Father Figure: M/M Mpreg Gay Romance (Never Too Late Book 4)

by Aiden Bates

  Sam punched a wall. He didn't have to take this crap. He didn't have to take it from an omega or from anyone else. "It's after hours and on my own property. Property you broke into. No one's going to care if I break your goddamn nose, Pretty Boy."

  "You can try, Nenci. I kind of want you to, so I can put you in your place once and for all." Tran smirked. "Why do you think I came here when I did? Let's face it, you and me? We hate each other almost as much as your two feuding families do. In fact, I hate you enough to tell you the truth."

  "Oh, and what's that?" Sam crossed his arms over his chest. "Oliver's already found himself a new alpha? Good. He should."

  "Oliver, from what I've heard, has sworn off of alphas. Never wants to see another one again, and you have yourself to thank for that. You ruined his future. That was you." Tran poked Sam in the chest, just hard enough to make his point. "But you didn't do it alone."

  Sam swallowed. "Oliver will get over it eventually. He'll have to. He's an omega. He's got needs, for crying out loud."

  "Get over yourself, Nenci. No alpha's good enough to overcome that kind of humiliation." Tran snorted. "No. But Nenci, haven't you wondered why it was so damn important that you have a damn lab tech out in the field with you? I mean Oliver's amazing at his job, don't get me wrong, but he's not trained to be out in the field and he's not even trained with firearms. Why in the hell would Devlin insist on sending you out there with someone who couldn't actually be of any help to you?"

  "Because the job needed a high level of technical knowledge." Sam frowned. "That's obvious."

  "Oliver could have provided that from the lab. He's good at that. No, Nenci, Devlin deliberately sent you out there, with him, because he was hoping something would happen."

  Sam lost his voice for a long minute. "You're lying."

  "Nah. The truth hurts you more, Nenci. And while I do loathe you, and everything you stand for, what I'm actually pissed off about is the way that Oliver's being treated. You were both used and manipulated for Devlin's reasons." Tran rolled his shoulders. "The difference is, he did it because he wanted to see you happy with Oliver. He didn't give a crap about Oliver. He was just an omega." He turned on his heel and walked toward the door.

  "Wait!" Nenci raised his arm. "Where are you going?"

  Tran gave a nasty grin. "Me? I'm going home to my alpha, and my kid. I'm going to go home to enjoy the life Oliver Wesson never will. Devlin manipulated you, but you still made your own choices. You toyed with that man. You knew he was vulnerable and you toyed with him. You should be ashamed of yourself."

  "It wasn't like that." Sam raced to catch up to Tran.

  "Really?" Tran sneered as he put his hand on the door. "You couldn't prove it by me. I'm going to talk to Oliver tomorrow. Hopefully it's going to be okay." He shook his head and then he sighed. "This goes beyond sexual harassment, Nenci. I mean, you get that right?"

  "I love him!" Sam balled his hands into fists and slammed them into his thighs. "Why won't anyone listen? I love him! I'm doing this for him!"

  "If you loved him, you'd treat him better than this." Tran shook his head. "I mean, you've had a mate. Did you screw him and then leave the house?"

  "He told you about that?" Sam covered his mouth with one hand.

  "No, Nenci, I figured it out from other things that he's said. Because I'm damn good at my job, which contrary to what you believe is not 'looking good and filling out a diversity requirement.'"

  Sam blushed. "Look, about that —"

  Tran held up a hand. "Save it. All I wanted to do was to make you aware of what was going on. That's it. Now you know, leave me the hell out of it."

  Sam frowned. "You broke into my house."

  "Door was unlocked."

  "The hell it was!"

  "It was when I was done with it." Tran winked at him and left.

  Sam watched him go, tears running down his face.

  Chapter Ten

  Oliver tapped his pencil against the desk and tried not to think about everything going on outside the lab. The lab was his safe space. Everything that didn't relate to a crime, a specific crime, had to be left outside the door. There was no room for alphas. There was no room for heartache. There was no room for manipulative superiors, or well-meaning colleagues, or sneaking suspicions in the back of one's mind.

  There were only facts.

  Right now the fact was that he had DNA that he'd pulled from two blood samples. The blood came from the same person, a male. There was no way to know for certain how that blood had gotten onto the knife, but none of the bodies found in the wreckage from the 1992 Cooper Block fire had come with stab wounds or pre-mortem blunt trauma. All of them had died from smoke inhalation. Someone, it seemed, had tried to fight someone else off.

  It hadn't worked.

  He hadn't heard back from Sam about the report, but he didn't expect to. Sam would have gotten the report from Nina, so he would have replied to her. Everything was over. Oliver would probably never see Sam again. If they found someone who fit their suspect profile, who was still alive and able to give a DNA sample, Oliver might be asked to process the sample or it might be given to someone else. He might not even be told.

  He found it funny that he hadn't wanted that level of involvement, but now he missed it. If he thought about it properly—scientifically, based on facts, as befitted someone sitting in the lab—he didn't miss being directly involved with the case. He missed access to Sam. He'd been waiting for years to have an excuse to speak with him and spend time with him. Then he had it.

