My Omega’s Disaster

1

Sterling

Wilder has been living with us for a couple of days again, and it’s almost like we’re back to the way we were.

You know, apart from the me not being in heat anymore kind of thing. I know it’s too early to expect much else, but every time I ask Wilder about Logan’s will, he changes the subject. Since we talked about why Logan may have set up his will the way he did, Wilder doesn’t seem to want to talk about it at all.

It’s frustrating because I know that there is something going on in his head, I know that because I can see him make notes, I can see him think, I can even see it in his eyes when he assumes I’m not watching.

But he’s keeping it all to himself. Which is really frustrating, like I’m not also an adult, just like him, like he supposedly needs to protect me or something.

Just like today. It’s the weekend, so we’re all having a late breakfast, sitting at the kitchen table, and Wilder’s eyes keep going to Maddy. Like, once again, he’s thinking.

“Maddy, can you go and get changed? I want to go to the market in a bit.” I know I can’t talk about anything with her around, she’s becoming too aware.

Maddy nods and leaves the kitchen with a big grin as she stuffs the last of her sandwich into her mouth, going to the market with me has always been one of her favourite things, this should give us a couple of minutes.

“Wilder?”

He looks up, meeting my eyes for a moment before he looks away. Fuck. “Yeah?”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing?” He shrugs and stands up, about to pass me when I grab him. I may not be strong, but I have the element of surprise.

“Bullshit. Don’t lie to me. Why won’t you talk to me about the will? About what we’re going to do?” I step close to him and even though he tries to shrug me off, I’m not letting go. “Tell me.”

“There’s nothing. I’m just thinking and working and stuff like that.” He looks at me, his eyes guarded, then he looks away.

“Then what about the company? How are we going to do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“The house?”

“No clue.”

“Our family?” This finally makes him properly look at me, and I see a flash of panic go through his eyes. Okay, so I finally hit a nerve. “Our family then. What’s going on?”

He shakes his head, pushing me off and stepping away. “I can’t tell you yet.”

What?

“Bull. It’s my family, I need to know.”

“It’s the Alpha’s family.” Something in his tone gives me shivers. “Which means that, as far as anyone knows, you’re Logan’s father’s responsibility now.”

I gape at him, not wanting to think about those implications. Because he’s right. I know that. I just never considered the consequences of it. I feel my blood drain from my face and the next thing I know, Wilder’s arms are around me tightly.

His breath hot on my neck as he holds me close. “Fuck. This is why I didn’t want to tell you anything.”

My eyes fill with tears, this cannot be happening now. “But you mated me…”

“Yeah. I mated you. Do you think they’ll accept that? Do you think that Logan’s parents will just accept that without question?”

I shake my head. No. He’s right. It’s not like Logan’s parents are the ones who’re the good guys here. I don’t want to deal with this kind of stuff, but it’s just that… Fuck.

“I don’t want to lose you.” My breath hitches, and I pull him tighter.

“It’s not you who I’m worried about.” Wilder locks his arms around me tighter, and I don’t like this sinking feeling in my gut. “It’s Maddy.”

I try to pull away, but he won’t let me. “Maddy? Why?”

“Do you know anything about Sarah’s life?”

I shake my head. We didn’t talk about such things. I was just Logan’s Omega, and there was no reason to socialise with me.

“She’s always been made to feel bad for being a Beta. I don’t want Maddy to go through the same thing.”

“Why do you think they’ll do that?”

“Because they can try? Because they can try to take custody of her? Because it will make you miserable? Because it will hurt me?”

I can’t help the anger bubbling up. So it’s all about him now? “Right. Why would they try to hurt you?”

“Because Logan chose me. Because even after they tried to force Logan and me apart, he still cares more about me than about his own parents.”

His voice softens. “I’m not trying to be special here. But his parents really do hate me. They hated me for being Logan’s partner. They hated me for being Logan’s mate. They hated me for having Beta parents but always ranking just as well as Logan in everything. They didn’t care about our sisters, both Betas, being friends, or both of them being at the same level, because that’s what expected of a Beta.”

