by L. C. Davis
Caleb let the words sink in, but he still couldn’t make sense of them. He shook his head slowly. “I don’t understand.”
“Alec told me you don’t have any family.” Again, the words were blunt but Caleb could tell somehow that the Alpha didn’t mean anything by them. “You are —were,” he corrected with a grimace, “Alec’s mate. According to Federation law, that makes me responsible for you.”
“Oh,” Caleb said quietly. He wasn’t sure what else to say. He knew Alec was right, of course. There were just few omegas who were truly alone enough in the world to have to fall back on the old laws. He hadn’t been awake for long enough to give any thought to what he would do now that Alec was gone. There were few options for an unmated omega of breeding age with no family and no pack to call his own, and the most obvious one was to be given to the Futurus Initiative so he could be paired up with another Alpha.
The low birth rates among shifters meant that an omega like Caleb could only be of use to anyone if he bred, at least in the eyes of the Federation of Wolves that governed them. Caleb had heard the Southern packs were friendlier toward the program than most, so he figured it would only be a matter of time before Dustin’s pack shipped him off.
The frightening thought alone was enough to make him feel something other than despair for the first time since he’d woken up, and his heart monitor started beeping faster.
“If there’s somewhere else you’d rather go —“ Dustin said, clearly misunderstanding the omega’s reaction.
“No,” Caleb said quickly. He swallowed hard and willed away the tears forming in his eyes. “No, there’s nowhere else.”
Dustin nodded somberly. “I’ll go back to your place and see about packing up some of your things for when they say you can leave. We can send for the rest. Is there anything you need before I go?”
Caleb shook his head.
The Alpha turned and hesitated at the door, like there was something else he wanted to say. Instead, he left Caleb to wonder.
Chapter 3
DUSTIN
If it wasn’t for me, he’d still be here.
The omega’s words were still echoing in Dustin’s memory as he taped up another box. He stacked it on top of the growing pile accumulating by the wall in the cozy apartment Alec and Caleb had shared. Dustin knew for a fact that his brother’s eye for design and homemaking was every bit as poor as his own, so the charming atmosphere had to be all the omega’s doing.
The place still smelled like Alec. Despite all the teasing Dustin had given his brother about smelling like the stables, that scent was at once comforting and heart wrenching. It filled him with nostalgia and memories, and in combination with the artifacts that were still left out from Alec’s last day of living, it was all too much.
Since Dustin had been raised with the firm belief that Andrews men didn’t cry, he’d put all of his emotional energy into packing. While he’d meant only to pack up the things Caleb would need to settle comfortably into the Meadowlands Pack, he’d ended up packing half the damn apartment in his attempt to put off returning to the hospital.
The moment he’d gotten into his rental car, all the right words had come flooding to the surface of Dustin’s mind. He should have said so many things that just wouldn’t come to him at the time. At the very least, he should have told the omega that it wasn’t his fault Alec had been killed by a distracted driver or that the bridge hadn’t been properly treated or that the baby hadn’t been strong enough to make it. The only thing he could do for his brother now was to take care of the mate he’d left behind, and he was already doing a hell of a job bungling that.
To be fair, he wasn’t sure any Alpha would be at his sharpest when he’d just imprinted on his dead brother’s mate. Nothing about that day had gone as planned.
Dustin decided to just be grateful that shock hadn’t made him say anything to tip the omega off to the truth. He’d come so close, but something had held him back. Perhaps the last lick of sense rattling around in his empty skull. The last damn thing Caleb needed after losing his mate and miscarrying their child was to find out some Alpha he’d never even met from halfway across the country had imprinted on him. Especially not Dustin.
It felt like the worst kind of betrayal, even if Dustin knew logically that he had no control over it. And how could he have possibly known?
It wasn’t unheard of for twins to imprint on the same person, but it never went well. Come to think of it, Dustin had never actually heard Alec talk about imprinting at all. He’d assumed as much, but if he and his brother shared one thing in common, it was that neither of them had ever been as fixated on the idea of finding a destined mate as most Alphas were. Sure, Dustin had always remained open to the idea and he knew that as a pack Alpha, he’d have to take a mate someday, but his busy work schedule and managing all the little crises that rose up in a pack from day to day kept him too busy to pay much thought to it.
The phone rang and Dustin nearly jumped out of his skin. He hesitated a moment before answering it. “Hello?”
“Good to know you made it to New York in one piece.”
Dustin relaxed when he heard his mother’s voice, as passive-aggressive as her tone was. “I texted you when I got to the hospital.”
“Excuse me for being on edge with everything that’s happened.”
Dustin closed his eyes and sighed. So it began. In the years that had elapsed since Alec had left the pack, Dustin had never actually heard his parents call it for what it was out loud. They were more comfortable with implications and things left unsaid than confronting the truth, which was that their son had left and never once looked back.
Sometimes, Dustin could see why.
“I’m fine. Have you seen dad?”
Dustin’s parents were one of the first mated pairs to divorce in the pack for generations, and despite the fact that their separation was a vast improvement upon the constant fighting that had served as the backdrop of his and Alec’s youth, he hoped they would at least find a way to come together for this. He couldn’t be the crutch they both leaned on and give Caleb the time and attention he deserved, even if that duty came with its own set of complications.
