Omega: Alpha's Baby Daddy

Zain sat in the clinic’s waiting room, jiggling his knee nervously as he watched the clock tick closer and closer to eight a.m.

“Austin Hark?”

It took Harry elbowing him in the side for Zain to remember that he

was Austin Hark. For today, at least.

“Here, sorry.” He jumped to his feet, waving awkwardly.

The nurse glowered at him and shoved a clipboard into his hands. “Fill that out. I’ll be back.”

He sat down and tried to detach the pen from the clipboard. It took three attempts before he finally managed it, only to promptly drop the pen on the floor.

“I’ve got it.” Harry snatched the pen up before he could. “Give that here.”

He yanked the clipboard from Zain’s hand and started filling it in.

“You’ve got to hold it together,” he murmured in Zain’s ear. “Just a few more hours, then it’ll be done, and you’ll have a life again. A future.” He gave him an encouraging grin. “We’ll celebrate, with pizza.”

Zain, who’d been fasting since the previous evening, glowered at the other omega. “You know I can’t afford pizza. I’d have been living off instant noodles for weeks if it wasn’t for you.”

“My treat,” Harry promised. “To celebrate.”

His friend’s enthusiasm was infectious. Zain leaned against his shoulder and smiled at him. “Pizza sounds great. A life sounds great.”

He’d been crippled by his omega biology for far too long. It had lost him his last three jobs. The families he was a nanny for had tried hard to be understanding. But an unreliable omega, one who could be absent for days, sometimes weeks at a time at short notice, just didn’t cut it.

“Last meal… six p.m.?”

“Seven,” Zain corrected quietly.

“Date last heat ended?”

Zain didn’t need to check a calendar to remember that.

“The ninth.”

“Average duration between heats?”

He groaned. “They know all this. Why are we going through it for the hundredth time?”

“Busywork,” Harry said easily, pressing his leg against Zain’s. The contact calmed him. “To keep people from going stir crazy in the waiting room.”

“The only thing making me crazy right now are these questions.”

“Allergies?” Harry pressed.

“Strawberries, as you well know.”

“Hey! I only forgot that one time...”

“My lips swelled up to twice their size. I looked like my cosmetic surgery had gone horribly wrong.”

Harry snorted with laughter before biting his lip, looking the picture of contrite. “I said I was sorry. It was berry jam. How was I supposed to know there were strawberries in it?”

“The clue is in the name. Berry.” They glared at one another before they both dissolved into giggles.

The nurse stomped back in, looking unimpressed as she held out her hand for the clipboard.

“Follow me. Not you,” she added when Harry stood to join him. “You can collect him in three hours.”

Harry caught his hand, squeezing it tightly. “I’ll be right here the whole time. See you on the other side.”

Zain squeezed back, grateful beyond belief to have such a good friend by his side. Without Harry, none of this would have been possible, and his life would have continued to freefall until he hit rock bottom.

He followed the nurse to a room. She handed him a gown and thrust the clipboard back into his hands. “Finish filling this out. Every question, not just the easy ones.”

She marched off, grumbling under her breath.

“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine,” Zain muttered.

He sat down on the chair next to the intimidating medical bed and tried to remember the details he’d memorized about Harry’s cousin Austin. It had been Harry’s idea for Zain to use Austin’s insurance to cover the cost of the implant that he’d never have been able to afford alone. Even the co-pay had taken him months of scrimping and eating noodles to save up.

He couldn’t wait any longer, not with Austin leaving the country with his alpha boyfriend to go live and teach in Japan. That was the main reason Austin had agreed to let Zain do this. The chances of them being found out were tiny and, even if they were, Austin wouldn’t be around to face the repercussions. For Zain, it was worth the risk.

He filled in the last few details on the form, then quickly changed into the crinkly paper gown. Grimacing at his reflection, he was glad there was no one there to see him except the medical staff. Couture fashion this was not. Just as he sat down again, a doctor popped his head through the doorway, stethoscope around his neck.

“Austin Hark?”

“Yes.”

“Great, you’re all gowned up. I’ll be right with you.”

“Um… Dr. Henri is supposed to be doing my procedure.”

He’d met her at his initial appointment. She’d been nice, as doctors went. Sympathetic but practical.

“She’s out with the flu, as are half the nursing staff. I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with some new faces.”

That explained Nurse Unfriendly from the waiting room.

“Oh. Okay.”

Before he could say any more, the doctor was gone. He returned a few minutes later, scanning a page of notes which he set down on the table next to the bed.

“Sorry for the delay. The computer system is having a few hiccups. We’ve been forced to go old-school with pen and paper. Now, let’s get you on the bed. You’ve got your IV line in… Nope. You haven’t. We’ll get the nurse in to get you all kitted out. Best sleep of your life, I promise.”

Already uneasy, Zain pushed himself up onto the bed and swung his legs around. The nurse bustled in, a tray in her hand, and the doctor turned to her.

“Good, you’re here. Augustine doesn’t have his IV line in yet.”

“I’ll get right on that, Doctor,” she said through gritted teeth.

Sensing the room was already tense, Zain didn’t bother to correct the doctor on his fake name. Austin, Augustine—what did it matter? He offered his arm up readily to the nurse, trying to seem like the model patient.

“Any concerns about today’s procedure?” the doctor asked, busying himself setting out equipment and donning gloves.

“No. I don’t think so.”

Zain felt like this wasn’t how things were meant to go before a medical procedure. He’d have liked more explanations of what they were doing. But the more he talked, the more likely it was that he’d slip up and give the game away. Keeping his mouth shut was the lesser of many evils.

“Alright, then. Let’s get this show on the road. Sedation, coming right up. You won’t remember a thing.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Zain watched the doctor hand the nurse a syringe. That was quickly followed by a cold sensation that washed up his arm from where she’d placed the IV line.

He felt a hand pat his knee as a distant, disembodied voice said, “Helping create new life—isn’t that what this job is all about?”

There was just enough time to think ‘huh?’ before the lights went out.

Benard’s morning was off to a bad start, and it was only eight a.m. Kyrian stood at the door to his home office, tearful, his lower lip wobbling, all but wringing his hands.

“I’m really sorry, Mr. Royl, but I can’t do this anymore. I have to hand in my notice. I’ll stay until the end of the week, but that’s all I can do.”

Benard stood up from his desk and crossed to the door.

“If you need more money, we can discuss it.”

Kyrian was shaking his head before Benard had even stopped talking.

“It’s not that. You know it’s not.”

He glanced back across the corridor behind him to where Luke was playing in the middle of the lounge, oblivious to their conversation.

“It’s too hard. I’m so sorry. I can’t watch him go through this, getting sicker and sicker…” Kyrian blinked furiously, a few tears escaping as he refused to meet Benard’s gaze.

“I understand.” Of course he did. He wouldn’t wish this reality on anyone, and he wouldn’t force anyone to li