Second Chance Mates Collection 2

AN OMEGAVERSE MATES WORLD ROMANCE

ROSA SWANN

Second Chance Mates Collection 2

An Omegaverse Mates World Romance

2nd edition

Copyright © 2022 Rosa Swann

Copyright © Easily Distracted Media

Originally published as: Second Chance Mates Box 2 and Second Chance Mates Volume 2

Copyright © 2017 Rosa Swann

All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission of the copyright holder.

This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature adults.

Cover Design by Easily Distracted Media

ISBN: 9789493139497

NUR: 343

Version: 20220223

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Blurb

Wilder

I try to take care of Logan’s little family, but it hasn’t been easy, especially now Logan’s parents have taken Maddy away from Sterling.

But I’ll fight for them every step of the way because Sterling and Maddy are my family now, and I will prove it.

Sterling

I can’t believe Logan’s parents would try to rip my family apart, that they would take Maddy away from me. Being pregnant and trying to deal with all of this isn’t going to be easy.

But I’m fighting for my family and I won’t give up the second chance at life that meeting Wilder has given me.

This collection includes the final four novellas about Alpha Wilder and Omega Sterling in the Second Chance Mates serial, My Family’s Fight, My Beloved’s Wedding, My Baby’s Birth and Our Second Chance Life, which takes place in the non-shifter Omegaverse Mates World and contains mpreg (male-pregnancy).

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My Family’s Fight

SECOND CHANCE MATES 5

Chapter One

WILDER

I can’t believe it. I can’t believe how they’d take Maddy away. How they can rationalise this in a way that makes people believe them.

Can’t they see it? Can’t anyone see that they’re just out to hurt us? They don’t care about Maddy, they’ve never cared about her. How do I know? Because they never cared about Sarah. There is no reason for them to even be interested in a Beta child. None.

I hold Sterling tightly. I can’t let him go right now. I can’t do anything but hold him. His sobbing form fits against my body so that I can protect him any way that is needed. I don’t care anymore. I don’t care what people think when they see us.

They took Maddy. There is nothing worse that they can do now.

I hear another car come up the driveway and Sterling tenses in my arms.

“No.” His voice is broken. “I don’t want to see anyone.”

The car stops and quick footsteps make their way over to the door. “Wilder? Sterling?” It’s Sarah. Of all people, it’s Sarah.

Sterling shakes his head. “No. No.”

Then the footsteps disappear down the side of the house and I hear the creaking of the gate in the wall, then the back door.

“Sterling? Wilder?” Sarah walks into the kitchen and then comes into the hallway.

When she sees us, she stumbles for a moment, then she comes over, her face streaked with tears as she kneels down and wraps her arms around us.

“I came as soon as I heard. I can’t believe they did this.” Her voice is soft. “I can’t believe they’d go this far.”

“Why?” Sterling looks up and the pain in his eyes hurts so much. “Why would they take Maddy?”

Sarah shakes her head. “I have no idea. I don’t know why they’d go this far either.”

I know why and I’m pretty sure Sarah must know it too. This is revenge. This is revenge for me not staying out of their lives. This is revenge for losing Logan. This is revenge for me standing up to them a couple of days ago.

Another car comes up the driveway and we all still for a moment. Then Sarah’s phone beeps.

“A text from Lilly. They’re here.” Sarah stands up.

“Lilly?” Sterling looks at me.

“My sister.” Then I realise what Sarah said. “They?”

“I think she may have taken your parents with her.” She looks through the little hole in the door as footsteps come up. “Yep.”

“Fuck.” Sterling starts to scramble, but I hold him tight. “I can’t meet your family looking like this.”

“I don’t care. I can’t let you go right now.” I pull him closer, then shoot a look at Sarah. “Tell them to go away.” I don’t want to see my family, not now, not in this state, not when Logan’s parents have fucked us over again.

“I’m not going to.” Sarah’s voice is stern as she opens the door. Luckily, we’re behind the door so we’re out of immediate view.

“Are they here?” I’m not sure what I expected, but not my mother’s voice sounding so broken.

My tears start all over again, and I can’t stop them. “Mum?”

“Wilder.” She pushes past Sarah and takes us in her arms. I’m not sure why, but this feels safe, this feels like I’m just a little boy again, even if for a little while. “That family… How can they keep hurting everyone?”

Lilly stands in the doorway, looking down at us, also in tears. Next to her is my dad, he’s not crying, but I know that he’s close too. Fuck.

