His Reclaimed Omega (The Mountain Shifters Book 9) Read online

  Tanner’s eyes widened. Nathan could see the thoughts racing behind them, piecing together the same theory that Nathan didn’t even want to entertain.

  “I’m not pregnant,” Nathan said with a nervous laugh.

  Hassan gave him a patient smile, but Nathan knew his uncle well enough to know that Hassan didn’t believe him. He was just too easygoing to call him out on it. “Of course not. But you know, it might be good to go to the doctor, just in case something is wrong. Even if it’s just stress, I’m sure you’d feel better.”

  “Yeah,” Tanner said, watching Nathan closely. “I’m sure you would.”

  Nathan swallowed hard. Panic was closing in around him now that the possibility he’d been denying was right in front of his face. “All the Southeast Unit doctors know my dads, and I don’t want to worry them for nothing, you know?” He cleared his throat. “Not that there’s anything to worry about, they’re just overprotective.”

  “I understand,” Hassan said calmly. “But the prison facilities are close. I could call Michelle and have her see you tonight. I’m sure Tanner would be happy to drive you.”

  “Sure I would.”

  Tears pooled in Nathan’s eyes. “I… I guess so.”

  “I’ll make the call right now,” said Hassan. “By the time you get over there, I’m sure Michelle will be ready to see you.”

  “Thanks,” Nathan mumbled. “Can you, um, please not say anything to my parents about this?”

  “You’re an adult, Nathan. You have the right to see a doctor privately,” said Hassan. “But whatever you find out, I hope you know that your parents love you and want to support you. It’s not good for you to be shut off from that.”

  “I know. I’ll tell them, if there’s anything to tell,” he added quickly. “I just don’t want them to freak out for no reason.”

  Hassan smiled. “I won’t be the one to freak them out. Here, take my car,” he said, handing Tanner his keys. “Call me if you need anything.”

  “We will,” Tanner promised, ushering Nathan through the door before the omega had time to fully process what was happening.

  Pregnant. That was the word that remained unspoken, yet it was the only thing he could think about. He knew it was possible even though Vance had worn protection, but the implications of what that would mean and what he would have to confess if it was true were too much to entertain.

  Luckily, Tanner seemed to understand that ne needed time to think. The beta was quiet for most of the drive to the doctor’s office. As promised, Michelle was waiting for them within the clinic inside of the facilities Hassan supervised. The prison was nearly empty since most of the Alliance prisoners had long since been tried and transferred out after sentencing, but it still held the odd rogue Alpha from time to time. The place was well-kept but it had a sterile feel that amplified the butterflies in Nathan’s stomach.

  “Hi, there,” the female beta said, coming to greet them in the hall. “You must be Nathan. Your uncle let me know you were coming.”

  “Thanks for seeing us on such short notice,” said Tanner.

  “It’s no trouble. What good is being the boss’ kid if you can’t call in a favor?” Michelle asked in a teasing tone. “Now, I hear a pregnancy test is in order?”

  Nathan gulped. “Yeah.”

  “Well, come on in,” she said, motioning for them to follow her into the room. “Just a quick poke and we’ll be able to rule out a pregnancy, if nothing else.”

  Nathan rolled up his sleeve and almost laughed at how pale Tanner turned. “You don’t have to stay in here for this.”

  “No, I’m good,” the beta said, obviously trying not to breathe too deeply.

  Nathan winced when the needle went in, but the test was over before he could count down a full minute. “You haven’t taken any over-the-counter tests yet?”

  “No,” Nathan admitted. “I’ve just been sick lately.”

  “Really sick,” said Tanner.

  “How long has it been since your last heat?”

  “About three months,” Nathan mumbled, his cheeks flaring up red. “It was my first one, though.”

  “And how long did it last?” the nurse asked, checking her clipboard.

  Nathan felt like his skin was going to burn off if he blushed any harder. “Not long. A night.”

  “I see. And just so we’re clear, it was an Alpha who brought you out of it?”

