head. “The day I arrived in town, Stu had a fling with that wolf we told you to watch out for.”
“Jack, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“Bad news about him: I set an imp to watch out for him and any of the other Grover boys, and apparently one saw a man with an ice-tipped mullet a few towns over, and he had a wolf scent to him as well.”
I swallowed. It was sunny out, but I thought I heard thunder.
Stuart also looked at me.
“I’m going to level with you, though,” she said. “I know the Grovers tend to be assholes, but I doubt any of the rest are as messed up in the head as Jonathan was. Goodness, that was almost two years ago!” She looked to the ceiling. “I wonder how Tommy’s holding up about all that. Did you know Jonathan also killed his own brother during that event? Apparently, he had tried to help Tommy and Neil, but they didn’t trust him and left him in a shed where Jonathan found him.” Her eyes opened wide for the next part: “And castrated him!”
I cringed. “We didn’t need to know that.”
She flapped her hand and said, “Oh, I know. It’s just a funny story.”
“That’s funny to you?”
“Not in a ha-ha way, though. My point is that Jack probably did love Stuart, which is why he went ballistic. Love can make people do really, really messed up things. And especially after the ordeal with Jonathan, Jack probably thought he could be a better Wolf than his brother ever was. And that’s probably why he left.”
Artemis’s words rang in our heads on the drive back to the mansion. What she said sounded true. Jack was profoundly and toxically drunk when he harassed us, something that he probably did when he heard that Stuart was banging the guy who moved into his brother’s old house. To a Wolf, this all must’ve sounded like an affront to his very honor and status, especially as an Alpha.
Jonathan and Jack were two of the three Alphas of that entire generation of Grovers, coming from three different litters. I didn’t know the name of the third and, the more I heard about this damn family, the less interested I was in knowing.
There was another family of Wolves in the state. This family had their heads on straight and weren’t as prone to such brutal bouts of jealous violence or straight sadism, and they would often work with the Unicorns to keep the Grovers in their place.
I didn’t know much about Jack and never bothered to ask anyone else. And no one seemed interested in him either. And I understood why. Alphas could be harsh and often perceived as a little abusive to those unused to our style, but there’s a difference between being dominant and firm and being an outright abusive bully.
I always took myself to be a fairly kind Alpha. I’d tease and remind Stuart of his place if he ever got snarky, but this was all in good jest. If I ever made him cry tears or make him feel uncomfortable like I had to move out, however, that would be going too far. And these Grover boys were already far beyond that.
We set Josh down to sleep in his crib, and we would think about how we wanted to watch him sleep just to be sure. Just in case the fall did more damage than the doctor could’ve seen, or maybe if he accidentally shifted because of a dream he’d have. I didn’t know if three-month-old babies could dream, but it didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to know if he was okay.
As for Michael and Miranda, they had been taken by Scott and Zeke respectively while we went to the hospital, and they eventually were dropped off again once we informed their parents that we were back home.
Miranda asked, “Is Josh dead?”
And Stuart wanted to slap her face, but he held himself back and smiled. “No, he’s as alive as you or me.”
Michael went to look at Josh sleep and said, “I dunno, looks dead to me.”
Stuart ran to the crib and picked up Josh, and almost immediately, Josh burped and opened his eyes. “Stop saying that.”
I raised my voice to them. “You two had better learn some manners. That’s not how you talk about a baby.”
Everyone stopped. Even Eric, who was in the other room folding some bedsheets, stood up and looked at me. The kids looked petrified as if I was a Medusa, and Stuart also jumped.
I folded my arms and stormed out of the room. Right before I left, I told them, “No more joking about that. It’s rude.”
Thankfully, they seemed to get the message. They said nothing else as they ran back to their rooms. Michael went in only to get his own Harry Potter book to bring down into the lobby, while Miranda closed her door and kept it shut.
I didn’t feel bad about raising my voice to scare them. If anything, it felt good to assert my will, something I felt I hadn’t been doing much. It was nice to know I could get results after a day, so out of my control.
The next day, we went to Steamy Cups in the morning. It was not a particularly hot morning compared to yesterday, but it was still heavy enough on the skin that it made getting a hot coffee feel uncomfortable, so I got an iced coffee instead while Stuart kept to a blueberry muffin.
Tommy was there, leaning against a wall while watching a TV that was in the opposite corner. Makayla was sitting in a booster chair at a table near a window.
Scott asked me, “How’s Michael?”
I said, “He’s Michael.”
“That sounds about right.”
I asked, “When’d you get that TV?”
