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“Of course not!” Avery’s face twisted in pain. “What if this child is an omega? Would you allow that child of yours to face the same indignities I have? The indignitiesyour brotherdid?”
Pain lanced him. “Donotbring Jamie into this in some means of manipulating me.”
“I’m not! You’ve stood by, sated by your own freedoms, while others in your life have suffered. When do you stand up and say enough? When do all the other alphas who love and cherish their omegas stand up anddo something?We cannot keep living like this.”
Wilder held his mate’s shining stare. He swallowed back tears of his own, knowing he’d very likely lose them both to this cause.
A cause his mate believed in deeply.
A cause that was right.
A cause that would break him.
He sat back down, silent—his mind a whirl. He knew what had to be done, and it warred with his desires. “It’s your life.Yourchoice.” Wilder coughed, clearing the knot forming in his throat. “If this is what you want…” He choked back another sob. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”
Tears streamed down Avery’s face. “I don’t deserve you.”
Wilder placed his palm against the glass separating them. “You deserve everythingand more.”
Avery pressed his hand against Wilder’s on the glass.
“Iwillget you back in my arms,” Wilder whispered. “And I’ll shower you with all the love you deserve, until our dying day.”
Another tear slipped from his omega’s eye. Avery closed them, a smile forming so sweet. So forlorn. His expression wavered on the edge of more tears. A thought came to Wilder’s mind as he stared into his mate’s pain. A wild plan that likely would do nothing but he had to try it. He had to save this man he loved, even if it destroyed him to do it.
19
Two days before his trial, Avery followed behind a guard until he finally arrived in the small concrete-walled room they’d used for previous meetings. Rohan and Tensen sat at the rickety table, but upon inspection, it didn’t seem like Wilder was there. He recalled Wilder’s concern during their previous visit. Had the alpha changed his mind?
“Where’s Wilder?”
Rohan stood and urged Avery to the lone barred window. Outside, in the gray light of early morning, stood a man outside the courthouse, lofting a sign over his head. A flick of the head made him realize it was Wilder.
“What’s he doing?” He narrowed his eyes. “What’s his sign say?”
Rohan cleared his throat. “Free Avery.”
“What?!”
“I told him it would not help, but he said he had to do it,” Tensen added. “He should be here. Not out there.”
Avery gazed out the window as Wilder shuffled back and forth in what looked like a chill autumn morning, showing the world he supported his omega. Avery fought tears, telling himself it was the pregnancy hormones, but knowing deep down the man he loved was proving yet again that he was undeserving of the alpha’s… love.
Love?
Did his mate love him as much as he did Wilder? He didn’t know… yet his heart told him that no one would give as much as Wilder had already if they didn’t have some affection there. His man stood before the entire world and demanded justice.
Avery wiped a tear away and smiled.
* * *
Fall feltas if it had fled that morning. Hints of winter chilled the air and had Wilder’s cheeks and nose stinging. His arms were already burning from holding the sign aloft—especially given his crap hand and the cast—yet he wouldn’t stop. If Avery wanted loud, loud he would be. His mate’s words had whispered in his mind… hehadsat back and accepted the status quo, never considering how hard their system was on an omega’s life.
Because his own hadn’t been hard.
He had a lot to make up for, and by the gods, he’d do whatever he needed if it meant he might get to hold Avery in his arms all the sooner.
“Free Avery Stephens!” he cried, pacing before the courthouse steps. His lone voice barely sounded over the throngs of cars, trolleys, pedestrians, and courthouse visitors. “Free Avery Stephens! Omegas deserve rights!”
