10. Seb
Chapter 10
Seb
S omething was wrong with Hazel.
She hadn’t been doing well for a while, and when she agreed to go to the student health center, I knew she had to be feeling truly shitty. Hazel was stubborn and hated doctors, avoiding them whenever she could. A couple months ago, she had been feeling so sick, she had willingly gone home for the weekend to see her family doctor.
I knew she’d felt really bad if she’d willingly gone home.
Throwing my clothes on after the quickest post-practice shower I’d had in a while, I grabbed my things.
“Where’s the fire?” my teammate, Teddy asked. He was sitting on the bench, wearing only a towel, as he leaned back, the picture of relaxation.
“Hazel’s not been very well. I want to go check on her.”
“You know you need to make a move when it comes to her, right? You’ve been making moon eyes at her for years.”
I rolled my eyes. My feelings for Hazel were deep, but that’s because we were best friends. There was love there, but it wasn’t romantic love.
“A man and a woman can be best friends, you know?”
“Not an alpha male and an omega female, it’s just weird. You just need to be decisive. Make a power move.”
I laughed, throwing a jersey at him. “Not all of us can use Daddy’s money to trick a pretty omega into coming to college.”
Teddy shrugged. “It worked out well for me, didn’t it?”
“Didn’t she nearly fry your balls off?” I asked. He had spent the better part of a week hobbling around, desperately clutching at his junk.
“She did. It was the hottest goddamn thing I ever experienced.” He smirked.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re fucked in the head?” Dylan asked as he closed his locker.
Teddy pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Many people. But I have my pack, so I don’t care!”
He was lucky. I had dreamed of having a pack one day, but it had simply never happened. As much as I wanted those brotherly bonds, just having a woman who loved me would be enough for me.
“You’re lucky to have Alexis,” I told Teddy.
“I know I am.” He grinned. “Hey, if you want, I can get my family doc to give Hazel a house call. Dallas House’s security knows him, he’s treated students before.”
“Thanks for the offer, but she was going to the campus health center today, and if she’s still sick in the next day or two, I’m dragging her ass to the hospital for a full workup,” I said as I shoved the last of my items into my bag, shooting him a smile before I left. Teddy cheerfully waved goodbye.
Stopping briefly at the market, I grabbed all the things to make Hazel’s favorite spinach and ricotta pasta.
While Dallas House had a damn good cafeteria—I would know, since I had gone with Hazel plenty, just to eat the heavenly grilled cheeses they served—when left to her own devices, Hazel would either forget to eat or have a bag of gummy worms for a meal.
Supplies in hand, I waved at the doorman as I walked through the lobby.
“Evening, Oliver,” I greeted.
“Good evening, Mr. Sebastian! Miss Hazel came home a few hours ago.”
He knew me so well, he never bothered to ask me who I was there to see. The answer was always the same. Whether it was for movie nights, study sessions, or snack raids, I only ever came to Dallas House to see Hazel.
Jogging up the stairs, I knocked on her door, frowning when I got no answer. Had she fallen asleep? Reaching into my back pocket, I found my keys. Hazel had given me her spare not long after she moved in. I often let myself in, and she was totally okay with that—plus, she had lost her own key several times, so having the spare came in handy way too often.
Placing the bag of groceries on the desk, I glanced around her space. She wasn’t in the nest, though judging by the smell, she had been in there recently.
Wandering through the room, I stopped at the bathroom door, which was closed.
“Hazelnut?” I called out her name as I knocked.
“Seb?” Her reply sounded confused.
“I bought the things for dinner. Pasta, remember? Are you feeling unwell again?”
The bathroom faucet started to run. “Just a little nausea. I’m fine,” she assured me before opening the door and smiling at me.
That was clearly a lie. Her face was pale and gaunt, and there was a distinct redness around her eyes. I’d recognize that redness anywhere—it meant she had been crying.
“What’s upset you?” I asked, reaching out to pull her into my arms. She resisted and quickly ran a hand through her hair, waving me off.
“I’m not upset. I’m fine.” Her words didn’t ring true as she wandered into the main body of her apartment, toward the fridge, where she pulled out a bottle of water. Hazel never drank water. She hated water. She would much rather have an energy drink or coffee. She was a caffeine demon, and it was one of the things I loved about her.
