Chapter Three - Damon

" S o," Ollie sauntered in through Eric's front door and sat on the edge of the reception desk, swinging his long legs childishly, "this alpha of yours…"

I sighed. The pack had been kind enough to take me in, allowing me to stay in one of Ollie and Beck's guest rooms while Eric organized a studio apartment in town to be, in his words, ‘spruced up' for me. I'd only just moved into the cozy space the night before. I would have happily slept in a barn if need be, but nobody in the pack would allow it. Instead, I'd been offered a roof over my head and a part-time job in Eric and Brandt's doctor's clinic.

I had been surprised to learn that the big, buff omegas in question were dragon shifters, and even more surprised still to learn that they were brothers. Eric appeared to be the younger of the pair, with golden blonde curls and a heart shaped face, where Brandt was all long, dark hair and even darker eyes. They had another brother, Sage, who also looked completely different to the two of them, with red hair and bright blue eyes, freckles, and a jovial disposition.

From what I had gathered over the week or so I'd been living in Shifters Sanctuary, Eric owned the majority of the properties in the little township, having purchased them over the course of a number of decades. He had all but gifted a large farmstead to Ollie and Beck when they had moved here, and they seemed happy enough for him to live and work out of the small grounds-keeper's cottage on the same property. The living room in the cottage had become a makeshift reception room, and the two smallest bedrooms were converted into consulting rooms for Eric and Brandt. Because all the clientele were shifters, Eric had had soundproofing installed in all the rooms to preserve doctor-patient confidentiality.

With Ollie turning up to discuss ‘that alpha of mine', I was glad that the soundproofing worked both ways.

"He's not mine ," I argued, even though I knew the remonstration would fall on deaf ears. Ollie, I had discovered, was an eternal romantic. He had this idea in his head that what he and Beck had experienced was some sort of ‘fated mates' deal and that the same thing had happened for me and Rex.

Only my surprise alpha hadn't bonded with me when he'd knotted me in that gross bathroom stall. He hadn't sealed our souls together with a mating bite like the legends —and Ollie— spoke about. He'd put a baby in me and fled. If that was fate's idea of an ideal mate for me…well, I supposed I should be glad the asshole hadn't bitten me, shouldn't I?

That was unfair. Rex wasn't an asshole. He had been nothing but sweet to me, and even though he had obviously been surprised by the changes to his body, I had never felt as though he was going to flip out on me. Additionally, it was as much my responsibility as his to think about protection, and neither one of us had. No, I hadn't realized that he was an alpha —not when he had scented human— but it was still best practice to be safe, even if shifters were immune to most human STIs. Even after he had knotted me and filled me up at my begging, he had no reason to suspect the rules had changed. I should have thought about it at the time, but I had also been blindsided by the fact that my sexy human cowboy was an alpha.

So, no, he wasn't an asshole.

Fate could still suck my dick, though.

Imagine dangling an alpha in front of me and then whisking him away again, only for me to discover the consequences months later, and with no way to contact the alpha in question! Didn't I deserve the happiness that Ollie and Beck had? Didn't my cub deserve its alpha father? Where was fate in all of this mess, hmm?

"Even so," Ollie waved off my protest, "was he, oh, I don't know…about yay high," he gestured about a foot taller than himself, which was a mild exaggeration, "broad shouldered, sandy colored hair and a hot AF beard, with a thick, sexy Texan accent? Real fondness for cowboy attire?"

Midway through the cutesy way he was describing the alpha who had left me in the ladies' room of a roadside bar, I stiffened. "He's here ?"

Ollie nodded, a Cheshire Cat smirk spreading across his face. "Turned up on Main Street asking questions about Beck. Jazz called because he scented like alpha and puma. Beck told her to bring him up to the house." I watched as Ollie smiled absently and rubbed at his chest, a far-off look in his eyes before he gave himself a shake and cocked his head at me. "Wanna come see him?"

I gaped at Ollie as if he had lost his damn mind and gestured to the very obvious baby bump I was sporting. "Because I should just waddle on up there and be like ‘surprise!'?" I completed my sarcastic line with a timeless display of jazz hands.

