by Nora Phoenix
6
Even though he’d done it dozens of time by now, Ruari still triple-checked to make sure the baby sling was fastened securely before he let his son’s weight settle. Jax had been fussy all morning, so hopefully being nestled against Ruari’s chest would make him fall asleep.
Maybe he was teething, Ruari thought as Jax let out another cry of protest. He caressed his son’s baby fuzz. Or was that too early? Babies could get upset from something as small as some air in their stomach or intestines, he remembered from the baby book he’d read. If the sling didn’t work, he could try belly rubs or trying to make him burp. Well, after he came back from the clinic.
He slung the backpack with all Jax’s stuff over his shoulder. He’d never known how much a tiny little infant could need in a few hours’ time, but every time he took him outside, it was like a small move. By now, he had a standard backpack to go out, one that he refilled as soon as he came home. After running out of diapers once when he’d forgotten to restock it, that would never happen to him again.
Ruari could only hope the wait in the clinic wouldn’t be too long. He’d wanted to leave earlier, but everything always took more time with a baby, even something as simple as taking a shower. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent more than three minutes in the shower and a bubble bath had become a thing of the distant past. When Jax slept, Ruari slept, and when he was awake, Ruari was busy with him.
Going on a trip like this, where he’d be gone a few hours, that was something he rarely did. It sucked up too much of his already precariously low energy. Plus, he was too scared to run into someone he knew, someone who could rat him out to his father. But knowing he had that gene was all the motivation he needed to make this trip. He was almost sure he had it, but he needed to get tested. Plus, they could check him out and find a cause for those dizzy spells. Still, it had taken him a week to gather all his courage and head out to the clinic.
The trip was long and cumbersome, switching buses three times, and by the time he was nearing the clinic, he was exhausted. The last bus hadn’t gone farther than the crossing of the road that led to the clinic, and it had been at least a two-mile walk from there. Jax had slept for a bit, but was starting to get fussy again. “Hang on just a little longer, baby boy. Daddy will get you out in a few minutes, okay?”
A sign indicated the clinic’s entrance was just a little farther on the right. He hoped it really was, because his body was telling him it was reaching the end of his energy reserves. He needed to sit for a bit and maybe eat something, because he was getting light-headed again.
He tripped and stumbled, instinctively cradling Jax, but a strong arm gripped his elbow and held him up. “Whoa, careful there,” a concerned voice spoke.
When he looked up to see who had saved him from falling, the blood withdrew from his head, and he felt himself go weak as jelly. He let out a cry of anguish as he sagged, but even as his vision went black, hands held him and he collapsed against a body strong enough to hold him.
Ruari came to in an air-conditioned room, blinking to clear the fog from his mind, still dizzy and weak. He panicked when the baby sling was missing from his chest. “Jax,” he cried out. “Where’s my baby?”
“He’s right here, and he’s fine,” a soothing male voice said. “I’m taking good care of him.”
Ruari turned his head. A rather sturdy beta was tenderly cradling Jax as if he did it every day, while his blue eyes were fixed on Ruari. It made for quite the picture and Ruari’s heart eased a little.
“Who are you?” Ruari asked. The guy was dressed in cargo shorts and a T-shirt, not the kind of uniform he’d expect from medical personnel.
“I’m Kean Hightower. I’m the one who found you outside when you were feeling unwell, so I carried you inside. Enar is with another patient, but he’ll be with you shortly. I promised him I’d stay with you.”
“Enar?” Ruari asked, confused. The name sounded familiar, but his head was still too foggy to remember.
“Sorry, Dr. Magnusson. He’s my brother-in-law, so he’s Enar to me.”
“Ah, okay,” Ruari said, his head clearing a little. He studied the man who was holding his son so gently. Jax was awake, making the soft smacking noises that always made Ruari tear up with tenderness. “He’s hungry,” he said.
“Okay, do you want me to bring him to you and give you some privacy so you can feed him?” Kean said, as if it was the most normal topic of conversation between two people who had just met.