“Come on.” Mum starts pushing at us. “Let’s get you at least to a more comfortable place.”

We slowly get up. Sterling keeps close to me and I hold him tight. I navigate us towards the living room and we crawl onto the couch, Sterling almost sitting in my lap.

“Oh, my dear.” Mum puts her hand on Sterling’s back. “How can they hurt you so much? There’s a limit to how much pain they should be allowed to inflict on a person. What happened?”

Sterling shakes his head, pushing against me.

“He picked up Maddy from school and… They started working in the garden when people drove up here. Logan’s parents with some official-looking people. They were… scary.” I still don’t know how everything exactly happened, especially since I don’t even know what happened upstairs.

Just that it wasn’t good. When they came back down…

No, when Maddy was carried down those stairs like some sort of thing, not a human being…

I just lost it. I couldn’t watch it happen. But that’s probably why they brought the other Alphas with them, in case something went wrong, in case someone resisted.

“Sterling?” Sarah kneels in front of him. “Can you say something? Can I get you something?”

“I want… I want Maddy back.” The loud sob makes me wrap my arms around him tighter, pulling him as close as possible, protecting him so no one can hurt him again.

The room is silent until Sterling has calmed down a little.

Mum taps my shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“I…” I don’t want to let Sterling go, not now.

“Just a moment.” She looks at the way I hold Sterling and I’m pretty sure I know what this is about.

“Okay. Star… I’m going to move. I’ll be right back.” I whisper against him and he shakes his head, not letting me go. “Just a little while.” I take his hands and he grasps onto me tightly.

“Please, don’t?” He shakes a little.

Dad steps closer. He kneels down next to Sterling. “I’m here. I know you don’t know me, but I’m here. I’ll help.”

Sterling finally looks up, and I’m not sure what he sees in Dad’s eyes, in his face, but he nods and takes Dad’s outstretched hands.

I slide from around Sterling and walk in front of Mum to the kitchen.

Her eyes go around the space before she closes the door. “I’m getting… flashbacks here.”

“I know. It was weird for me too.” If there is someone who realises how weird this situation is, it’s me. “You wanted to talk?”

“What happened between you and Sterling?” She looks at me intensely.

“I…” I don’t want to lie, but how can I deny what’s going on in this situation?

“I know he was mated to Logan before, but did you mate him too?”

“What? How?” How would she even think to ask that? Are we that obvious? “How could that even happen?”

“It happens. It’s rare, but it happens. One Omega, two Alphas. One Alpha, two Omegas. Stuff like that. It happens.” She comes closer, reaching out. “I know you mated Logan. Like, marked and all. It wouldn’t be a huge leap to think that that connection may work in a threesome way.”

“I…” I don’t know how to answer her now, my body suddenly so much lighter. We’re not weird, this happens more often, apparently.

“So, yes?” She puts her hand on my chest, and I wonder if I’m imagining the sadness in her eyes.

“Yes. I mated him too. Why?”

“Just wanted to make sure I didn’t misunderstand the situation. When?”

“The day after Logan’s funeral. He went into heat.” I don’t want to think about this. I don’t want to think about that right now when everything is such a mess.

“Do you love him?”

“Would it change anything?”

“Not for me, but maybe for you.” She looks at me. “You deserve to be happy.”

“Right now. That’s not something I have control over.” I push myself off the table. “I’m going back to Sterling.” I have my hand on the doorknob when my mum speaks again.

“Do you?”

That feeling in my chest? How I can’t be without him? How I want to be at his side every second of every day?

I nod.

Yeah, I think that this feeling is called love.

“We’ll fight. We’re getting Maddy back and we’re making sure that Logan’s family can’t hurt you again. You’re not alone in this. We may not be Alphas, but that doesn’t mean that we have no power.” She smiles a little, putting her hand on my back. “Go back to him. He needs you.”

When I open the door, Lilly comes from the living room, wrapping her arms around me, pulling me close. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come talk to you sooner.”

I wrap my arms around her too. “It’s okay. There was no way you could have known.”

It’s not like we’ve been close. We’ve both been trying so hard to live our own lives that we stopped staying in touch… And me losing myself so much after Logan left… It can’t have been easy on her either.

“I should have. I’m your sister.” She huffs.

“You called me when it mattered. That’s what counts.”

She called me to tell me about Logan’s funeral. Without her, I wouldn’t have known at all. I may at some point have cursed her for that, but no more. There’s no reason to curse her for that. I know that she did what she thought was best. What she thought would be the best thing to do with the information she got from Sarah.