Anger seems to return to his voice. “But, as an Alpha born from an Alpha/Omega couple, Logan was expected to perform better than me on every level. This pressure on him was… bad.”

He sighs as he lets me go. “I’m sorry I’m being egocentric right now, but I don’t want them to hurt you. I don’t want them to hurt Maddy. I wouldn’t be able to live with that.” He starts to walk off but I grab him again.

“Please.” My heart hurts, for both of them. “Don’t shut me out. I don’t know these types of things. Logan didn’t talk about his past and nobody else did either.”

“You never wondered?”

I shake my head. “His parents… They weren’t the nicest, have never been. I just assumed that his reluctance to talk about his past had to do with his parents. I didn’t push.”

Now I wish I had. The Logan that I know is so different from the Logan that Wilder talks about. Would things really have been different if I did ask Logan more often? If I’d pushed him about his past?

Wilder reaches up, touching my cheek. “It’s not your fault. If he wanted to talk about it, he’d have told you.”

“Like he did with you when he left?” I don’t know why I’m saying that, but there is sometimes a mean streak inside me that comes out particularly nasty when I’m hurt, like now.

Wilder just shakes his head, he doesn’t even seem upset by my words. They just slide off of him. “Logan not telling me anything back then is why I know that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. There is no way that he’d have told you, and with Sarah not around… Who would have willingly told you about me? Who would have told you something so upsetting about Logan that you may have left him, especially when he was trying so hard to conform?”

“I wouldn’t—” Like I didn’t push Wilder away, I would not have left Logan over having mated Wilder. Maybe over how he left him though… But that’s not here nor there right now.

“I know. But Logan has always been shamed by his parents and his family for mating another Alpha. His parents’ shaming, he’d internalised it so badly by the end of our relationship. There’s nothing that could have changed that.”

He comes closer, gives me a quick kiss. “Don’t worry. I’ll fix this.”

Then he’s out of the kitchen, leaving me there, standing alone.

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing now. I don’t know what to think of Wilder’s words. Was Logan really that scared of me leaving him? Would he really have been? I’m just an Omega.

But why didn’t Logan tell me at least some things about his past? Why would he just keep quiet when he knew that when it would come out it would hurt both of us even more?

Maddy comes back into the kitchen, her hair a mess, but she’s dressed properly. I grab the brush from the counter and she stands in front of me, waiting. As I start brushing her hair she seems to be thinking about something.

“Princess?” I stop, waiting for her to turn around. “What’s wrong?”

“Why is Wilder grumpy? Why is he being different?”

“He’s scared. Some things have happened when he was gone and we need to fix them.” I’m not sure how much she’ll understand, and Wilder was right, Maddy doesn’t need to know.

“Is it about Dad?” She looks up at me.

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” Then she steps back, her back to me so I can keep on brushing her hair. “Dad told me something.”

“What? When?” I’m not sure what she’s talking about, but she sounds serious.

“When you went to the market.” That doesn’t help any, I went there often, either to sell my own things or buy stuff for our family.

“What did he tell you?”

“That he always thought you were the best thing in the world. He really told me that. Because he saw that I thought that he was doing something weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Weird like… I don’t know. Calling people. Writing things. When he thought that we weren’t listening.” She looks at me again. “He was just… weird.” Her lip starts to quiver and I take her in my arms.

“Don’t worry, nothing is wrong. I didn’t mean to make you upset.” I hold her close for a while longer. “Why did Wilder’s behaviour make you think of Logan?”

“Because he’s also making phone calls all the time when he thinks we’re not there.”

Sneaky phone calls, right. Well, I get why he’s doing them now, but I guess Maddy really does notice more than we think. Even when we’re being sneaky, which makes me worry about how much she realises about the relationship between Wilder and me.