“Just yesterday, actually. We figured it was the best time to do some renovations.”
The radio was also playing, but it was on commercial at the moment, so there were no songs I could hum along to.
As for the TV, it was on a Judge Judy rerun.
I asked Tommy, “I don’t mean to offend you with a question.”
He barely looked at me at first, and Stuart punched my arm. “Don’t ask.”
We had discussed this topic earlier that morning before the sun even came up. It seemed insensitive even then, but Tommy was the only one I knew to ask.
And he said, “If it’s about Jonathan, then what is it?”
“When he did things to you, that was out of malice and a lust for power, right?”
He looked right at me and rubbed his cheek as if he had been slapped. “I guess. I don’t know that mindset.”
Neil was there and stepped in front of him. “Why do you ask?”
“Well...”
/> Stuart
“What??”
All eyes were on me, and Makayla joined her, turning her little head towards us.
Scott said, “I’ve heard of that happening, though. There was one guy out in California who had sex with two different Alphas in a 24-hour period, and his child was definitely a bunch of different animals.”
“What was he?” I asked, as innocent-sounding as I could make it.
“33% Dolphin, 33% Dragon, and 33% Sasquatch.”
My eyes lit up. “Really! What are Dolphins and Dragons doing fucking each other?” I shook my head. “And what are they doing fucking Bigfoot?”
He shrugged. “You can’t explain love. It’s not like math. Sometimes things that shouldn’t work do.” We met each others’ eyes. “So you’re saying that Jack got you pregnant too?”
Neil pressed his chin in thought and said, “If that’s the case, then that means Jack was your soulmate too... but...”
Frederick said, “We spoke to Artemis yesterday. She said that the whole soulmate business being the only way to get pregnant is bunk. It’s only if the right pheromones are released that it happens.”
Tommy said, “Yah, it always sounded a bit like an urban legend that only soulmates could make it work. But that sounds so fucked up. Didn’t Jack try breaking into your house?”
I said, “The cold hard fact is that he probably was madly in love with me, especially when I went to [rainbow]. And he didn’t like when I got with Freddy.”
“That’s no excuse!”
Frederick said, “Actually, it is. At least to explain what happened before when he tried getting in my house. Love makes you do strange things.”
Immediately, Tommy got upset. “You’re not trying to tell me Jonathan loved me, are you?”
I stood up and said, “We’re not saying anything of the sort, dude! It’s not Jonathan. It’s Jack.”
He went back to leaning on the wall. I had the sense that maybe he still wasn’t entirely trusting Frederick, and it was weird that it would happen all because he decided to move into a particular house. Still, Jonathan was that evil to make him so traumatized, and Frederick was insensitive enough to bring it up...
But the fault couldn’t lie entirely on Frederick because we both had to know if there was anything between Jonathan and Tommy.
So I decided to swallow everything I had built up and asked him, “But before that started, though... Do you think he loved you at some point?”
He looked at me dead in the eyes and said one word: “No.”
I nodded and looked down at my blueberry muffin, no longer feeling hungry enough to finish it.
It’s not that I was trying to open old wounds in Tommy. There was another place we were coming from with this: coping.
I knew we were coping, and it hurt to cope so hard. But it was the only way for us to handle what was happening to us.
And so, just to defuse everything, we decided to head home sooner than expected. There was nothing else we had to say, and making small talk would’ve felt way too awkward.
The car ride back, Frederick rubbed my thigh and said, “We’ll work all this out. It’s fine.”
For almost a year, he bought the story that nothing went down at [rainbow]. But the truth was that Jack and I did have a little fling in the bathroom. He was a shaggy looking guy, and his hair was definitely too awkward for me, but he felt like he was a good guy. More than that, I always felt as if he was trying to be a good guy. He watched me like Frederick always does. There was passion in his eyes. And I teased him a lot. So it seemed like maybe something could be there if we fostered love.
I wondered about the Grovers. What family culture did they have that made them think it was acceptable to harass others if they didn’t get what they wanted? It wasn’t how you were supposed to do things.
In another timeline, I could see myself falling for Jack, and maybe it even working out. But it was way too late in this one, and I would’ve been happy if I never saw him again.
We got back home to the mansion, pulling into the parking lot and spending a minute staring into each other’s eyes.
I could see it in his as he could probably see it in mine: no matter what, we were going to raise a good boy. Jack may have contributed to his genetics, but that didn’t make Josh his son.
It still felt a bit weird, though. And I keep using the word, but ‘awkward’ really is the best way to describe it: Frederick was going to raise another man’s child, even if in a very small way. That was no way for a Unicorn Alpha to live. Was it?