I make my way into the living room and Sterling’s eyes are on me immediately, the pain in them breaking my heart into a million pieces. I want to help him. I need to help him. There isn’t anything in the world more important right now.

I sit back down on the couch and Sterling curls up against me again, holding me tight. I wrap my arms around him as I look around the room. Everyone apart from us are Betas, they sort of understand the situation we’re in, but they’ll never fully understand the mating bond we have.

Then my eyes meet Sarah’s. “Do you know what they’re up to?”

She shakes her head. “After I stayed behind, when they left last weekend… They’ve not been telling me anything. Sure, mum still talks to me a little, but only because she doesn’t know what else to do. Dad won’t let her say anything that is actually useful. I’m not even sure she knows exactly what he’s up to.”

“Fuck.” I curse and my mum makes a disapproving sound. How those habits stick, even after these years.

“What can we do? Can we report them to the police? Can we talk to anyone?” I thought trying to get the will worked out and trying to get the house in our name was going to be hard. But how are we supposed to fight them over Maddy?

“I don’t think the police will be useful.” My dad sits on the coffee table in front of us. Luckily, it’s a hard wooden one. “They got people involved way above that level. You’ve dealt with people who are the type of people the police will hand these types of cases to.”

“Then what?” I want to do something.

“Did they give you papers? Anything?”

I try to remember what happened exactly, but the only thing that I can remember is how they treated Sterling and Maddy. How they were forced to do things against their will. And how I lost control of myself and hit one of the guys… “I don’t know.”

Behind me, I hear footsteps down the hallway, and then coming back to the living room. Then, Mum’s voice. “They left some papers on the table in the hallway. I guess they didn’t feel like actually handing them to you…”

She gives Dad the envelope and he pulls some papers out. I don’t know what it says, just that it’s filled with words and that I can’t read it from here.

“So…” Dad starts. “Logan’s parents have invoked their rights as the Alpha’s family to take care of any of the Alpha’s children in the case of a death. It’s ancient, but legal.”

He looks over some other pages. “This is generally invoked in cases where the Omega is mentally unstable, especially after the death of a loved one. Or where the Omega is otherwise incapacitated, for example when they’re addicted to drugs or similar issues. This…”

He sighs, frowning, his voice going almost angry with frustration. “They say they’re invoking it because of the presence of an ‘unknown and unmated’ Alpha who supposedly is a threat to the child. I guess if you get the right judge… But it’s not how this ruling is generally used.”

He skims a couple more pages. “This family… When will they stop doing these things? When will they stop hurting people for the sake of wanting to appear strict? For the sake of wanting to appear superior over other families?”

In my arms, I feel Sterling become heavier. “I’m getting Sterling to bed. He needs to rest.”

“I…” Sterling looks up at me, but he’s about to start crying again and I know he’s trying his hardest not to. “Okay.” He stands up and I follow him to the downstairs bedroom.

In there, I take him in my arms, pulling him tightly against me. “It’s better if you go to sleep now. I know it’ll be hard, but you need to think about the life inside you too. At least try to get some rest.”

“Wild…” Sterling looks up, seeking out my lips with his.

I dive in, hoping to make him forget, even for a second. The kiss is sloppy, but it’s not about being sexy, it’s about being there for my mate.

When he breaks away, tears are already dripping down his cheeks. “Will you be here soon?”

“I’ll come back as soon as I can, okay?” I’m just not sure when that will be.

“Okay.” Sterling quickly strips and climbs in bed.

I kneel next to the bed, looking at him closely. “You’re very important to me. Please, don’t ever forget that.”

“You too. Don’t forget it. And Maddy…” His voice breaks. “Maddy too.”

“Yes. Maddy too. We’re going to get her back.” I kiss his cheek and stand up. I don’t want to leave him, but there isn’t anything about it. I can’t just leave my family in the living room, and I need them to fix things. “Rest. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

Sterling doesn’t answer me, but I can see his broken form in the bed. God. Again…

I close the door behind me quietly and walk back to the living room. There, I’m met by a lot of curious looks.

“So?” Dad stands up. “I think we need a little explanation right about now.”

Fuck. That was too obvious, wasn’t it? It’s one thing for Mum to know, it’s another thing to basically be caught by your whole family…

Chapter Two

STERLING

When I wake up, I’m hungry and feel totally broken. I have no clue what time it is, apart from Wilder being asleep next to me and it still being dark out. I try to locate our clock and realise it’s two at night. Not really the best moment to wake up.

