Not His Omega To Love by GS Holmes

8Ethan

“You’ve been awfully silent.Everything okay?”

I paused with my hand on the handle of my car door. Sal was the closest person in the world to me. Why couldn’t I confide in him that I believed my son had knocked someone up and I had no idea what to do?

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I smiled at him. A smile meant everything was good, right?

“You’re not sad about Reggie finally making up his mind where he’s gonna go, are you?”

“Huh?”

“You know? The scout you saw three days ago.”

Oh, that. “Yeah, yeah, it’s going to be different not having him around anymore.” No strange boys going up and down my stairs. No more pregnancy scares. But of course, there was still the matter of Cody to deal with.

“But you’ll be able to date again.” Sal grinned at my scowl. “Come on. Don’t give me that look. It’s time you find someone and settle down, and you can’t use Reggie as an excuse now that he’s a grown-ass man.”

A grown-ass man who was about to have a grown-ass responsibility if that pregnancy test was positive.

“Reggie was never the problem.” I shrugged. “By the time he moved here, he was old enough to know dating was another part of life.”

“Now you admit you’re the problem standing in the way of your happiness.”

“I never cared enough about anyone to date seriously. Once I do, you’ll be the first to know. How does that sound?”

“Like a deal. Listen, Jill and I can have a double date with you, and we hook you up with one of her friends.”

I’d heard enough. I unlocked my car and got in. “Not in the mood for a setup from you and your wife, Sal. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Just think about it!”

I ignored his yell and backed out of the yard. “Don’t hold your breath.” Some days it was hard to believe we ran this successful trucking company together. It had been just the two of us when we started. Now we had a dozen guys on our roster and a long list of independent truckers who were more than willing to make pickups and deliveries for us. All this I’d built from the ground up to pay for my son’s college when it was time, but he didn’t even need it now, since he’d gotten that fancy-schmancy football scholarship from the college of his dreams. Instead of paying to attend college, he was being paid to attend and play football.

“I’m proud of him,” I whispered as I drove home. He’d worked damn hard to get that scholarship. Dwyer had been impressed and offered him a good deal, which his coach had advised him to take to boost his chances of playing pro football.

If Cody’s pregnant, how will this affect his future?

I grimaced, white-knuckling the steering wheel. Reggie’s life? Cody was the one who would suffer most if he was pregnant. He had to be looking forward to college, to pursuing his dreams. Despite not knowing what they were or how they differed from my son’s, I valued his dreams just as much, and he deserved to achieve them too.

Is he pregnant?

By the time I parked my car in the driveway, I wanted to pull my hair out piece by piece. I had planned to step away from Reggie’s relationships and allow him to handle them without interference. How could I now? I couldn’t trust him not to do or say something stupid to Cody when he found out. If Cody is pregnant.

I dragged my feet up the steps and let myself into the quiet house. I paused in the hall and listened to the emptiness. This was what the house would be like when Reggie left. Just me enclosed within these four walls. Was Sal right that I needed to explore my options? Find someone to distract me from worrying about teenage drama and relationships that shouldn’t concern me?

After drinking a bottle of water and taking out leftovers from last night, I dialed my ex-husband while I waited for the microwave to work its magic.

What are you doing? Don’t talk to Matt about this.

“Ethan, hey, what’s up?” Matt’s new bondmate answered the call.

“Douglas. I’m good. Is Matt around?”

“Hold on. Let me get him.”

It had been interesting having to navigate around a new bondmate to deal with my ex. It was far less frequent since Reggie now lived with me, though. When I visited, I was always awkward around Matt. I’d never taken them up on their invitation to stay in one of their guest rooms. Not when I couldn’t know for sure if Matt had told his new alpha all my faults and shortcomings.

“E, is something wrong?” Matt asked as he came on the line.

I closed my eyes. I shouldn’t talk to him about this until I was certain. Matt had a habit of being a helicopter parent who worried about every little thing. We rarely spoke to each other, since he had access to our son directly, and whenever I called, he always assumed something was wrong. I couldn’t blame him. The last time I’d called was to inform him his son had a concussion and was in the hospital.

