I didn’t know if Greg had turned off his cell or hadn’t taken it with him in the first place. I’d tried to call several times and every single one went straight to voicemail. Great–this was really fucking great. He was either missing or dodging my calls.

When I’d told him the story about Sid and his surprise kid, it never entered my mind that Greg would take it personally. As far as we knew at the time, he couldn’t even get pregnant anyway.

Fucking hell. I mean, I’d only told him about the conniving little omega who’d changed my friends life without ever consulting them in the matter because it was a crappy surprise.

Wait. Oh, shit. Now I understood why Greg was pissed. I had repeated the same type of stupid alphahole blame the pregnant omega bullshit that omegas probably heard all their lives.

I didn’t know whether to be flabbergasted that my best friend would think I saw him that way, or mortified that I had ever given him the impression he should.

After he’d shoved the picture at me and dropped the surprise baby bomb, I’d stood there like a dummy for several long moments after he’d run out the door. By the time I made it out to the parking lot, Greg was nowhere to be seen. I’d sat in my car for several more wasted minutes before it finally occurred to me that Greg wasn’t planning to ride home with me.

Another twenty minutes had been wasted driving around town fruitlessly looking for someone who didn’t want to be found, before I’d finally given up and gone home.

Now here I sat staring at this ultrasound picture, trying to figure out whether it looked more like an alien or a peanut. And how the hell would this alien looking peanut thing ever possibly become a child anyway? Science was weird.

I ran my finger over the tiny alien peanut. And the longer I stared at it, the more real it became. Was I looking at the beginnings of my son or my daughter? Who would they even look like? And who the fuck would have ever imagined me and my bro making a child together.

I paused for a second, stunned by that though. I mean, holy fuck. This child—this alien peanut—was a mixture of me and Greg.

No matter what happened between us moving forward, we would have a child now who would always represent the best parts of us both. Talk about broing it up, right?

I smiled at the picture, tracing the curve of the little alien peanut again. Somehow thinking of our baby as being half Greg’s made me fall in love with it more than I already was. The more I thought about it, the more I got excited about this whole fatherhood thing.

My only issue was that I knew absolutely zero about kids. I’d been an only child, and my own father was an abusive bastard who’d thankfully disappeared when I was in grade school.

After that it had only been me and Mom. I’d never thought too hard about having kids, mostly on the off chance that I might be like my own father.

Fuck that. I could be anyone or anything I wanted to be, right? And more than anything all I wanted now was to learn how to be a good dad to my little alien peanut—and a good alpha to Greg too.

Not that he needed an alpha, Greg was strong enough on his own. Nah, fuck trying to be his alpha. I’d settle for being his partner. Now I needed to figure out how to make it happen.

Since Greg still wasn’t home, pulled out my laptop and opened YouTube. As anyone in my generation could attest, you could learn how to do anything there.

I put in a search for parenting videos, then quickly narrowed it down when I realized how deep that rabbit hole went. Seriously. There were thousands of videos for child rearing. They ran the gamut from infancy through the teen years.

I narrowed my search to infants, and then to basic how-to tutorials for new parents until I found one that looked perfect. The Omega Manny’s Diary. Now that looked exactly like what I needed to find. If anyone knew how to take care of a kid, it was probably a nanny. And this dude had dozens of videos up about infant care alone.

I was halfway through the fourth video, when I heard Greg’s key in the door. I closed my laptop and set it aside, I had plenty of time to watch the Manny’s Diary later and think about this whole new challenging level up my life was about to take.

If this were a game, this whole surprise baby scenario would probably be a boss battle. I grinned to myself as I pictured what kind of loot drop that would give—extra diapers, bottles of milk, and a cool, new stroller maybe?

“Hey,” I said over my shoulder to Greg where he stood watching me from the doorway. “You want to go out and have a nice dinner talk so we can about this, or should I order in? I feel like one of us should learn to cook at some point though since there’s going to be a little dude running around. I should probably be the one to look into that since I’m home more, right?”

Greg smirked and shook his head. “Who knows how much I’ll be home, Braden? Will I even be able to still work like I do now? I mean, my schedule isn’t exactly kid friendly.”

“I believe that’s why there are two parents, right?” I stood and walked over to Greg. Without second-guessing myself or worrying about being pushed away, I simply hugged my friend—who now really was my bromega. Although I should probably wait to bring that part up.

Greg spoke softly against my ear. “So, does this mean you don’t hate me right now? Sorry I was an asshole and ran off on you like that. But as far as dinner goes? Please don’t think I’m avoiding you or take this the wrong way, but I think I’m gonna go to bed. I feel like I have a lot of thinking to do.”

“Thinking about us in particular or the whole alien peanut in general?”

Greg pulled back and looked at me curiously. “Alien peanut? I don’t get it. Is that a new video game or app you’ve been playing?”

I may have blushed a little when I told him the truth. Because as I was talking, it suddenly occurred to me that he might find offense in my description of our unborn child.

“I was actually talking about the baby. Did you really get a good look at that ultrasound picture? It’s like a cross between alien and a peanut. I’ve been calling it the alien peanut.”

Greg stared at me for a long moment. Right as I was really starting to sweat thinking that I’d pissed him off, he chuckled.

“Not gonna lie–you fucking nailed it. Alien peanut is a perfect descriptive. And on that note, I’m out.”

He gave a halfhearted wave and disappeared into his room, leaving me standing there staring after him. I couldn’t help but wish I had the balls to follow him in and cuddle.

Yes, he had a lot to think about, but the way I saw it–we both did. This was going to be life-changing for both of us, and we needed to figure out a way to move forward together.

But then it occurred to me that Greg had no reason to trust that I was alpha enough for this whole alien peanut parenthood thing.

That meant two simple words to me: Challenge Accepted.

First I’d see about getting those income streams bumped some more, and maybe make it a point to actually get dressed and leave the house every day. Even going to Slow Grind would be better than hanging out here in my boxers.

Somehow or other, I had to show Greg how much he needed me, and that I was alpha enough to be there for him—not that he particularly needed an alpha. He was a pretty badass omega, if you asked me. And he was all mine. Whether he knew it yet, or not.