“No,” she said stiffly. “When are you coming back?”
Noreen was always quick to change the subject when her former mate came up. Dustin sighed, taping up another box. “Caleb is still in pretty rough shape. I’ll be here overnight at least, maybe for a few days, depending on when the doctors say he can come home.”
“Home?” Noreen echoed. “Surely you don’t mean here.”
Dustin frowned. “Where else would I mean?” He was exhausted and he wasn’t doing as good of a job as he wanted to of keeping the irritation out of his tone. Despite the fact that she was in her fifties, sometimes his mother could sound like a spoiled child. Her estranged mate wasn’t much better.
“You can’t be serious,” she cried. “Have you talked to your father about this?”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Dustin said firmly. “Caleb was Alec’s mate and he’s got the mark on his neck to prove it. He has no family and nowhere to go. According to pack and Federation law, that means he belongs to our pack now.”
“I know the law,” she snapped. “But surely, given the circumstances, there’s room for some exception.”
“Forget pack law, it’s the only decent thing to do,” he growled. “For that matter, it’s what Alec would want, or have you forgotten why I’m here in the first place?”
Noreen’s silence followed by a sniffle she didn’t bother trying to muffle let him know she had changed tactics from lawyering to playing the victim. It was her go-to strategy, but he didn’t have the energy or the patience for it that night.
“We sent you to New York to bring him back, not to bring that homewrecker back with you.”
Rage burned deep and hot inside of Dustin’s gut and it took all the restraint he had not to explode. He tried to remind himself that his mother had no way of knowing he
’d imprinted on Caleb, but while that explained his intense protective reaction, it rang hollow as an excuse for her behavior.
He took a deep breath and only spoke when he trusted himself to say the words he’d rehearsed instead of the ones on the tip of his tongue. “This isn’t up for debate and I’m not going to hear any more about it. Caleb is coming home with me and that’s final. I suggest you make your peace with it before the funeral.”
Before Noreen could say anything else they’d both regret, Dustin hung up. There was still packing to be done.
Chapter 4
CALEB
After Dustin’s departure, Caleb’s pain and exhaustion had caught up with him. He didn’t remember much after the nurse had given him more medication, but the next time he opened his eyes, it was daylight. The events of the day before were so foggy that he was still entertaining the possibility that it had all been a dream when another nurse came in and threw open the blinds.
“Alright, sweetheart. Your brother-in-law is here to take you home.”
Caleb sat up slowly. Everything hurt again, which was a sign that he’d been unconscious as a result of exhaustion rather than intoxication. Surely he wasn’t being sent home already.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Three days,” she replied.
It took a moment for her words to sink in. “Oh.”
It was only when the nurse moved to take the IV out of his arm that Caleb realized his leg wasn’t in traction anymore. He was still wearing a thick plastic cast with velcro straps and his left arm was still immobilized in a sling, but when the nurse helped him sit up, he was able to move more than he had been before. It hurt more, too.
He cried out sharply when he sat up so the nurse could help him get dressed. A piercing pain shot from one end of his abdomen to the other and he raised his gown with trembling hands to reveal the thick scar that stretched across his stomach underneath his navel.
“They had to perform an emergency C-section to try to save the baby,” the nurse said in a soft, sympathetic tone. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Hot tears spilled down Caleb’s cheeks. Just when he’d started to be able to think of anything other than the emptiness inside of him, he discovered a permanent reminder of what had almost been. The nurse gave him a moment to calm down before she finished helping him get dressed. Every movement was excruciating and made him long for the relief that seemed to come only with sleep, but he finally made it into the wheel chair waiting for him by the door.
When the nurse opened the door, Dustin was waiting in a chair in the hallway just outside the room. Caleb was relieved he’d mostly succeeded in drying his tears, but he avoided looking in any mirrors as the nurse wheeled him out into the hallway. Just because he didn’t particularly care how he looked didn’t mean he needed the visual reminder. Dustin leaped up from his chair and moved to take the handles of Caleb’s wheelchair.
Caleb tried to pay attention to what the nurse was telling him, but when he realized she was actually talking to Dustin, he zoned out. He wasn’t fully conscious for the trip from the intensive care unit to the parking garage, or of how Dustin had managed to get him into the passenger’s seat of his rental car. He answered with far more lucidity than he felt he possessed as Dustin asked him whether he was hungry and if he was comfortable enough before they started the trip to the airport. The flight itself was equally a blur, thanks to the pills the doctor had given him to make the journey easier.
Under any other circumstances, Caleb might have tried to make conversation on the flight or at least not to fall asleep with his head on the Alpha’s shoulder, but he just didn’t have it in him to care.
The Meadowlands Pack was every bit as rural as Alec had said, but far more beautiful. A few small hills dotted the otherwise flat expanse of farmlands that stretched on for as far as the eye could see. From the way Alec had talked about his home pack, Caleb had expected a few shacks surrounded by teeming herds of cattle. There were plenty of cows in the pasture, but they grazed contentedly as they ambled along with plenty of space to roam. The sight of the mothers with their babies close at their sides was more painful than it should have been.