Ruari felt a blush creep up his cheeks. “I eh… He’s bottle-fed.”
Kean nodded. “Okay. I assume you have everything in your backpack? I can make a bottle for him if you want?”
Ruari’s blush deepened. “I can do it myself, but thank you.”
“My instructions were to make sure you stayed in a reclining position—quoting my brother-in-law here—until he’s had a chance to examine you, so that option won’t fly.”
Kean’s voice was kind and friendly, but Ruari had no trouble detecting the steel spine inside. And while he usually didn’t back down from a fight, he was just too tired right now.
“Okay,” he capitulated. “You do it then.”
Kean handed him back his son, and he cradled his soft body while he told the beta how much water to add to the power already in the bottle, and how to shake it. To his surprise, Kean washed his hands first in the basin in the exam room, then rubbed hand sanitizer on them before he even touched the bottle. Someone had been trained well, Ruari thought.
Kean seemed to have no trouble with the instructions Ruari gave him, and Jax’s bottle was ready in no time. Just when Kean handed it to him, the door opened and an alpha dressed in scrubs came in.
“Ah,” he said. “I see you’re awake. I’m sorry for the delay, but we had an emergency delivery happening right when Kean brought you in. We’re not equipped for emergencies, so sorry you had to wait for a bit.”
“No problem,” Ruari said. Once upon a time he would have seen a private doctor without waiting at all, but all that had changed with Jax. Now, he was grateful to even be seen at all.
“So, I’m Dr. Magnusson, but please, call me Enar.”
Ruari could barely hide his surprise at that un-alpha-like breach of protocol. “Ruari,” he said, omitting his last name. He wasn’t revealing that, knowing the uproar it might cause. His father was too well-known.
“Let’s talk about what brought you in here today.”
“I need to feed my son,” Ruari said. “He’s already hungry so he won’t stay quiet much longer.”
“Oh, okay,” Enar said. “How about you do that and I’ll pop back in as soon as my schedule opens again? It might be a little while though, if that’s okay with you.”
Ruari was stuck. What did he do now? He didn’t want to lose his chance of being checked out, but he had to catch the last bus back or he’d miss his connection and end up stranded at the bus terminal. But if he didn’t feed Jax now, he’d have a fit, and he’d be off his schedule.
“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Kean said, startling Ruari who had forgotten the beta was still there. “But if it’s okay with you, I can feed the baby while you talk to Enar. I’ll bring him back as soon as he’s done.”
“No!” Jax started crying at Ruari’s sharp voice, and he hushed him, rocking him and kissing his head until he calmed down. “I need to be in the same room as him.”
Enar and Kean shared a look he couldn’t decipher, but this was not something he would budge on. Losing Jax was his biggest fear, and he didn’t know this man, no matter how kind and dependable he looked. His father had men everywhere and if they took Jax from him, they could make him do anything.
“I can sit here and feed him,” Kean said hesitantly. “But I’d overhear your conversation with Enar, so you’d have no privacy.”
A memory flashed through Ruari’s mind of giving birth with only strangers around him. He’d lost any sense of privacy a long time ago. He would do anything to keep
Jax safe, even if that meant bearing all in front of strangers. “That’s fine,” he said. “I just want to be able to be near him.”
“Okay,” Kean said. “That okay with you, Doc?”
Enar smiled. “Absolutely. Thanks, Kean. Go sit in that chair, I’ll hand you the baby. Does that work for you, Ruari?”
Ruari nodded and watched as Enar took Jax from him and then handed him to Kean, who settled in a comfy chair, the bottle ready. “You need to hold him…” Ruari started, then stopped as he saw how expertly Kean held both baby and bottle.
“Do you have kids?” he asked.
Kean smiled, looking up from Jax. “Baby goats, lambs, and calves,” he said and when Ruari frowned, he added, “I’m a vet tech here at the PTP ranch, and I’ve bottle-fed more than a few baby animals in my life. Babies are babies, you know?”
