I woke up confused for a moment about where I was, but wherever it was, it felt so warm. The scent in my nose was definitely not of my room. Besides Dad, no one ever entered my room, so it would only ever smell of me, or Dad. This scent was familiar, a little spicy, making my body restless; just by that I knew it was an Alpha’s scent.

No Alpha has ever stepped in my bedroom.

Then memories from last night came back to me, and my eyes fluttered open. When I tried to stretch my body out, I felt an ache in my ass and hips, and my face flushed. I was in Max’s room, in Max’s bed, and the scent caught in my nose was his.

For a moment, I just curled into myself, tugging the sheets over my head and bringing my knees up to my chest. I was so damn giddy I didn’t know what to do with myself! Waking up in Max’s bed was the best thing ever! And I could only hope there would be more of it in the future.

I rolled over the bed, my head peeking out of the sheets, just then realizing I might not be alone. But I didn’t see Max anywhere in the room. I couldn’t frown, though, when the bedding was filled with a mix of our scents and what we did last night. I covered my mouth with the sheets as a wide grin spread across my face. I didn’t remember ever smiling this much, so widely that my cheeks ached. I wanted to break out into giggles while I was at it, but managed to hold back.

Slipping out of bed, I stretched my body out, ignoring some of the aches in my body. They would eventually go away on their own, and it wasn’t like it was so terrible. Max had been gentle last night, a bit rougher than the last time, but not by too much.

I looked down my body and felt my face blush. There were marks all over me, on my shoulder, collar bone, nipples, all over my stomach, over my hips, even between my thighs. Feeling shy, I dragged the sheets of the bed, wrapping it around me and holding the front up to my neck so I wouldn’t see. I pursed my lips, wondering how I was going to find Max, when the door opened. I turned to face it, and my good morning suddenly turned brighter.

“Max!” I called happily, shuffling over to him with the sheets trailing beside me.

His eyebrows shot up. “You’re already up? Sorry, I just stepped out for a little bit.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. I just woke up a minute ago, and you don’t have to worry about me if you’re busy.”

“I’m not at the moment,” he said. His hands held onto the tops of my arms, his thumbs rubbing gentle circles that made me want to lean closer to him and purr. “I had some stuff I needed to finalize, but it’s all done now. I’ll be free for a while.”

I grinned, practically bouncing on the tips of my toes. I hoped him being free meant we could spend some time together. I couldn’t remember the last time I was as happy as being in his presence made me, and I wanted to take advantage of it as soon as possible.

My mate. It wasn’t official, but Max was already my mate, and I couldn’t have asked for a better Alpha. Max leaned down and pecked my lips, and I gave into my temptation to let out a short giggle. Max smiled indulgently at me, hands squeezing a little.

I would have been more than happy to stay standing there in bliss, but Max’s expression fell a moment later. He pursed his lips, and his brow furrowed in a frown. Instantly, I went still, wondering what was wrong, and if it had something to do with me.

“Evan…” he started slowly.

I blinked up at him, and when he didn’t say anything else for a minute, I spoke.

“Max, what is it? Is there something wrong?”

His frown deepened. “Not so much that something’s wrong… Evan, we need to go back to your house to talk to your parents.”

My fairytale immediately crumbled when he mentioned my parents. While I would have no problem visiting my Omega father, Whit had always been the problem. It had been hard enough getting away, if I went back…

“You don’t have to worry about anything,” Max said quickly. “I plan to go with you and I won’t leave your side the entire time. If Whit tries something, we leave. But I need to at least appear before him, because if he decided to go to the council later, we could be screwed.”

Once he explained it, I understood the reason we had to go, but that didn’t mean I would like it. Especially after how I ran away. Everyone would have known by now, including Whit, and the idea alone was mortifying. My eyes welled with tears as I began to cry, ducking my head down and sniffling so Max wouldn’t have to see it. I could feel his whole body stiffen, and it only made the tears drip faster.

“I don’t want to go back there, Max,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes tight, hands clenching on the sheets as my body trembled.

Immediately, Max started rubbing his hands soothingly up and down my arms.

“Hey, don’t cry, okay? I really don’t want to take you back there, either. If I could, I’d just go by myself, but that isn’t proper. I need to do this, Evan. For my own honor and the honor of my pack, or it would make it too easy for Whit to trample us.”

I nodded my understanding, because I did understand. I couldn’t stop crying, though, and a part of me figured it was the pregnancy hormones, but knowing didn’t mean I could control myself.

Max wrapped his arms around me, rocking my body slightly as he murmured words meant to soothe me. I cried until I started hiccupping, and Max rubbed his face into my hair with a sigh.

“What’s wrong, Evan?” he asked after a while.

I hiccupped some more and pulled away, one of my hands releasing the sheets to rub my wet eyes. I sniffled, and looked up at him.

“I’m hungry,” I murmured. Then I wrinkled my nose. “I’m also a little achy…from last night.”

My face flushed as I looked down again. Max was silent for a moment, and then he chuckled.

“Well, then. How about we get you into the bath, then over to the kitchen for breakfast? We can go right after to get this over with as soon as possible. I swear we’ll be on our way back this evening, okay? We’ll also pick up a few of your things…”

I bit down on my lip, feeling anxious. I really didn’t want to do this, for several reasons. After his reaction from before, I could pretty much guess what would happen once we got there. Whit wasn’t the forgiving type, not to mention how stubborn of an Alpha he was. Once he made up his mind, changing it was damn near impossible, and his decision was that I not leave the pack.

