I rushed up the drive after parking at the curb and practically flying out of my car at the view I saw in front of me. I was willing my heart not to stop in my chest at the sight of our hysterical omega being led to an old blue and white VW van that was haphazardly parked across our driveway.

“Hey! What the hell is going on and where do you think you are taking Josiah?” I stormed up protectively to block their exit.

The doula dude ignored me while he continued carefully guiding Josiah to the van while a tearful Sammy dragged along behind pulling her rolling Winnie the Pooh suitcase.

“Pumpkin? What’s going on here? Talk to me, please.” I tried to keep my voice calm and level. Damn, this was when I needed Rich and his ability to remain steady.

“Just let me g-go, I’ve d-done enough d-damage,” Josiah blubbered as he leaned heavily on the new-aged twink.

“Damage? What the hell, pumpkin? We need to get you inside where we can talk; you don’t need to be going anywhere, especially in this condition.” My mind was frantically trying to figure out what we’d done to make our omega flee. Sam’s garbled phone call to me hadn’t done much to explain things, either.

I stepped in front of the two men, holding a hand up when the doula started to speak. “Josiah, please talk to me. Why did Sammy call me in tears, and why are you taking my family away from me?”

Josiah shook his head, his sobs slowing as he steeled himself to talk. “I’m n-not taking him away. We’ll co-parent or something, but I can’t be here. I’m not a whore, a mooch, or a side piece! And I’m n-not a home-wrecking piece of omega scum... or an incubator. And I won’t stay in a place where I’m nothing more than a dirty secret, Dusty.”

My mind was spinning as I desperately tried to make sense of what was happening. “Josiah. I’m not talking about the baby. When I referred to my family, I meant all three of you. You, Sammy, and the baby. Please, don’t take my family away.”

“Perhaps we could table this for now, doll. This negative energy isn’t best for the babe or his father. He’s coming home with us where he can be surrounded by a place of curative healing peace and meditative calm as Josiah readies himself for his journey into fatherhood. Once the spirits have aligned and the new soul has entered onto this celestial plane, we will notify you and your husband of the babe’s arrival.”

I looked down at the doula, and shook my head rather than say something unkind. Since Josiah wasn’t making sense and zen-diddy there wasn’t even on the same planet as us, I turned to the one person who could be counted on to be reasonable. Our eight-year-old.

“Sammy girl, can you please tell me what happened? I couldn’t understand you on the phone.”

“That mean lady called Siah all those bad things and made him cry. He was about to make dinner and I was going to read about how to care of rabbits, but then that mean lady showed up at the door. Kai came when I was on the phone with you, that’s why I had to go. I was afraid the mean lady was back, but it was just Kai, so I let him in.”

I nodded, understanding a bit better but still lacking the complete picture. I turned back just in time to see Josiah start to fall. The twink wasn’t big enough to stop his forward momentum as I sprang into action and caught him. Without stopping to give a shit if this was proper etiquette when your super-pregnant future mate was trying to bail, I just scooped him up and carried him back toward the house.

“Come on, Sammy. Shake a leg, you’re not going anywhere right now. Can you go up ahead and open the door for me, sweet girl?”

Sammy ran past me, her suitcase dragging on one wheel behind her as she went by in a flash.

“Unhand him, alpha.” The normally peaceful voice of the doula raised as he tried to assert himself on Josiah’s behalf. “The expectant father is the one to make the calls here, and he has firmly expressed his wishes to vacate this zone of negativity.”

I turned sideways to get through the door, Josiah now clinging to my neck and crying softly. I turned and leveled a glare at the other omega. “I appreciate that you are trying to care for my future mate, but I have it from here. You need to leave now, Kai. This is just a misunderstanding that needs to be sorted. We’ll call you when we need you, but right now I need to speak to my future mate privately.”

“I cannot in conscience just lea—”

Whatever else he was about to say was lost as Sammy reached around and shut the door on him then locking it for good measure. I bit back a laugh at the girl’s firm response, along with a heavy sigh of relief as I headed over to the couch. I lowered Josiah into his favorite nesting corner of that plush piece of furniture and tucked an afghan around him. Cradling his cheek in my palm, I leaned forward to brush a kiss onto his forehead.

“I don’t know what happened, or why you think any of those things that you were spouting out there. Josiah, you could never be a dirty secret or a side piece.”

“Maybe not to you, b-but it’s obvious by his actions, or inaction, maybe, that Rich doesn’t feel the same way.” Josiah looked down miserably at the knitted blanket, his fingers playing with a hole formed by a missed stitch.

Tipping his chin up with two fingers, I caught his eyes to get his attention before speaking. “I don’t know why you feel that way, but Rich will be heartbroken when he finds out that you’ve even entertained those thoughts. You are the sun that we gravitate around, pumpkin. Trust me. Rich and I are on the same page there or we never would have gone down this road. We both love you, Josiah, and we’re in this one hundred percent. You, Sammy, and our baby boy are our family.”

Josiah heaved a sigh. “Did you mean that thing you kept calling me?”

“Pumpkin? I call you that all the time.” I was bewildered and still trying to figure out what the fuck was even happening here.