Honestly, what were the chances Rex had come looking for Beck's pack right then, when I had only arrived a week earlier?

Fate was determined to fuck with me, I just knew it.

Ollie seemed to be thinking similar thoughts, but with a much more positive bend to them. "Yes! I mean, if this doesn't prove that you're fated, I don't know what does."

"Or," I grizzled and pushed aside a notepad containing messages for Eric to follow up on so I could drum my fingers on the desk's timber surface, "he heard there was someone else like him in the world and came looking for answers the same way I did."

"But within a week of each other?" Ollie's green eyes gleamed and he clasped his hands in front of his chest. "It's a Christmas miracle!"

I groaned. I'd been doing my best to ignore the rampant holiday cheer my host was attempting to ram down my throat. The guy was obsessed with the festive season. He had turned the entire town into what basically amounted to Santa's village without the height-challenged minions. Eric had thankfully drawn the line at having his living room bedecked in too much tinsel, though he had found one of those damnable ‘Elf On The Shelf' things hiding in his consulting room's storage cupboards. The toy was now shoved inside my desk drawer, not that Ollie would know about it.

"It's not a miracle and it's not fate," I huffed, rubbing my belly as the little boy inside rolled over.

Learning that I was having a son was pretty neat, I had to admit that. Eric had all but demanded that he give me a thorough checkup when I confessed that I hadn't seen any medical professionals since discovering the little womb usurper's existence.

He and Brandt had gone all out with the practice they had set up in Shifters Sanctuary, complete with a proper ultrasound machine and all. He'd told me that not only did he anticipate Ollie and Beck would likely require the use of such things again, but half the beta couples in the town would probably appreciate not having to travel an hour away for OBGYN services as well. Blood tests and major issues were still sent off to the nearest hospital, but the basics could now be handled right there in town.

So, I'd found myself on Eric's exam bed staring at the monitor screen as he pointed out my son's fingers, toes, and penis. The kid in my belly had not been shy about showing off his goods, that was for sure, spreading his little legs as he wriggled about inside my belly while the transducer wand caught it all on film.

To be honest, I was just relieved there was only one of him. I couldn't imagine having twins like Beck and Ollie had. Especially not on my own.

"What do you call it, then?" Ollie arched an eyebrow at me.

I shrugged. "Predictable? I mean, Beck and Brandi have both said the same thing: they were thrown for a loop when their bodies changed and, after the panic receded, they wanted answers. Eric's been working double time with half the town to get word out there about the whole sanctuary thing, which is why so many people are turning up and hoping to join now; myself included."

There was even another farmhouse they were calling the Frat House on account of the number of potential alphas who were living there — men who had heard on the grapevine about Beck's background and thought there were enough similarities that they might also be alphas and unaware of it.

I'd met one of the new guys on my second day in town, when he had come to get the results of some blood tests he had allowed Eric and Brandt to run on him. He had been hot as sin and, were it not for the upheaval I was going through, I would have happily volunteered as tribute for him to try and coax out his potential knot. The fact that he reminded me of a younger, darker haired and darker skinned version of Rex meant nothing.

Six months into my pregnancy, my hormones were demanding sex, and the presence of hot men was not helping.

Damn these men and their sexy southern drawls.

"Well, even so," Ollie scowled back at me, clearly disappointed that I wasn't going along with his ‘Christmas Fairytale' ideals, "what are the chances you'd both be here now? Like, within days of each other? That, my friend, is kismet."

I fought the urge to chuckle at his triumphant smirk. He meant well, but I was still feeling bitter and jaded. "No," I reminded him with a shake of my head, " that is the effect of having the old-school shifters and their nutty religion spread all sorts of bullshit about you all as well."

I'd heard a lot of rumors about the pack as I had road-tripped my way there, and not all of them had been pleasant. At one of the packs I'd stopped in, carefully concealing my growing belly, the local diner TV had shown shifter preacher Joe Morstein sermonizing about the evils of the ‘Neo-Shifter Movement', as he had dubbed Beck's pack. I didn't think it would be long before they gathered enough support to try and overrun Shifters Sanctuary. I could only imagine the things they thought they could achieve if they had the hierarchical weight of an alpha or two at their disposal.