“Hmmm.” Wilder hums and wraps his arms around me tighter. It would be adorable, if he didn’t look so serious.

Hell, how can he even look this serious in his sleep? It doesn’t give me a good feeling.

I carefully climb out of his arms. I can’t keep sleeping anymore, especially after having slept over seven hours already.

At first, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but then I fell asleep and apparently didn’t even wake when Wilder climbed into bed.

I put some clothes on and walk to the living room. The house is really quiet, and totally empty. The living room is a mess, papers and pens everywhere, but there isn’t anyone else here. So everyone must have gone home in the end.

Then I walk to the kitchen. It’s empty and at least looks nice and clean. No huge mess here.

I look out the kitchen windows, into the garden. But it’s dark, so I only see my own reflection.

I look… horrible. Exhausted. I look exactly as I feel. Too much, there’s just too much happening. I look away. I don’t need a reminder of that. I don’t need to be reminded that I keep losing everyone I love. That’s just… Not needed.

Then I see some of Maddy’s toys on one end of the counter and I pick them up. A heavy feeling settles in my stomach and I take a deep breath. How am I supposed to do this?

I walk back through the hallway and make my way upstairs, to Maddy’s room. It’s also a huge mess. Not just from Maddy’s playing, but also from us trying to put together her bags in such a rush.

Why is this so much?

I sit down in the middle off the mess, reaching around me and putting toys back into boxes, trying to clean everything so she’ll at least come back to a nice and clean room. So it won’t be as if a tornado went through it.

Even though I have no idea when she will return. When she’ll be coming back.

The tears start slowly, just dripping down my cheeks, before they become more and more. I wipe at them, but they keep coming back. They keep flowing and I can’t help it.

I just can’t believe this. I can’t do this. I climb into bed and pull Maddy’s pillow close.

The look in her eyes as we were in here. The surprise, but also the panic and the pain. She had no idea what was going on. Why this was happening.

And now? How is she now? Is she safe? Not just physically, but also mentally?

What are they telling her? Bad things? Are they making me look like the bad guy in this situation? I wouldn’t be surprised if they would. Just because they can.

Wilder said something about how they treated Sarah when she was younger, like she was insignificant in everything, like she didn’t matter as much as Logan.

Will they do that with Maddy too? Compare her to her own father? Will that be her future at her grandparents’?

Or will it even be worse than that? Will they ignore her? Will they expect nothing of her, simply for being a Beta?

I’m not sure how long I’m here until I realise that time has passed, but the sky outside is turning to grey, no longer the dark of night.

Then Wilder’s footsteps are on the stairs, coming up, slowly. He walks over to the door and looks at me on the bed, his eyes tired, his whole body like he doesn’t know what to do right now.

“Morning.” I sit up and Wilder comes in, sitting down next to me.

“Morning.” He slides his arm around me and I lean against him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the market today?” He tightens his hold on me.

I nod. “I don’t think I can go.”

“Definitely not. I didn’t ask because of that, just wanted to make sure I remembered correctly.”

“What did your family say?” Knowing Wilder a little now, I can’t imagine him going to bed before he had a plan.

“They’re going to try to make sense of this. Logan’s parents are using this law in a way that it isn’t designed for. The only way they could do this is because they had a judge sign off on it who was sympathetic to their cause. Not really good grounds for anything really… But we need to find another judge who will take a better look at it.”

He sighs. “It doesn’t help that I hit one of the guys… That kind of makes our position worse. We can’t really say that there is no danger here when I hit someone. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? I’m sorry I didn’t do it myself.” I wish I’d had the guts to do something like that. “We still have that meeting today, right?”

“Yeah. And I’m thinking that I may have to call to see if we can move it earlier. We can’t let this run for long. We need to fix this as soon as possible.”

Wilder stands up, pulling me with him. “There is one more thing we may have to rely on.” He reaches up, putting his fingers to my shoulder and tapping the edge of Logan’s mark.

“He marked you. He marked me. We may be able to do something with that. I’m the new Alpha in Maddy’s life, and I belong there. It could work, or it could put Logan’s parents in a stronger position…” He looks at me closely, frowning. “I wish I knew the answers.”

He’s not the only one. So many questions. We all wished we knew the answers. Really.

