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It was supposed to be a normal day. Nothing was supposed to change. But, inevitably, it did. Everything changed when Wylan picked up on the unfamiliar scent of another omega.
He froze, setting his cup of tea down with a frown as he looked around at the breakfast table, taking stock of his family. Ravi sat beside him, happily piling bacon onto his plate. Cal and Willa sat on either side of Marya at the other end of the table. Mari and Jesper lingered across the room, chattering away. The only one missing was…
Adi walked into the dining room, and Wylan’s heart dropped as he realized the source of the new scent: Adi’s scent had changed overnight. Blood rushed into Wylan’s ears as his grip on his cup tightened. No. No, he can’t be…
Jesper turned to greet their son, his eyes widening a fraction in recognition as he picked up on the new scent. “Hey, my little sunflower,” he said, extending an arm out to pull Adi into a hug. “Though maybe not so little anymore, huh? Congrats on presenting.” Jesper pressed a kiss to Adi’s messy curls.
“Thanks, da,” Adi murmured, returning his hug.
“Should we throw a party to celebrate?” Jesper suggested. “We’ll invite all your friends, and your aunts and uncles, and your cousins, hmm?”
“That seems a little excessive,” Adi said.
“It’s not excessive at all! We should celebrate you presenting!”
“Da just wants an excuse to throw a party,” Mari said, rolling her eyes.
Wylan felt like he couldn’t breathe.
“Papa?” Ravi said softly, watching him with concern.
Wylan forced a smile onto his lips. “I just need a minute, treasure.”
Squeezing Ravi’s shoulder, Wylan hurried from the room. He burst blindly into the garden, clutching onto the railing as he gasped several heaving breaths.
This can’t be happening. Why is this happening? I’ve done everything I possibly could to keep my children safe, and now this?? All of it was for nothing?
For sixteen years, he’d dreaded this moment, had hoped and prayed since the day Adi was born that he wouldn’t be an omega, that none of his children would. But it hadn’t been enough.
“Wylan,” someone called, placing a hand on his back. “Breathe, dearest.”
Wylan took several gulping breaths, willing his heart rate to slow down. Hands still shaking, he turned to face Marya. Taking his hands, she led him to sit on one of the outdoors divans.
“You knew this could happen since before he was born,” Marya said gently. “You knew there was a one-third chance he would be an omega.”
“I know,” Wylan said quietly. “But I hoped he wouldn’t be. Like you hoped I wouldn’t be.”
“Wylan,” Marya said, laying a hand on his cheek. “Look at your family. Did your son seem upset? Did your husband?”
“No,” Wylan admitted, thinking back to the conversation he’d had with Jesper all those years ago when he’d been pregnant with Adi.
“Will you be disappointed if… if the baby turns out to be an omega when it’s older?”
“Wy. Do you really think I could be disappointed if our child turns out to be a brilliant, strong, brave omega like you?”
“There lies the difference,” Marya said. “Your children are happy. They are loved. However they present.”
“He’ll be looked at differently. Treated differently,” Wylan whispered.
“Maybe. But he knows his worth. You and Jesper taught him that,” Marya said.
“I don’t want this life for him.”
“His life won’t be anything like yours, or mine,” Marya promised. “He has a safe home and a loving family. The laws you helped pass will protect him and give him rights that we didn’t have when we presented. You have done everything you could to set him up for a good life. You ought to give yourself some credit for that.”
Wylan nodded, laying his head against her shoulder. She pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. They stayed like that for several minutes, until a voice interrupted them.
“Papa?”
“I’ll let you two talk,” Marya whispered, squeezing his hand. She brushed Adi’s cheek as she passed him.
“Hi, gem,” Wylan said, opening his arms in an invitation. Adi came to sit by him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking up at Wylan with wide, cerulean eyes.
“I love you, my baby boy,” Wylan said in response, hugging Adi tightly to him.
“I love you, too, papa,” Adi said, hugging him back. “But I don’t know about the baby part.”
Wylan laughed, pulling back just slightly to look at his son. He was the same little boy that Wylan had carried and nursed, the same one that he had refused to let out of his sight after he’d been kidnapped, the same one who had always clung to Wylan’s side, the same one who got jealous of his siblings getting too much attention.
“You’re my baby, no matter what,” Wylan said. He leaned back against the head of the divan, pulling Adi with him. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”
“I’m alright.”
“You’re not upset?”
“About the omega thing?” Adi asked, his brows furrowing. Wylan hummed in agreement. “It’s what I am. What’s the point of being upset about that?” he said with a shrug.
“That’s very… sensible,” Wylan admitted.
“I can be sensible.”
“Sure.”
“Hey!”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. You’re very sensible,” Wylan said, pressing a kiss to Adi’s forehead. “We can go shopping if you want any new nesting materials.”
Adi made a soft, satisfied, and distinctly-omegan chirp that sent Wylan’s breath catching in his throat. Briefly, he wondered how different his life would’ve been if he’d been treated like this upon presenting. They laid back against the divan for several minutes, Wylan just wanting to hold his son, who, thankfully, did not protest. Then Adi broke the silence again.
“Are you and da going to look for a match for me?”
“What?” Wylan startled, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice. “You want an arranged marriage?”
Adi shrugged. “It worked for you two.”
“Well, yes, but we got lucky. Arranged marriages don’t always work out for the best.”
“Neither do love matches,” Adi pointed out, and Wylan had to admit he had a point. “I know you and da would pick out someone good for me. I trust you.”
Wylan’s heart swelled, despite the fact that he still felt blindsided by the turn the conversation had taken.
