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“Still pouting over the pony ride? Or lack thereof?”
“Yep,” Avery answered.
“I wish we could go back to the Auggie of three or four years ago. I miss that sweet little kid. Why the hell do they have to become snarling teenagers?” Gray asked before leaning on the fence. He sighed and ran a hand over his full stomach, looking drained. How Jasyn snoozed on Gray’s shoulder with the squealing children playing and running around, Avery didn’t know.
“You needed to sit?” Avery asked.
“I do… but I wanted to see Jamie on the pony first,” Gray said with a grin.
“Want me to take him?” Avery asked, motioning to Jasyn.
Gray shook his head, smiling. “He needs this nap more than you know. If I move him, he might wake up.”
Avery turned to see Rohan helping Jamie onto the saddle—with “Uncle” Wilder nearby taking video of it with his phone. His womb clenched again when he saw the smile on Wilder’s lips—and he felt a bit of slick ease from him.
Dear gods.
The meds he took were supposed to prevent that from happening. Yet there he was getting slick and wet over his alpha, meds be damned.
“I see the way you look at him,” Gray murmured.
Avery dragged his gaze away and glared at his uncle. “Who?”
“Don’t play this game with me. I have eyes.”
Avery didn’t want to acknowledge whatever it was his uncle was trying to pin down. If he was honest with Gray, he might end up being honest about even more—spelling the end for his foray into betadom.
“The whole idea of the shots, the medicine, and the degree were a back-up plan—in case youdidn’tfind your alpha. If Wilder is him, why are you continuing this ruse? He’s more than capable of taking care of you.”
Just as I thought.“It wasn’t some back-up plan,” he said, though that’s exactly what it had started out as. Over the years, it had evolved into him proving himself. Proving that omegas could be more if given the chance.
Thathecould be more…
“You could end up incarcerated, Avery. Why continue to push your luck?”
“Wilder isn’t him,” Avery lied, already tired of the argument. He wasn’t ready to give up the freedoms he’d been afforded by living as a beta, no matter the consequences.
Even if it put him in danger.
Gray stared for a moment, looking even more exhausted. “For nearly four years, I’ve worriedeverysecond ofeveryday, knowing you might get caught and jailed over what you’re doing. The drugs… the lying… college… you could go away fordecades. And webothknow what happens in those omega prisons.”
Forced surrogacy. Omegas weren’t sentenced to years, but babies. They didn’t find freedom until the number of children had been carried and handed over to the province for adoption to the rich and powerful. Those who struggled with fertility—as many did.
How many would he be forced to hand over for his crimes?
Fear leeched into him. Avery had asked himself that question since the moment he’d taken that first shot all those years ago.
Still, he persisted.
“I said heisn’tthe one.” Avery looked around to make sure no one had been in earshot. “Andthisisn’t the place to discuss it.”
Gray sighed. “No, it’s not. I’m just tired, Avery. I’m trying to keep this family together the best way I know how… but the lying is wearing on us all. It’s not just me and Rohan. But Lake and Auggie… it wears on them, too.”
“I still hate that you told them,” Avery snapped.
“And have them accidentally say something about you at school or to a friend?” Gray eyed him. “Lake’s too smart for his own good. He’d already figured it out four years ago, as you damned well know. There was only so long he would believe our lies.” Gray’s face lit up, and he smiled and waved to Jamie as he passed. “Are you having fun, baby?”
Jamie nodded, a silly grin on his face.
