Blossoming of Fate Collection 1

1

Seb

The sun is bright and warm when I step off the train. I quickly shrug my bag over my shoulder and pull my suitcase behind me, going off to the exit at a slight jog.

It’s my first time back home since I went away to university in August. I didn’t realise how much I missed this city until the train reached the outskirts and I looked out over the fields and the farms.

This feels like home. Watching those fields pass by felt like coming home, back where I grew up, back where I belong.

My phone beeps impatiently and as I quickly glance at it, I see it’s a message from my best friend and long-time partner-in-crime, Destin Logan, or Destin for short.

He used to be known as ‘Des’, but once he hit puberty and he turned out to be one of those guys who are everything you’d imagine in an Alpha with ADHD, tall, broad, active and way too loud, the ‘cute’ name no longer fit him.

So, while I’m still ‘Seb’, short for Sebastian, he’s Destin, and no longer ‘Des’.

The message is so typical of him. ‘Hurry up. We’re getting hungry. What’s taking you so long?’

I grin as I pull my bag up higher and I make my way to the front of the station.

As I step out on the stairs down to the drop-off and pick-up area, the light from the sun nearly blinds me and I hold up my hand, trying to shield my eyes, while I’m trying to spot my impatient and always-hungry friend.

“Seb!” A duo of loud voices greets me, and I’m nearly run over before I’m enveloped in two tight hugs. My younger twin brothers are apparently here too, probably the ‘we’ Destin was talking about.

“Dan, Mikey.” I hug the twins back, a laugh bubbling up inside me, already feeling so much better, already feeling like I’m back at home. “What are you two doing here?”

Dan, always the Alpha, starts rambling about school being let out early today because someone pulled the fire alarm, and that Destin promised them that they could come with him to pick me up.

As Dan is relaying his story, Mikey adding ‘interesting’ details where needed, the twins speaking like they’re sharing a single brain, my eyes start to wander, until they rest on a beat-up truck and the guy leaning against it.

The guy laughs easily at something a cute Omega girl is saying, their bodies fully turned towards each other, like they’re the only people in the world. A stab goes through my chest but I push it away.

This is so typically Destin, always going after a new Omega girl. He’s such a flirt.

Let’s just hope that this girl doesn’t stop working at his daddy’s place when the two inevitably break up in a week or two, it wouldn’t be the first time, or probably the last. The girl comes our way, and she gives the three of us a quick wave before disappearing into the station.

Only then, Destin seems to notice me and it’s like the sun shines just a little brighter as he smiles at me, making my heart skip happily.

He pushes himself off the truck and takes the stairs in a few long strides. The twins quickly get out of the way as Destin wraps his arms around me, lifting me up and spinning me around.

It looks like the guy has gotten even taller in the few months since I last saw him. When will he stop growing?

He puts me down and looks me over, a strange feeling settling in my stomach at his intense gaze. “Welcome back. You’ve not changed one bit, I see.”

“Neither have you. Hitting on some poor Omega girl.” I try to grin, joke about it like I always do, but I’m not sure it really works. My smile feels fake as the words make me anxious. What’s going on?

“Come on! Let’s get a move on already.” Dan grabs my suitcase, pulling it down the steps before I realise what’s going on.

“Hey! Careful with that!” Oh, hell. I’d almost forgotten how annoying the twins could be, always impatient.

“They’re right, though.” Destin laughs and tugs on my backpack, sliding it off and holding it in his arm as he wraps the other arm over my shoulders, steering me in the direction of his truck. “We’re hungry, but we wanted to wait for you. Our dads have been cooking all day. It feels like that anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I grin, the conversation so familiar. “I shouldn’t come between you and food. You three never seem to be able to eat enough.” I finally relax, comforted by the same old banter as always.

Though his arm over my shoulders, something he’s done millions of times before, feels different today.

Destin frowns at the suitcase that the twins have abandoned at the side of the truck, in favour of arguing about the music they want to put on in the cabin. He rolls his eyes at me, but then sighs and straps the suitcase into the back of the truck with practised movements.

Yeah, the twins don’t have very long attention spans either, something the three of them have in common. Which is why I’m usually the one trying to keep them all in line, at varying levels of success.