He smiled at Ruari, who couldn’t help but smile back. The guy’s genuine friendliness was contagious.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Okay, now that that’s settled, let’s talk,” Enar said.
Kean loved the little sucking sounds the baby made as he fed him his bottle. He was drinking greedily, and Kean had to tilt the bottle back every now and then to make sure he wasn’t drinking too fast. Kean thought babies were cute in general, but this one was exceptionally gorgeous with round, pink cheeks, a little button nose, and a pair of dark blue eyes that looked like they would turn brown.
It was no wonder the kid was beautiful, considering his daddy, though his eyes had to come from his alpha-father, since Ruari’s were a deep shade of blue, Kean had noticed. Enar had pulled a privacy curtain around them so Kean couldn’t see them anymore—not that he would have looked anyway—but he had no trouble picturing Ruari. The omega was gorgeous, though Kean had also spotted the dark circles under his eyes that spoke of exhaustion and a too thin frame that betrayed he wasn’t eating enough.
“What brings you in today?” Enar asked.
“I read about the Melloni gene and that you offered free testing,” Ruari said, and Kean’s insides clenched painfully. Every time he heard stories of omegas with the gene, it broke his heart all over again. Palani had shared only a little of what Vieno had been through, but it had been enough to ensure Kean understood how awful that gene was for omegas.
“We do,” Enar said. “Can you tell me why you think you may have the gene?”
“My first heat was late,” Ruari said, his voice detached. “I think my parents knew about the gene, since they locked me up the last months before my heat came. They arranged for a caretaker for me, and when he walked into the room, he went crazy with my smell.”
His voice broke a little for the first time, and Kean struggled not to say anything, his whole heart going out to the omega. Instead, he pressed a soft kiss on the baby’s head.
“I remember little, but I know he couldn’t satisfy me. I needed something more, and he got angry with me when I kept begging him to fulfill me. Even knotting didn’t work.”
“I assume he was wearing a condom?” Enar asked.
“Yes. I didn’t want to get pregnant.”
“I’m so sorry to hear this, Ruari. I’ll ask you a few more questions before we do the testing, okay? Do you have any siblings?”
“No. And yes, my mother had trouble conceiving and used the services of a fertility specialist, albeit behind my father’s back. I heard them fighting about it, but it didn’t make sense until I read about the gene. I think my father recognized the symptoms in me, as I did when I read Mr. Hightower’s blog posts…” His voice trailed off. “You said your last name was Hightower. Are you…?” he called out to Kean.
Before Kean could answer, Enar spoke up. “Yes, Kean is his brother.”
Kean wondered if the omega would make the connection, but he didn’t have to wait long to find out. “He said you were his brother-in-law, does that mean you’re with his brother?” Ruari asked Enar, the puzzlement in his voice clear.
“Yes, but not just with him. There’s four of us.”
Kean all but held his breath, wondering how Ruari would react to that news. He knew they were pretty open about it, but not everyone reacted with understanding. “Oh,” Ruari said. “That’s cool.”
Kean could practically hear Enar’s sigh of relief. “It is,” he said. “We’re very happy together, and we’re the proud fathers to a baby boy, an alpha heir. His name is Hakon.”
You couldn’t miss the pride in his voice, and it gave Kean all the feels all over again. It was amazing to see how deeply Enar and Palani loved that baby, even though biologically, it wasn’t theirs.
“Congratulations on your alpha heir,” Ruari said.
“He’s not my heir, Ruari. He’s our alpha’s son.”
Kean could only imagine Ruari’s confusion right now. It had taken him a little while to get used to seeing Enar as a beta, but now it was routine. He couldn’t blame Ruari for being a little confused, however, and was waiting for him to ask for clarification. Instead, the omega softly said, “He’s still your son, then, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is. Very much so,” Enar said, gratitude and pride ringing in his voice. “But let’s get back to you. Did that first heat result in your pregnancy?”
