Page 67 of Dream Mates (Into The Parallel Omegaverse #2)

Chapter Forty-Four

Grace

I sat in silence in the sterile room, a little chilly in only my bikini and coverup. Spencer reached out through the bond, and I took it, wrapping myself in it.

Eventually, voices echoed down the hall through the door.

“Just put them together. Oh, come on, what are they going to do? Build a blanket fort?” a man’s voice grumbled as he stopped in front of the door.

Was that an option? I could go for that right now. Also, a snack.

The door opened and the guard said, “Take a seat, the nurse will be with you shortly.”

I looked up to see a bewildered, blond man in khakis, a button down, and suspenders with molecular diagrams on them. The door closed and locked behind him.

“Professor?” I frowned. Why was Nate Thorne here?

“Grace. I thought I saw Spencer Thanukos pacing in the parking lot. Are you all right?” The professor came over to me, worry in his blue eyes.

A dam broke inside me. “I don’t know what’s going on,” I sobbed.

“It’s okay to be scared,” he said softly. “Getting dragged into the Office of Designation Management is frightening indeed.”

The door opened and the nurse walked in. “Grace, this whole process will go much better if you just tell me about your mother.”

“She’s dead.” Not that the information would do them any good.

“Is it not in her file?” Nate frowned.

“Not her birth mother–that record is locked. The court order to unlock it hasn’t gone through yet. You’ll get out much faster if you just cooperate,” the nurse said. She turned to Nate. “You’re her biological father, correct?”

“The professor isn’t my father,” I blurted.

Hurt crossed his face and his scent soured.

What did I do? It wasn’t like I could tell them the truth.

Guilt welled up inside me. “ I’m the reason you’re here? I’m so sorry, professor.”

The nurse frowned at him. “You’re not Nathaniel Thorne?”

“I am,” Nate nodded. “I have a daughter named Grace… somewhere. I haven’t been able to find her.

Records got messed up and I’ve been searching since she was a baby.

This Grace, while a Grace to be proud of, is exactly a year too old.

Might be my brother’s though. And don’t worry, we’ll be okay,” he reassured me, with a fatherly look.

A bewildered look crossed the nurse’s face.

The professor knew how old I was? But then, he was probably curious. Exactly a year too old? What was going on here? Especially since Spencer didn’t think Nate was one of the omega refugees his dad helped.

Evan had made me a year older when my record was created…

“I can tell you about my Grace’s biological mother, if that would help? Her name was Thora Silvers.” He gave the nurse her birth date and a bunch of other information.

Thora Silvers. Not my mother’s name. I exhaled in relief.

“Designation?” the nurse asked.

“Alpha. Most likely. She was a bit of a late bloomer and hadn’t awakened yet.

But then we were only twenty when she got pregnant.

” His look went wistful, then he finished answering her questions.

The nurse did the same diagnostics on him that she did on me, took a swab from him, frowned at me one last time, then left.

You could get pregnant without your designation being apparent? What? At least I hadn’t gotten dream pregnant. That would have been hard to explain.

“You met her in high school?” I asked him as the door locked us in once again.

“University. As firsties. She was a piano performance major. Thora had the most beautiful blue-grey eyes and a sharp wit.”

“She liked Volkov?” I joked. Piano major? Yeah, not my mom. She couldn’t even play.

“Oh, she hated him. Kirkokov, too. She liked the powerful pieces, not the technical ones. I loved to hear her play,” he sighed. “That’s how we met. I liked to study in empty practice rooms in the music building because I enjoyed the music.”

“I play a little,” I admitted. “Mostly I play Volkov too fast to annoy my packmate.”

He laughed. “Annoying packmates is fun. I love to annoy Zain by putting dishes away in the wrong places. Also, Adriana doesn’t like how I fold the sheets.”

“Bren hates the way I load the dishwasher,” I replied.

“Thora hated dishwashers. When we moved in together, I always had to run it when she wasn’t around. We were waiting for her to awaken so we could mate.” His head bowed, anguish on his face.

His scent went salty, and tears filled his eyes.

“It’s the thing I regret most in life. How I wish I could fix it.

I’ve had to live with the fact I can’t ever reverse what I did.

It… it kills me. Every single day I think of her, I think of what I did to her and Grace, and how even when I find Grace I’ll never be able to make it better.

I honestly wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to know me or my packmates–though I’d hope she’d try to get to know some of the children. Maybe?” He sniffed.

The pain rolling off him broke my heart.

“I’ve been told the story,” I said softly, my hand brushing his shoulder to comfort him. “I’m glad that you never stopped looking for your Grace, and that you acknowledge you screwed up. Creed and Verity told me because they were trying to convince me that I was your Grace, I think.”

He nodded. “Can you blame them? You and Creed look like twins.”

“It is eerie. But genetics are weird. Um, why couldn’t Thora just be part of your new pack?

I get that Pippa was your scent match, but not all mates are.

Only one of mine is. Was it because she was an alpha and the other women didn’t know her?

Because she was a piano major? Sorry if I’m prying, I’m trying to understand. ” It seemed like the obvious solution.

“Because we’re idiots.” He raked a hand through his blond hair.

“It honestly didn’t dawn on me, and well, Adriana did a very good job of convincing me that Thora was a stalker.

