Page 22 of Dream Mates (Into The Parallel Omegaverse #2)

Chapter Fourteen

Brennan

U nable to sleep, I left the bed in the room Jett and I shared in the cabin. Everything was dark as I went out into the hall. A little tug on my mate bond with Evan told me that he was not only awake but… busy. I shut that down as I went to the kitchen to get a drink.

I was still really confused about Grace. About her return. About what happened in the nest. About her too-crazy-to-be- true story about being from another world and taken by the interdimensional police to testify in an inter-world weapons smuggling ring trial.

Taking a bottle of bourbon from the cupboard, I poured myself a glass. I took a sip, letting the liquid burn my throat as I leaned against the counter, the only light coming in through the big windows.

What I’d told her earlier, about being glad she was back was true. I was happy she’d returned to us.

But the thing that ate at me was that it wasn’t just because she meant everything to Evan and Wes. At some point I started to care about her. Which was why I’d pulled her to me when I’d triggered her and tried to comfort her.

“Can’t sleep?” Jett put his arms around my waist, he was only wearing boxers.

“Are we really believing that whole story about Grace being a witness in interdimensional protection?” I took another sip. It was a wild tale.

“Are you asking Officer Jett or Packmate Jett?” He left my side and opened the fridge. “Snack?”

“Both and yes.” I swirled the liquid in my glass, watching that ass as he bent over and rummaged through the fridge. The main tattoo on his back was of a dragon, surrounded by some smaller ones.

“Officer Jett feels like it’s perfectly plausible.

If key witnesses were being killed, and someone tried to kill Grace so that she couldn’t testify , I could understand her being stashed somewhere until the trial.

Shit, I’ve been that officer, helping to hide someone then get them to the stand without other people finding out.

” Jett closed the fridge and set some chicken wings and butter on the counter.

“Don’t know what they’re for, but they’re not labeled, so they’re my snack now. ”

I mulled over what Jett said as he got down spices, flour, oil, and hot sauce.

“Did you get anything from her body language indicating that she might be lying? Both tonight and ever?” I leaned against the counter.

“No. I mean, there were holes in her story, there still are. While I knew that she was hiding something, I never got the idea that she was outright lying. Packmate Jett also believes her. Tonight, it was pretty obvious that she was trying hard to tell us some painful shit. I felt flickers of her pain through our bond with Evan. Her professor tried to pin a crime on her and then attempted to kill her–and now she remembers it . She was literally dropped into another world with no memory in order to protect her. I think no one’s paying attention to all that.

Not to mention, they almost sent her to another world away from Wes.

That probably scared the shit out of her. ” Jett mixed the flour with spices.

I rubbed my chin, considering this. “You’re right, the story is so big, so wild, that I really didn’t consider all of that.”

While Spencer and Wes did drop this on us days ago, I’d been so busy with Evan and his heat that I hadn’t had time to process it. It was a lot to take in. Other worlds existed.

And Wes fell in love with someone from one.

Jett put some oil in a pan. “It is. Grace is from a fucking different world. Again, I don’t think anyone’s realized how much that’s probably affecting her.

I mean, what would it be like to grow up without designations?

That could be the unease we get from her sometimes.

Just not knowing the cultural norms and body language could do it.

I see it when we get recruits that grew up in mostly beta or equalist areas. ”

Equalists didn’t believe in designations. They thought we’d be better off doing away with the classification system that had been used for thousands upon thousands of years. Of course, there were physiological differences. But they ignored that.

There were also large swaths outside the cities that were mostly beta, especially in the middle of the country and parts of the south that had been settled by betas to farm.

“Cultural cues. She’s lacking in expected cultural cues.” Now that I could grasp, working in international markets.

“Exactly. Not only did she not grow up expecting to be a certain designation, she didn’t even grow up internalizing them.

Evan didn’t anticipate being omega, but he knew from health class, the media, and just life, about the societal views and expectations of them.

” Jett dipped the wings in the flour mixture as the oil heated in the pan.

“I’m a little worried about her,” I sighed. She’d been through so much and Wes wasn’t handling his shit.

Jett gave me a look as he continued to coat the wings with spiced flour.

