Raph snorted. “If I had time to find someone else, I’d have spent it sleeping.”
A tiny laugh bubbled up in Wyatt’s chest. “So... are you... are we...”
Raph slipped his arms around Wyatt’s back, pulling him close. Wyatt buried his face in Raph’s shoulder, breathing in his teak scent. Raph smelled like home. “You know the stakes now, Wy. I lost my investments, too. If I quit my job, I’ll need to average fifty grand a month. Not sure how to do that.”
“I could take out a loan.”
“I looked. Grandma’s put a hold on your credit, too.”
“What the hell?” How did she have that power? “Is that even legal?”
Raph shrugged, pulling Wyatt closer, his strong arms wrapping around Wyatt’s back. “I’m not surprised anymore. Just wondering what the best course of action is. If... if you still want me as your alpha, with a debt like that. I can’t solve it anytime soon.”
Wyatt’s heart skipped. This was happening too fast, too easily. Raph... cared for him. And their baby. He’d skipped work, probably, and they were sitting in Wyatt’s apartment like delinquents, like when they’d skipped classes in middle school to rescue a baby bird on the ground.
“I don’t see how you’d want me, Raph. There are so many omegas out there. Someone who isn’t going to drag you down with a family.”
Raph met his eyes, his hands cupping Wyatt’s jaw. “I don’t care about the other omegas. Do you... want to be my omega?”
He said it with such trepidation, that Wyatt knew he couldn’t hold Raph’s absence against him. Raph had lied, and Raph had kept secrets from him. He had a debt neither of them could pay off. But he cared for Wyatt, he accepted Wyatt and his babies, and Wyatt needed to belong to him.
So he nodded, burying his face in Raph’s shoulder. “I don’t see how you could want me, Raph. We saw Max on Saturday—”
Raph stiffened against him. “You saw Max?”
“In the grocery store. Hazel saw him. I... I froze up. She pulled me into the employee’s bathroom. He followed us.”
“Fuck that bastard,” Raph growled, his arms tensing.
“I just... I’m so broken, Raph.” Wyatt looked down at his hands, ashamed. “I can’t... I can’t even care for myself. I wish I could stand up to Max, but I just... freeze up when I think about trying. Hazel has to do so much because I can’t.”
Raph narrowed his eyes. “That’s not your damn fault.”
“I knew what Max would do to me, and I moved in with him.”
“If anyone says you deserve it, I’ll punch their heads in.” Raph bared his teeth, eyes flashing. “What happened in the piano room was something we did by choice. It wasn’t wrong. Don’t believe that bitch, damn it. You didn’t deserve the shit Max did to you.”
Wyatt thought about Max, and Grandma, and trembled.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” Raph muttered. “They hurt you, Wy. I should’ve stopped it, and I never did. It’s... it’s why I never showed up for so long. I just... couldn’t face you as an alpha.”
Wyatt shook his head, slipping his arms around Raph’s back. “You’ve done plenty, Raph. Thanks for just being here.”
Raph pressed a kiss to his temple, his forehead crinkled. “I promise I’ll be better about staying around. I promise I’m not gonna fail you again.”
“I believe you,” Wyatt said. This, finally, felt right again.
“Does that mean... you’re my omega? For real?” Raph leaned back, looking hopefully into his eyes.
Wyatt’s heart thudded. There was no answer that would truly show how he felt, except one. He reached down, circling Raph’s wrist with his fingers. Then he brought Raph’s forearm up to his lips, pressed kisses along his skin.
Raph froze, his eyes growing wide. “Wy—”
Wyatt nuzzled the scent gland at his wrist. “You asked if I wanted to be your omega. Will this prove it?”
“Gods, I love you,” Raph whispered. Wyatt’s heart swelled. He loved this man. They might be stepbrothers, and they might have believed their relationship was wrong. But Raph had stayed, comforted Wyatt, had returned after Wyatt tried to send him away.
His skin was smooth against Wyatt’s tongue, soft against his teeth. Wyatt bit down lightly on Raph’s scent gland, meeting his gaze. Raph watched with disbelieving eyes, his breath shallow.
“Okay?” Wyatt said.
“You don’t have to ask.”
“I want to,” he said. “Someone gave me that choice once.”
Raph smiled, his eyes warm. “Yeah, I want this.”
Wyatt bit down, hard enough to break skin. Raph jerked beneath him, hissing, his chest heaving. “Fuck!”
He watched Raph, slowly releasing Raph’s wrist. Where he’d bitten, there was now a line of pink teeth marks where the skin had torn, and tiny droplets of blood starting to well up.
“Mine,” Wyatt whispered, dragging his own wrist down Raph’s forearm, marking his alpha with his scent.
Raph groaned, leaning in to kiss him. Musk coiled from his skin. Wyatt met him halfway, opened for Raph, and Raph slid into his mouth.
“Gods, I swear I’ll never leave you again,” Raph whispered, claiming him. He dragged his own wrists down Wyatt’s jaw, his throat, down his arms and his sides, to his belly. Then Raph paused, his palms on Wyatt’s abdomen. “Is the baby mine?”
Wyatt held his breath. Raph had kissed his belly, without even knowing for sure whose child it was. And that was generous of him. “If it isn’t yours... would you mind?”
“I’d love it all the same,” Raph said, pressing their foreheads together. “And I’d treat it as my own.”
Wyatt brushed a slow, sweet kiss to his lips. “It’s yours, Raph. I slept with no one else but you.” His face burned. “I said it so you wouldn’t feel obliged to stay—”
Raph kissed him harder, hot and hungry. “Don’t ever—” Raph kissed him again “—think I’m gonna—” another kiss “—leave you. Not over whose baby it is, and not ever.”
Wyatt sagged into his embrace, his heart pattering. Raph’s teak scent enveloped him, and this was good, this little bubble they were in. “Does
