16. Hawthorn – Meaning Contradictions Duality Hope Male energy of opposites
16
HAWTHORN
(brEAD AND CHEESE TREE, MAYFLOWER, THORN APPLE, TREE OF CHASTITY)
MEANING: CONTRADICTIONS; DUALITY; HOPE; MALE ENERGY; UNION OF OPPOSITES
EVERETT
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T ime wasn’t moving fast enough for me. Only a few minutes until the wedding started, and it was still too long.
All I could think about was Ocean and getting lost in those dark eyes as she looked up at me. I wanted to know every thought in her head. Then I wanted to spend several hours between her thighs. Not necessarily in that order.
More than anything, I wanted her to know how deep this was for us. That it wasn’t a game or a PR stunt or anything else. It was forever, because she was our Omega.
But I knew, in the same way I knew that she was mine, she wasn’t ready to hear it. Even if she would believe us before a heat, there were things lurking under the surface she needed to face. If there were monsters that needed defeating, we would do it with her.
Still, the thought of being so close to her and not being able to tell her everything made me itch with frustration. I fucking hated it. I was the steady one. The one of us who struck fear into opponents when needed. The one who could tune out emotions and do the task set in front of me, no matter what it was.
All that evaporated when it came to her.
A firm knock sounded on the door. Cameron peeked outside, and I saw his shoulders stiffen. When he opened it further, I saw why. Frank stood there in his suit, looking nervous.
His nerves were different from the anticipation dancing under my skin. I was on edge because my whole world was going to be walking toward me down the aisle and I didn’t want to do anything but make her feel loved and let her know how much we wanted her. He was nervous because he was going to lose his company and he was holding onto it so tightly he was about to shatter it.
That was the thing he needed to learn. When you held things that close, they broke. Without room to move and grow, whatever means you used to bind it to you would dig in—like barbed wire—until the damage was irreparable. But Frank wasn’t the kind of person to understand that.
“Frank,” Micah said by way of greeting. “Didn’t expect to see you back here.”
“Just wanted to come by and make sure everything was in order.”
The paperwork was with the lawyers. We’d sign everything when we got to the office on Monday. He knew that already, so the words rang false. I kept my voice light with amusement. “Nothing’s changed since the last time we spoke.”
“Right, right.” He cleared his throat. “I also just wanted to thank you for choosing Ocean.”
That… was not what I expected.
“Oh?” Cameron asked. “And why is that?”
Frank shrugged, and something in my gut told me I wasn’t going to like what came next. “Even if it’s only for a year, this is probably the only time she’ll have a relationship, so it’ll be good for her to have it. That’s all.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“She’s…” Frank seemed at a loss for words, and I wasn’t going to supply them. Let him flounder in the silence like a gasping fish for all I cared. He was going to say whatever it was. “She’s not your typical Omega. And I understand why you chose her. Because she was available. But you don’t have to pretend with me. Everyone knows you wouldn’t pick her if you had a choice.”
“Again,” Cameron said, his voice uncharacteristically flat. “Why is that?”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We know her body is a barrier. Lord knows Laura and I have tried to help her, but she’s never been interested. And after you, I doubt there will be anyone else. So thank you. It’s a kindness.”
Red flashed across my vision, and it was only Cameron’s hand in the middle of my chest that stopped me from punching him in the fucking mouth. It was one thing to know they treated her differently because of her body, and another thing to hear it from his lips. The fucker.
Frank looked at me and he looked afraid. Good. I wanted him to be afraid of me. “Let me go, Cam.”
“Are you sure?”
“Let me go,” I repeated.
He stepped away, and I slid my hands into the pockets of my tux, just in case. I approached Frank slowly. “Listen to me very closely, Frank. If I ever hear you, or your wife, ever say anything of the kind about Ocean again, it will not go well for you. Do you understand?”
Swallowing, he stuttered. “The agreement’s been made. You can’t back out.”
“No,” I said. “We can’t. Nor will we. But let me make myself clear. Business is not the only way we can destroy you, and if you ever insult our wife again, I will make sure of it. The only thing Ocean needs to be thankful for is to be free of the two of you and your poisonous outlook.”
He looked confused. “But you can’t possibly want that .”
This time it was Micah who spoke while the hands in my pockets curled into fists. “I suggest you don’t try to tell us what we do and do not want. It’s none of your business. Nor is how we conduct our marriage. The paperwork will be signed on Monday, so unless you have something of substance to tell us, see yourself out. We have a wedding to get ready for.”
I suppressed a smirk. We were already good to go. Had been ready for a while. But he didn’t need to know that.
Frank cleared his throat. “I guess I’ll see you at the reception.”
As soon as the door closed, Cameron groaned. “Any way we could kick him out of the reception? Because I would really, really love not to kill him.”
“I would love to kill him,” I said. “Slowly. With my bare hands.”
The look on Micah’s face stopped me in my tracks. “What?”
I didn’t recall a time ever seeing this kind of grief in his eyes. “Does Ocean think we don’t want her? Because they’ve been saying things like that?”
The words punched me in the gut. No, Ocean wasn’t thin. She wasn’t what most of the world would call a ‘normal,’ Omega. What did I care about that? I couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t find women like Ocean beautiful. The idea that someone could look at her and deem her lesser simply because of her size made me want to burn the world to the ground.
“I hope not,” Cam whispered. “But if that’s true, we’ll fix it. We’ll show her it’s the opposite.”
All I wanted to do was sweep her away to our house and pin her to the mattress until she was screaming our names. But if she didn’t think we wanted her? If she thought this truly was only convenience and not an intentional choice, she would be miserable, and the self-worth they’d already shattered would crumble in front of our eyes.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Oren, Cameron’s assistant, poked his head in the door and looked at the three of us. “They’re ready for you.”
Blowing out a breath, I shook every other thought out of my head. Fluttering jitters flowed back in. But excitement was there too. I smiled. “Let’s go marry our Omega.”