Olivier whined. “I wanted your knot!”
“I can’t hurt you, okay?” Eric studied him worriedly, all his senses jangling with alarm. “That time you took a whole knot—it was outside you before that.”
“Yeah.” Olivier squirmed. “I know you’re judging me for it—”
“I’m not.” Eric gritted his teeth. “Did it hurt?”
Olivier shrugged. Eventually, he nodded.
Eric’s chest squeezed. “Who did it to you? Were you—Did you want it to happen?”
It took the longest time for Olivier to answer. He looked everywhere but Eric. With each moment that passed, the dread in Eric’s stomach grew. “Ollie. Answer me.”
Olivier bit his lip. “I don’t know,” he said eventually. “I don’t remember.”
“How can you not remember something like that?” Eric asked, incredulous. “You were in pain, damn it!”
Olivier sighed. He turned and pulled a pillow across his face, his voice muffling. “It was an ex, okay? I hate talking about him.”
Eric froze, staring at Ollie’s bare chest. He hadn’t known about that trauma. Shouldn’t Ollie be afraid of sex? “So the things you do with me...”
“I want that,” Ollie said, lifting the pillow to peer fearfully at Eric, as though he thought Eric might pull away like he had with the knot. “Please don’t stop.”
“You... trust me not to hurt you?” Eric asked.
Olivier huffed, amusement darting through his eyes. “Yeah. I trust you. You didn’t even have to ask that, Eric.”
Eric wanted to probe further. He wanted to know every single detail, so he could hurt whoever had hurt Ollie. But if Ollie didn’t want to talk about it, forcing him to would be a dick move.
Eric sighed, burying his face in Ollie’s chest. “Okay. We won’t talk any more about it.”
“Thank you.”
It wasn’t like Eric deserved thanks for it. He hadn’t stopped that alpha from hurting Ollie. Hadn’t been there for the omega he’d promised to protect.
Eric stroked Ollie’s hair, watching as Ollie settled back on top of the pillows, his body limp with the exhaustion that crept back.
The pregnancy had been taking its toll on him over the past month. Some days, when Eric dropped by the shop, Olivier looked dead on his feet. Eric had brought him home, given him a shower, and tucked him to bed.
Other days, days like today, Ollie would beg to be fucked. Eric would give in, and they’d lie together in bed, Eric aghast at how much time he was spending in bed with his brother, both of them naked. Alice had died ten weeks ago.
The memories of Alice still sliced Eric’s heart raw. Sometimes, he wanted to lash out at something, someone. Except he’d end up hurting people. So he’d turned to Olivier and buried his feelings, buried his cock into his omega.
It probably wasn’t healthy that way, either.
“That baby mine?” Eric asked.
Olivier opened his mouth to answer, then realized what Eric was asking. He shut his mouth, turning away.
Eric narrowed his eyes. “You know my answer is the same, whether it’s a yes or no. Why won’t you tell me?”
Olivier flinched. Eric felt a stab of guilt. “Sorry,” he said, reaching over to stroke Ollie’s waist. “I just... I don’t get it. It’s no big deal to me. You’re carrying a baby. I’ll help you care for it.”
Ollie’s gaze flew up. “You—you will?” he asked, his voice choked. “Even if it’s not yours?”
“Yeah.” Eric slid his knuckles down Olivier’s belly, stroking him there. There was a child inside, possibly someone else’s. But that was how Ollie felt when he looked at Jenn, wasn’t it? A child he didn’t bear. It wasn’t fair to let Ollie take Jenn’s burden, and it wasn’t fair for Eric to never know if this child was his.
But maybe that made things even between them.
“You shouldn’t. It’s not your child.” Olivier sighed.
It wasn’t his? Eric stared at Olivier’s belly, disappointment filtering through his veins. And there he’d been hoping... Well, he’d wanted it to be his baby inside Olivier. “Oh.”
Eric let his hand fall away from Olivier’s abdomen, unsure if he wanted to touch his omega there. It wasn’t his child. He’d said he’d care for it, but... it still wasn’t his.
“Go home, Eric. You should be spending time with your daughter, not me.”
Guilt crept through Eric’s gut, cold and oily. He thought about Jenn’s toothy smile, then Ollie, with his soft, shy gaze. He shouldn’t be thinking about Ollie’s baby, when he had his own to return to.
Alice’s voice murmured in his head, Our daughter is yours too, you know. Take better care of her.
Yeah, he knew that. Jenn had looked far too much like Alice this morning, and maybe Eric had been hiding from Jenn, and his grief.
He still couldn’t escape it entirely. When he looked down at his left hand, his bare ring finger itched. Should he have waited to fuck Ollie? Maybe. Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten involved, to properly respect Alice’s death.
Eric lay back and dragged his arm across his eyes, his chest suddenly empty.
Olivier nudged Eric’s calf with his toes. “Go back to Jenn.”
“Guess I should.”
Olivier narrowed his eyes. “So why aren’t you?”
“It’s not like you have a chil—Ah, shit. You’re pregnant. Sorry.”
Olivier clicked his tongue. “You have a child. Care for her, Eric. Do you need me to chase you out with a broomstick?”
“Would be easier if she’s here,” Eric blurted. “So I’m not traveling between you and her, you know?”
Olivier bit his lip. “I don’t want to be the reason Jenn’s not getting any care.”
“Mom’s with her. And probably Cole, too.” Eric made a face. “Cole likes her a lot. Think that bastard’s more interested in a baby than an omega.”
“I didn’t know that.” Olivier squirmed onto his side, touching his fingertips to Eric’s chest. “He always seemed so... young to me.”
“He’s grown up over the years.” Eric grinned lopsidedly. “Our little bro’s all mature now, you know.”
Olivier sighed. “That’s good to hear.”
Eric wrapped his arm around Ollie, pulling him close.
“About... you moving in,” Ollie began.
Eric perked