That was precisely why I’d had the courage to leave when Dad helped me, though. If I stayed at the pack, I would be under Whit’s thumb. What would happen to my baby after I gave birth? A young shifter will learn to shift long before they present, and what would happen if we found out down the line that my baby was an Omega? Would he or she be treated the same as me? Or, worse, if he or she was an Alpha, would they be suppressed by the other Alphas in the main house? Most of them were my relatives, but they were also Alphas, and I knew the biggest reason why they ignored me, was because I was an Omega and thus incapable of becoming a threat.

Another Alpha in the family would mean another possible successor, though. Whit had aspirations to be part of the Alaskan Shifter Council, so they wouldn’t even have to wait until he stepped down before fighting for the position.

Max wanted to do this, though, so I wouldn’t stand in his way, even if it made me uneasy. Besides, I did understand the position he was in. The plan had always been to tell my parents, and have Max come and talk to them after, and the two of us would leave. Max would have to appear in front of my pack at least once if we didn’t want trouble from Whit down the line.

As I allowed him to lead me to the bathroom, my mind was filled with these troubling thoughts. I kept the sheet the whole way, though I didn’t realize it until Max sat on the side of the tab and dragged me into his lap. He pressed a kiss on my neck that woke my attention a little, and I wondered if I had another mark there by the possessive look that suddenly entered his eyes.

He held me close as he turned on the taps and let the tub slowly fill up. He would occasionally put his hand under the taps, or in the water, then he would adjust them, looking for the best temperature.

“I talked to my dad about you,” he said suddenly. “My Omega dad, I mean. He told me a lot of warmth will be good for your pregnancy.”

“I can't keep taking baths, though. Wouldn’t that be wasteful?”

He hummed, running his hand in the water again. “You don’t have to take baths every day. We’ll try for once every two weeks or so. The rest of the time, there’s me to keep you warm.”

Max wiggled his eyebrows at me, and once again my face flushed. He chuckled at me.

Don’t worry, I mean it in a completely innocent way. You see, I’ve been a little swamped with work recently, so I’ve been sleeping in the study. But I’ll be sleeping holding you close every night. Would you like that?”

My mood lifting a little, I nodded. Waking up to Max every day sounded just amazing to me. I would be back on cloud nine if I could completely ignore the whole thing with Whit.

Once Max was satisfied with the water, and the level had risen until just above half, he held me by the waist and pushed me to stand up.

“It should be fine if you just soak in this for a while. I’ll get you some breakfast in the kitchen and bring it up for you to eat. So, just come out when I’m back, all right?”

“Okay,” I said obediently.

He pressed a quick peck on my forehead, then down to my lips, and left the bathroom. I let go of the sheet, and carefully slid into the tub. The water was a little too hot for my taste, but after a minute of soaking in it, I sighed and leaned back, closing my eyes as the aches and tension in my body slowly disappeared. I wondered if Max had any bath salts I could use. I could probably just get my own from home once we went, though… I was still conflicted about it, but I figured I would have to face Whit at some point. It would be simpler if we just went in person instead of waiting for him to come to us.

I soaked in the tub, occasionally massaging the hot water into my skin, for about half an hour when I heard a knock on the bathroom door. I sighed, feeling a bit regretful that I had to get out, but the water was cooling down anyway. There was a robe in the bathroom. It was big on me—probably Max’s—but I put it on and walked into the bedroom.

“There you are,” Max said, smiling at me. “Come and eat. I hope you’ll like it.”

I went over to the bed and sat down. He’d brought a stool in where the food was set, and he took a seat beside me, just watching me as I tucked into the food.

“Would you like some?” I asked politely while scarfing it all down. After last night’s work out, and considering I was eating for two currently, I felt really hungry.

“No,” Max said, sounding amused. “I had something earlier already, I was just waiting for you.”

I nodded, though I hadn't even paused. I did slow down after several bites, mostly because I was feeling a bit embarrassed with Max watching me so closely. I tried to think of a topic to distract him as I licked bacon juice off my fingers. When I noticed his eyes lingering on my mouth and fingers, growing a little heated, I stopped doing that, too.

“You know,” I said quickly. “I’ve never been attracted to another Alpha like I have been when it comes to you.”

I watched him from the corner of my eye and I noticed the slow growing smile on his lips.

“Really?”

I nodded firmly. “Definitely. I mean, I’d heard of you before, and meeting you was totally unexpected, not to mention the circumstances…” I frowned just thinking about it, but waved the bad parts of it aside. “But the point is, I’m attracted to you. Like, a whole lot.”

Pausing, I pursed my lips as I tried to arrange my thoughts. I wanted to tell Max just what I felt, and what he meant to me.

“You could say…that in my whole life I’ve never really had anything interesting happen to me. Well, besides when I got my first teaching job, and the unforgettable night of the gala. But, no matter how bad that night was, it was the night I got to meet you. My whole life I’ve wanted someone like you, you could say to act as prince charming to get me away from my overbearing family. But I never thought I would get it.”

By that point, I was pretty much speaking on automatic, narrating my thoughts as I got lost in them. I remembered all the things I’d ever wanted that I couldn’t get, all because of the family I was born into, and the fact that I was born an Omega.

So in the end, I could only wish to leave, and of course it had to be the perfect person that would love me unconditionally and shower me in affection. I hadn't thought that was possible until I met Max, who was showering me in affection right then, tugging me into a side hug and nuzzling my hair, startling me out of my daze.

“The instant I laid eye on you,” he murmured, squeezing me close, “I was intrigued. Of course, you know the situation, so I kept pushing those thoughts away, but I definitely wanted you. That hasn’t changed now, and it’s not going to change, ever.”

My eyes blurred with tears at Max’s words, but I blinked them away. We stayed that way, with Max holding me, and me leaning into him, for a while. Until he reminded me to finish.

After I was done eating, the two of us left Max’s pack, to head over to my parents’ house.