Ruari let out a deep sigh. “No, that was the second one. My parents kept me under lock and key, but I managed to get away. I found a club that offered secure heat-services, and so I stayed in a hotel right next door for two weeks and then rode it out in the club. I’d taken heat blockers, but I’m not sure they had much effect. I had an alpha helping me, and while it was a little better than the first time, it was still intense. I’m sure he had a great time, but it once again left me unsatisfied and struggling. We used condoms, but I got pregnant anyway.”
“I’m sorry for your negative experiences, Ruari. It sounds like you have the symptoms of the gene, but we’ll know for sure after we test you. It’ll take two weeks for the results to come in,” Enar said. “Have you had a heat since you gave birth?”
“No. But I’m not breastfeeding, so it shouldn’t take long, right?”
“No. On average, your first heat will be about three to six months after giving birth if you don’t breastfeed. How old is your baby?”
“Almost ten weeks. What do I do if my heat comes? Is there a medicine I can take to make it less intense? I can’t leave Jax to fend for himself for two days.”
Ruari sounded close to panic, and Kean couldn’t blame him. It was a horrible position to be in as a single daddy. His hands itched to offer help, but that was ridiculous, of course.
“We’re experimenting with various meds to see what works. There’s still a lot we don’t know about how this gene works. What we do know is that you need alpha sperm, so you’ll need to find an alpha you can trust and go without condoms. The proteins in the sperm help quench that desperate need you have during your heat, no matter if they enter you orally, anally, or even on your skin.”
Kean’s cheeks flushed, and he could only imagine how mortified Ruari had to be knowing that someone else was listening in on this private conversation. To distract himself, he focused on the baby, Jax. The name fit him somehow, this tiny little human. He was done drinking and Kean put the bottle aside, then put Jax against his shoulder and patted his back.
“Okay, that’s good to know,” Ruari said, much calmer than Kean had expected him to be. “But how will I prevent another pregnancy?”
“I can prescribe meds, but know that these are not one hundred percent effective. There’s still a risk of getting pregnant, which is why I recommend asking an alpha you trust to avoid nasty legal situations.”
Ruari was quiet for a long time. “I’m… I’ll have to think about this. I lost my…support network when I got pregnant, so I don’t have a lot of options right now. I’d also need to find care for Jax, and that’s not easy either.”
“I understand. Let’s do the testing first and wait for the results. That will take two weeks. We can talk about all this once we kno
w for certain, okay? That way, you’ll also have more time to consider your options.”
Jax let out a burp, and Kean chuckled, joined in by the other two men. “There ya go,” Kean whispered to the baby. “That was a good burp, my man.”
“Did you have a checkup since you gave birth?” Enar asked Ruari.
“No, and that was another reason I wanted to come in. I’ve been having dizzy spells, like what just happened outside. I don’t want to fall and accidentally hurt Jax.”
“Okay, let’s have a look at what’s going on, then. You can get undressed and put on the gown, and I’ll be right back. I’ll draw some blood from you and check you out, okay?”
“Doc, when you’re done with me, could you please check out Jax as well?”
“Ruari, I’m not a pediatrician,” Enar said.
“I know, but I have nowhere else to go. I don’t have insurance, and I can’t go anywhere where they’ll register me.”
Kean wondered what had Ruari so spooked that he was this careful with his identity. Clearly, something was wrong. Was it the baby’s father? It wouldn’t be the first time that an alpha demanded custody of a child he’d fathered, especially if the baby was an alpha. The law was still on the alpha’s side in cases like this, though Prime Minister York wanted to change it. His Conservative Wolf Party had managed to affect some changes that benefitted omegas, but the opposition against them was growing.
“In that case, I’d be happy to check him out,” Enar said, his voice warm and kind.
Kean tuned out what happened behind that curtain, wanting to give Ruari the privacy he should have had. He cradled Jax, rocking him until he fell asleep minutes later against his chest. He had a ton of things to do, but right now, Kean was a happy man, just sitting here, holding that baby.
7
“We need a pediatrician in the clinic,” Enar told Palani later that day.