  Nathan nodded.

  “Were you on suppressants at the time?”

  “No, but he was wearing a condom.”

  The nurse pursed her lips and Nathan could tell she was trying not to smile. “Well, that’s a good idea for safety in general, but I’m afraid it’s not always the most reliable method of birth control when an alpha’s knot is involved.”

  Nathan grimaced. “No, I guess not.”

  “If you aren’t pregnant, I’d be happy to prescribe you suppressants. We’ve made a lot of strides in recent years,” she said proudly. “The side effects aren’t nearly what they used to be.”

  “Thanks, but it was a one-time thing,” Nathan said. “I’m staying as far away from Alphas as possible for the foreseeable future.”

  Michelle chuckled. “Well, if you change your mind, just let me know. I’d like to have a look at you before I send you home. The results of the test should be ready sometime tonight, so I can call you.”

  “Okay,” Nathan said, finding the basic exam to be the least harrowing part of the ordeal. The worst was confronting the possibility that he wasn’t going to be able to just forget Vance and the night they’d spent together like he wanted to.

  After thanking the nurse, Tanner helped Nathan out to the car. “You wanna go somewhere and take your mind off things until they call?”

  “Thanks, but I kind of just want to go home,” Nathan admitted.

  Tanner nodded and fell silent until a few minutes before they arrived home. “If you are...you know, what are you gonna tell your parents?”

  “I don’t know,” Nathan said quietly. He’d been wondering that very thing the entire drive, but he was no closer to the answer than when they’d left the prison. “I can’t tell them it was Vance, I know that.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because they’re going to be furious, and they’ll take it out on him.”

  “He took your virginity and you’d been drinking,” Tanner said through gritted teeth. “I’d like to take some shit out on him, too, and it’d be less than what he deserves.”

  “Please, Tanner, just promise me you’re not going to tell them anything.”

  Tanner glanced over at him, frowning. “This is a big deal, Nathan. You need support.”

  “And the best way you can give me that is by promising you’re not going to tell my parents what really happened that night,” Nathan said firmly. “I’m already embarrassed enough as it is.”

  “You’re not the one who should be embarrassed.”

  “Tanner, please.”

  The beta seemed to be at war with himself for a long while before he reluctantly nodded. “Okay,” he muttered, coming to a stop in front of the lot that separated their homes. “You want me to come in with you?”

  “No, thanks,” Nathan said, slipping out of the car. “I kind of just want to be alone right now. Tell your dad I said thanks for setting up the appointment?”

  “I will,” Tanner promised. “If you need me, you know where to find me.”

  Nathan smiled and watched as his cousin parked and disappeared into his own house. Nathan’s house was empty when he arrived, so he went straight up the stairs, showered and slipped into bed. He only meant to close his eyes for a few minutes, but the sound of the front door slamming shut jolted him awake long after the sun had gone down through his bedroom window.

  Nathan staggered to his feet, still disoriented as he made his way down the stairs. Duke met him halfway and the Alpha’s eyes were wild with rage Nathan had only ever seen once. Five years earlier, a fight between two of the b
etas in the pack had broken out and a small child had nearly gotten caught in the crossfire. Duke shifting into his hellhound form had put an abrupt end to the fighting, and while that was the first time Nathan had seen his father come close to losing control, somehow that only made him more intimidating.

  Duke froze at the bottom of the stairs and Connor soon came to stand at his side, the omega’s eyes wide with confusion and worry. He wasn’t due home for another week, so Nathan knew something was wrong. “Nate,” Connor breathed, looking him over as if he was searching for something. Connor was one of the omegas who could sense pregnancy, but his abilities were usually limited during the earliest stages. The look on his face dashed Nathan’s hopes that the test was going to come back negative. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he said, looking between his parents. “What’s going on? Why are you home so early?”

  “I called him after the lab called me,” Duke said through gritted teeth. “You’re pregnant?”