“Everything’s fine. How are you?”

“I’m good. Keeping busy running around after the twins.” He sighed heavily. “If you’re planning to have more kids, you should get a move on it, you know. It only gets harder the older we get.”

“Luckily, I’m not looking to raise another child. Parenting your son is enough.”

He burst out a laugh. “My son, huh? What’d he do this time?”

“You know you could’ve given me a heads-up about his dating life.”

He groaned. “He still can’t make up his mind who he likes?”

“Or rather he’s made up his mind and he likes everyone. He’s extremely sexually active.”

“Did you talk to him about it?”

“Somewhat, but what do you want me to say to him? That he can use his hand sometimes too?”

“Or that you’re concerned that he might not be having healthy sex.”

No kidding. If he was getting people pregnant, he was having sex without a condom, and that was a no-no. When Reggie and I had this conversation, we’d agreed that I wouldn’t interfere with his sexual life, but he had to show responsibility by protecting himself and his partner.

“I don’t like the way he treats some of the guys he dates either.” Particularly innocent-looking ones who had no idea what the score was.

“Now you see why I needed all the help I could get when it came to him. The sweet boy we raised is somewhere beneath the cocky exterior he’s showing the world. I just can’t figure out why he changed so suddenly.”

The microwave dinged, and I hit the button for it to stop rotating. “Matt, there’s something I want to talk to you about, but you can’t freak out or anything. I’m not sure what to do, so maybe we can figure this out together.”

“That doesn’t help, you know. Just tell me.”

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out. “All right, so there’s this guy Reggie was seeing. I’m pretty sure they were having sex.”

“Seems normal for guys their age.” He gasped. “Wait a minute, this guy is his age, right?”

“He is. They’re both about to graduate.”

“Oh, thank fuck.”

“I think we can trust him not to cross that line.” Not so much the one where he didn’t knock someone up.

“Then what is it?”

“I have reasons to believe the omega’s pregnant.”

“What? How?”

“I ran into him twice. The first time, he was throwing up in the bathroom of a restaurant. I think that was morning sickness. And then I saw him purchase home pregnancy test kits.”

“So? Teen omegas sleep with guys all the time. How can you tell this is Reggie’s baby?”

“Supposed baby. I’m not sure if he’s pregnant yet.”

“I don’t think Reggie’s that stupid to knock someone up, Ethan.”

“Come on, you know kids that age. They let hormones run free, and then they’re coming before they forget they didn’t use a condom.”

“But still…there could be other guys. No way to know this is Reggie’s.”

“If you saw the guy, you’d know he’s not the type to go sleeping with other people.”

“He can’t knock someone up, Ethan!” he snapped. “This is going to ruin his future. He’s too young to have a child. Whoever this omega is, you’re going to have to let him know he has options to legally terminate his pregnancy. If he’s pregnant, but you’ll need to find out.”

“I will. But if the omega won’t admit it, there’s little I can do.”

“I don’t care what you do, you need to find out, or I’ll be on the next plane there.”

“Matt, calm down. We’ll take it one step at a time. I’ll handle it.”

“Please do, Ethan. Reggie was so excited when he called to tell me about his new offer. We have to ensure he goes to college and shines.”

I pressed my lips together to stop myself from saying something that would only have him getting on the plane sooner.

“I’ll find out what I can and let you know. You need to understand, though, that if there’s a baby and if it is Reggie’s, there are two young people who are affected. Not just Reggie, and we need to make sure they’re both active participants in whatever discussion we have.”

“Handle it, E.”

“I will, but you can’t say anything to Reggie until I talk to him.”

He went silent on the other end of the line, and I said, “I mean that, Matt. Not a word. Allow me to figure this out. I promise I’ll talk to him as soon as he comes home.”

After ending the call with my ex, I demolished my leftovers without enjoying a morsel, then set about doing laundry. I switched on the machine, walked out of the washing room, and ran into Reggie.

“Son.”

He turned away from the stairs to me. “What did I do now?”

He was right about that. “Come into the kitchen. We need to talk. Man to man.”

