Chapter 2
2
“ A s you can see, we have absolutely excellent facilities here. All our omegas are offered every comfort in their special time and are treated with dignity and respect while their well-being is our highest priority.”
Corbyn Stone resisted rolling his eyes as he was shown yet another room that was delightfully decorated in the softest shades of blue and purple.
The manager of the hospital facility, Blair Peters, was giving him a personal tour.
He was clearly itching to get his hands on some of Corbyn’s millions, but Corbyn wasn’t in the mood to share.
There was something off about the place.
Corbyn had felt it from the moment he’d stepped inside, and the only reason he hadn’t walked away from Blair mid-sentence and left was because he needed to find out what was setting his wolf on edge.
“I understand this facility has a contract with the Omega Rescue Squad, is that right? You care for any of the omegas who might be with child when they are found?”
“Yes, yes we do.” Blair was clearly trying to work out where Corbyn’s ideologies were.
Corbyn was known as an astute businessman to most, so it was clear Blair thought Corbyn’s question was because he was worried about the facility’s balance sheets.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
“Honestly, the contract doesn’t take up a lot of our resources. Obviously, we have to make sure that these abused young men are taken in and cared for. But our focus in those cases is to ensure we provide a good home for the child once they’ve been born.”
Blair nudged Corbyn’s bicep with his shoulder.
“We have an excellent waiting list of highly eligible couples who hold our facility in the highest regard. If it was legal to sell those children, we’d make a fortune.” He chuckled.
Corbyn glared.
“We do have an assistance package for the omega once they’ve been discharged. With the baby no longer their concern, we often have cases under that contract that don’t even have to stay the night, so they don’t take up much of our staff’s time.”
Corbyn wasn’t sure he was hearing correctly.
He was never going to give birth, but surely it took longer than a matter of hours for anyone to recover from such an ordeal.
“Do you mean to tell me the omegas are forced to give up their babies? You’re talking about the ones who have been rescued and are under the Omega Rescue contract?”
“Oh, it’s just routine, and the absolute best thing for the baby, honestly,” Blair said quickly in that smarmy way that made Corbyn want to punch his head in.
“There have been countless studies that have been done, proving that omegas are simply not equipped to deal with looking after a baby by themselves without the support of an alpha. And of course the boys that come in through the rescue operation have been so badly abused, usually by multiple alphas, it’s not like any decent alpha is going to take them on and be prepared to look after somebody else’s child.”
You sanctimonious, bigoted, pig-footed asshole…
“You’ll find we have a very efficient system in place,” Blair went on, blithely unaware of where Corbyn’s thoughts were taking him.
“Obviously the omega is technically given a choice, but we do insist that they sign the papers relinquishing their baby before they’re allowed to leave.”
“Is that right?” Corbyn mentally cursed his brother, Jordan.
Why did you send me on this trip?
This crap is the last thing I need.
“It’ll be fine,” Jordan had said.
“Honestly, I hear this place does really good work in conjunction with the Omega Rescue team – you should seriously check this place out for yourself.”
Which was why Corbyn was stuffed into a suit because apparently billionaires weren’t taken seriously if the clothes they were wearing didn’t cost more than most people made in a year.
Corbyn had just come back from a job with a rescue team and his nerves were frayed from what he’d seen.
It was only Corbyn’s intense desire to use his money to do some good for the poor souls he and the team had found, and others like them, that made him agree to the visit in the first place.
It was people like Blair who made the situation for the omegas all that more difficult.
“I would like to see a copy of your…”
Corbyn broke off as he heard screaming coming from the end of a dimly lit hallway to his left.
“Who’s that? What’s going on down there?”
“Please don’t concern yourself.” Blair tried to grab Corbyn’s arm and turn him down another corridor, but Corbyn evaded his grip.
“We house the Omega Rescues in a separate wing – obviously their distressed state would be far too unsettling for an omega who is giving birth accompanied by their alpha mate. I believe we have one in there who is currently giving birth.
“Some of them are emotionally unstable.
I’m sure you can understand.
While we try to provide an alpha to assist with giving birth, because the rescue omegas haven’t got the bond with that person, birth can be more difficult for them.
It’s such a shame, but of course, we have some excellent facilities here for our more traditional omegas should we say.
If you’d come this way…
”
“I’m going down there,” Corbyn said firmly, striding down the hallway.
As he got closer, he heard another yell and then he distinctly heard, “I am NOT signing that thing. You’re not taking my baby!”
Corbyn’s wolf surged, pushing him to quicken his pace.
Yes, it was an omega in trouble, and Corbyn would always help where he could, but there was something different…
something in that voice that tugged at Corbyn’s heart and punched him in the guts.
Blair was trying to keep up with him.
“It’s really not your concern,” he puffed.
“We’re the money men who make things happen, am I right? Our trained medical staff know how to handle an overwrought omega. Honestly, there is nothing to worry about.”
“I’ll check that for myself,” Corbyn said grimly.
He gently opened a door to see two women, one of them clearly trying to help an omega in the middle of childbirth, another woman almost hitting the omega with her clipboard.
Corbyn was struck by how starkly different the room was from the ones he’d been shown.
The room was stark white.
Discarded plugs suggested that equipment had been moved out of the room.
The omega was naked on a plain white sheet – no blanket, not even a top sheet to give him any privacy.
“I won’t sign them.” The omega’s whole body was straining, his dark hair limp around his face, his legs wide, sweat beading across his brow.
“Omega, your baby’s coming,” The woman at the head of the bed said softly.
“You need to focus on the birth…”
“I am NOT signing those papers. You’re not taking my baby…” The omega was grunting as his extended stomach rippled.
“I am telling you for the last time,” the woman with the clipboard said.
