by Austin Bates
My child would be one with a perfect sense of fashion style. I daydreamed about little trips to try the latest trendy restaurants together. I’d walk through the park with my toddler on my shoulders. I’d see other omegas go green with envy.
James had one of those deep voices that was resonant and clear even at low volumes. He probably thought that he was out of hearing range, but he wasn’t. I heard the word, “Inteus.”
I was right! It was Inteus. My response when I first heard the name swept back into my mind. It was during gym class on the first day of eighth grade. I tried to avoid sounding like an asshole when I spoke to the athletic boy with the long wavy hair, but I was always curious. “That’s kind of a weird name, isn’t it?”
With a fiery blaze in his eyes, Inteus said, “It’s Native American. That’s my dad’s side of the family. It means ‘shameless.’ You pronounce it with an ‘a’ sound for the ‘e.’” Phonetically, it was spelled In-tay-us.
I was too young to know what the chemistry between us meant, but we kindled the flame with that first verbal exchange. Nervous about the heat, I tried to toss some cooling water on the connection. “Well, I’m Timothy, and that doesn’t mean a damned thing as far as I know. Just don’t ever call me Tim. I hate nicknames.”
In the next room, James grumbled, “We can’t match him with Inteus without securing a clearance first.”
Rhonda’s voice was too soft to understand most of her words. The only clear one I picked up was “procedures.”
“Okay, but this isn’t on me. I’m only the doctor. It’s your fight if something happens later.”
I remembered flirting with Inteus throughout the school year in junior high and how he batted his long eyelashes back at me. I wondered what he was doing with his life. Somehow, he found his way to a clinic in Maine and donated his alpha sperm. I wondered if they paid him well for it. A wave of sadness swept over me thinking that such a handsome alpha could be hard up for cash.
“Show Timothy into room 3.” James ducked his head back around the corner. “I’m going to scrub up. This will be over in a flash and don’t worry, as I said, there’s no pain. It’s easier than a prostate exam.”
My thoughts drifted to other possible fates for Inteus. Perhaps he donated his sperm as a public service. Maybe he was a chef in Portland, home to Maine’s red-hot foodie scene. Or maybe he was a politician. Perhaps he could angle to be our first gay President. I was chuckling to myself when Daniel reappeared.
“Timothy, you need to take a quick shower. Make sure you soap up everywhere.” Daniel exhaled slowly. “Go through that door. You’ll find everything you need. Put the robe on when you’re finished and knock on the door on the other end.”
I wondered if Daniel felt some sadness at not appearing in my computer-generated list of suggestions. Once I was naked in the shower, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking more about Inteus. We had one quick kiss in eighth grade. We agreed that it was an experiment. It was the first kiss for both of us. His lips were soft. I remembered it almost as clearly as everything that happened yesterday. You always remember your first. We didn’t touch tongues. It was only lips, but it was hot enough that the sensation curled my toes.
As the name Inteus materialized next to that third arrow in the imagined selfie of my young family, my carnal instincts took over. I reached down to touch myself in the shower, and my cock swelled in my grip. I remembered crying at home in bed the night my parents told me that we had to move away for my treatment. I didn’t think I would ever see him again. I was too upset to say goodbye.
Will I finally see him again? He was stunning in the photo, and I was going to carry his child. As an adult, he had long, wavy brown hair, and broad, powerful pecs that stretched the deep purple T-shirt he wore. I found myself stroking, but I suddenly stopped. I didn’t know whether an orgasm could screw up the procedure. Having a baby was much more important than a quick jerkoff session even if it happened with Inteus in mind.
James was right about the lack of discomfort in the insemination procedure. A trip to the dentist was much worse. I relaxed on something like a sofa. It was as comfortable as the medical version of living room furniture could be.
James and his nurse engaged in friendly conversation the entire time. The nurse talked about a charter fishing expedition off the Maine coast, while James mentioned hiking Mount Katahdin up north.
Addressing me, the nurse said, “You don’t even need to get completely naked unless you want to. Roll over and spread the bottom of the robe wide. We can get to everything we need from there.”
The medical instruments were cold, but that was better than any pain. I asked, “Why do you docs insist on keeping all of the equipment in the refrigerator? I can see you all standing around laughing. Do the nurses say, ‘We keep the temperature at exactly thirty-three degrees for Dr. Brown’s stethoscope?’”
James smiled. “If we didn’t do something like that, everybody would find us all incredibly boring, and that would be awful. They might stop visiting us.”
I wiggled when the injection device slipped up inside me. It wasn’t nearly as pleasurable as a cock, but it didn’t hurt like a dildo two sizes too big could either.
I was still letting random thoughts about a dildo flit through my mind when the nurse said, “We’re done. You can roll back over if you wish. Does everything feel okay?”
“I barely knew that you did anything. If the instruments weren’t as cold as ice, I wouldn’t have noticed it at all.”
Patting my thigh, James said, “We’ll keep in close touch with you over the next several months. Our success rate approaches 90 percent, but sometimes it doesn’t take. If we could promise 100 percent, we’d do so. Unfortunately, science is still imperfect.”