“Hey, let’s go shopping. Yeah? We’ll bring something delicious back for dinner.” We put on our shoes and jackets and make our way to the car.

But before we’re out the door, Wilder is right next to me, stopping me as Maddy walks on. “Star?”

I look up, not sure I even want to meet his eyes right now. “Yeah?”

“I don’t want to hurt you. You know that, right?” He reaches out and takes my hands.

I hold onto them. “I know. I do know. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen sometimes, you know? I know that you don’t mean for it to happen, but you keeping things from me hurts a little.”

“Yeah. Probably.” He puts my hand to his lips, looking up at me. “Come back safely.”

I almost laugh, but then I see the serious look in his eyes. “I will. I’ll be safe.” I’m not exactly sure why he gets so serious about this, but I guess it’s not too bad that he cares. Right?

When we drive off, I can see Wilder in my rear-view mirror, waving at us until we’re out of sight. He really does care about us, and I’m starting to care more and more for him too, but I really don’t get what’s going on in his mind sometimes.

The market is the same as it always is, people greet me and I need to make chit-chat with everyone. It’s a nice community and they’ve always been there for me when things got rough.

“Sterling.” An Omega who sometimes works at his parents’ stand comes up to me.

“Yeah?” I know the young man, but with everything going on, I’ve sadly enough forgotten his name. Which isn’t that odd because I’m sure that he was a lot younger the last time I saw him properly.

“I’m Aiden. Remember?” He laughs as he stops in front of me, holding out a small bag. “My parents wanted me to give you this. It’s not much, and I know that it won’t take the pain away, but I guess it’s something.”

“Thank you.” I try to swallow away the lump in my throat.

When I open the bag, there are some candles inside and a few small bags of hand-made candy. Aiden’s parents run a sweets and candles stand and they also sell other stuff that they can get from their bees or animals. It’s always a lively stand, as they have a lot of kids and one or more of the older ones regularly help out.

I’ve seen them around for years, but I haven’t seen Aiden around that often in the last years. “Thank you so much.” I can feel the tears burn in my eyes.

Aiden looks at me, an uncomfortable look in his eyes. “Ehm.”

“What is it?”

“Can I…” He starts but then stops. “I know this may be rude, but can I help out at the cottage this summer? I know you’ll be really busy, and with Logan gone… I can imagine that you may need some help.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t even thought about that really, at least not in the practical sense.

“I’ll be graduating college in a couple of weeks, and I don’t really feel like helping my parents this year. I’m getting a little too old for that, you know? I’d like to have a kind of a job for myself. Something that isn’t with them.”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. But if you’re graduating, shouldn’t you be in school now?”

“I’ve got a couple of days off, I’m taking care of some things here before I go back to college on Monday.” He smiles, then his face falls. “I’m really sorry about what happened. I can’t imagine how hard this all is for you. Losing your mate like that…” He looks away. “I’ll… I’ll let you get back to what you’re doing.”

“Wait. Aiden.” I grab his arm. “I’m okay with you coming over this summer, but you should really try to find a job and a place of your own, you know.”

“I know. I’ll find something. But just for this summer… I don’t want to leave just yet.”

That’s… interesting. “Why not?”

He shakes his head, making me a little worried.

“Aiden? Why not?”

“I don’t think it’s okay to talk about that here…” He looks around.

Fuck, that doesn’t sound good. “Did something bad happen to you?”

He shakes his head. “It’s not me. Don’t worry.”

“One of your siblings?”

He nods. “I can’t say anything, nobody is supposed to know. But I need to be here this summer, I can’t be away right now, and I need to earn money.”

“Okay. Sure. It’s okay. Just… Tell me if you need to talk, yeah?” Fuck, that desperate look in his eyes, it makes it hard to even think about why he’d look like that, why he’d be this desperate.

He nods. “Thanks.” Then he walks off, leaving me behind with a rough feeling in my stomach. I can’t imagine what would make a kid like Aiden look like that… Dammit.