CHAPTER EIGHT - Ozias
Jason snored on the cot beside me. It echoed in the small office so that it seemed there were two of him.
We’d got stuck with a second shift because the team which was scheduled called in sick.
It happened often this time of year, and Jason and I picked up a lot of extra time since Alphas rarely became ill.
We’d slipped away after our last shift and brought some dinner to Lyla.
She wasn’t there, though, and Jason left dragging his feet down the corridor.
He tried to convince me to go to Primrose House, but it was one thing to visit someone in the hospital while on the clock, and another thing to drive the ambulance to see a person at their house.
Jason gnashed his teeth, stuffed some food into his gut, and took the first nap. As much as he was pissed at me, I knew it was more because he didn’t get to see Lyla. Because even though I told myself she wasn’t for me, I couldn’t get her out of my head.
Her beautiful smile, her luscious long legs, curves going for miles. Fuck. I could still smell her. A honey-like fruity scent with the warm edge of bourbon and something creamy. I wanted to crawl up between her legs and let myself drown in her perfume.
My cock twitched, stiffening in my pants. Damn. The last thing I needed was to be walking around with a hard-on all night.
Maybe Jason and I ought to stop by Primrose House. The idea of sharing an Omega did appeal to me. It would strengthen our bond as pack brothers, and I’d know our mate would be taken care of when I couldn’t be around. He could occupy her mouth while I gripped her slender hips and…
I growled at myself. Lyla was not that type of woman.
Hell. Now I was protecting her from my imaginary horny self. This wasn’t good.
My cell vibrated from where I’d plugged it in on the desk, and I glanced over to see it was my mother.
Not to wake Jason, I nabbed my phone and took it with me into the garage before swiping the screen to answer. “Hello, Mama.”
“Good evening, gios.” My family always spoke Greek when it was just us. “How have you been?”
“Good, Mama. Just on an extra shift right now. A storm is rolling in. It’ll probably hit Chicago too, so make sure the pantry is stocked.
” I leaned against the ambulance and stared out the garage window at the blowing snow against the night sky.
It was going to be a big one. Hopefully folks stayed in, because the ambulance wasn’t the greatest at driving through snow.
“Always looking out for us, so sweet.” Mother crooned. Though I loved her, that tone meant she wanted something. “You’ll still be joining us for New Year’s Day, won’t you?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Jason and I took the day off so we could drive down and spend the whole day there.”
“Oh… Jason is coming?” Her voice got a little more tense. My family weren’t big fans of Jason, but no one else in the world got me like he did. He was my pack brother, and I wouldn’t leave him out of any aspect of my life.
“Yes, you knew that.” I’d told her last month.
With our big family, it took a lot of planning to arrange a twelve course dinner, especially on a holiday like Epiphany.
Most of my family only went to church on December twenty-fifth.
Our day to celebrate was January first. We’d exchange gifts and eat a lot of food.
“I will have to seat him elsewhere at the table, because I’ve already made the seating plan.”
“That’s fine.” As the eldest son, I was seated near the head of the table to the right of my father. Jason usually sat beside me, but this meant my mother had put someone else there. I already knew what was coming and inwardly sighed.
“Good. The Alexpoulos family is joining us this year, and their youngest daughter, Thea has come of age.” My mother had good intentions, but she sounded like a car salesperson.
“She’s a beautiful young Omega and smart as well.
She speaks five languages and has studied art in France.
I think the two of you would get along very well. ”
But Thea wasn’t a blonde bombshell with her own fashion business and a heart as big and bright as her soul.
I shouldn’t dismiss this Omega. At least this time my parents thought to set me up with someone with brains. The last two thought Chicago was its own state.
“Thea sounds like a nice young woman. It will also be nice to see Christos and Nico again. I think it’s been about twelve years since we’ve vacationed with the Alexpoulos family.”
“Yes, about that. Both of them have married and had children, but they’re in Greece. It will just be Thea and her parents joining us.”
Meaning it will be my responsibility to entertain Thea, and every family member in the room will be watching us with anticipation. I loathed being put on stage. Jason usually helped with that feeling. He didn’t mind the spotlight, but he wasn’t the eldest son of the Vakalis family.
I rolled my shoulders, trying to shift the weight that pressed down on them.
I could already feel my father’s judging gaze.
Most of the time, he was fine, but when it came to the family line, he refused to see things any other way.
When I was younger and rejected the first Omega they’d introduced me to, I dared to tell him I wanted to marry for love.
He threatened to disown me if I didn’t take a proper Greek Omega as a mate.
Jason had told me that my father didn’t mean it, but I knew he did. Father saw the continuation of the family line as my duty, and love was not mandatory for that to happen.
Another voice spoke to my mother in the background, and she covered her phone as she responded. She came back on and cleared her voice. “Your grandmother wants to speak to you. Take care, gios. Be careful working out there in the storm.”
A smile lifted my lips hearing that my grandmother was there.
My father’s parents lived with my parents for part of the year, and their stays have been getting longer.
Not that anyone would admit it, but they were getting old, and they were eagerly awaiting great-grandchildren.