I wrap my arms around Wilder closely, pulling him as tightly as I can. I can’t lose Maddy, but I also can’t lose Wilder. I don’t want to lose either of them, why is that so hard to understand?

“You up for breakfast?” Wilder also pulls me closer, his voice quiet. “I don’t know what else to do right now.”

“Yeah. Let’s.” But I don’t let him go, I keep him as close as possible for a while longer, not willing to leave the safety of his arms.

Luckily, Wilder is able to move the meeting with the lawyer to the morning. It wasn’t easy but now we not only have to deal with the will, but also with Logan’s parents taking Maddy.

Damn. Stress is so not good for me right now. I sit with Wilder and the lawyer at the table in the kitchen, the details of everything in front of me. And suddenly, I feel it, a bad sensation in my stomach.

As I stand up, Wilder looks at me with worry in his eyes. I shake my head, it’s nothing bad, but I still flee to the bathroom. I don’t want to do this in front of others. I reach the loo right on time, as the contents of my stomach are coming up.

I kneel down in front of the loo, trying not to spill anything as my breakfast is leaving me quickly.

Morning sickness would be so much easier to deal with if it didn’t just randomly happen at any time during the day instead of only in the early morning. I don’t want to do this…

After the first two real ones, the next ones are just me retching and nothing comes out anymore.

I wipe my mouth with some toilet paper before I come up a little, fill the glass that I leave here at the sink and then clean my mouth out with the water.

Ugh, gross. One of those downsides of being pregnant. Like life wasn’t crappy enough to deal with already…

I flush and then leave the bathroom again. I don’t want to go back to the kitchen, I don’t want to deal with anything right now. But I know that I have to.

Wilder appears in the doorway to the kitchen, looking at me. Then he comes over, reaching out to me. “Can you handle it? I know it’s hard.”

I let him wrap his arms around me. I don’t want to be anywhere else but in his arms right now. “I can do it… It’s just…”

“I know.” He pulls me closer. “Chuck is saying that we’re going to have to see some doctors and then meet up with a judge. That that’s our best bet.”

“Doctors?” I don’t want to have to see doctors, doctors are never fun.

“We…” He takes a deep breath. “We need someone to verify our marks. That the mating is real.”

“It’s going to be another hassle, isn’t it?” I push my face into Wilder’s chest.

“Yeah. We’re going to have to get an appointment for it, and then a meeting with a judge. That, or…” He sighs.

“Or what?”

“Or we can go to a judge immediately, but it’s not going to be as strong of a case.”

“Why?” Why does this have to be so difficult?

“Because we now need to fight to get Maddy back, they already got the law on their side. It’s not just that we’re fighting against the ruling that allowed them to take Maddy away, we now need to fight to actually get her back. We need to prove that we’re still good enough to do that. We need to show that we’re better than her grandparents.”

“I think I need to lay down for a moment…” I shake my head, slipping out of Wilder’s grasp.

“Can you wait for a bit? I need you to look at something. Just a bit of paperwork. After that… I think we’re done for the day.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I know a lot about Logan and his past, but anything about the last couple of years or even the last couple of months… I don’t know.” He looks at me and I can see the pain and frustration about that. “So, you’ll need to fill out a few things and then we’ll be done.”

“Okay.” I follow him back to the kitchen. When I’m there, Chuck looks at me and I see the judgement and the contempt in his eyes. Because, of course…

“Are you…” Chuck asks.

I nod, not finding my voice under his gaze.

“Whose is it? If it’s Logan’s…”

I shake my head at the same time as Wilder answers. “It’s mine.”

“So, not only did you mate him, you…” He doesn’t finish his sentence and it starts to annoy me. Sure, it’s easier for people to give you answers if you don’t actually ask full sentences, reading the answers for clues that you may otherwise not know to ask. It’s still annoying.

“Yes.” Wilder takes my hand as he sits next to me, I can feel the tension in his grip. He isn’t happy either.

“Right.”

“Does that change anything?” Wilder leans forward a little.

“Maybe. I don’t actually know. The warrant they left behind doesn’t actually state that much specifics, so I don’t know the exact story they gave. If they convinced the judge that Maddy was in danger because you’re an unknown Alpha in her life and her daddy isn’t in the best state of mind… It may not actually work in your advantage.”

He pulls up a shoulder. “But if they convinced a judge that Maddy is in danger because her daddy is living with an unmated Alpha who is not her Alpha father and isn’t related to her, then this may actually be a good thing.”

