Rick couldn’t resist stroking Ian’s back again. The tension was evident in every muscle down Ian’s spine. “You’re a really sweet guy, and you’re the type of person who wants to please everybody else. As your mate, I believe you should have the ability to make your own decisions, and those decisions should be respected. That is why we talk about these things between us privately. Then there’s no pressure.”
“Try telling that to my family,” Ian said glumly. “I never realized… Gods, this is going to sound so pathetic. My family is close, right? Now, honey badgers aren’t known for living in groups in the wild, but that mother-cub bond, which is the most enduring in our kind—my mom takes that to the extreme. I know what a blessing that is. You know, a lot of people don’t have family.”
“Honey badger? Cute.” Rick just smiled. The less said about his family, the better. “What do you mean? Explain what’s going on.”
“I don’t know where to start.” Ian threw up his hands. “My first call this morning was from my sister Maisie—she’s the one whose birth I had to attend, right, so she has a lovely baby boy, Alfie. She calls, out of the blue, expecting me to babysit because her mate decided to pull his head out of his ass, and invite her out on a date. At the same time, I’d just received your text about the dinner, and you’d better believe I wanted to meet your friends at dinner. I wanted to spend time with you.”
Rick realized that Ian was worried that Rick would take things the wrong way and would have thought that he wanted to babysit for his sister instead. “Spending time with you was my preference, too.”
“Right. Yes. Because that’s what mates do. I told Maisie about you, and that I wanted to spend time with you, and instead of being pleased for me, she got all huffy about it. Apparently, because we’re family, I’m meant to drop everything and do what she wants, which was to spend the night babysitting. I adore the little tyke, I really do, but mates come first. Anyway,” Ian sighed, “after she got off the phone from me, she must’ve rung my mom right away. My mom calls me, furious because I hadn’t told her about you immediately. Apparently, taking three days to spend time with a new mate was two and a half days too many.”
Rick wasn’t sure he liked this closeness that Ian had with his family, although he was hardly going to interfere.
“It didn’t stop there. Then she was going on about how, oh, how had I forgotten that my other brother wanted me to look after their children this Friday night, and I said I would call my brother and explain…” Ian trailed off.
“Come on, babe, you know you can tell me anything, or if you don’t know, then sniff hard and know I’m not lying.”
Ian’s voice dropped to barely a whisper. “I told her you were an alpha, and she got so upset. She mentioned children I wouldn’t behaving, and how muchI wanted children,and now I couldn’t because I didn’t have an omega mate.” When he looked up, Rick’s thumb moved automatically to brush the single tear under Ian’s eye.
“Please understand. I’m so glad I got an alpha mate. It was her who wanted me to have children, not me who wanted them. I don’t even know where she got that idea, but once she gets an idea in her head for years, she never lets go. Everybody must want children, and everybody must want this that and the other—”
“Hey, hey, it’s all right.” Rick tightened his hold on his mate. “If we decide to have children, we’ll have children. There is such a thing as adoption. If we decide we’re happier on our own, then we don’t have to have any. Like everything else, we’ll discuss it when we’re ready. From the sounds of it, you’ve got plenty of nieces and nephews for your mom to make a fuss over.”
“I do,” Ian said. “But see, that made me realize another issue. For some reason, and I never noticed—or not really—that until I met you, my whole family seems to think that I’m their built-in babysitter who’s going to drop my plans. I’ll do this because they’re more important—all because we’re family. And we are, but as a member of this family, why can’t any of them—who are all happy and making plans with their mates—understand I want and deserve the same?”
Rick didn’t have any answers for that, as his own experiences with family were very limited—he preferred not to think about them at all. But if having an extended family was part of being with Ian, then Rick would accept that. He would also make a point of making sure his mate’s needs were respected. He didn’t envisage him and Ian as a couple, spending all their spare time outside of work babysitting.
“I’m sure there’s a perfectly good babysitting service in town,” he said slowly, and hopefully not treading on any family toes. “If there isn’t, there’re always teenage children wanting pocket money, or otherextended family members. I assume the parents of these nieces and nephews have an extended family on the mate’s side. “Why does it always have to be you?”
Ian’s gaze lowered. The downcast look and droop in his shoulders made Rick’s heart hurt. “I’ve always said yes.” Ian’s tone made it worse—he was clearly so upset. “Until I met you, I never had a problem with it. Did you know the dude ranch experience was the third Bucket List Buddies event I was signed up for? I went to the first one when Hector met his mate Morty—being a support for Hector, but that upset Mom, because she wanted me to do some charity thing for her, so I ended up leaving early. I couldn’t go to the second one—the ghost hunting tour with Lionel—because Maisie was giving birth that night.”
“Your sister, Maisie?” Rick couldn’t think why Ian would have to be there, and clearly that question showed on his face.
“Mom’s a control freak—I had to be there because apparently Maisie’s husband’s useless and I was needed to get snacks and drinks, and of course they all assumed I’d want to be there, because it’sfamily. I had to cancel on Lionel an hour before we were due to meet up. I felt like absolute dogshit for doing that to him.”
“It prompted you to go to the ranch where we met.” Rick wasn’t sure what else he could say. He was just glad Ian was sharing with him.
“Lionel and Brad bought me the tickets for the ranch to say thanks because they found each other. But you see… you see… no, it’s not even you seeing, it’s me.”
“Seeing what?” Rick stroked over Ian’s hair. “Whatever’s on your mind, just spit it out.”
“Today showed me something I hadn’t noticed before. The moment I say no, the moment I say, ‘hey, I’ve got a matetoo, be happy for me, and yes, we have other plans’ all of a sudden, I’m abandoning the family.
“But do you know… do you know…” Ian’s voice was rising again as he looked up. “Do you know when my dad said, ‘when can we meet him?’ I suggested we all go out for lunch at a restaurant I know they like on Saturday, and then it’s them saying, ‘make it Sunday instead. We’ve got plans.’ Why aren’t my plans important? Why can’t my family do what I want for a change—I just met my mate. Surely that’s important?”
Rick was shocked to see Ian had more tears in his eyes. “For all my parents love me, and I know they do, they’ve never once put my plans first, never once considered my needs. And now I’m a blubbering idiot with my mate, but in my defense, it was one hell of a realization. It’s as if my entire world view used to be so narrowly focused, and I was the one who went along with it. But now… now I see it all clearly.”
That realization was clearly devastating. Rick could see that. Pulling his mate back against his chest again and cradled his head, Rick struggled to think what to say. There was no point talking about his family because none of that shit was relevant. Ian needed to be reassured. And then Rick had a realization of his own.This is why Ian was given another alpha as a mate, instead of an omega.
He could imagine what Ian’s family situation would’ve been like if his mate had been an omega. Not only would he and the omega be running around providing babysitting services for family members who just wanted to be out having a good time. Yes, Rick realized he might’ve been a bit harsh on people he hadn’t met, but Rick could imagine the mother being equally pushy about when Ian and the hypothetical mate would have kids. Rick’s bear rumbled deep in his chest, and of course Ian noticed.
“Is your bear getting huffy and all protective about me?”
Rick nodded. “The thing is,” he said slowly, “I’m not good with families. I will meet yours, obviously, and I have no problem with that. But the one thing I’ve always held true in a mating is that both sides of the mating should have the space and support to choose what they want to do.”
And this particular bear could get really huffy if we thought for a second that our mate’s wants and needs weren’t being respected.
“You would save me from my family?” Ian clasped his hands together and swooned against Rick’s chest, looking up at him and fluttering his eyelashes. “That would be so romantic.”