I'd always felt that the Moonmusic church was more cult than religion. I found their views on omegas downright chauvinistic and cruel. Listening to the sleazy looking, pinched-faced man on the screen prattle on about the risks of allowing omegas equal rights in a pack had only cemented my belief that finding Shifters Sanctuary was the right choice for me and my cub. Older shifters in the diner, though, had been sympathetic to Morstein's lecture. They had eyed me warily. Not only was I an outsider, but an omega to boot. I hated to think what they would have done if they'd caught sight of my pregnant belly. I'd merely mumbled something about being a college student driving back to my pack and then hightailed it out of there as soon as my bill had been paid.

"More and more people are coming to see it our way," Ollie argued back, but I just nodded.

"Exactly. Which is why so many shifters are fleeing their oppressive Moonmusic-based packs in search of a better life here. I was one of them."

Well, there was that and the fact that I had no idea how else to conceal my pregnancy or how I was expected to give birth, so finding the only other documented pregnant omega had been my best bet.

"We're gonna have to agree to disagree on this," Ollie eventually conceded with a sigh. Then he pinned me with a much more serious stare. "It doesn't change the fact that Rex deserves to know he's going to be a dad in a few months."

He had me there, I had to admit it. My shoulders slumped in resignation, and I looked down at my hands, twisting my fingers together. "I know. I do."

"But you're scared, right?" Ollie's voice had softened into sympathy. Before I could answer, he continued, "Beck and I both freaked the fuck out when we found out I was pregnant. I told him he could run for the hills…and I was so afraid that he would take me up on that."

"But he didn't." I did my best not to sound resentful. Beck had knotted Ollie and stuck around, which was more than I could say for Rex, not that our situations were anywhere near the same.

For one thing, it sounded like Beck and Ollie had been talking about a relationship before shit went down. For another, they'd bonded when they first knotted together, and it sounded like there was an emotional tie between them after that. Both of those things would have enticed Beck to stay, even while he was freaking out.

Rex and I didn't have that. We'd agreed on a quick bathroom fuck, that was all. We hadn't bonded, or even exchanged phone numbers before the fact. I couldn't have expected him to change his mind about that after being with me had changed his body so unexpectedly, could I?

"No, he didn't. But he could have, and that was terrifying." Ollie's reply brought me back to the moment. I looked up at him, unsurprised to see the genuine empathy in his green eyes. "Day, you've got to tell Rex. But if he does flip out, you're not alone in any of this anymore, okay? You've got me and Beck, and the dragons," he added, nodding at someone over my shoulder before looking back into my eyes, "and the whole damn pack, really." He smiled as Mrs. Potter, an elderly rabbit shifter with a sharp tongue, made her way past us towards the front door. "Bye, Dottie! See you at bingo next Friday?"

"I'll be whoopin' your ass as usual," she agreed, then let herself out, leaving Ollie to chuckle.

"Did I miss something?" Eric asked, circling in from behind me to rest his hip on the side of my desk next to where Ollie had perched himself.

Ollie grinned, tilting his head in my direction and giving it a little jerk. "Damon's alpha has turned up."

Even though Ollie was right about Rex deserving to know about our kid, he was wrong about one thing. "He's not my —"

"He's up at the main house," Ollie kept talking over the top of me. "Beck told me to come grab you while I gave Damon the head's up."

Eric actually rubbed his hands together as he grinned. "Excellent. An unbonded male alpha. I've got a number of tests I want to run. Let me grab my bag."

"Yes, please do remind me of just how very unbonded I am!" I called at his retreating back.

Ollie snickered. "You'll have to forgive Eric. This research has been his focus for…well, forever, really. You should have seen him when he found out about Beck. It was like all his Christmases had come at once."

"You and your fixation on Christmas," I shook my head. "I've been here all of five minutes and I know that you'd be more than happy to celebrate it every day of the year."

The fact that it was early December wasn't helping dim his obsession at all.

"Don't tempt me. I'm still trying to get Beck to pitch my ‘Christmas In July' idea to the Council."

Despite the anxiety that was building inside me now that Rex was in town, I couldn't help but laugh.