Page 106 of Glitterati Omega

Rupert sniffed angrily and balled his hands into fists. “But—”

“No qualifiers,” Winston said. “You are pregnant, Rupert—very pregnant—withourchildren.” He put a hand over Rupert’s belly. “You are sharing yourself beautifully, making room for our children. What is not to like about that?”

Rupert sniffed a few more times, then closed his eyes tight. “I don’tfeelattractive at all,” he wailed. “I don’t feel—is this evenme?”

He bent his head, gazing down. He covered his mouth; he hadn’t been able to see his feet for weeks now, but it didn’t make it any easier to process.

What the hell had he been thinking? He’d never been comfortable in his own body, and now he’d decided to invite others to share it with him?

“All right.” Winston put his hands firmly on his shoulders, and Rupert was instantly grateful for the weight, forcing him to reconnect rather than keep drifting into his miserable state of mind. “Let’s check in, love. How are you doing?”

Rupert sniffed, then wiped his eyes. “Not well,” he mumbled. “This is … a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”

“Mm,” Winston agreed.

“I … I always thought it was some … some blissful thing, but now that I’m here, I hate it. Am I allowed to say that?”

“You’re allowed to say anything, poppet.”

“I know I asked for it, that I was insistent, but I …” He leaned his head against Winston’s shoulder. “Morgan might have to recommend bedrest.”

“Ah.” Winston put a hand on the back of his head.

“I’m … concerned,” he continued, “about when that might happen. What that might mean. I’ve never been …” He hesitated over the words. “Dainty.”

Winston wrapped him in more firmly, squeezing lightly. Rupert screwed his eyes shut; there was so muchsquish. He felt disgusting.

“I have to work at it,” he said. “Alot. To even maintain—it’s very easy for me to … put on weight, but a lot more difficult to take it off.” He knew that; when he was seventeen, he’d thrown up after every meal, every binge forweeks, maybe months, and he still hadn’t achieved the results he wanted. He’d always felt like his body was beyond his control, unwilling to be tamed, to just be a proper omega.

He’d felt that during the cancer treatment. He felt it even more acutely now. He was doing what he was supposed to be doing, but his body was unruly, out of bounds. He couldn’t do anything right.

“All right,” Winston said. “What do you think we should do about it?”

Rupert shook his head. “I don’t know. There isn’t anything to do—I can’t get out of this, not for months yet, which means I need to …”

He met Winston’s curious gaze. “Figure it out,” he mumbled.

“Yes,” Winston agreed. “But how do you want to dothat?”

“I don’t know,” he spat. If he’d known what to do, wouldn’t he have just done it? “I can’t stop having meals.”

“No,” Winston agreed.

“Sticking my finger down my throat isn’t a solution either.”

“No,” the alpha said with a nod.

Rupert glanced down. “So—I’ve just got to … find the mental fortitude to … to …”

“What do you think might help?” Winston asked. “That’s what I want to know, love.”

“I don’t know.”

“Well. What about some new clothes?”

Rupert hid his face in his hands and shook his head. “I don’t know,” he repeated. “It—it might help, because then everything won’t feel so dreadfully … constricting. But it might go horribly awry—what about the sizing on the label? I don’t know.”

“Hm,” Winston mused.