“How?” I’m not really sure about the distinction between the two.

“Well, if you show them that you have already mated and that Wilder isn’t just a random unmated Alpha in her life… Then they can’t fight for full custody. You could even spin Wilder attacking one of the men in a positive way. That he has already accepted Maddy as his own.”

“But I have. Maddy is as much my daughter as she was Logan’s.” Wilder grumbles. “What do you mean not full custody? Could they still get partial custody over her?”

That’s not good. That’s not good at all. I look at Chuck and he nods. “Yeah. They’re Logan’s parents, that means that they have a right to see their grandchild, even if you don’t want them to. I’m sorry. Logan being the Alpha parent, even when he’s no longer here, trumps Sterling’s position as the Omega parent, even when he is alive.”

I can’t believe this. Maddy is my daughter. I squeeze my eyes shut and wrap my arms around myself tightly. I don’t want this. I want Maddy back. I can’t lose her too.

Wilder wraps his arms around me, pulling me close. “We’ll make sure that that doesn’t happen. We’ll fight it every step of the way. What should we do first?”

“Get your marks tested. Get an official document that you were both mated by Logan, and that you have now mated Sterling, and get a doctor to confirm the pregnancy.”

I can’t see Chuck but I can still hear his voice over the loud beating of Wilder’s heart. “Get those things in order first. Become recognised as a mated couple. That will be your strongest weapon. And…” He stops and I glance at him.

“And, what?” Wilder also looks at him.

“Try to see if you can get more info from when Logan was setting up the will. You’re going to be fighting them on two fronts, the will and getting Maddy back. But it would be better if there was more evidence that this was always Logan’s plan. That he had always meant for you to get those things in his will.”

“I got a letter that he put with the will, at least in my copy. Would that help?”

“Some. But it would probably help if you could maybe get your hands on an earlier version of the will too, if possible.”

Chuck stands up. “I’ll see about getting a court date so you can try to get Maddy back. You go make sure that you’ve got the evidence to get people to believe you that she needs to be with you and not with her grandparents. I’ll see soon.” He leaves the kitchen and then the front door falls shut behind him.

I sag against Wilder, all my energy leaving me and I can’t hold the tears back. There is just so much… Way too much to deal with.

Chapter Three

WILDER

I hate sitting in a waiting room, especially in big hospitals. There is always too many people trying to sound upbeat, but you know that that’s just an act. There is just no way being here is ever any good… I don’t know what to do or how to act in situations like this…

“Stop fiddling.” Sterling puts his hand over mine and holds it. “You’re making me nervous.”

I look up at him, but he looks pretty damn calm to me. Then he squeezes my hand and looks at me closer.

“Being here is bad enough. Don’t make it worse by being all jumpy.”

“Then, what should I be doing? The magazines are no fun and there is nothing else to do here.” Not being able to do anything while sitting here is what’s making me all nervous. I like to be doing things, I like to know what’s going on.

“Think about good things? How is work?” Sterling shrugs.

“Work’s fine. I’m rounding off the project in the next week or so, so I should be able to work on Logan’s company full time by then.” At least, that’s the hope. I’m not sure how well this will all work out though. Right now, I don’t have any faith that stuff will go according to plan in my life…

“Omega Hunter?” A nurse walks into the waiting room. Of course, Logan’s last name, it takes me aback for a moment to hear it.

“Yes?” Sterling stands up and I follow him.

“Can you follow me, please? The doctor is ready to see you now.” She waits a little for us to catch up and then starts walking down a hallway.

Sterling takes my hand tightly as we follow her. I squeeze his hand softly, hoping to give him a little comfort by being at his side.

This can’t be easy on him either. Coming here for so many things. Something that should have been a happy thing, a pregnancy, has turned not so happy, especially since we now need to make sure that there aren’t any more surprises to suddenly catch up with us.

The nurse opens one of the rooms and there is a doctor inside, waiting on us. We step inside and the nurse follows us, closing the door behind us.

“So, welcome. I’m Stephen, and I’ll be doing the tests today.” He shakes our hands before he shits down and looks at his screen. “A mark test and a sonogram, right?” We were lucky to be able to get an appointment on short notice because Lilly knows him, which was really nice.

“Yeah.” Sterling’s voice is soft as he sits down on a chair, I sit down on the chair next to him, still holding his hand.

“Okay, just explain a little, because I didn’t get many details from Lilly. You need to get a mark tested because of a previous mating?” He looks at the both of us, then he focuses on me. “You’re the second Alpha to mate him?”