  Now he didn't.

  Those were the facts. Anything else, any other direction that his brain might take, would be fantasy. Fantasy was supposed to be banned from the lab.

  He was about to start work on the eternal backlog when his computer pinged, alerting him to the presence of a new message. He had a new case to add to his load. That was good. It meant that the Cooper Block case was truly over for him. It shouldn't feel like a nail in a coffin.

  This one was another arson case. This time someone in the Blue Hills had decided to torch an old car and the fire had spread. A good chunk of that particular section of the Reservation had gone up with it, broken only by the wide roads that limited the size of the section near St. Moritz Pond. Oliver caught a ride with Lou Horvat from Arson Investigations, the lead detective on the case.

  Firefighters from five towns had come to get control of this blaze. According to one of the Braintree firefighters, the smoke was clearly visible for miles around. They'd gotten the call from a resident near Braintree Fire Headquarters, three miles away, because she could smell the smoke inside her home and see it out her window.

  By the time Oliver and Horvat arrived on the scene, firefighters had gotten the blaze contained to a small section over near the cemetery. Oliver, the crime scene crew, and the detective could feel free to approach the burned-out shell of the car.

  There was pretty much nothing left of the car. The tires had melted, creating a foul stench that lingered long after the tires themselves had soaked into the baked-hard ground. There was another smell though, something a little bit different. Oliver paused. He could pick up burned hair. He thought he caught the scent of overdone barbecue, along with something that was a little bit like beef frying in a pan. Riding high, just on top of it all, was something that almost smelled like a musky and sweet perfume, but just a little bit off.

  Oliver knew what it was. He covered his mouth and nose. "Check the trunk," he ordered, and stepped back.

  Horvat turned to look at him. "What are you talking about? Are you okay? You look a little green."

  "Just check the trunk." Oliver staggered away, toward the pond. At least all he'd have to smell there was acrid smoke and stagnant water.

  One of the crime scene guys found a crowbar. They managed to open the trunk. Oliver didn't need to look, and he didn't need the confirmation when he heard Horvat curse. "Call the ME's office!"

  Horvat approached. "So you just knew the body wa
s there?"

  Oliver wrinkled his nose. "You didn't? It reeked."

  Horvat frowned. "I mean look, I know you're an omega. If you want to tell me something, I know we don't know each other well, but I'm here for you."

  Oliver lost his breath for a moment. The whole world disappeared as his vision narrowed down to a small point, a singed blade of grass on the ground near his feet. He heard nothing. He saw nothing else. He felt nothing, until he felt Horvat rubbing circles into his back. "You with me there, Oliver?"

  Oliver gasped, sucking in as much of the stagnant air as he could. "Yeah. Sorry about that."

  Horvat gave him a gentle smile. "Maybe now's not the time."

  Oliver waited for the medical examiner to arrive. They couldn't touch the body until he got there. Once he did, and removed the body, they could begin to process the scene. Oliver directed the crime scene guys to work in an inside-out pattern. Ordinarily he'd have them work from the outside in, like a spiral, but in this case they knew exactly where the primary scene was. They needed to work out what else had happened, and where the killer had gone.

  They worked until dark processing the scene and collecting evidence. Afterward, Oliver gave orders to have certain items processed by the night shift in the lab. He'd be in early the next morning to start work, notwithstanding the fact that it was Saturday. Something like this, an arson and murder, needed a quick resolution.

  He showered as soon as he walked in the door. He felt like he had the stink of the crime scene on him. If he didn't wash now, he'd never get the scent of a cooking body out of his skin. He got out of the shower and put on sweats, because he was officially in for the night.

  That was when someone knocked on his door.

  Oliver was on friendly enough terms with his neighbors. They weren't best friends. They'd help each other out in a jam, but they weren't on the kind of terms where they'd just drop in and borrow a cup of sugar and exchange building gossip. The visitor had knocked, not buzzed, so he knew that they were residents. Probably residents, anyway.

  He walked to the door to check through the peephole, but he didn't need to go so far. He recognized Jake's scent through the door. He was less familiar with Joe's scent, but he figured that was the alpha with him. It was familiar enough to him.

  He considered walking away and pretending to be asleep. It had been a long day, and Horvat had put ideas into his head that had no business being there. All he wanted to do was to curl up in his bed and block out the world, until he could go to work and block out the world a little bit more. Jake was his best friend, though, and Joe was his friend too. If they wanted to visit, he had to let them in.

  He opened the door. "Hey," he said. He didn't bother to pretend to be energetic. "How's it going?"

  The twins exchanged glances. "It's going," Joe said. "You know how it is."

  "You mind if we come in?" Jake stepped into the apartment. "It's been a while, man."

  "It's been a week." Oliver grinned. "Not that long. Although the place does feel a lot quieter without you."

  "You mean empty and lonely." Jake waved a finger at him. "I'm a perfect roommate."