“When did I start caring about her?” I drowned the last of my bourbon and poured more, remembering pulling her into my arms to comfort her–and her trying to purr for me. Like with alphas, omegas didn’t purr for just anyone.

Her first purr was for me.

“If this isn’t rhetorical, I think that it was sometime between her disarming a gunman to save your mate and her getting pushed down the stairs by your ex.” Jett carefully put the wings in the hot oil, and it made a sizzling sound.

I thought about this for a moment. “That sounds about right.”

While I’d made an active choice to not be a dick after I saw how I was hurting her, it was her smacking the shooter with a chair that made me realize she genuinely cared about Evan.

“You’re head alpha. You should care about the people who are mated to your packmates. She’s bonded to two of them and Spencer wants to be the third. You know, I feel her sometimes.” Jett got down a large plate.

“Me, too.” Just twinges through Evan’s bond. Like little dust motes dancing through a ray of sunshine, occasionally reminding me that she was here. I sighed. “But… I… I’m not ready.”

It came out raw. They were all asking so much of me. To let someone else be part of our home, our family.

To open my heart again.

“Not ready to not be a dick? Because no one is asking you to mate with her.” He gave me a measured look as he lined the plate with a paper towel.

“I’m glad, because I don’t intend to. But I think I truly care about her. I’m happy she’s back and safe and not just because it tore Evan and Wes up inside.” I frowned and took another sip.

“That’s a perfectly normal way to feel about someone who lives in your house, is bonded to your mate, and will eventually join your pack. There’s nothing wrong with caring about her.” He smirked.

It was still a lot. Caring for someone meant opening yourself up for hurt. Loving someone meant that you could have your heart broken.

“She has to follow the rules,” I grumbled. Though in some ways, some of this felt like my fault. Grace kept secrets because she didn’t trust me.

“I think she understands that now. I believed her when she said that she wasn’t ready to tell you.

It’s a huge thing to tell someone, even without that little tidbit she slipped in around the fire about being fucking institutionalized as a teenager for saying the wrong things.

” Jett made two different sauces out of butter, hot sauce, and spices.

“I accidentally triggered her tonight. I was trying to be playful and grabbed her wrists when she was play-hitting me. They fucking tied her wrists when they beat her.” I winced. It tore me up inside that someone would do that to her.

“Fuck.” For a moment Jett went quiet, the only sound in the kitchen was that of sizzling chicken. “Does anyone even know what actually happened to her when they made her forget that Wes was real?”

Just the thought made my blood boil. It was an awful thing to do. That was probably why she was a gamma, not an omega.

“Wes, I’m assuming. But I still don’t quite understand how it all fits together. Like why did her mom hate alphas if she lived in a world without them? Why make her forget him for the same reason? If Grace is from a world without designations, how could she be a gamma?” I was so confused.

How could omegas even survive in a world without alphas? A heat without an alpha was a painful experience. A lifetime of unsatisfied heats could be devastating.

Jett shrugged as he used tongs to turn the wings. “If it’s that important to you, ask her sometime.”

“I just want to understand. Jett, I’m not used to people like her.” I’d meant it when I’d told her that she confused me. It could be that she was lacking in those cues I expected.

It also went beyond that.

Jett snorted as he drained the wings on the paper towel covered plate.

“Well, yeah, the only woman living with us is a teenager who likes to fund her overseas bank account through hacking, and the ones you have regular contact with are either alpha females or people like Lexi who you mess with at your own risk.”

“So, we just accept this story?” I rubbed my forehead, trying to make sense of all this.

“What other choice do we have? I don’t quite understand the scent-match-from-another-world part.

What if they never were brought together?

That would be horrible. Wes would have been fine, he has Evan and us.

But her… I still remember seeing her in the Center that first time.

How scared she was.” Jett frowned as he brushed sauce over the wings on one of the plates.

“How willing she was to come home with a stranger?” I rolled my eyes.

“That stranger was Evan. It was probably her bond with Wes that affected him.” He took a different bowl of sauce and brushed it over the wings on the other plate.

True. Honestly, I think most people would go home with Evan if he asked them.

“Considering Grace and Wes mated , I’m surprised she even lasted as long as she did,” Jett added.