“Yes.” I look at Sterling, not sure if I should really be the one explaining this, but he nods. “When I was younger, I was mated by an Alpha.”

Stephen nods and writes something down, but he doesn’t seem to judge.

“He left me because of pressure from his parents. At that point, he met Sterling, and also mated Sterling and they had a child together. I only recently found out about this. And now… Ehm… I also mated Sterling and he’s now pregnant with my child.”

It’s still weird, how messed up this is. If anyone had told me, I wouldn’t have believed it. But then again… I always believed that you could only be mated once, not twice anyway.

“Wait. Where is the other Alpha then?”

“He… He passed away about a month and a half ago.” My throat closes up. Fuck.

“Oh. I’m sorry for your loss. Both of your losses.” Stephen writes something down again. “So, why would you need testing?”

“The other Alpha’s parents are contesting his mating to me.” I can’t help the annoyance in my voice.

“Whose mating to whom?”

I try to keep it as simple as possible. “The other Alpha’s mating to me. They are saying that I have no right to anything in the will because my mating to the Alpha was not real. And now they’ve taken away Sterling and Logan’s child under the pretence that I’m an unmated Alpha and thus a danger to the child.”

“I have to ask. Are you?”

“No. I would never harm her. She’s an amazing little girl and she…” I look at Sterling, not sure if I should be saying this out loud. “I’m pretty sure she has also accepted me as her new Alpha parent.”

Sterling stares at me, and then grips my hand tighter.

Stephen now looks at Sterling. “Is that true? Does she?”

He nods. “Yes. She has accepted him as another parent, and she’s been really happy with the situation. But… that doesn’t matter right now. Not if she won’t be coming…” His voice falters and Stephen hands him a tissue.

“Okay. Now, were you aware of the previous mating when you mated him?”

Sterling shakes his head. “I didn’t know. I… I didn’t even…” He can’t seem to finish his sentence and I wrap my arm around him tightly.

“He didn’t know. I knew who Sterling was. And… in a sense of care, or maybe selfishness, I promised to look after Sterling and Maddy for a week after Logan’s funeral. I wasn’t planning on telling him anything about my own past with Logan. I didn’t see a need to.” Look how well that worked out. “It didn’t come out until later. Much later. After everything had happened.”

“How did it happen?”

“I went into heat. Logan and I wanted another child and we’d started preparing for that. And then…” Sterling’s voice is still so full of tears.

“So you two mated without you knowing about their mating?” Stephen looks up, then he looks at me directly. “That wasn’t the best idea.”

“I didn’t know that he’d be affected this badly. I didn’t know that it was even possible to have another mate. I…” Sterling shakes his head.

“I was the one at fault for not saying anything. That’s on me. But, right now, we need help to get our family back together and hopefully welcome another life into this family too.”

I sit up straighter. “We need to get both the marks from Logan tested and also my mark on Sterling.”

“I can do that.” Stephen stands up. “And then we’re going to take a little peek at the baby too, after that.”

We both nod.

“Okay. Then, can you take off your shirts? And the nurse will get you set up for the test.” He shows us to a space behind a screen. “Has either of you ever done this before?”

I shake my head, and so does Sterling. “I’ve never had to have it tested.”

There was no use for two Alphas to get these types of tests done, as our mating wasn’t officially registered anyway. At least not in a way that would make testing useful. We couldn’t have children together, so while we could have had it recognised for inheritance and in Logan’s case, the will, there were very few other reasons to get the mating marks officiated.

As we follow Stephen, we take off our shirts.

“Okay. So, we’ll use this machine to get the precise indentations and size of the marking, and then we can compare them on the computer. It’s easier when we can actually compare it to dental records of someone, but we can also compare two sets against each other, which we’ll do with the older markings.”

He motions to some supplies on a table nearby. “For the new one, we’ll take a dental measure of your teeth and we can do a one on one comparison between them and the mark. This should be enough to prove the mating. Okay?”

He takes a bit off a machine. “It’s sort of like 3D imaging, but for under the skin, it will show us exactly what the mark looks like. Who would like to go first?”

I step forward. “I’ll do it.” I sit down on the chair the nurse provided.

“Wow, that’s a good strong mark.” Stephen squeezes some gel on the mark and then puts the machine on top of the it, which feels a little odd, having someone touch it, but I don’t get the same reaction as when Sterling touched it.