“Considering you’re drinking water of your own volition, I feel like the apocalypse may be upon us.” I raised a knowing eyebrow.
“Doctor’s orders.” She grimaced, grabbing one of my favorite sodas she kept in stock and handing it to me.
“What did the doc say?”
“It was probably just the stomach flu that I’m taking my own sweet time to get over.” She laughed lightly, but there was a ring of insincerity in her voice.
My stomach twisted, with unease or concern, I wasn’t sure. Probably a bit of both. Usually, she would tell me when something was wrong. Judging by her demeanor, she didn’t want to be pushed, so I decided to act normal, or at least as normal as I could.
“In that case, I better get dinner started ‘cause you’re going to need fuel!” I declared, going over to the grocery bag and pulling out the various items needed.
“Pasta does sound amazing.”
“I’m just going to run to the little boys’ room before we get started,” I informed her. In my rush to get out of practice, I hadn’t even bothered to pee—something I was sorely regretting.
“My bathroom is a little girls’ room. We’ve discussed this, Sebastian, but go ahead.” She laughed.
“I refuse to use a little girls’ room!” I declared.
Hazel snorted. “In that case, you may need to go outside and pee in a shrub, because there is no little boys’ room here.”
I groaned an overly dramatic sound. “I suppose you leave me no choice, then, you cruel, cruel woman.”
“Call me cruel again, and I will go to your place and replace all your bath linens with bright pink ones,” she said as she slumped into an armchair.
“I happen to be very secure in my masculinity, and I think I can pull off pink quite well.” I stuck my nose in the air as I walked across the room toward the bathroom.
“So, you’re secure in your masculinity, but you won’t use a little girls’ room? Has anyone told you that you’re something of a paradox, Sebastian?”
“No, they haven’t because I, Hazel Giltbrook, am an open book!” With that, I strode into the bathroom and closed the door, pleased to hear her giggling on the other side. The least I could do was make her laugh while she was feeling crappy for some unknown reason.
I didn’t take long to finish up and was washing my hands when a vitamin bottle on the counter caught my attention.
Hazel took several vitamins, because omegas tended to be deficient in several things. It was due in part to the suppressants that she took. They leeched a lot of the essential nutrients from her body, and also, omegas were just really bad at remembering to eat. I’d discovered over the years that it wasn’t just a Hazel trait; that was actually a trait of most omegas.
Picking up the bottle, I turned it over in my hands. The label was bright pink, which wasn’t that surprising, considering most omega-centric vitamins involved bright pink branding. Because, of course, since most of them were women, they needed pink things.
The name of the vitamin stuck out to me, though.
Prenatal blend.
Why the hell was Hazel taking a prenatal vitamin? For a moment, I considered whether or not she was deficient in something like folic acid? Did non-pregnant women even need folic acid?
But she had been sick.
She had been sick for several weeks, in fact.
That, coupled with the vitamin made my heart stutter.
Was Hazel pregnant?
No, there was no way.
Surely, she would have told me?
Irrational anger overtook me as I squeezed the bottle of pills in my hand. I hadn’t even known that Hazel was sleeping with anyone, let alone was serious enough to get pregnant. She was on birth control—I knew that because she complained regularly about the side effects.
Hazel was my best friend. Why hadn’t she told me?
Or was she playing a prank on me? We loved to fuck around with each other; maybe this was her idea of a laugh at my expense?
Only, if it were a prank, she wouldn’t be so sick. There was no faking the hollowness in her face, the faint smell of vomit that clung to her lately.
Bottle in hand, I stormed out of the bathroom.
“Took your sweet time. I thought you’d fallen in, and I was going to have to come rescue you.” Hazel laughed as she rummaged through a drawer. When I didn’t answer, she looked up at me and at the pill bottle in my hand. Her face visibly paled, which was impressive, considering she was already pale.
“What are these?” I asked, doing my best to keep my voice calm and controlled and not express the sheer rage that was simmering under the surface.
Hazel stammered for a moment, trying to find words, but instead of saying anything, she burst into tears.
“I-I d-didn’t know how to tell you!” she sobbed, tears rapidly leaking from the corners of her eyes.
My heart dropped. The horrified look on her face was confirmation enough.
Hazel was pregnant.
She was going to have a baby.
How on earth had I fucked up so badly?