I rubbed my belly for a moment. “It’ll be wild to have my belly grow with my baby inside, but I’d go through anything to have a child. I’ve wanted one since my brother was born.”
“When was that?”
“I was only eight years old.”
I hugged both the nurse and James before I returned to Daniel’s care and dressed once again in my street clothes. At the front desk, Mary asked, “Did it go well?”
“Your son is great! He doesn’t need a boyfriend, does he?”
A smirk played across Mary’s face. “He hasn’t had the best luck in that category. If the two of you were a good match, he would have appeared on your list. James is in the database, too.”
“I wish him luck then. Perhaps I’ll pursue meeting the father of my baby. They’ve all told me he could be a very compatible partner. I think I chose the best father possible for my little one.”
4
Inteus
I drummed my fingers on the desk. It was late in the afternoon, only about an hour left before OBU closed for the day. I was finding it harder and harder to concentrate on what was left of work for the day. If I drove home at closing, I still had two good hours left to sit on my rocks by the ocean and practice meditation before dinner.
Rhonda knocked on my office door.
“Come on in. It’s open.”
She stepped inside and dropped a folder on my desk. “I honestly didn’t know if I should disturb you, but you might have fathered a child today. As you know, this is the first time.”
I blinked my eyes. Surprises always arrived at the moment I least expected them. The clinic celebrated its third year in operation a month ago, and during those three years, I’d never been matched with a client. My sperm was #235 in the database out of over 10,000 stored donors. “After all this time, I’m shocked that I came up in a list at all. It’s even more surprising that somebody chose me above the other nine options.”
“We had a somewhat contentious conversation about this.”
“We who?”
“James and me.”
I rubbed my chin. “I hope the client didn’t hear you.”
“We’re more professional than that. Anyway, we didn’t know for sure that we should go through
with the match. James insisted that we discuss it with you, but we don’t do that with any other donors. I know what a stickler for equality and proper procedures you are. We followed standard operations as they are written.”
Processing Rhonda’s words was difficult. I was still reeling from the fact that my sperm were seeking to unite with the genetic material of an unknown omega.
Impatience was evident in Rhonda’s expression. “Did we do the right thing?”
I looked back at her. “Oh, yeah, of course, you should go ahead. I’m not any different from any other man in the database.”
As I spoke those words, I realized they weren’t true. Every alpha in the database was unique. That meant me, too, and that was why the computer matched me with the omega. He was unique, also.
Rhonda said, “I don’t mean to sound like I’m contradicting you, but you are different.”
“You know what I mean. I donated my sperm to be a service to all of those omegas desperately wanting a child.”
“Well, I guess it is a relief to know that you agree with our decisions. James told me that I bear all the responsibility for any possible consequences.”
“There are no questions. Can I see the data on the omega? Anonymously, of course.”
The tension in Rhonda’s shoulders relaxed. “You know that you can opt to meet him if you’d like. I can report that he’s handsome, and I think he might agree to a meeting. I’ll leave you alone with the information for now.” Before leaving the room, she dropped a manila folder on my desk.
“Thank you, Rhonda.” She was already gone. I opened the cover of the folder. I knew that it would all take a while to sink in. It was a little like hearing the results of a DNA test and finding out that you are the father of an unknown child out there somewhere in the universe. I knew that a situation like that would never happen to me, but I could speculate.
I began turning the pages in the file. I’d assumed there was something profoundly disqualifying about my records in the database. That would explain why I was never chosen. I didn’t know what it was. Often, I thought perhaps my Zen training was at odds with most of our omega clients. Any other conclusions were a blow to my ego.
I’d already seen the table of contents for the folder, and I knew the next page would display a full-color photo of the omega. Reaching for the corner of the page, I began to turn it and then stopped. What if he’s ugly? What if he looks like a mean-spirited person? What if I don’t want him to father my child?
Standing up, I paced back and forth a few times before I told myself that I was behaving in a ridiculous fashion. At OBU, we’d had a hand in creating countless happy families. There was no reason to suddenly lose faith in our custom database and the matching algorithms.
I sat back down, took a deep breath, and very slowly turned the page. A gasp escaped my lips at my first glimpse of the photo.
The face was familiar, and the name attached confirmed my memories. Our files included first names of the omegas as the only identifying information. That allowed our staff to address them by their first name and speak in a comfortable, casual way.
His name was Timothy. Memories flooded back into my mind. We were friends as kids, but I hadn’t seen him or heard anything about him for two decades. His family left town, and I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. As far as I knew, they never moved back to Maine.
I touched his lips with a fingertip. As I leafed through the rest of the file, I discovered that he was a successful blogger. Finding that out, I wasn’t surprised that I’d never run across him. I rarely read material online at all. My preference remained old-fashioned books printed on paper.
I stared at the photo again. He was a little more fashion-forward than men I usually found attractive, but there was something about Timothy’s gaze that drew me in again. He was smart. That was obvious. I loved intelligence. As a successful businessman myself, I loved the entrepreneurial spirit in others, too, and Timothy had that in spades.