He moves it slowly side to side and on the screen next to me I can see an image show up. A set of grooves that will then be used to compare the teeth to. It’s fascinating to watch.

“Ehm…” Sterling looks a little unsure and I reach out to him with my hand from the shoulder Stephen is not trying to scan.

He takes my hand, giving it a little squeeze. “Before… I touched the mark, and something weird happened. But it doesn’t happen when he touches my mark.”

“Ah, yeah. That sometimes happens with Alphas who are marked. It seems that the mark is a vulnerable point on Alphas, so much so that their body will fight against it if it’s touched. Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. And… I think that it probably wouldn’t even happen anymore now. Would you like to try? I just finished the imaging.” I feel Stephen rub off the gel with some tissue before he steps aside.

“Can I?” Sterling looks at me closely.

I’m a little nervous, but it would also be nice if what Stephen said is true. “Go ahead.” I let go of his hand and Sterling steps behind me.

Then his hand is on my back, not yet on the mark, but just on my back, his fingers are cool as he slides them up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” I let him keep going.

I feel him get closer and closer to the mark, the sensation changing a little, but my body isn’t going into some sort of shock like it did before. That’s… Interesting…

Then he runs his fingers over the bottom edge of the mark and although a shiver goes through me, there isn’t anything else going on, then, as he keeps going, a warmth spreads through my body.

“You still good?” Sterling’s voice is getting heavy.

“Yeah. I’m good.” My breathing gets heavier and I realise that my body is slowly heating up. Wow. Oh, hell.

Sterling pulls his hand back, then he kneels in front of me, looking up at me with darkened eyes. “That was different.” His voice is a little breathless.

I reach out, put my hand behind his head and pull him in for a kiss. He balances with his hands on my knees as he easily gives into the kiss. When I let him go, his eyes have glazed over. “Wow. That’s definitely a different reaction.”

Sterling lets out a little laugh as he keeps staring at me.

Then Stephen makes a polite sound and we pull back a little.

Whoops.

“Well, now we’ve done that, next one up please.” He motions for me to swap with Sterling.

I stand up, letting Sterling sit in the chair.

Stephen looks at both of the marks. “Also both very visible. Makes my job a lot easier, I can tell you that.”

“Do you sometimes get them where they aren’t?” It seems like marking would be such an obvious thing.

“Yes. Sometimes you get fainter marks. I haven’t really found why. Maybe not as strong jaw muscles or something. Okay, which one is whose?”

“Logan’s is on the right and Wilder’s on the left.” Sterling points over his shoulder.

“Okay, then we’re starting with right first.” He puts the gel on Sterling’s shoulder and I watch as he moves the machine over it, the image slowly appearing on the screen.

Even now, it’s already obvious how similar the marks are, and since I saw my own one being made, these really do look the same. Of course, they should, since we were both marked by Logan, but it’s nice to see the evidence so clearly.

Then Stephen cleans the handle of the machine a little and the nurse pulls up the screen for another scan. “Okay, other side.”

He puts the gel on and then we can slowly see my mark appear on the screen. I run my tongue along my teeth as they are being scanned, so odd to see the things that I’m feeling. When I look at the image a little closer, I can really see how not quite perfectly straight my teeth are.

“Interesting, right?” Stephen sees me look.

“Yeah.” I sit back, taking Sterling’s hand and holding it.

“Okay, we’re going to need to make a cast of your teeth too.” The nurse pulls a cart closer and starts to pull out things.

I make a face, but the doctor lets out a little laugh. “It’s not bad or gross. Honestly, it’s just a little rubber and such, don’t worry.”

He gives Sterling some tissues to let him clean off the gel from his back. “We’ll prepare for the sonogram while you bite down on the mould.”

The nurse gives me a thick piece of rubber that is also a little soft. It’s not clear, but instead there seems to be something embedded in the middle. “Just bite down on this, the plate in the middle will help when we put the data into the machine later for comparison.”

“Thanks.” I put the thing in my mouth and bite down, the rubber is a little softer than I expected and gives, wrapping around my teeth.

“Now you wait for two minutes.” The nurse steps back again and instead helps Stephen to set up another chair for Sterling to sit on while he gets the sonogram.

I look down at Sterling, who laughs. “You look funny like that.”

I shake my head, not able to actually answer him now. I’ll make him pay later…

Then he stands up, his hand on my chest as he steps past me and sits down on the other chair.

I follow them and keep standing next to Sterling, waiting for the damn rubber to harden.