The Omega's Secret Baby (Oceanport Omegas Book 1)

by Ann-Katrin Byrde

  “Oh, absolutely. Or that’s what I would say in a perfect world. But anyway, I told her that Jake was mine.”

  “Really?” My heart rate had slowed down a bit after the orgasm, but now it was picking up again. “How did she react?” And what did I have to do to protect my baby from these people? I’d known that they were going to find out about Jake sooner or later, but Matt acting so quickly took me by surprise.

  “Actually very predictably. She thinks you’re lying to me.”

  I exhaled. Of course. Omegas were not to be trusted in their world. “But you know that I’m not lying, don’t you?”

  His voice grew soft. “Of course I know.”

  “I’m sorry. All of this talk is just making me paranoid. I need you back here with me.”

  “I’ll be there soon. And you don’t need to worry about my family. They’ll be under my lead soon, and some things are going to change. They won’t be happy about it, but I don’t care. They’ll have to accept Jake. And you.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I am right. And I’ve gotta go now and get things done so I can hurry back to you. I’m looking forward to your show.”

  “I’m looking forward to seeing you there. I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  I ended the call and looked at my phone, contemplating all that I’d heard. Matt seemed so certain his family would be falling in line behind him. I wasn’t so sure, but the cat was out of the bag now, and all I could do was hope for the best.

  I hated that.

  28

  Matthew

  The day to return to Oceanport had finally come. I got into town deliberately late so I wouldn’t have to see my family before I met up with Eli. He was the very first person I wanted to see before taking care of anything else, and I made it to the hall the shelter people had rented just in time. I noticed that not all of the seats were taken, but quite a few were. It looked like they’d managed to draw a bit of a crowd. That was good. From what Eli had told me, they could really use the money.

  I hoped this evening went well for him. He’d put so much work in.

  I took seat just as the director of the shelter went up on stage to start talking. It looked like Eli wasn’t going to get on stage, which was a tad disappointing but not all that surprising. He’d never wanted to be in the spotlight. His creations were, though. Every cat and dog currently looking for a home in our town was shown off wearing something he’d made especially for them, and everything looked so carefully put together. You could really see how much love Eli had for these animals, and that warmed my heart. He was such a good person. And he’d so deserved going to school to become a vet. I still couldn’t believe he’d given up on that, even though I knew why.

  Wondering where Jake was, I scanned the audience looking for him. I couldn’t see him, but I thought I saw the back of Griff’s head in the front row, and figured that the kid was probably with him. After the show, I was going to have to go up there and ask Jake how he was doing. And whether he still hates me. Eli had promised me that he didn’t, but I was still uncharacteristically nervous. I wondered if maybe this was what being a parent did to you. If so, not my favorite part of it.

  At least I’d thought to bring a present for the kid. Nothing big, because Eli had told me not to spoil him, but I hoped he was going to like it anyway. I’d spent a whole day in various toy shops, annoying the sales people with my indecision on what I should get.

  Not my favorite part of being a parent, either.

  But if he liked the present, it would be all worth it. That, I was sure of.

  I leaned back, trying to enjoy the show as the most adorable poodle walked across the stage in a pink skirt when I heard the ladies next to me start to whisper among each other. It’s not that I wanted to listen in on their conversation, but really, they weren’t that great at the whispering part.

  “Such lovely costumes,” the lady right next to me said.

  “Yeah, such a shame they were made by that omega slut, though. The talent is wasted on him.”

  “True. At least he works with pets, though. Could you imagine if he worked around children?”

  The first lady held her hand in front of her mouth. “Dear heavens,” she whispered. “You know I feel sorry for that boy of his. The things that poor kid must be seeing!”

  Okay. Enough was enough. Hands clenching and unclenching, I turned to the lady in the seat next to mine. “I couldn’t help but overhear you calling my partner a slut,” I said, making no effort to lower my voice. If these two were going to be embarrassed by having everyone else know what they were discussing, they deserved it. That and so much more. I was so sick of all the gossip.

  Several heads turned our way as the lady tried to stammer an apology. It seemed I’d interrupted the event. I stood, feeling all eyes on me. Good, while I had their attention, maybe I could use this time to set some of them straight. “I’m sorry I’ve disturbed your show. I know a lot of work went into it, and I’m enjoying it immensely. I just couldn’t contain my anger when I heard the poor omega who put this show together called quite unfavorable terms. I want to take this opportunity to let everyone know that I will not stand for that. You might all think he doesn’t know who his son’s father is, but I can assure you that he does. It’s me.”

  I let that sink in for a moment, seeing everyone stare at me. It would have been a lie to say I didn’t feel a little smug.

  “That’s true!” I heard Jake’s voice from the front row. “He’s my dad!”

  A feeling of pride tugged at my lips and made me smile. “That’s right, buddy.” I gave everyone else in the hall a cursory glance. “Excuse me, I will now sit down again, because my partner has put a lot of effort into this show. Please do continue to enjoy it.” I sat back down while the lady next to me did her very best not to look my way.

  Bitch.

