Chapter 2
Nathaniel
Bah-humbug.
I flopped down in Mum’s overstuffed chair and pulled my legs to my chest with a melodramatic sigh.
Even though the house smelled of pumpkin spice and cinnamon, and the ten-foot Christmas tree was decked out in glittering lights and shimmery garland, and my sisters had been singing non-stop fucking Christmas carols…
I just wasn’t feeling the holiday spirit this year, and it was bumming me out.
Usually I’d spend it with the boyfriend-of-the-month, but I’d been single for far too long and lately, even hookups weren’t as enticing as they used to be.
There was no spark, so how could there ever be a flame?
Maybe I was finally tired of whoring around.
Maybe it was time to turn my shit around and put my good looks to good use and hook myself an Alpha.
Maybe it’s time to settle down, hmm, peanut?
I rubbed my belly to comfort my little one.
Wasn’t the baby’s fault I’d gone and fucked up—and it wasn’t even that big of a fuck-up, because I’d always wanted kids.
It just happened a little sooner than I’d expected.
Yeah, and with some random Alpha at the strip club. You’re a wreck.
I grew up in a huge family, surrounded by warmth and love and acceptance. I’d always been free to be myself, and my two moms had always been completely supportive of me and my choices, no matter how outlandish they tended to be.
Until now.
Let’s just say that telling Mum and Ma that I was pregnant with some fly-by-night businessman’s baby didn’t go over as well as I’d imagined. I mean, not that I blamed them. Their son was a hot mess on a good day, and now I was a hot mess with a plus-one for the next eighteen or so years. Great job!
Worse? For the past two weeks, they’d both been up my ass, nagging me about settling down. “At least try!” Ma had exclaimed. “Pull yourself out of this funk and meet someone, Nathaniel!” Like it was that easy. Right.
What they didn’t seem to understand was, in a world full of Alpha-holes, it’d be damn near impossible to find one who would accept a pregnant Omega. The baby wouldn’t be his. There would always be that disconnect, and I didn’t want that for my peanut.
Maybe we’d both be better off if I waited until the little one was two or three. Then I could pass it off as an “oops” from my past and move past it. But let’s face it—I couldn’t go three years without sex. Just wasn’t possible.
I groaned out loud. Fuck me…
Ma must’ve heard me, because she came puttering into the living room in her frilly pink apron, looking the picture of a sweet, domestic housewife. Hah! Ma was more Alpha than any of the men I’d dated, and she didn’t care what people thought.
She pointed a spatula at me in warning. “There will be absolutely no moping this holiday season, Nathaniel. None. Do I make myself clear?”
I groaned again. “Yes, Ma.”
She tutted at me. “Your mother and I want what’s best for you, and since you went and got yourself knocked up, what’s best for you is finding a handsome Alpha who will put a ring on it.” I choked on a guffaw, but she wasn’t joking. Her blue eyes were sharp enough to cut steel.
“You know I love you, and I’ll love that little peanut with everything I am, but honey, you really do need to find yourself a mate.
I’m not saying that you’re not capable of raising a child on your own.
Your Mum could’ve raised any one of you kids on her lonesome, but that’s the thing—she didn’t have to.
She had me to lean on, and I want that for you.
Being a parent is one of the hardest things in the world.
Rewarding and fun, sure, but it’s damn hard. ”
“Yeah… I just…” I trailed off, not really having a counter-argument. I slumped back into the cushions of the chair, chagrined. “I don’t know.”
“I do know, honey. Now I’ve been talking to a friend of mine, that sweet young woman from art class?” She looked at me pointedly. “And she happens to think her little brother is exactly what you need in your life.”
“No thanks.”
She huffed. “Oh, I wouldn’t pass this one up, if I were you. He’s just your type. Tall, dark and brooding with big, well-worn hands.” She winked at me and my face went up in flames. God, she knew me well. I might as well have “sucker” stamped on my forehead. “So yes?”
I wrinkled my nose and looked down at my stomach. I wasn’t really showing yet. It could probably be passed off as being a little on the pudgy side. I could have a night of no-strings-attached fun with a sexy guy… Not like I could get pregnant, right?
“Fine. One date,” I agreed. “Nothing’s gonna come of it, though.”
“You never know,” Ma tittered with a twinkle in her eye. “It might just be a Christmas miracle.”
Yeah right, when pigs fly.