Once Destin has strapped the suitcase in, he jumps off the back and turns to me. “Welcome home.” His voice is softer this time, and there’s something about the look in his eyes that has me swallowing hard.

The next moment, he takes me in his arms and my arms slip around him out of habit. What happens then is definitely not out of habit, as one of Destin’s hands slides to the back of my head as his other hand settles on my lower back, pulling me against him.

It’s like he’s fitting me against him perfectly.

My fingers curl into his shirt and I hold on tightly as I feel him take a deep breath, a soft sound as he both relaxes and tenses up at the same time.

We’ve always been pretty physical, but this is different, this is very different from any time he’s hugged me before. I don’t know what to do, how to react, as something starts to stir deep inside me.

A thought pops into my head. If I angle my head just a little, I could kiss him.

What?

I still, surprised by the thought. Destin is handsome enough, and he’s definitely good enough to look at, but I’ve never thought of kissing him before. A hug from him has never made me feel like this.

What’s going on? Where are these feelings, these thoughts, coming from?

Destin suddenly lets me go, stumbling back, his eyes wide, filled with surprise. He licks his lips, looking at my mouth, like he had the exact same thought as I had.

He blinks a few times and then seems to come back to himself, to where we are and he flushes for a moment.

“We should get going.” His voice is rough, and he quickly walks around the car, calling out to the twins that they better not be in the front seats.

The twins make a ruckus as they make their way to the back of the cabin, and I hear Destin turn the music down to a more normal level.

I also pull myself together as best as I can, still confused about what just happened, and then take my place in the passenger seat.

My seat, the place where I belong, where I’ve always sat. But today it feels different. Today everything feels different.

Destin doesn’t even turn the music off as he pulls out of the parking spot and makes his way to his dads’ cottage. Normally, he hates the music the twins put on, but as I glance at him, I’m not even sure he notices it.

After a couple of moments, Destin looks my way, meeting my eyes and electricity shoots through me. I quickly lean against the door and stare out the window. What the fuck? What’s going on?

We’re best friends. We’ve basically grown up together because my daddy works at his daddy’s company. The cottage his dads live in is as familiar to me as the apartment that my dads live in.

We’ve always been more like brothers than friends. Destin’s older sister and younger brother are as much my siblings as they are his, and the twins are as much his annoying little brothers as they are mine.

But these new feelings I have for him are definitely not ‘brotherly’ feelings. You’re not supposed to want to kiss your own brother.

Not that I make much of a chance that Destin and I would ever kiss, since I know that Destin has no interest in male Omegas, he’s always gone after female Omegas. So, no matter these new feelings, it’s not like I’ve got a chance, other than guaranteed heartbreak.

Dan and Mikey don’t seem to notice the strange mood Destin and I are in. They’re so excited to have me back that they won’t stop talking, telling me about everything that has happened in the last months.

It’s not like I don’t already know everything, since Destin and I talk at every opportunity we get, but I don’t stop them. If they keep chattering like this, then I don’t have to think about what just happened.

I stare out of the window, trying to get my thoughts back in order.

I’m home for a long week, fall break. And I’m supposed to get some ‘fresh air’ and some ‘quiet time’ according to Daddy, he thinks I’ve been studying too much. Though, what else did he expect me to do? I worked my ass off to get into university, did he think I was going to slack off or something?

But why do I have the feeling that there’s not going to be any ‘quiet time’ this week?

My plans for the week included hanging out at the orchard with my laptop as I get some reading done for my essays and tease Destin, Dan, Mikey and the others while they’re working.

This was supposed to be my revenge for them teasing me about going to a prestigious university far away from home and always having to do way too much homework. This was supposed to be revenge for when they were going out and playing around every weekend, while I had to study.

This was supposed to be fun, relaxing.

But right now, I just want to get back on the train and go home. Bury myself in my studies and hide away from the world, never to be seen again.

I thought that when I got back here, everything would immediately go back to normal, back to how it was before I left. But it’s obvious that that’s not going to happen.

Something has changed.

I have no idea what, but something has changed and it scares me.