  She had no idea how much Eli had sacrificed to raise Jake, and I was sure it didn’t matter to her either, but I wasn’t going to let people talk shit anymore. Not in my vicinity, anyway.

  All in all, I was feeling pretty good about myself.

  Jake had just called me his dad.

  How amazing was that?

  I was a dad!

  Holy shit.

  I spent the rest of the show playing with the gift bag I’d brought, trying not to let my nerves get the best of me. At least it seemed like Jake had forgiven me. That was good, right?

  And just as soon as the show was over and everybody started vacating their seats, Jake ran up to me, squeezing past the ladies who’d sat next to me and who were about to leave.

  “That was awesome!” he said with a big grin on his face. “You stood up for Daddy!” He seemed really excited about that.

  “Of course.” I reached out to ruffle his hair. “I will always stand up for him.”

  “Then I like you,” Jake proclaimed proudly. “You can stay.”

  “I’m glad.” And so relieved. Oh my God. “Actually, I brought you something.” I held the bag out to him.

  “Really? Cool!” He snatched the bag from me. “What is it?” he asked, even as he dug a gift-wrapped box out of the bag. Quickly, he tore the wrapping off, revealing a box of high-quality coloring pens in some 70 shades. It was the biggest set I could find at the store.

  “I got the feeling you liked to draw and color,” I said.

  “Wow.” He stared at the metal case in his hands and opened it. “There’s so many! Griff has some like these. But he won’t let me use them. He says I break them!”

  I smiled. “Well, now you have your own pens.” I was tempted to tell him that I was going to buy him new ones if he broke them, but I got the feeling that wouldn’t be good parenting and something that Eli would consider spoiling.

  “Thank you!”

  “You’re welcome. Hey, listen, you want to come to my place some time, go sledding on that big hill?”

  “Can I really?”

  “Sure.” Just as soon
as I’d talked to Eli about this, anyway.

  And speaking of the devil…

  “Wow, these are very nice,” I heard Eli’s voice and looked around to see him behind me. I’d been so busy with Jake I hadn’t noticed him approach, but now that he was here, and so close, his presence nearly overwhelmed me after all this time apart. He smelled so nice, so Eli. That was something the phone calls couldn’t give me. “Did you say thank you?” Eli addressed Jake.

  “I did! I love them!” Jake turned to me again. “I’m going to be an artist, you know?”

  An artist? I glanced at Eli, but he was just making this face that told me to please be encouraging. I looked at Jake again. “That’s nice.”

  “I’m going to show these to Griff!” Jake ran off with his present.

  I released a breath. That was the most difficult part of the evening taken care of.

  “So uh… you said a lot of things tonight,” Eli said.

  “Yeah.” I stood from my chair now that Jake was gone. “I’m sorry if that was uncalled for. I’m just fed up with these people.”

  “No, it was… actually really great. Thank you for standing up for me.” The faintest blush colored his cheeks, and he looked lovely like that. I couldn’t wait to take him home.

  “Somebody has to,” I said.

  “I can’t believe you told everyone.”

  “Me neither. But I think it’s a good thing.”

  Eli smiled at me. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, because now I get to do this.” I leaned in and kissed him, visibly staking my claim for anyone who cared to look. This omega was mine, and anyone who wanted to hurt him had to go through me.

  29

  Elias

  “That was a really good show,” Matt told me as we went out to walk the dog together after the charity event.

  “Really? I’m glad you think so. Some of those ideas were Jake’s. He might just make a fine fashion designer someday.” I laughed. Tonight was a good night. Matt was back with me and the show had been so successful that my boss talked about promoting me. I had other plans, though.

  “A fashion designer?” Matt asked. “Is that really what you want for him?”

  I shrugged. “He’s seven. There’s no telling what he’s going to be when he grows up, but I wouldn’t mind if he went into fashion. I’ll support him whatever he wants to do. Won’t you?” I stopped to look at Matt while Fiona tugged at the leash. “Be patient, old girl,” I muttered. She really never acted like the old dog she was.

  “I… just want what’s best for him,” Matt said eventually.

  “And what do you think is best for him, exactly?” I feared that this road would lead us into a fight—and so soon after getting back together!—but I had some suspicions what was going on in Matt’s mind, and I had to make sure that we were on the same page parenting-wise.

  “Well, you know about my family’s multi-million dollar business.”

  I took a deep breath, because this was exactly what I’d feared. Matt trying to drag Jake into that horrible family of his and their business. “I want Jake to be able to walk his own path in life.”

  “Being the head of a company like ours will allow him to do that. He’ll never have to worry about money.”

  “No, but he’ll work so many hours that he won’t have any time to enjoy that money until the stress takes him to an early grave.”

  One of Matt’s eyebrows arched up. “Do you think that’s what’s going to happen to me?”

  “No, because I’ll be there to entice you to take some breaks.”

  “You can be there for our son as well.”

  “I’m hoping he’ll find a partner of his own to keep him in check. And not someone we pick for him,” I added just in case.

  “No argument there,” Matt said. “If anyone knows arranged marriages aren’t the best way to go, it’s me.”