  Nathan’s eyes widened as the news sank in. He’d feared as much. The heavy dread sitting in the pit of his stomach could only be an omen of one thing, but he had still been clinging to that one little sliver of hope that it would all turn out to be a close call. A valuable lesson and nothing more.

  Now there was no forgetting any of it.

  “I… Why did they call you?” Nathan asked, anger momentarily eclipsing his shock.

  Duke’s face went blank. “So it is true.”

  “Your number and your dad’s are similar,” Connor murmured. “They probably just made a mistake. Nathan, why didn’t you tell us?”

  “I didn’t want to worry you for nothing if it wasn’t true.” It sounded like his own voice was coming from somewhere far away.

  “For nothing?” Duke growled. “Who is he?”

  “Duke,” Connor pleaded, putting a hand on his mate’s arm. “We should at least all sit down if we’re going to talk about this.”

  Reluctantly, Duke backed away, making room for Nathan to walk past him. The omega slipped into the living room and settled on the couch, feeling like every part of his body was trembling even though his hands were still when he looked down at them.

  “First things first, are you okay, sweetheart?” Connor asked, sitting next to him on the couch.

  “I’m fine,” said Nathan. “Just nauseous.”

  Duke was pacing the room, which was making Nathan even more nervous, but he knew the Alpha needed to burn off his rage somehow. Nathan also knew that it wasn’t directed at him, but that made him all the warier of telling them who the father was. Duke would be looking for a target and no matter how far away Vance was, he wouldn’t be safe from the Alpha’s wrath. Nathan wished he had never met Vance, but he didn’t want to be the cause of his death, either.

  “How far along are you?” Connor asked.

  “About three months, I think.”

  Duke and Connor exchanged a look as the realization passed between them. “The party?” Duke growled.

  “I’m sorry.” It was all Nathan could think to say.

  “Who?” Duke demanded once more. Nathan knew he wouldn’t be deterred, so he said nothing.

  “Nathan Alexander Miller,” the Alpha said in that calm but grating tone that told every wolf in his pack the time for fucking around was over. “I asked you a question.”

  Connor was silent, but he was watching his son with growing worry. Worry and sadness. Nathan felt the weight of his guilt settle down on him even harder. “I can’t tell you,” he said in the quietest, firmest tone he could muster.

  “The hell you can’t.”

  “Duke, let’s just hear him out,” Connor pleaded. “Nathan, sweetheart, this kind of thing doesn’t happen by osmosis. If there’s another Alpha involved, we need to know who it is. If someone hurt you…”

  “No,” Nathan said sharply, shirking away from his father’s touch. “No one hurt me. It was a mistake. It was a stupid, drunk mistake and I never want to see him again.”

  “Drunk?” Duke’s voice was like molten lava, smooth on the surface but broiling with rage underneath, ready to incinerate anything it came in contact with. “You were drunk when this prick took advantage of you?”

  Nathan cringed. “No! I was just buzzed, a little. I misspoke, I’m tired, I… I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

  “Give me his name and we don’t have to talk about anything,” Duke growled.

  Connor shot him a look before turning back to Nathan. “Nate, this is serious. Very, very serious. If this Alpha took advantage of you, there need to be consequences.”

  “Were there consequences for dad?” he snapped. “I only exist because you went into heat at a party.”

  “I wasn’t drunk, and I was much older than you are,” Connor said, frowning. “I knew what I was doing, and I was the one who-- you know what? No, don’t change the subject. We’re talking about you and what happened at that party, not me.”

  “I’m not a child. Stop talking about me like I’m some helpless idiot who can’t even make his own decisions.”

  “Oh, you’ve proven you can’t make your own decisions,” Duke said firmly. “Were you even going to tell us or were we just supposed to find out when you started showing?”

  “I couldn’t tell you until I knew,” Nathan muttered.

  “How are we supposed to believe that?”

  “I don’t care what you believe. It doesn’t change anything,” Nathan said, struggling to see through the tears in his eyes. “It doesn’t change the fact that my life is ruined, and neither will killing someone you don’t even know.”