It didn’t matter either way.
We went inside and immediately loved that it was quiet, as my plan was to throw myself into the jacuzzi and try to forget that the previous two days happened at all.
I turned to Frederick, throwing my arms over his shoulders and resting my forehead on his chest. “How dumb, huh? All this time, we were scared of Josh hurting himself, and it turns out we were the ones who nearly hurt him...”
He pet my head. “It’s over. Don’t worry about it. Everything’s going to work out.”
He kept saying that, and I didn’t know if he was telling it to me or if he was reassuring himself. There was so much going on in his life too. We were both in this.
So I pressed my entire body against his, pulled his tie, and filled his mouth with my tongue. As soon as I did, my entire body felt like it started spasming, and my own little dick got hard and throbbed. I could’ve came right in my pants if we kept kissing.
Then we heard crying.
But it wasn’t Josh’s crying. We both ran up the double stairs towards the right side of the mansion, finding the hallway where the kids were staying.
I opened the door and said, “Hello? Miranda? Is everything okay?”
The crying came from beneath her bed, so I stooped down and opened the little curtain. “What? Why are you under here?”
Her eyes were a deep red, and she was trembling. As soon as she saw me, she started crawling out and threw herself on me.
“An evil-looking man came in and took Michael and the baby!” she said at a rapid pace. So fast that I didn’t understand her at first, but then she repeated it. She was stuttered and weeping so hard that her face was misshapen. “Some guy,” she finally was able to say. “He was... He tried beating down the door, but he became a wolf and got in through the back window...”
My heart stopped.
Frederick
I roared and shifted, sending myself galloping out the front door. However, Stuart screamed my name and ran after me. It took everything to stop me, but it took that something more for me to turn back.
I squeezed his arms and yelled, “He took Josh! He took Josh and Michael! I can’t let this stand!”
Then I threw down my fists and punched my car, letting my hat fall to the ground. “Goddammit!”
But what really stopped me was when my cellphone rang.
But the phone was indeed ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw my hands trembling as all my vision went red.
The number was the same as the one that had sold me the house. It was him.
“Where are they?” I shouted. “Where did you take them?”
The other voice cracked through and said, “Is this Frederick? The Corn who’s living in my brother’s place?”
I repeated my question. “If you don’t give them back...”
“You’re not in a position to make demands,” he shouted back. “I’ll give you back your children if you leave that mansion immediately.”
I could’ve crushed the phone in my hands. What was this supposed to be, a practical joke? If it was, I wasn’t laughing.
Stuart was sitting on the floor, his hands over his eyes while he kept taking exceptionally deep breaths, trying to hold back his tears.
Seeing him move in such motions of despair was too much for me. “You better give me the location NOW.”
He laughed, and I wished we were in the same room. “Move out of the house, and I’l
l hand them over. And you’d better give me proof. Because we’re moving back in.”
“Proof? What fucking proof?”
“I’ve got ways of watching you, so I’ll know.”
I rushed to the window and looked all around as I looked past the fences. If he was spying on us at that very moment, I had a mind to go ahead and kill him.
My hands had never killed before, and I didn’t want that to be the day I started, but an Alpha’s got to do what an Alpha’s got to do.
There was no one nearby, however. All the parked cars were the ones that were usually there, and there was no new one that I hadn’t seen before. Unless he was hiding in one of them? Or maybe he had hacked a camera system? That didn’t make any sense to me, but I didn’t know what kind of man he was or what talents he may have possessed. And even if that was the case, there were no cameras on the premises anyway.
“You better tell me how you know.”
“Be gone within a day.” And he hung up.
I felt embarrassed and humiliated. It was the worst insult to my dominance I’d ever felt, except for maybe when I accidentally threw Stuart and Josh off my back. There was little I could do at that moment, and it made me feel so weak and sick.
I let the phone hit the floor and clenched my fist. Whatever sympathy I may have had for Jack before then, in the sense that maybe he really did love Stuart and was burned because he didn’t act on that love soon enough before I snagged him, immediately evaporated. If I ever saw his face again, I was going to make sure he wouldn’t have it for long.
Stuart stood, his face as puffy and wet as Miranda’s. “We can get the police. They can investigate.”
Immediately, I went for my phone and dialed 911, but the line had been disconnected. “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s no service!” I ran to my office and checked the piles of mail that had been piling up on one of the tables. “I know I paid the bill. How did he even call me in the first place?”
A New Millennium's Omega Page 11