As the car pulled up in front of a massive yellow farmhouse, Dustin realized that Alec had done his family homestead as much of a disservice as the rest of the pack. In retrospect, Caleb couldn’t help but wonder if the Alpha had been trying to convince himself that he didn’t miss it or simply trying to convince Caleb that it wasn’t a place he would ever want to go.
Nonetheless, Caleb had wanted nothing more than to visit his mate’s home. Alec had assured him that he didn’t care about his checkered past, but Caleb had always known it had something to do with the Alpha’s reluctance to introduce him to his family.
Even if it hadn’t been for the desperate circumstances of his past, Caleb was no pedigreed omega and if the Andrews’ did decide to be rid of him by sending him to the Futurus Initiative Breeding Program, he certainly wouldn’t be coveted for any special gifts or an illustrious family tree. Even so, Alec had always treated him like he was the verum omega himself.
In Alec’s embrace, Caleb had allowed himself to hope for things he’d never dreamed possible as a youth moving from one distant relative’s home to another. Alec had delivered on every promise he’d ever made: a home, a family, security. Now it was all up in the air, and the only thing Caleb had to cling onto was the mercy of his dead mate’s family. The same family that almost certainly blamed him for their son’s choice to stay gone, no matter what Dustin said.
Caleb jolted when the Alpha put a hand on his shoulder. They’d come to a stop in front of the white wooden steps that led up to the farmhouse’s front door. Caleb murmured an apology and started to stand from the chair only to have the fresh stitches from his C-section pull in protest of the sudden movement. He winced as his hand went to his stomach, but Dustin was right there beside him. The Alpha pulled an arm around Caleb’s waist and the omega became keenly aware of just how sturdy the wall of a man behind him was.
While Alec had been the more academic of the two brothers, Dustin earned his living through physical labor and it was obvious. “Let me carry you.”
The offer was said with such earnestness, as if Caleb would be the one doing the Alpha a favor by accepting it, but he had at least an ounce of pride left. “I’m fine. Really. I just need to take it slow.”
Dustin didn’t seem convinced, but he stayed close and kept an arm on Caleb’s shoulder to help him over to the stairs. He mumbled something about getting a ramp put in as Caleb took the first step. Everything hurt and tears welled in his eyes. He was just beginning to consider taking Dustin up on his offer after all when the front door swung open and a woman with neatly trimmed silver hair and the same piercing gray eyes Dustin and Alec had came through the door.
One look in those eyes and Caleb knew that even if Dustin was kind enough to pretend like he didn’t resent Caleb for the loss of his brother, their mother was under no such conviction.
“Dustin,” she said with a warmth that was clearly meant to serve as contrast to the chilly reception she gave her son-in-law. “You didn’t tell me you were back. What if I’d been out when you arrived?”
“There was a reason for that,” Dustin said stiffly. He kept his arm around Caleb’s shoulder and didn’t bother moving it when his mother’s gaze lingered on it in disapproval. “Caleb, this is my mother, Noreen. Mom, this is Alec’s mate.” The introduction was typical enough, but the way Dustin said it made it sound like a warning to the older omega.
Noreen straightened her spine and gave Caleb a cursory nod. “Hello.”
“Hello,” he said, doing his best to sound polite through the pain. He’d never been good with words, especially not in situations that required a careful hand, but he doubted there was anything he could say that would ease the pain of the woman standing in front of him, or make her hate him any less.
Would it matter if she knew just how badly he regr
etted everything? If she knew that he would take it all back, every profession of love and every moment of peace he’d found in Alec’s arms, if it meant that he would still be alive? Even if it meant that he wouldn’t be part of Caleb’s life.
Somehow, he doubted it.
Silence hung between them for a bit too long. The wind picked up and the whispering leaves filled the quiet. Caleb felt sure that something needed to be said, but it wasn’t his place to say it.
“Caleb needs to rest,” Dustin said suddenly. Without warning, he bent to scoop the omega into his arms and carried him past Noreen and over the threshold. Caleb was too relieved for the chance at freedom to be upset. He did, however, regret the instinct to turn and bury his face in Dustin’s neck.
The Alpha smelled so familiar, and yet so different. He smelled like home and safety and comfort and all the other things Caleb had been so sure he would never feel again. Things he never wanted to feel again, because he knew he didn’t deserve them. In his weak state, it was enough to bring tears to his eyes and he found himself grateful that Dustin couldn’t see his face as he carried him up the stairs.
“Don’t mind her,” the Alpha muttered, carrying Caleb toward a room down the hall. He kicked the door open and set the omega on the end of a bed made up with fresh cotton linens and covered in plush pillows. Even though Alec hadn’t been home in years, Caleb was sure that if it had been his mate’s room at some point, he would have felt it. He was grateful that Dustin hadn’t put him in Alec’s old room. He wasn’t sure he could handle that.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done,” Caleb said quietly.
“You don’t need to thank me. You’re Alec’s mate,” he repeated, almost as if he was trying to remind himself. “Whatever you need, whatever I can do to make this easier on you, I will.”