He groaned. “Can’t it wait until after? I’m going to the lake with some of my friends.”

“It can’t wait. Let’s sit.” I definitely needed to be seated for this conversation.

“I did what you said.” He marched to the kitchen ahead of me. “I’m not bringing random guys here anymore. Isn’t that enough?”

I let his question slide, sat, and waited for him to take a seat across from me at the island. For the first few seconds, I said nothing. Just looked at him. My son. He was so young, still so naïve, and so downright stupid at times. I loved him to bits, but how was he ever going to raise a child at his age? Maybe someday, but he had neither the maturity nor the patience to deal with this delicate matter. There was no way I could stay out of it.

“I’m going to ask you a few questions, and don’t for a minute think to lie to me,” I finally said. “This is important, Reggie. Very important, and it’s imperative that you’re honest with me.”

He squirmed on his seat, his gaze shifting around me as bright red spots dotted his cheeks. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Did you have unprotected sex with Cody?”

His jaw dropped. “What?”

“Just answer the question. Did you?”

“No, we used a condom whenever…” He blinked, his face paling.

My heart sank. Somehow, I’d known he had, but hearing him confirm it was like a blow. I’d trusted him with this one thing.

“Well, did you?”

“It was one time,” he said, dropping his gaze to the counter. “I swear after that, we always used a condom.”

A coil of fire burned in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to lash out at him, to chide him for being so reckless, but what was the point when the damage was already done?

“Did you get tested after?”

“No.”

I heaved a sigh, drumming my fingers on the island. “Why not?”

“Because.”

“Now listen to me, young man. I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you here.”

“It’s embarrassing, okay?”

“Do you think this conversation is any more pleasant for me?” My voice shook, and I paused until I was certain I was calm enough to continue. “I trusted you with this. I bought you condoms. You know where to get them if you ever run out. Now you’re traipsing out there having unprotected sex with whomever?”

“It’s not whomever. Just Cody.” He tugged at his T-shirt. “He was safe.”

“Plenty of people tell you they’re safe—”

“He was a virgin, okay? A virgin. I knew it was okay. I’ve never done it without a condom before him and not after either.”

I inhaled deeply and let out my breath. He’d just confirmed that if Cody was indeed pregnant, the baby was his.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I wanted to know what it was like going bareback. I know, stupid, but Cody’s basically the only virgin left at that school. A-and technically, I did it for him too. Did you see the size of Cody? He’s tiny, okay? And I-I thought it would be easier for him the first time if we didn’t have any rubber between us.” His face was beet red, and he was fully talking to the counter now instead of at me.

“I brought Cody home from your last game,” I said. “We made a stop at the store for a few things he wanted. Do you want to know what he bought?”

He raised his head. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“He bought a home pregnancy test kit.”

I allowed the words to sink in. His eyebrows squished together. Then his head jerked up, eyes bulging. “He… what… no…”

“Is there any chance if he’s pregnant, that baby isn’t yours?”

He swallowed hard. “I don’t know.”

“I think you do know.”

He covered his face with his hands. “How can I know?”

“You know, Reggie. Deep down, you know.”

He sprang up from the chair, chest heaving. “I… Cody… I don’t think he’s slept with anyone else, nor would he do that while we were together. He’s a good guy, you know. Like a good guy. Oh fuck. Cody’s pregnant?”

“Hey, we don’t know for sure.” I walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “But you’re going to find out, and you’re going to be supportive about it and his decision when you do.”

He shook his head. “I got football. I don’t want to stay in this town. I can’t have a kid, Dad. I can’t.”

I squeezed his shoulder. “Listen to me. What’s done can’t be changed, but we can look at the way forward. Whatever happens, we’ll come up with something. Something beneficial to everyone. It’s not just your future but Cody’s too, so take a deep breath, spend some time thinking about what we just talked about, but don’t get yourself worked up. We need to know for sure, and since I can’t ask him, you have to.”

“Okay.”

“Hey.” I grabbed him by the chin. “You’re going to be decent about this when you talk to him. Do you hear me?”

He nodded. “I-I just need some time to think.”