A Baby for the Firefighter
Oceanport Omegas Book 2
Ann-Katrin Byrde
Cover Art by
Ana J. Phoenix
Contents
Dedication
Description
Prologue
1. Griffin
2. Griffin
3. Dean
4. Griffin
5. Dean
6. Griffin
7. Dean
8. Griffin
9. Griffin
10. Dean
11. Griffin
12. Dean
13. Griffin
14. Dean
15. Griffin
16. Dean
17. Griffin
18. Dean
19. Griffin
20. Dean
21. Griffin
22. Griffin
23. Dean
24. Griffin
25. Griffin
26. Dean
27. Griffin
28. Dean
29. Griffin
30. Griffin
31. Dean
32. Dean
33. Griffin
34. Griffin
35. Griffin
36. Dean
37. Griffin
38. Dean
39. Griffin
40. Griffin
41. Dean
Epilogue
About the Author
Newsletter
Also by Ann-Katrin Byrde
© 2017 Ann-Katrin Byrde
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.
This is a work of fiction. All resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
This ebook contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Please don’t read if you are under eighteen.
For inquiries please contact: [email protected]
Cover Design by Ana J. Phoenix ([email protected])
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Created with Vellum
Dedication
For Jocelyn Smith, who provided the name of the baby in this book. And for all of my other wonderful readers who continue to encourage and enable me.
Description
When childhood best friends Griff and Dean meet again, sparks fly…
In Oceanport, New England’s most gossipy small town, people wonder about Griff. Such a cute omega can’t possibly be satisfied without a proper mate they say. Yet he’ll be thirty soon and as far as they know he’s never been with anyone! The truth is that Griff has given up on finding love… that is until his childhood best friend moves back to town and sets his heart on fire.
When Dean’s firefighter career is sidetracked by a tragic accident, returning to his roots to mend seems like a good move. It gives him a chance to breathe, as well as a chance to reconnect with his oldest friend, the omega who stole his heart when they were young. For some reason though, Griff keeps shying away from him, and it takes Dean a lot of patience, and a ton of cupcakes, to lure the sugar-addict out of his shell—and into his arms.
But Dean’s memories are still seared by the tragedy that sent him home and Griff is afraid of giving in to his omega instincts. Can they win through their personal walks of fire or is their flame bound to burn out?
Prologue
GRIFFIN
The first time I kissed an alpha, I was in my last year of high school.
He came on to me after class, asked me to go to prom with him. I’d never really talked to the guy before. I only knew that his name was Thomas Dayson and he sat in most of my classes. He was kind of hot though, and no one had ever asked me out before. I was sort of giddy about it, really.
What I didn’t know at the time was that Thomas was a dick.
We only spent a few minutes at prom, and he didn’t even want to dance.
“Let’s go someplace else,” he said after we’d barely arrived, and then he dragged me outside and round the back to his car.
“Where are we going?” I asked, because I hadn’t put on a tuxedo to hide away from all the fun.
“Thought we could have a little party of our own,” he said.
I shot him a questioning look, brow furrowing. “What are you talking about?”
He laughed. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty, because you’re not very smart, are you?”
I bristled, but couldn’t get any words out before he shoved me back against the car and kissed me as if it was his right.
I’d always imagined my first kiss to be a bit more romantic than that, honestly.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it was the way his scent drifted into my nose. Not the layers and layers of cheap cologne he’d sprayed on, but his alpha scent. It went straight to some primal part of my brain, awakening some sort of base instinct inside myself that very much liked what was happening.
Even as I was starting to hate this guy.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, shoving him off.
“Oh, don’t be like that. You said yes.”
“Yes to what?”
“Being my prom date. Everyone knows that means sex.”
“What?” I blinked. If I’d known that, I would never have agreed to it.
“C’mon,” he said, crowding me. “Don’t pretend like you’re a virgin. Everyone knows you and Dean had something going on before he moved.”
I was sure my face was full of question marks by this point. “Dean was my friend.” And I missed him, but we’d never… I’d never…
Thomas snorted. “Please, alphas and omegas are meant to fuck. So let’s do what nature demands of us.” He smashed his lips to mine again as if I’d already given my okay. It wasn’t okay, though. This guy was nuts! Didn’t matter that he was hot when he couldn’t listen. I tried to get away, but he held on, digging his fingers into my hair. And then something came over me. I could feel that part of my brain that had woken up earlier respond to him. My whole body grew hot as if agreeing with Thomas that we should get it on just because he was an alpha and I was an omega. The urge was almost irresistible, like an itch that demanded to be scratched right the fuck now.