One of the last times we saw each other, we kissed. It was eighth grade, and it wasn’t anything more than lips pressed to lips, but it nearly blew my mind. I laid my hands on his chest, and that was the first time I found myself inspired to touch a boy out of attraction to his body.
Looking at the photo again, I traced the side of his face with my fingertip. I wondered what he was like in person now. Trying to imagine the photo in motion, I saw the movement of his shoulders and hips. My nostrils flared thinking about picking up the distinctive omega scent. I wondered whether his voice was low or high in pitch.
Setting the picture aside, I leaned back in my desk chair and read the remaining information about Timothy. He desperately wanted a child. That made him good company for the rest of our clients.
According to the computer database, Timothy and I were not only physically compatible, but we were also a strong emotional match. I picked the photo up again.
I thought about his slim body wrapped tightly in my arms. He was slightly shorter and less muscular than me. He would fit perfectly against my broad chest. Timothy was a stunning, accomplished omega. That much was apparent without meeting him in person. I could nearly taste his kiss on my lips after all of the years that had passed.
Shaking my head, I pulled myself out of my reverie. We always counseled alphas to avoid making an immediate decision about contact. Impulses were spur-of-the-moment rash responses. We needed to engage our intellect before making such a life-changing decision.
I put the folder down and called Rhonda to retrieve it. She asked, “Did you like what you saw?”
“You said he was good-looking, right?”
“Oh, very much so, and he was tremendously polite and friendly. I think all of the staff liked him. Do you want to meet Timothy?”
“You know the advice we give alphas. Don’t you think I should follow it, too?”
Rhonda picked the folder up and held it close to her chest. “Oh, yes. No need to abandon standard procedures.” She started to turn for the door, and then glanced back over her shoulder. “I only want to say that I was impressed. He will be a fantastic father, and I know you would be, too.”
Having said her piece, Rhonda quickly disappeared.
I wrapped up the rest of my workday five minutes before closing. That gave me time to stop by the front desk and speak to Mary. With her grandmotherly personality, she always felt like the heart and soul of OBU. She could make any omega instantly comfortable.
“Oh, Inteus, I’ve got good news. It looks like smooth sailing on the way home. Greg said a few of the protesters are still out there, but it’s only a handful. He said that he had a shouting match with one of them, and they dispersed a few minutes later. You won’t have any problems at all. Maybe Greg scared them off, and by the way, I owe you congratulations.”
I beamed from ear to ear. “Thank you. Yes, my number came up. I suppose maybe I should open a bottle of champagne when I get home. I’m still fighting the shock in the back of my mind. I don’t know how I’m supposed to respond.”
“Will you meet him? Seeing him in person could be exciting.”
“I don’t know yet. He looks great on paper.”
“Oh, he was gorgeous, and he was so polite and friendly. I know that I’m not supposed to give advice on something like this, but I think you’d like him.”
“That’s the consensus opinion so far. I’m hoping to get in an hour or so of meditation before the sun goes down. We’re approaching the solstice.”
“I’m planning to take my grandson out climbing around on the rocks this weekend. I’ll bring the teenage neighbor boy along to make sure he doesn’t slip on any of the big boulders.”
“Perfect.”
Daniel appeared and offered me congratulations, too. He said, “I think I’m speaking for everybody here. At a moment like this, it reminds all of us how wonderful it is to work for you.”
“Aw, you all know how I feel, too. OBU is a great place, and we’re doing life-changing work for people.�
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“Yep, you remind us about that every day. It’s great to finally have a job with meaning.”
I felt a warm blush spread through my cheeks. “If nothing else, this is a boost to my ego.”
Mary said, “It’s only because we love you, Inteus. You’re so much more than a boss. Honestly, that’s true. We’re a family here.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the unmistakable sound of shattering glass filled the lobby. Shocked by the noise, I turned on my heel and saw what looked like a brick lying on the floor about two feet inside one of the plate-glass windows. Shards of glass lay scattered around it on the smooth tile floor.
Daniel appeared and grumbled, “Damn, I guess the protesters didn’t all go home.” He began to walk toward the window, and I blocked him with my right arm.
Mary glanced around the room as other staff members flooded into the lobby to figure out what happened. She asked, “Did anybody see who threw it? I was too busy talking to Inteus.”
I whispered to Daniel and began to creep forward. “Stay right here.” While everyone began talking about the incident at once, I approached the brick. I was only about three feet away when I saw what it was. It wasn’t a brick.
I spun back on my heel waving my hands in the air shouting, “Everybody duck!” as the percussive impact of a powerful explosion ripped into the building.
5
Timothy
Sarah opened her eyes wide. “I didn’t know boys could wear makeup! I thought you helped other people do theirs.”
“I do both. Don’t you think girls can do almost anything boys can do? It’s the reverse, too.”
“Guess so. That makes sense.”
“Ready for a lesson? I’ll show you what I do. Then you get Mom to take you to a great makeup counter. Do you ever go to Portland?”
Sarah leaned in close inspecting my face. From anyone else, I would have backed away from the invasion of personal space, but I wanted to help. She said, “Dad has a favorite fish restaurant there. We go to the mall to shop for clothes sometimes.”