  “I know he preyed on my son, that’s reason enough for me.”

  “Duke, let’s just focus on Nathan right now,” Connor said. “This isn’t going to change anything.”

  Duke hesitated and seemed to be on the verge of starting a witch hunt even though he didn't have a target yet, but he finally relented. With a nonverbal grunt of acknowledgment, he folded his arms and seemed content to let his mate take over for the moment.

  Nathan wasn’t sure that was an improvement. Connor seemed calmer on the surface, but Nathan knew what he was capable of and if he let his guard down for an instant, Vance had far more to fear from the omega than he did from Duke. “I’m going to put aside this Alpha for the moment, but know that we will be talking about this later,” Connor said calmly. “Is there anything else we need to know about?”

  “Like what?” Nathan asked warily.

  “You’re pregnant, Nathan. You drink, apparently. What else haven’t you told us? Now is the time to get it all out there so we can deal with it, but we can’t help you if we don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Nothing is going on,” Nathan groaned. “And I don’t ‘drink,’ I drank once. It was a mistake, and it’s never happening again.”

  “Mistakes have consequences, whether they happen once or a hundred times,” Connor said gently. “Tomorrow, we’re going to our doctor and you’re going to get tested.”

  “For what?”

  “For everything,” Duke growled. “Drugs, alcohol, STDs, so if there’s anything else you’re hiding, now’s the time to come clean.”

  “I’m not hiding anything else!” Nathan cried.

  “Unfortunately, we can’t take your word on that,” said Connor. The sadness and disappointment in his gaze was so much worse than all Duke’s blustering. “Not anymore.”

  The tears finally brimmed over Nathan’s eyes and he stood. “I want to go to bed.”

  To Nathan’s surprise, neither of his parents argued. “I’ll be up to check on you in a little bit,” Connor said softly.

  Nathan turned to head up the stairs and he could already hear the hushed tones of his parents talking about him. About what a disappointment he was, no doubt. It wasn’t like they needed to bother to hide it from him. He already knew. Getting pregnant from a one-night stand was just the icing on the cake, but no matter how upset they were, Nathan knew he could never disappoint
his parents as much as he had already disappointed himself.

  Chapter Nine

  KENT

  Kent tugged at the tie around his neck. He wasn’t used to formal wear, but it was the first actual date he’d been on since he could remember. He had finally given in and agreed to go on a date with an omega Cameron had been trying to set him up with for a solid week.

  On paper, Topher was everything he wanted. At thirty-two, the omega was a bit older than Kent, which improved the likelihood that he had his shit together. Kent had long since outgrown his own childish rebellion phase, and while there were plenty of Alphas who found precocious twenty-something omegas charming, he wasn’t one of them. He wanted a mate, a partner who could meet him where he was at in the interest of building a life together. Someone he could trust to raise his children rather than act like one as half the omegas who fawned over him in his home pack seemed to.

  Topher was a teacher at the elementary school in the Pine Valley Pack, and he was one of the omegas Doc and Blue had adopted as their own after a raid on an omega auction more than a decade earlier. Both of those facts boded well for Kent’s prospects of getting along with him. When the door to the restaurant opened and a handsome blond omega stepped in, Kent knew Cameron hadn’t been exaggerating about his good looks, either. Topher was tall for an omega with a lean build and a good eye for suiting. With golden-blond hair and a face that belonged on a movie star, the omega immediately commanded the attention of every Alpha in the place.

  Kent stood to greet him, surprised when the omega went to shake his hand. The greeting was far more customary between Alphas than between an Alpha and an omega in Silver Lake, but Pine Valley had a reputation for producing hardy, strong-willed omegas who had little patience for convention, which suited Kent just fine.

  “You must be Topher,” he said, smiling and hoping it wasn’t obvious that he was trying to gauge whether he’d imprinted on the omega. Supposedly, it wasn’t something you could mistake once it happened, but Kent’s experience had never been typical of most Alphas, so he doubted imprinting would be any different.