  Oliver sat down on the couch and grabbed a pillow. He held it in front of him, like a soft shield. "Actually you were," he admitted with a soft smile. "You were a great roommate, and you've always been a good friend. I'm really lucky to have you here in the building."

  "Damn straight you are." Jake preened for a moment. Then he sobered. "Look. Me and Joey, we wanted to talk to you. About some, ah, family stuff."

  Oliver closed his eyes for a moment. "Guys, I like you a lot, but I probably don't need to be read in to your family stuff. I'm pretty sure that we've established that as close as we are, I'm not going to be part of your family. And that's okay." He forced himself to put on a content face. He couldn't quite manage happy, but he could do content.

  Jake and Joe exchanged glances again. "About that," Joe said and looked away. He tugged on his collar, and two bright spots of color blossomed on his cheeks.

  Jake reached out and took Oliver's hand. "I've noticed that you've been feeling kind of, um, unwell lately."

  Oliver shook his head. "That's just because I'm having trouble coping." He withdrew his hand and curled in on himself. "That's all. I looked it up. It's not that unusual for someone to get sick from emotional fragility."

  "Oh for crying out loud, Oliver, you're about the least emotionally fragile person I've met. You've taken everything that those jackasses have dished out and you've shined, do you hear me?" Jake shook his head and turned to his brother. "Do you see what they've done to him?"

  Joe held up his hands in a placatory gesture. "I know. I know. It pisses me off too. Tell me, Oliver, have you been having dizzy spells?"

  Jake's eyes bulged as he wheeled on Oliver. "Dizzy spells? While you're on your bike? Are you nuts?"

  Oliver curled in on himself further. "Look, I just need to get out of the lab more, get fresh air. It's not like… it's not like that."

  Jake covered his face with his hand. "Tell me you at least used a condom with my father."

  Oliver's gorge rose, but he had nothing to bring up. "I don't own any."

  Joe covered his face with both hands and peered out from between his fingers. "You don't own any."

  "I was a virgin. I expected to stay a virgin until I was claimed. There was no point when I said, 'Hey, I might choose to have sex, I'll go out and buy condoms just in case.' It happened out of the blue, both times." Oliver stood up and walked over to the window. "I'm an idiot."

  "Yeah." Jake got up and followed him. "You're an idiot. But only a little bit of an idiot, because you should have made him wait until he found condoms. He, on the other hand, is certainly not a virgin."

  "Oh my God, Jake, must you?" Joe buried his face under a pillow. "That's our dad! I think I'm going to be sick!"

  "You're going to be sicker when you're changing diapers for your little brother or sister!" Jake snapped.

  The world grayed out for a second. Jake caught Oliver before he could fall. "No. I can't be. There has to be some kind of mistake." Oliver couldn't get enough air into his lungs.

  "Sorry, sunshine." Jake helped him back over to the couch. "I know you want to be in denial about it and everything. I would too, all things considered. But it's real. It's happening."

  "No. No!" Oliver got up again and ran to the kitchen. He wasn't sure why he was going there, he just had to get away.

  "Are you feeling strangely sensitive to smells? More so than usual?" Joe asked him.

  Oliver clutched at his middle. "Oh my God."

  "Oliver, I'm so sorry." Jake approached and put an arm around his shoulders. "I know that this is the last thing you'd want. But this is happening. You are pregnant. You can take a test if you want. We brought you one. But I think, deep down in your heart, you know what's going on. You're going to have a baby."

  Oliver bit down on his lip, hard enough to draw blood. This was a disaster. What was he supposed to do now? "I can't do this," he whispered. He sat down on the floor with his back against the refrigerator. "I just can't do this."

  "You can." Jake sat down beside him. "You can, and you will. You've made it this far. And whatever else happens, I'm going to make damn sure that you get the support you need. You're not going to be on the hook for this yourself, okay?"

  Oliver nodded, but he knew the truth. There was no way that Sam was going to pay a dime toward this baby. There was no way that Oliver would ask him to, and even if he did, Sam didn't care enough about Oliver to actually do it.

  There were more forms of support that Oliver would need than simply financial, anyway. His apartment was fine for one person. It was far too small to raise a child, at least once the child was old enough to go to school. He had no family in the area, no one who could step in to provide childcare during the odd hours Oliver worked. There was no one who could even take Oliver to the hospital when the time came for the baby to put in an appearance. No, Oliver's solitary life
precluded any children.

  Everyone else that he knew who had children brought them into the world in love and joy. That was the life that he'd always envisioned for his own children. He would have an alpha that loved him, and together they would love their children. Instead, he was going to bring his child into the world alone, just them against the world. Jake and Joe would help out where they could, but they'd have families of their own someday soon. Oliver shouldn't let himself get dependent on their help.

  This was an unmitigated disaster, and it was one of his own making. Forget condoms—sure, he should have insisted that they use them. Better yet, he should never have said yes to Sam. He should never have been alone with Sam. He should have conquered his own desires and ignored Sam. Then none of this would be a problem.

  Oliver deserved his fate.