Someone else had knocked up Hazel.
My Hazel.
I had zero right to call her mine, but with the knowledge that someone else had gotten her pregnant swirling around in my brain, my stomach churned with the undeniable reality that something was very, very wrong with this situation.
My body was shaking in anger. I was doing my best to keep it contained, but Hazel knew me far too well. She could read me like an open book.
“You’re pregnant?” I asked.
Hazel swallowed, and instead of saying anything, she simply nodded.
I frowned. “Who? I thought you were on birth control!” Part of me wanted to know every little detail of what had happened, and part of me was terrified to know.
“I messed up a couple of months ago. My suppressants stopped working. I didn’t realize it, so I had a surprise heat, and I ended up sleeping with someone and… yeah.” The words tumbled out of her mouth.
“You had a heat ?” I asked incredulously. “How did I not know this?”
I thought she and I were close. How on earth could she have had a heat and never told me? I knew that, one day, she would have heats when she went off her suppressants, but I’d assumed, by that point, she would have a long-term partner, someone I approved of, someone who was good for her, not a random hookup!
The idea of anyone else looking after her made my stomach turn sour.
“It was after one of the parties, when we got back from summer break. The one after the game against Glenfield.”
“Hazel, that was months ago. Why didn’t you come to me when it happened? I would have taken care of you!” As I shouted the words, the realization that they were the truth sank in. I would have taken care of Hazel through a heat.
“You had several puck bunnies hanging off your arm. I wasn’t going to disturb you!” she snapped.
Was that why she had chosen not to come to me? Because a few women were interested in me? My head hurt as I tried to remember that night. Sure, there had been a few women talking to me, and I had even taken one home—but it had been quick and meaningless, a way to scratch an itch.
“You know I would have told them to fuck off!” I cried. “You come before all of them!” I would have taken care of her. I would have gotten anything she needed and helped her ride out the heat. “Wait, you never went home to your parents, did you?”
“No, I didn’t! We are friends, Sebastian. I needed knots, not cuddles.”
I stilled, my heart sinking. “Did you just say knots ? Plural?” I asked, my voice hoarse. My heart was in my stomach as I thought about that. The idea that she’d been taken advantage of by one alpha during her heat was bad enough, but multiple?
Hazel huffed, looking upward, like she was begging the gods for this to be over. “Yes, I slept with a pack during my heat, and it was a damn good time, and now it’s over,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Who?” I growled. Every time we had spoken about our future, Hazel had always talked about a singular male partner. She had never insinuated that she wanted a pack. I was the one who desperately craved a pack. I wanted that life, to have pack mates who would have my back through thick and thin, and an omega we could all cherish together.
“That’s not important,” she replied primly.
I snorted. “I would say it’s pretty fucking important, considering they knocked you up. I didn’t take you as the kind of omega who throws herself at a random pack!” The words left my mouth before I could even really consider what I was saying. My words were stupid, and I knew I was being irrational, but apparently, I was beyond reason.
Hazel was going after the life I so desperately craved, and she hadn’t even bothered to tell me? The idea of her with a pack felt so… foreign. If she settled down with one guy, like we had always talked about, then she would have had plenty of time for me. A pack, though… they took up a lot of time and energy.
If she was going to settle down with a pack, the future I had imagined for us was quickly slipping out of reach.
“That’s between me and them,” Hazel growled, her face filling with anger.
How had we managed to find ourselves in such a colossal mess? Sure, I dated, but I told Hazel everything, and I thought she did the same. We did everything together. We went out for dinner several nights a week. We attended games and parties together.
“You should have come to me. I would have kept you safe.”
“I was safe with them,” she cried.
“Really?” I snarled. “You are now pregnant and alone ‘cause they are nowhere in sight. And what on earth are you going to do with your parents when they find out you got knocked up by an entire pack of alphas?”
My words hit like blows, and her shoulders caved in as I yelled.
I was an ass.
“Get out!” she snarled, pointing toward the door.
“Hazelnut…” I held my hands up in surrender. The situation needed to be defused immediately, otherwise Hazel was going to lose her shit.
“Out!” she shouted, tears flowing freely. Her face was red and blotchy, and I cursed at myself. There would be no calming her down until I left. So, despite every instinct demanding I stay and make it right, I left.
I left her .