I had two younger sisters, and one of them was engaged, but even if she had kids, they wouldn’t have the Vakalis name. The responsibility was still on me.
“Thanks, Mama. Have a good night.”
The phone was handed off and there was a rustle folded by a squeak of what probably was a chair as my grandmother sat down. “Ozias! Chara mou. I have missed you.”
“I miss you too, Yaya. How have you been?”
“My joints are stiff. The winter is cold this year. I told your grandfather we need to go someplace hot like Fiji or Bora Bora, but he is stubborn and ignores the fact his legs are so skinny now, he needs to eat more and have a blanket across his lap all the time.” She gave a little snort, and I laughed.
My grandparents were the most wonderful couple.
Best friends and so in love, even in their winter years.
“The last I saw of Pappous, he was marching around and barking orders at the workers building the pool. His legs might be skinny, but they’re still powerful.
” My parents installed an indoor pool this year, and having been involved in construction for most of his life, my grandfather still believed he knew it all.
Though later in the fall, he admitted to me that he learned a lot about new building techniques from the crew and was proud to still be learning something new.
I loved him all the more for it. “It’s all the Moussaka he eats. ”
“No matter if they're powerful, Fiji still would be warmer.” My grandmother huffed and chuckled. “Enough about us. Are you getting enough food? Eating stuff to keep you warm?”
“Yes, of course. I bought the ingredients to make spanakopita tomorrow. I haven’t had one since I saw you last month.”
“Good boy. I’ll make you and Jason kayanas when you come to visit, and give you tsoureki to take home with you. Alphas like you need lots of food.” It was her belief through and through, and Jason was more than happy to let her feed us. “Now I need to talk to you about love.”
“Me?” While she went along with my parents when pairing me up with Omegas, she didn’t push nearly as hard.
“Yes, I had a dream last night. A foretelling,” she stated with a growing excitement in her voice. “You will meet your mate and, surrounded by snow, you will fall madly in love with her.”
My shoulders sagged. My grandmother had vivid dreams which she believed were true, and sometimes, it was astonishing how she did predict what was to come.
She had whispered to me she knew I wouldn’t be a doctor, and I would save many more lives since I didn’t choose that path.
She also knew Jason would be my pack brother.
But now me finding my mate? It seemed she thought Thea was going to be the Omega for me too.
“Don’t resist it, Ozias. You always put others first. Let the madness take you.”
I ran a hand through my hair and swallowed a groan. “You wish me to go mad, Yaya? I will just let Jason sing me that entire album he wrote as a teenager about all the girls he loves. It’s incredibly bad and would drive me out of my mind.”
She laughed. “Oh, chara mou. I do hope you’re bringing that handsome young Alpha on New Year’s Day. I love his company. But heed me, allow yourself to love, Ozias.”
“Jason is coming.” I grinned. “So have you met Thea? Anything you can tell me about her that Mama hasn’t?”
“Thea?” My grandmother paused, humming to herself. “I don’t think I’ve met the girl. I assume that’s the Alexpoulos Omega?”
“Speaks five languages and likes art,” I added with no enthusiasm.
“Oh, that’s lovely. I would like someone to accompany me to the art galleries here. Perhaps she is the girl I saw in the snow with you.”
If my future mate did that, I would love her all the more for it. There was part of me that believed in my grandmother’s dreams, but logic said it was silly. I’d give Thea a chance though, but falling madly in love? Not when it already felt like a business transaction.
“Mind you, I didn’t see her face. She was bright as a star. Almost blinding.”
So what she really meant was it was her great hope I’d find a mate, any mate. I didn’t doubt she wanted me to be happy, and she believed having a family was the path to that, but the suffocating weight of duty wasn’t about madness. It was about resigning myself to how my life must be.
“I will be on the look out for my star, Yaya. Right now, I need to get back to work. I’m excited to see everyone on New Year’s Day.”
“Yes, of course, chara mou. You and Jason are angels with the lives you save. I’m so very proud of you.” The warmth of her love spread through me, and I smiled. “If I dream again, I will call you. Give Jason my love and tell him he must sit beside me this year. I will feed him well.”
Chuckling, I nodded and headed for the door to the office. “I will, Yaya. I love you. You and Pappous stay warm and take care.”
“I love you too, Ozias. Good night.”
I ended the call as I entered the office just in time for the radio to crackle and the dispatcher to come on. Jason jerked awake with the noise as I plugged the address for the call into my GPS.
“What are you smiling about?” Jason stood and stretched before grabbing his jacket.
I grabbed my coat and keys. “Just talked to Yaya. She wants you to sit beside her on New Year’s Day.”
“Like I’d sit anywhere else.” He snorted. “Yaya always gives me extra helpings and sneaks me extra shots of ouzo under the table.”
We laughed as we trotted into the garage to the ambulance.
As much as the rest of my family was ambivalent toward Jason, my grandparents always loved him as they loved me.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I adored my grandparents and aspired to have a relationship like theirs, I would do whatever they wanted for the sake of their fondness for Jason.
Whether the dream be true or not, for Yaya, I’d dare madness and give love a chance. In the snow, I’d search out my star.