“Love you both too,” Greg said, his eyes warm.
He kissed Dale, and Dale relaxed against him, at peace with the world.
Omega’s Stepbrother
Description
Beaten and lied to by his previous alpha, Wyatt Fleming has been recovering from his past: by running his own restaurant, and being the best dad to his daughter, Hazel. No one knows his deepest secret: Nine years ago, he kissed his alpha stepbrother in the family's piano room.
Raph has never forgotten that kiss. Not when Wyatt had looked at him, wide-eyed and beautiful. Nine years ago, their grandmother caught him kissing Wyatt. Wyatt had fled, entangled himself in an abusive relationship. By not rescuing him, Raph had helped ruin his brother's life.
Saddled with guilt, Raph wishes he had fewer regrets: he should've stood up to Grandma, should've gotten himself out of debt, and stayed with the one omega he could never let go.
When their father throws a party, Raph finds Wyatt in heat. Their simmering embers kindle into a roaring flame; after a steamy night together, Wyatt discovers that he's pregnant. Raph refuses to fail his omega again. Wyatt refuses to abandon his innocent child. As their relationship intensifies, both men face the very real danger... of their family and pasts coming to pull them apart.
Warnings: Past domestic/emotional abuse, violence, kidnapping, self-harm, panic attacks
1
Wyatt
Meadowfall, California
“Please tell me Raph won’t be there.”
Wyatt Fleming cringed at his bedroom mirror, his stomach flipping. Who was he kidding? His father’s party was the news of the entire town—everyone loved Chief Fleming. Of course his stepbrother would be there.
“Raph?” his best friend asked. Sam studied Wyatt’s reflection, the fading evening sunlight casting shadows on them both. “Wait, you mean the brother you never talk about?”
“Stepbrother. There’s a difference.”
Sam’s eyebrows inched up, waiting for an explanation.
Well, shit. Now Wyatt had to get Sam’s attention off his brother. Stepbrother. He was screwed either way, and not because Sam would find out at some point.
Raph was Wyatt’s biggest secret—no one was ever supposed to know.
“Our parents married when I was three. He was seven. We grew up as brothers.”
“Yeah, and?” Sam studied him. “That’s common. Stepsiblings are common. I probably know ten other people whose parents divorced and remarried.”
Not the point, Sam. Wyatt stalled, looking at the framed pictures of Hazel and him on the wall, and the stacks of music scores on his bookshelf. The retro-colored prints of Wy’s Drive-In framed in a four-photo cascade beside his bed.
Except the more he remembered of Raph—broad shoulders, tanned, his voice a mellow rumble—the more his heat ached through his body. What kind of timing is this?
Of course he couldn’t just attend a party with his stepbrother; his heat had to crash down on him, too. As though his body knew the sort of things he’d thought about Raph, and had fully prepared him for the party... in the worst possible way.
It’s been almost a decade... You’d think it would’ve faded by now.
Even as he thought that, his body ached. Raph, with his full lips and his confident grin. Raph, with his strong hands that had helped Wyatt with piano practice. Raph, with his sea-blue eyes, so sharp they could pierce through you, read all your thoughts, and sweep you off your feet.
At least, Wyatt remembered that about him.
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “What happened between you and him? It’s not like you and Max, is it?”
“Ha! Raph?”
Raph was a hundred-percent perfect. Wyatt hadn’t met anyone else like him.
Growing up, Wyatt couldn’t recall a time when Raph hadn’t been there for him, sharing his cookies, bringing him and Penny out to the backyard to play make-believe. They’d sat together and ripped open their Christmas presents, and they’d trooped along with Dad to the police station, so Chief Fleming could show off his children.
At fourteen, Wyatt had presented as omega, and the scents he’d grown up smelling—Raph’s teak scent—had suddenly appealed far too much to him.
Even if Raph was his brother.
After Raph, Max had been... brutal. Max had been snide and rough, and he’d torn apart Wyatt’s pride like Wyatt had wanted him to, because... well. Wyatt hadn’t thought he’d deserved his pride anymore.
You have a twisted little soul, don’t you? Max had whispered. Think anyone out there likes you? You’re wrong. You’re worse than the shit on the bottom of their shoe.
“Max was punishment after Raph,” Wyatt blurted, a weight rolling off his chest. Then he froze. Crap.
Sam’s eyes grew wide. “After... Raph? You know I was kidding about your brother, Wy.”
I know now. But the damage was done, when Sam stared suspiciously at Wyatt, the cogs of his mind working. Wyatt groaned, pressing his face against the mirror. His cheeks burned. So much for keeping secrets.
“Wait, what happened between you and your brother? I mean, seriously.”
“Nothing happened.”
“It’s not... Hazel, is it?”
“Fuck, no!” Wyatt jerked away from the mirror, his stomach flipping like a struggling fish. “Hazel is Max’s daughter. I didn’t—Things didn’t go that far with Raph.”
There. That was the first time he’d said it aloud. Wyatt’s cheeks scorched; he looked down at the swimming trunks in his hands, unable to meet Sam’s gaze.
“Oh, gods,” Sam whispered. “How far did you go?”
Pretty damn far. Nine years ago, Raph’s hand had slipped between Wyatt’s legs, his lips soft and damp on Wyatt’s mouth. It had been three seconds of heaven, and Grandma had crashed into the piano room like the angel of justice. Her wrinkled face had gone ashen, then puce with fury.
“Far enough that my grandmother shrieked,” Wyatt muttered. Grandma had never liked him; he’d broken a family heirloom when he’d first met her, and she’d hated him ever since. “She threatened to raise hell. I left.”
Sam pursed his lips, his eyes dark with concern. “You were nineteen then?”
“Eighteen.”
“So that’s... that’s when you met Max.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Honey.” Sam pulled Wyatt into a fierce hug, his thin arms clasped around Wyatt’s back. His dahlia scent wafted over Wyatt, omega-sweet, and Wyatt leaned into him. “Sorry, I didn’t know. I’m
