The Mates’ Choice

1

Wes

When Zeke and I get home from Nathan’s place, Oliver is already awake, sitting in front of the TV.

He looks up from his game, curious when he sees us. “Morning.”

“Morning.” I wave at him and make my way to the kitchen, planning to turn on the coffee machine, but it’s already finished. “Oliver, is anyone else awake yet?”

“Yeah. Clay is. He just went upstairs to get Seb.” I hear from the other side of the room, the boy a little distracted again, back to his game. Right.

I eye Zeke. Uh-oh. We’d hoped to be back before anyone was awake, but I guess that in this household, that’s not really possible.

“I’m going to put a different shirt on.” Hoping that Clay won’t see me in this one, because I don’t want to have to explain everything just yet.

“Okay.” Zeke reaches out, sliding his arm around my waist. “Can I get a kiss first?”

“Sure.” I grin, leaning in and slowly putting my lips to his. Revelling in the feeling of him, of how he fits against me. Of how good this all feels. When I pull back, Zeke’s grinning and he moves in for another kiss as someone clears their throat next to us. Fuck.

I look to the side and Clay is staring at us, his eyebrows raised. “I hadn’t expected to find my little brother making out like a teenager in my kitchen this early in the morning. Especially when he gets home wearing another guy’s shirt.”

Double fuck.

“Morning…” I step back, though take Zeke’s hand.

“Morning. Yes.” Clay puts Seb in his high chair. “Very early in the morning too. Very very early.”

“Morning sounds like a good moment for a shower, no?” I try to figure out if Clay is just tired or if he’s actually annoyed with us.

“Probably. Just make sure to clean the mark and put a new bandage on it when you get out. Oh, and washing your hair may be a little sensitive, raising your hands over your head will probably be a little uncomfortable for a while.” He’s not looking at us, instead fussing over Seb.

Right… I stay still, looking at Clay, at my brother, trying to figure out what’s going on in his head. “Clay?” I need to know that he’s okay with this.

“Yes?” He turns to me, raising his eyebrow again, but his face or voice not betraying his emotions. “I thought you were going to take a shower?”

“I am. Just… Are you okay with this?” I move my empty hand nervously.

“Should I not be? I wished you’d let us know for certain that you weren’t going to come home last night, but that’s neither here nor there.” He shrugs, making a sandwich for Seb.

“Why would I not be okay with it? I already suspected that he was your Alpha. If I weren’t okay with it, I would have said it before.” He goes back over to Seb, putting the sandwich in front of him, then sitting down next to the boy.

“Okay…” I eye Zeke, but he shrugs. Yeah, I guess that it’s no use asking anything right now. “I’ll be back in not too long. Just a quick shower.”

“I’m coming with.” Zeke follows me.

“You are sure? What if—”

“I’ll get Mia or Evan if they wake up, don’t worry.” Clay looks at us, and at that moment, I do see worry in his eyes, the worry he’s been trying to hide, and it gives me a dark feeling in my stomach.

“Thanks.” I nod his way. Then I quickly get up the stairs, Zeke following me.

I’m not sure if Clay’s worry is for Zeke or for me, but I know that I’ll have to ask him about Zeke soon enough anyway. I need to ask someone who knows him better than I do, who has known him longer. Because, right now, I can’t ask Zeke himself, not yet.

I glance behind me, at Zeke’s grin as he reaches out and runs his fingers over my back, sending shivers down my spine.

I can’t ask him about what happened last night. I can’t.

I’m not even sure he knows himself…

***

“Clay?” I eye him from the other side of the table. Aiden and Zeke are out grocery shopping, and Clay and I are having lunch with the kids.

“Yeah?” He looks up, making another sandwich for Josie.

“What happened to Zeke?”

“What do you mean?” He looks away, avoiding my eyes.

Should I just say it? Should I just tell him what happened instead of trying to get to the answer another way? “Zeke freaked out. Full-on shut down. Last night.”

I eye the kids, I’m not sure I want Oliver to really hear all of it, he’s probably old enough to understand at least a little, but I also don’t know at what other time I can ask Clay.

Clay nods and I see a flash of that same worry I saw this morning.

“Clay?” No matter how much Zeke doesn’t want to talk about his past, I need to know.

Clay sighs. “You know about the nightmares?”

“Of course. He wakes up screaming sometimes.” I hate it when that happens, I hate that panic and fear.

“Right.” Clay closes his eyes, but I still see the pain cross his face. “You know that arranged marriages still happen? Even though it’s technically not legal?”

“Yes…” Fuck. No, please no.

“They… He…” Clay keeps his hands busy. “Fuck.” He immediately covers his mouth. “Sorry.”

Oliver laughs. “You said fuck. Daddy, he said fuck.”

Clay turns to him. “And fuck is?”

“It’s a bad word,” Josie answers from his other side. “You’re not supposed to say it.”

“Not where Daddy can hear it.” Oliver looks at her, a glint in his eyes. Oh, he’s going to be trouble… He’s going to be a lot of trouble in just a few more years.

“Okay. It seems that you two have had enough to eat. You can leave the table to play.” I shake my head, but I can’t ignore the bad feeling that has taken residence in my stomach. I need to know what Clay knows.

Oliver and Josie immediately get off their chairs, and Evan and Seb soon follow them. Mia is still happily munching away, and the twins aren’t done with their bottles yet.

“Wes…” Clay reaches out, and I put my hands in his. “He wants to forget what happened.”

“I know. But I can’t…” Not after last night. I need to know, I need to know more. I don’t want that to happen the next time we have sex with Nathan, when he has sex. “You didn’t see him.”