“You have no fucking choice. Unless an alpha is gonna magically walk in here and claim you and the baby, and we all know that’s never going to happen for someone like you, you have to give that baby up the second it is born. You cannot be allowed to possibly impede the bond genuine and decent parents might want with that newborn.”
Corbyn snarled as the bigotry and hatred from the woman’s voice rang around the room.
Both women immediately looked up.
The omega looked up, too, but then he winced, and Corbyn realized he was having another contraction.
“What’s going on here?” Corbyn tried to use a soothing voice.
He understood, although he hadn’t had much experience with it, that for an omega, an alpha’s calm strength helped an omega in distress to regulate their own heart rate and breathing patterns.
“Why hasn’t this man been offered a blanket, some water, or any pain relief?”
“Mr. Stone, sir, there’s honestly nothing for you to worry about.” The woman with the clipboard turned.
Janice.
Corbyn remembered meeting her when he’d first arrived.
“We’re just having a bit of trouble with this omega. He’s one of the rescues, and I’m afraid he doesn’t understand how important it is for his baby’s future to sign these papers.”
“Doesn’t an omega have a legal right to make that choice for themselves regardless of their circumstances?” Corbyn said, moving further into the room, trying not to get distracted by the omega’s huffing and puffing.
He fought not to show surprise as he saw the beginnings of a head starting to appear from between the omega’s legs.
“We take the care of the babies born here very seriously,” Janice said, lifting her chin.
“Our facility has a strict policy that any newborn is not allowed to be taken from here by an omega. It is not safe for the child if an alpha is not present to ensure the baby’s care and well-being.”
Spoken by someone who thinks omegas are nothing more than baby making machines.
“Get away from the bed,” Corbyn said firmly.
“Unless you’re going to tell me I’m not an alpha? Get out of this room, Janice. Something I am sure I heard this omega say from down the hall. Out.” He pointed at the door, and with a sullen look at Blair, Janice scuttled out the door.
“As for you,” Corbyn looked at the other woman.
Her name tag said Mary.
“Are you prepared to offer full assistance to this omega giving birth?”
“Yes, sir,” Mary said quickly.
“But I’m afraid Janice is right, and I’m sure Mr. Peters will confirm it, sir. As much as I don’t like it, this young man is not going to be allowed to keep his child unless…”
“Yes, yes, yes I know, I heard. This omega won’t be allowed to leave this facility with their child unless an alpha claims him while he’s in the middle of giving birth. From memory and what I learned during sex-ed classes, that could be logistically impossible. But one good thing about an alpha is that they know how to improvise.”
Corbyn reached up and felt for the catch of the necklace that he had been given by his cherished omega mother.
She had given it to him when he presented as an alpha for the first time, a gift to give to his intended omega.
It was a tradition among alphas, especially those with an omega parent, to wear the necklace themselves until they passed it on to the one they would claim.
Unsnapping it from his neck, Corbyn moved closer to the bed, looking down at the omega.
The man was slim to the point of emaciation, but his determination to keep his child shone through his pale blue eyes.
“Will you let me put this on you?” he asked quietly, holding up the chain.
“I assume you know what it means?”
The omega’s eyes widened.
“You can’t do that,” he rasped.
“I’m ruined. You heard them. I’m a rescue. The only thing I have in my life is my baby. I won’t let you do that to yourself.”
“Get some drinking water, Mary, would you please?” Corbyn half-turned, asking the nurse who was watching them closely.
“I’ll be two minutes,” she said, hurrying from the room.
Corbyn noticed that Blair had already left.
“I know you’ve got a lot going on right now,” Corbyn winced as the omega hunched over his belly, his shoulder’s shaking with the strain of the push.
“But my wolf tells me you’re mine.”
“What about my baby?” The omega was rocking, and Corbyn longed to help, but until the omega agreed he would not presume to even touch the man’s shoulder.
“Our baby, if you’ll agree.”
“I won’t have another one.” The omega’s head was flung back, his jaw so tight, Corbyn was surprised he didn’t hear teeth break.
“If you want another child, you’re shit out of luck with me. I’m not doing this again.”
“We’ll discuss our future when you’re not giving birth, all right? Let me help you… please? Let me put this on you.”
There was a long moment where Corbyn thought he’d be rejected – but where his words might be lacking, his wolf was communing with the omega’s animal side.
When it came, the nod was short and sharp.
Quickly fastening the necklace around his omega’s neck, Corbyn felt a flash of pride, seeing the gold against the pale skin.
“Thank you,” he said sincerely.
“I’m Corbyn, you are?”
“Shiloh. Oh, my gods.” Shiloh started panting again.
“I need you to breathe,” Corbyn said softly, putting his hand on Shiloh’s shoulder and deliberately slowing his own breathing.
“Nice and calm. Breathe through the pain.”
“You’re doing good, omega,” Mary said coming back into the room with a bottle of water that she gave to Corbyn.
“His name is Shiloh,” Corbyn said.
“Shiloh.” Mary smiled.
“What a lovely name. But come on, you’re at the last bit. You can do this. The head is almost free. Come on. You can do this.”
“I can do it. I can do it.” Shiloh had tears pouring down his face.
“I can do this, I can do this. Don’t touch, I can do this.”
To Corbyn’s shock, Shiloh suddenly doubled over, reaching between his legs just as a head dropped onto the sheet.
The rest of the baby splodged out behind it, and Shiloh quickly scooped the little one into his arms and brought it up to his chest, giving Corbyn his first look at a newborn.
The face was squished, red, and wrinkled, and the whole body seemed to be covered in some sort of slime.
But as Shiloh looked up quickly and offered a shy smile, Corbyn’s future path realigned, and he made his first ever vow.
He would cherish the omega known as Shiloh and their new child forevermore.
Now all he had to do was get to know the man, and that wasn’t going to be easy.