“See,” Thomas said, finally releasing my lips only to slide a hand down the front of my pants. “I knew you’d come around.”
My head swam, doused in hormones. I felt like I had some sort of fever and I had no idea what was happening. This wasn’t me. I didn’t want this. But it wasn’t easy to think while one half of my brain screamed at me to turn around and let the alpha make me happy.
The other half of my brain had a much better idea, though; I pushed Thomas away and ran all the way home. And then I threw up in the bushes outside the house.
1
Griffin
“You're not lonely living all by yourself in this house, are you?”
I sighed and looked at my brother over the rim of my coffee mug. He'd 'dropped by for coffee', and I didn't mind his presence, but I did mind the questions. “You keep asking that.”
He shrugged helplessly. “I guess I still feel bad that we moved out.”
By 'we', he was referring to hi
mself and his nine-year old son Jake. The three of us used to live together in this house back when Eli was a single parent. But he'd gotten married to Jake's father now, had another kid, and they'd moved out.
“It's fine. I don't get lonely,” I lied. The house could get lonely, but it wasn’t so bad that my brother needed to worry about me.
“If you say so.” Eli took a sip of coffee, and I didn't get the feeling that I'd convinced him in any way.
“I do have friends, you know.”
Eli licked his lips, and I could tell by the impression on his face that he was about to ask something stupid. “Do any of these friends ever stay the night?”
And there it was.
I loved my brother, but seriously, sometimes...
“Dude, I'm a little too old to have sleep-overs, don't you think?” I got up from the table and dug through the cupboard for my cookie box. Because you couldn't really enjoy coffee without cookies. At least I couldn't. Opening the lid, I placed it in the middle of the table.
I knew cookies weren't going to make my brother stop asking silly questions, but they were going to make these silly questions easier for me to put up with.
“Actually,” Eli said, “I think you're the perfect age to be having some sleep-overs.”
Sighing theatrically, I sank back into my chair. “Why oh why do you care so much about my sex life, brother?”
“I don't really care about your sex life.” Eli took a cookie out of the box without eating it. “I'd just... you know, like to know that you’re not lonely. I feel responsible.”
What? I raised an eyebrow at him. “You feel responsible?” And here I was pretty sure that my prolonged virginity was no one's responsibility but my own.
“Well you know the old stories about how omegas need to stay virgins because they imprint on the first person they have sex with? I know that's bullshit, but when I think about it, it looks like that's what happened to me with Matt, so I was scared you'd kind of gotten it into your head that it's true.”
“Yeah...” I said slowly, leaning back. “I promise you I don't believe that's true.” Eli was right. Those stories were some grade A bullshit made up to keep us omegas docile. I knew that. Looking at my brother, I wasn't completely convinced that nothing like it could ever happen to me, but still... “Trust me, that's not the reason I'm not bringing men home.”
Eli nibbled on his cookie. “Then what is?”
“It's nothing for you to worry about, okay? I'm fine.”
“Well, okay.” My big brother exhaled. “But you know you can talk to me when you have a problem, right?”
“Of course I know that.”
But I didn't have a problem.
Did I?
“Are you still taking Jake along to snap some pictures this Thursday?” Eli asked after a moment, distracting me.
“What? Uh, yeah.”
Eli smiled. “He seems excited.”
“I’m looking forward to it too.” I really was. My nephew was awesome and I loved spending time with him. That didn’t mean I was lonely without him around, though.
After Eli left, I put the cookie box back in the cupboard and glanced around the empty kitchen. This house was way too big for one person. The only reason I could afford to keep living here was the generosity of my brother's rich spouse. He'd bought the house for me as a thank you for helping raise Jake all those years. As if I needed thanks. But Eli wouldn’t take no for an answer. Honestly, he could be just as stubborn as his alpha mate. The two of them were a match made in heaven.
Still, I was grateful.
And maybe a little sad that Eli and Jake didn't need me as much anymore.
I had to think of what Eli had said about having sleep-overs. I was definitely too old for that kind of thing, but... There was no reason I couldn't have friends over to make the house feel a little less big.
I didn't have a lot of friends in town, but there was one person who came to mind. One person who'd never been far from my mind since he'd returned to town a few months ago.
Without thinking much more about it, I grabbed a light jacket and headed out the door.
I reached the park about twenty minutes later. It was still early afternoon and a warm summer breeze carried the smell of freshly mown grass into my nose as I scanned the area for a familiar face.