The short twitch in Clay’s hand, the way his breath catches…

“You have?”

Clay nods. “I’ve seen him like that. He’s stayed over at my place enough times for me to see his nightmares. The first time I found him like that…”

He shudders. “I startled him, and he went into that state. Totally retreated into his own mind.”

Fuck. I knew that Zeke wasn’t that good around Alphas unless they were keeping a distance. But for it to even happen with Clay, someone who is like a brother to him now… I can’t imagine how bad it must have been back then.

“Wes…” Clay squeezes my hands. “He’s not off the list yet.”

“What?” My heart goes into overdrive, and I feel my stomach lurch.

‘The list’, a list of arranged marriages between Alphas and Omegas. Sure, that’s not what they call them. Officially, it’s a list of ‘well matched’ Alphas and Omegas and the marriage is only official after they’ve mated. But the only ‘match’ that ever counts is that parents of both kids are willing to pay enough money and use some semi-legal means to mate the Alpha and Omega.

If Zeke is still on the list, that means that he’s still scheduled to mate an Alpha. “Are you…”

“I’m sure of it.” Clay lets go of me, standing up. “I looked it up. After I heard about what they…” He lets out a growl. “After I heard what they’d done to him. I had to check.”

He comes over to me, kneeling on the floor, leaning in close, looking up. “I check if his name is still on the list every month.”

“Clay…” I start shaking. No. This can’t be happening. They’ll take him away from me, from us.

“I know.” Clay wraps his arms around me. “He’s… He said that he’s got until he’s thirty. Then he has to return home. No matter what. When he turns thirty, he has to marry the Alpha his parents chose. I’m sorry.”

I let out a sob. I can’t believe this. I knew things were bad, I just hadn’t realised how bad they really were. Not for Zeke.

The nightmares… “What did they do to him? Before he left?”

Clay shakes his head. “I can’t tell. Sorry. I wish I could. But… I’m not sure that I could even properly explain it. He’s never really told me what the nightmares are about, he can’t seem to share.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Yes.” He pulls me tighter. “It really is.”

“Okay.” I lean into him. My big brother comforting me, like he’s always done.

Now I just need to borrow a little of that comfort, that strength, to share with Zeke. I know some of the things that happen to people who are in these arranged marriages, especially to the Omegas.

I always felt like my life with my ex-husband wasn’t so bad, at least I hadn’t been in an arranged marriage. At least I hadn’t been forcefully mated, stuffed full of drugs, just because my parents wanted it. I’d made that mistake on my own…

But it’s not like the result was much better for me…

“I’ll protect him.” My voice is barely above a whisper.

“I’ll be right by your side.” Clay tightens his arms around me for a moment. “Anything you need, I’ll take care of it. I promise.”

“Thanks.”

***

“Daddy…” Oliver stands up, his movements careful. “I don’t feel so well.”

He’s a little pale, but it’s the look in his eyes that lets me know what’s going on. It’s been over a year since his last seizure, almost a year and a half I think.

“Come here, sit with me.” I pat on the couch next to me. I’m trying to do homework while the rest of the kids are playing all around me. I don’t know why, but it makes me feel safe, at home, when I do it like this.

Oliver climbs on the couch, pushing really close, and I put my homework away. I know that I won’t be getting anything done for a while.

“Did you take your meds this morning?” He sometimes forgets, though it hasn’t caused a seizure before, which we were lucky for, I guess.

He nods, though his movements are a little slow. “I even crossed it off on the list.” We keep a calendar, just to make sure that he takes all his meds right when he needs to, and it gives him some control over things.

“Okay. Let’s just sit here for a while.” Maybe it will get better, though, it hasn’t in the past.

After an… unfortunate event with his father, something went wrong and Oliver has had epilepsy ever since. We’ve been managing it well, and the medication has helped, but you can’t prevent every one of them. It seems we’re just unlucky today.

I send a quick message to Zeke, who is sitting at the kitchen table, asking him to make sure that Oliver really did take his meds this morning.

Zeke looks up as he sees the message, frowning. Then he stands up, checking the box with Oliver’s weekly meds, looking back at me, nodding.

I take a deep breath. I guess this really is one of those times that everything is just going to happen the way it does. I slide my arm around Oliver, holding him close, hoping to give him as much comfort as possible before he has his fit. This is the worst. This waiting… This not knowing of how and when… But I know that we’ll get through it. We’ll get through it, and I’ll be by his side the whole time.

“Hey.” Zeke kneels in front of Oliver. “Can I sit with you too?”

Oliver nods, holding out his hand and then pulling on Zeke’s arm.

“Okay.” Zeke sits down on his other side, careful not to make sudden movements. “Thank you.”

Oliver holds Zeke’s arm as he leans against me. “You’re my Daddies. Both of you.”

I look at Zeke, surprised by Oliver’s words, not because he said them, but because we’ve always made sure that he could choose for himself in how he saw Zeke.

I didn’t want to force any way that Oliver would refer to him, I didn’t want to make him feel like I forced him to choose one man over another. That I would force him to call Zeke something that he wasn’t ready for.

I feel tears in my eyes and I see them in Zeke’s too. I guess that Oliver has made up his own mind, at least somewhat.

But we don’t get much time to enjoy it, as Oliver’s body tenses up and I go into autopilot, doing everything I need to make him feel better, to make sure nothing goes wrong, drilled into me by doctors when he was first diagnosed.

I need to care for him now, I can’t focus on anything else.