“Of course we would. But you’re only sixteen.”
For centuries, omegas had been married off soon after their first heat, typically a few months after they presented. A few years after, at most, if they were lucky. But, looking at his son now, Adi was still hardly more than a child. As Wylan had been, too.
“It doesn’t have to be right away,” Adi said. “But you were only a little older when you got married and had me.”
“I was,” Wylan agreed. “You and your siblings and your father are the best parts of my life. I don’t regret any of it.” He pressed a kiss to Adi’s forehead. “But, honestly, I was young and terrified. I had no idea what I was doing. In an ideal world, it probably would have been better if I’d been older. If you ask grandmama, she’ll probably tell you I shouldn’t have gotten married until I was at least thirty.”
Adi laughed and said, “I don’t think I want to wait that long.”
“It doesn’t have to be that long, but… what’s the hurry?”
Adi shrugged, looking away shyly, the blush he’d inherited from Wylan creeping up onto his cheeks. “I just… I want to be loved the way da loves you,” he said softly.
And oh, if that didn’t bring tears to Wylan’s eyes. “You will be,” he promised, blinking them back. “You will be loved the way you deserve.” He pressed another kiss to Adi’s head. “If, in a few years, you still want an arranged marriage, we can look for a match. And if you meet someone on your own who will love you and treat you well, we’d be delighted for you then too,” he said. “But I don’t want you to rush it. I want you to be able to be a kid for as long as you can and go to university and do all the things that I couldn’t do at your age. Okay?”
After years of fighting it, Kerch universities were finally loosening their archaic rules and allowing omegas to attend, and Wylan would be damned if he didn’t take advantage of that and encourage his children to pursue the education that he’d been cut off from.
“Okay,” Adi agreed.
“Good. Now, let’s talk about contraception.”
Adi groaned, burying his head in his hands.
*************
“How are you feeling, love?” Jesper asked once Wylan had returned to their bedroom.
“I’m not sure,” Wylan said. “This wasn’t what I wanted, but I can’t change it. And Adi doesn’t seem too upset, so I suppose that’s good.”
“Yes,” Jesper agreed. “But I know this is still hard for you. I know it scares you.”
“It does,” Wylan admitted. “But… he will have more opportunities. And whatever he chooses, he will always be loved and supported.”
“He will be,” Jesper agreed.
Wylan let himself be held for a few minutes, before blurting out, “Our sixteen-year-old son wants an arranged marriage.”
Jesper raised an eyebrow. “Wylan, my love, what in the world are you talking about?”
So Wylan recounted his conversation with Adi, watching Jesper expectantly. As he talked, Jesper’s lips tilted up in a curved smile.
“Why are you smiling?” Wylan demanded once he’d finished. “This is not a smiling matter. Our sixteen-year-old child is not getting married!”
“Well, yes, obviously he will not be getting married anytime soon,” Jesper agreed. “But don’t you see?”
“See what?”
Jesper chuckled, planting his hands on Wylan’s waist to drag him closer. “See what this means.” Wylan raised a skeptical eyebrow, crossing his arms expectantly. “It means our children trust us with this,” Jesper said, cupping Wylan’s face as he brushed a thumb over his eyebrow to smooth it back down. “And-” he paused for dramatic effect “-it means we’ve shown our children what a healthy, loving relationship looks like. We’ve set the standard high for how they will expect to be treated, for how they deserve to be treated. And that’s a good thing.”
“Oh,” Wylan murmured. “Well, I suppose when you put it like that…”
When he’d presented, marriage had been an inevitable threat held over him. But for Adi, who had grown up seeing Wylan and Jesper’s marriage (and Nina and Matthias’s and Inej and Kaz’s, too) it represented something else entirely. The love that he’d seen in his parents’ marriage was something to aspire to.
“Mmm,” Jesper hummed, pressing his lips to Wylan’s cheek. “Darling, do you think maybe part of the reason you’re freaking out is because you don’t want to let him go?”
Wylan made an unhappy noise at being called out like that. “Maybe,” he admitted quietly.
“We’ll have to let go eventually.”
Wylan huffed, burying his face in Jesper’s chest. “But not just yet.”
“No, not yet,” Jesper agreed. “For now, let’s just concentrate on the fact that we raised five wonderful pups who know that they deserve to be loved wholly and completely. We ought to be proud of that, hmm?”
“Yes,” Wylan said, raising his head to meet his mate’s gaze.
Leaning in, he closed the gap between them, pressing his lips to Jesper’s. His husband’s arms tightened around him, pulling him in closer as he deepened the kiss. Wylan snuck his hands into Jesper’s tight curls, his body turning soft and malleable in Jesper’s arms. It led to him eventually falling backwards on the bed, his mate landing on top of him.
Wylan laughed breathlessly. “Are you trying to go for pup number six here?”
“Is it working?”
“It might be working too well,” Wylan said, grinding his pelvis against Jesper’s and drawing a groan from both of them. “But, need I remind you, we do have five children in the house, any of whom could burst in here at any moment. So maybe we put a pin in the babymaking.”
Jesper groaned again, this time in frustration, burying his face in Wylan’s neck. “Hey,” he said, coming back up to meet Wylan’s gaze. “If we do marry them all off, we’ll finally have some privacy again, so maybe there’s something to it.”
“Jesper!” Wylan yelped in mock-outrage, smacking his bicep lightly.
“Kidding, kidding,” Jesper murmured, silencing him with a kiss as he wove his hand into Wylan’s fiery locks. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Wylan said, tracing a reverent finger over the curve of his husband’s jaw. “More than anything.”