My friend was helping his cousin out with his homecare business while staying here, and around this time of day, I often found him taking a walk with one of the seniors he tended to. On a bright and sunny day like this, my chance of spotting him was high. I could have just called him on the phone, of course, but seeing him in person was so much nicer.
And a silly grin threatened to split my face apart as soon as I did. I had no idea what it was about Dean that caused this reaction in me—okay, I had a tiny inkling—but I couldn't help but feel giddy around him. Just as long as I didn’t get close enough to feel other things, anyway.
Today, he was walking Mrs. Rosewood, a sweet old lady whom I'd had the pleasure to meet before. She'd slapped my behind and told me to 'go get him, tiger,' referring to Dean. I'd told her that she was misreading the situation, of course, but she'd only laughed.
Lovely lady, really.
It seemed to be impossibly hard for people to understand that Dean and I were friends. We went way back. I'd first met him in elementary school, where we bonded over our mutual love of soap bubbles. His family had moved out of town just before our last year of high school, though, and, much like the soap bubbles of our childhood, our friendship couldn't make it over a long distance. Not with everything else that had happened in our lives. I'd become busy helping my brother raise his child, and he'd become busy firefighting and saving people. I really couldn't fault him for that.
It was kind of hot, actually.
I chided myself for the thought as I watched my friend push Mrs. Rosewood through the park in her wheelchair, but I couldn't deny that he was nice to look at. He'd been handsome when we were younger, and his physique had only become more defined as he grew into an adult.
And his warm, caramel-brown hair and his brilliant green eyes made him fucking edible.
But I would stick to eating his baked goods, rather than the goods he was hiding in his—
Don't even go there.
What use was there in entertaining dirty fantasies I would never act on? I could look and fantasize all day, but truth was, as soon as things got intimate between me and any alpha, the hormone rush became overwhelming and I ran. It had happened with my fucked up high school prom date, it had happened with the two other guys I tried dating after that, and I had nothing to guarantee me it wouldn’t happen again.
Not with Dean, though, because Dean and I were just friends.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and walked up to Dean instead of watching him from the bushes like a creepy stalker dude. “Hey.”
“Griff!” Dean's face lit up as he saw me and the smile he gave me made the day feel a little bit warmer than it already was.
“I thought I'd find you here.” I turned to the senior with him. “And hello, Mrs. Rosewood.”
“Hello Griffin.” The old lady regarded me with a foxy smile. “Do you two need some alone time?”
“Oh, no, that's not—”
But she was already wheeling away. I sighed, watching her go.
“I'm sorry,” Dean said. “She likes to make up saucy stories in her mind. You should see the books she keeps on her shelves.”
“I guess,” I said, looking at him and trying not to blush while I pictured what exactly Mrs. Rosewood expected us to do. But that wasn't what I'd come here for. “Am I interrupting? I didn't want to bother you at work, but...” I really wanted to see you. I searched my mind for something more reasonable to say, but I came up short. It was difficult to think standing so close to Dean. He had this typical alpha scent that was both intimidating and arousing in ways that always made me feel like I was playing with fire just by being near.
How clos
e could I get without my hormones going out of whack?
“You're not bothering me at all. It'll be good for her to be outside in the sun for a bit.” He nodded to Mrs. Rosewood. “She doesn't get out unless I take her.”
I glanced at Mrs. Rosewood soaking up the sun, then back at Dean. It always surprised me how little he minded doing this job. Taking care of the elderly was such an omega thing, and here he was, this big burly alpha, tending to a sweet old lady.
But I shouldn't think in stereotypes like that. He'd always been kind. I liked that about him. It was why I was happy to have him as my friend.
Which reminded me of why I'd come here in the first place: not to stare at him but to invite him to hang out. As friends.
So why was it so difficult to get the words out? We'd had sleepovers as kids, for fuck's sake. I could invite him over to my place for one evening.
“Is something wrong?” Dean asked me after another moment of silence from me, a look of concern on his face.
“No,” I hurried to say. “I was just wondering if you... uh...” Jesus, Griff, get over yourself and get it out. “I was just wondering if you'd like to... come over to my place this weekend. Like, Saturday? I don't know. We could... uh... watch movies or something. I don't know if you've already seen them, but there's some new horror movies up on Netflix. You remember how we tried to get horror movies from the video store but they wouldn't let us? But we're adults now, so I thought... you know...” Great, now I was rambling. I stopped and bit my bottom lip.
Dean wore a curious expression that I wasn't quite sure how to read. He was probably surprised, but surprised that I invited him or surprised that I'd turned out to be a rambling lunatic? Then his features smoothed over and a warm smile spread on his face. “I'd love to watch movies with you.”
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