  “I guess so.” I took his hand in my own. “Seriously, though. It’s important to me that Jake can be whatever he wants to be. That’s what my parents wanted for me, and I…” Really fucked that up. I still remembered the fight I had with my parents when I told them about my pregnancy. It had been absolutely awful. I never got over it until Jake was born and I felt my baby boy wrap his tiny hand around my finger, changing my life and my priorities completely. But Jake didn’t need all of my time anymore, and… “You know I’m actually thinking about going back to school. I want to give it another try.”

  “Really?” Matt gave me the brightest smile in the glow of the street lamps. “That’s fantastic! You definitely should. You’ve always had so much potential.” He brushed his lips against mine. “I’m proud of you.”

  For a second there, I felt so warm I forgot it was still winter. “I’m so happy you feel that way.”

  “I really do. And I get what you’re saying about Jake, but if you want him to have every option open to him, shouldn’t taking over the family business also be an option?”

  I bit my teeth together because how was I supposed to respond to that? I couldn’t argue with that.

  “Look,” Matt said. “I can tell you’re not loving this, but at least give it a chance, okay? Actually, I’ve asked Jake if he wanted to come sledding at my place, and he seems enthusiastic.”

  “You want to introduce him to the family?”

  “I doubt they’ll bother talking to us while we’re out there, honestly, but I’d like to get them used to his presence. And Jake has a right to know where he comes from as well.”

  I cringed, instantly feeling guilty, since so far, it had been me who stood between Jake and the other side of his family. “Fine,” I said. “You can take him. Just… make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”

  “You’re not coming?”

  I shook my head. “You two need to spend some time together by yourselves. And I’m pretty sure your family would freak if they spotted me on their grounds. I don’t want to make this any harder on Jake than it’s already going to be anyway.”

  “Okay. I get your point.”

  My strong alpha looked a teeny bit nervous now. Good. Being nervous would make him careful. I hoped.

  30

  Matthew

  The Saturday following the charity event, I picked my son up at his house to go sledding with him—and introduce him to the family he’d never known about. To say that I was a little bit nervous would have been an understatement. I needed this day to go well. To that end, I’d spoken to my sister earlier that day. She was still at the house to support Mother—who still seemed out of it most of the time.

  “Are you trying to give Mother a heart attack by bringing that bastard child here?” my sister had asked.

  “Please,” I’d told her. “Look at her. She won’t even notice.”

  “You would never have done this while Father was still around.”

  “Well, we will never find out, because that isn’t the case anymore. Father installed me as his heir and—”

  “The only reason you’re the heir is because Father never got around to changing his will before he passed!”

  I have to admit, that one hurt a little bit. “Be that as it may,” I’d said through gritted teeth, “I’m going to be running the show now, and if I want to bring my son around, I will. And if I find that you can’t behave nicely around him, that’ll have consequences for your son’s future in the family business.”

  Karen gasped audibly. “Are you threatening me?”

  “I’m warning you.” And I’d left it at that, reasonably sure that my sister wouldn’t interfere with my plans for the day.

  In hindsight, I wasn’t wrong, but I might have been a little too optimistic about the whole situation.

  Things started off well, though.

  I parked my car by the mansion, and almost as soon as I did, Jake undid his seat belt and hopped out.

  “This house is so big! You really live here?”

  “Yeah, I do,” I said, getting out of the car myself. “I grew up here.”

  “Wow
.” Jake’s mouth was open wide. “You must have a lot of money. You must be like, super rich.”

  The astonishment in his voice made me smile. “I do okay.” Since money had never been an issue to me, seeing my kid so impressed by it was weird to me. But I had to remember that Jake had been raised by a struggling omega. Who could have come to you for help any time.

  But no point in being bitter about that.

  I just had to make the most of the time I had with Jake going forward.

  “Can you buy me a car?” Jake asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  “A car?” I had to laugh because Jake was making starry eyes at me. “What would you be doing with a car?”

  “Drive it! Duh!”

  “Sorry, you’re still too young to drive.”

  Jake’s face fell. “That’s lame. I want to drive now. And I want a car.”

  “You’ll have to wait, kiddo. But if you’re good, I’ll get you a car when you’re old enough to drive one.”

  Jake’s eyes widened again. “Really?”

  “Sure thing. Just… uh, don’t tell Daddy about this yet, okay? This is just between us.” Because Eli had warned me so much of spoiling him, saying I shouldn’t try to buy his love and all that… But seriously, I could give my son a car, right? Not like I was promising him a boat or anything.

  “Oh, a secret! Okay! I won’t tell. Pinky swear!” Jake held his pinky out to me, and we shook on it. Suddenly I felt like I was part of a secret club, with the only other member being Jake. I actually kind of liked it. Felt like we were finally starting to bond.

  “Okay, buddy,” I said. “You wanna go sledding?” And then after, I would give him a tour of the house.

  “Yeah! Let’s go!” He tugged on the sleeve of my coat, and off we went.

  The temperatures had been going up a bit lately, but luckily, there was still a good amount of snow on the hills behind the mansion. Enough snow for a fun day with my son.