“No, no. Not that. The whole future m-mate thing.” He blushed furiously, stuttering over the word mate.

“Ah. Um, yeah. But it’s supposed to be a secret. Rich is planning a whole moment and I pretty much just ruined it without thinking. But yeah. We’re planning to ask you to be our mate after you give birth and are able to be mated. We would have done it already if you weren’t pregnant.”

Josiah nodded absently. “Yeah, it confuses the spirit of the unborn child, forming a weird bond or some shit.” He shook his head as if clearing cobwebs away. “Wait. You guys want that? With me?”

I smiled gently and stole a kiss before responding. “We want everything with you, pumpkin. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you’re our sun. If anything, I’m downplaying it, because you’re the whole universe to us.”

Sammy came over and curled up next to her brother. I didn’t miss the fact that she was cradling her favorite Pooh stuffed animal under her arm. Standing, I smiled gently at both of them.

“I’m going to go fix you a cup of your favorite tea with the ginger crap you like so much. And then we’re going to get to the bottom of things, because it hurts my heart to see you in pain like this, pumpkin.”

Josiah nodded gratefully as I turned to leave. “Sammy? Cocoa?”

She rolled her little eyes from where she had her cheek resting on her brother’s big belly mound. “Duh! Can I have marshmallows, too?”

“Is there any other way?” I grinned and left the room, relieved to hear her giggle again. Seeing that little girl upset pissed me off just as much as seeing our omega so distraught. I fumbled in my pocket for my phone. Even though I didn’t know what was happening, I knew that Rich needed to know about it.

While I was unlocking my phone, my eyes landed on a manila envelope laying on the normally cleared counter amid the neat little piles of dried-up veggies that Josiah had obviously been prepping for a stir-fry. I reached over and picked it up, biting back a groan when the situation suddenly had clarity.

The envelope was from Rich’s attorney’s office, and had been mistakenly addressed to his mother. Fucking meddling bitch. I never had liked that crazy shrew, but I’d put up with her for Rich’s sake. That, and the fact that family was family. You don’t get to pick the ones you’re given, but you do have to love them. Liking them was another thing entirely.

I was fuming the whole time the phone rang against my ear. When Rich answered finally, I didn’t care if I was interrupting his sleep before his return flight home like I normally would. Nope. Right now, I needed my husband to alpha the fuck up and put his meddling mother in her place once and for all.

“Dusty? Is everything alright, babe? The baby isn’t coming early, is he?”

I sighed and slammed the envelope back down on the counter. “Not that I know of, and that’s no thanks to your fucking mother. She really did it this time, Rich. The lawyers mislabeled your correspondence again. Except this time, it wasn’t a property deed, it was our divorce papers that she received. I’m sorry, babe. But that crazy fucking bitch needs to go.”

“Fuuuuck. What did she do?”

“I’m not entirely sure what all the crazy bitch said or did, I wasn’t home when it went down. But I came home to find zippy the doula boy about to load Josiah up to leave us, and poor Sammy was in tears. I haven’t gotten the whole story yet, but the gist of it is that he was called everything from a whore to home-wrecking incubator. And all of this went down in front of Sam. So, yeah. You need to call your crazy fucking mother and set her straight, or I will. No offense, babe? I’ve kept my mouth shut on a lot of things over the years, but I’ll be fucking damned if my bitch-assed mother-in-law is going to hurt our family.”

“She seriously did that? Are you fucking kidding me with this?” Rich’s voice had gone completely alert and dangerously chilly with rage. Good. Bitch needed to go down and a pissed-off Rich was just the one to handle the job. “I’m hanging up now. You do whatever it takes to comfort Josiah and Sammy. I’m calling my mother.”

“Thank you. And, babe? I’m sorry I called your mother a crazy bitch. No matter what, that’s your mother and I should respect that fact.”

“Fuck that! She is a crazy bitch and we both know it, so... no apology needed. All I know is that she’s going to answer to me for this stunt. Oh, and my attorney is fucking fired, too. I don’t care if they blame a secretary or file clerk, or whatever this time, this is bullshit. They shared my private fucking information and I’m handling that shit, too.”

“Breathe, babe. I’m sorry to drop all this on you when you have a flight in a few hours.”

“Yeah, well. I have a good copilot on this one. I’ll tell him a few stories about my crazy fucking mom while we’re in flight. It will keep me awake and him amused. Don’t worry, babe. I’ll be home safe before you wake up in the morning.”

“Okay. I love you, Rich.”

“I love you, too. Now let me go, okay? I need to call the vampire queen and threaten her with a wooden stake.”

I was still laughing as I hung up the phone and turned to make our comforting drinks. While the water boiled, I slid a cocoa pod into the Keurig for Sammy and cleared away the mess from Josiah’s abandoned stir-fry. Once the cocoa poured, I tossed three big marshmallows into the foam and set it to the side to cool while I swapped out the pod for a hazelnut coffee blend of mine.

I smiled while I hit the contact id for the local pizza shop, enjoying the fragrant smell of hazelnut filling the air. I don’t care what my men said. There was nothing better than the easy variety that my Keurig offered. After I ordered pizzas and cheesy bread, I tucked my phone away and finished assembling our comfort drinks. I had a family to soothe.