I think it was alpha possessiveness that drove her to do it.

They wouldn’t have gotten along, and Thora being a piano major would only be a part of it.

Thora didn’t play well with other alphas.

But, we should have given it a chance. At the very least we could have shared our child. ”

Huh. Adriana seemed to be the real problem here.

“Are you safe?” I murmured. “Adriana seems like a piece of work, and if you need help, my mate Evan is an advocate at the Omega Center. We can get you help, and keep you and the kids safe.”

His look softened. “I’m not being abused, promise. You probably wonder why I stayed. In the beginning it was because of Pip. I love Pip with my entire soul. It took a lot of work and therapy. I met with my advocate and therapist regularly for decades until they both retired.”

“As long as you’re safe.” I frowned.

“I am. I apologize for Adriana harming you and yelling at you. She still has anger issues and does take the protective alpha thing too seriously sometimes. But that doesn’t give her leave to harm you.” The professor frowned and shook his head.

“Do you love Adriana?” I was so confused by their pack.

“I care for her enough that I repaired our relationship and stayed with the pack for over two and a half decades. I’ve children with her and enjoy her company,” he explained. “I get something different from each of my packmates and it’s not always romantic love.”

I understood that. “Not to change the subject but why would a record be locked?”

His head tilted. “She must have done something very bad or gotten involved with terrible people for them to not want it to populate in your file when you were genscanned.”

“I never did a genscan,” I frowned. Maybe it was a test I’d gotten along the way?

The bigger question was why would a record on my file, my very fake file, be locked and why in the world did they think that Nate was my dad?

Unless there really was an alternate me here?

But then wouldn’t that have been apparent when I arrived here, and they kept scanning my face and having me press a finger to that little box?

“I honestly don’t know what happened that caused Thora to be in trouble, and what led to her death.

They never gave me that information. But, oh, that sister of hers, it wouldn’t surprise me if once again, she’d brought her into something shady,” Nate added.

“Or that her sister tried to blame it on Thora entirely.”

“Huh.” Things were getting weirder and weirder. My brain–and heart–couldn’t take it.

He nodded at my neck. “That mark looks brand new, are you okay? It must be hard being apart from him so soon.”

“It is, and…” I closed my eyes, reaching out and getting so much anxiety and panic from my guys. “We were supposed to spend the day at the beach. I was building a sand castle.”

“I do like the beach,” he told me. “I grew up on the Northeastern coast.”

“Oh, I went to Seaside recently with my mate Wes.” I grinned, remembering how much fun that was.

“There’s a pier there, right?” he asked.

I nodded. “With a sky swing and funnel cake and games. He won me a stuffed rabbit.”

“As he should,” he agreed.

The door opened and the nurse walked back in. “Good news, neither of you have illegal designations. Nathaniel, you’re confirmed omega, and Grace, you’re confirmed gamma. As is your right, someone from the Center is on her way. Now, let’s take some blood so we can do the second test.”

“You’re a gamma?” He went quiet, still sitting next to me as the nurse took a large vial of his blood. No Compass BioTek tests here apparently.

I nodded.

“You grew up in care?” His voice was tentative.

I was guessing he meant foster care. “I had a family. But they’re gone now.”

“Oh, so sorry to hear that.”

“I don’t really miss them.” Well, sometimes I missed my dad and grandma.

Nate looked horrified.

“Everything was fine when I was small. It wasn’t until I got older when the conflicts between me and my mom really got bad. Then I was off on my own and all that.” I brushed it off, not wanting him to feel bad. It wasn’t his fault that my teenage years were shitty.

The nurse came over to me and tried to take my blood, but my filmy cover up was not cooperating.

“I know it’s cold in here, but please take it off?” she asked.

“Fine.” Without a thought I shrugged it off.

“Grace, what happened?” Nate’s voice went strangled.

Oh, shit. “It’s old.”

The nurse took my blood and peeked over at my scars. “Oh, you’re that type of gamma.”

“Yeah.” I guess. I put my coverup back on as soon as she finished and left.

The professor’s eyes fell on the bruises on my arm.

“Adriana did that yesterday? I’m sorry about that,” he said quietly.

My chest shook. “I wasn’t trying to start anything.”

“I know. Tell me about you?” he pleaded. “How many mates do you have? How did you meet Spencer Thanukos? Also, you said one of your mates is an advocate?”

“Um, sure,” I shrugged. He probably needed the distraction–and so did I.

I told him about my guys, leaving out things like my past, though I did talk about my PhD and my job. Given, I was pretty sure he was convinced I was his Grace, I shouldn’t lead him on. But talking distracted me from what was happening.

“A PhD in math, that’s wonderful.” He beamed. “It took me forever to get mine. We moved around a bit as everyone got established in their careers, and had kids, and all that. Do you like where you work?” His voice grew tentative.

“I do. We’re going to accomplish some really interesting things.”

The door opened and a middle-aged omega holding a duffle bag, and a tablet came in. She wore a hot pink polo shirt that said Omega Center Crisis Response Team.

“Hi. I’m Lark and I’m from the Omega Center.” She looked at me. “You’re Grace?”

“I am.” Did she have snacks in that bag?

“And this is your father?” She peered at the tablet, her glasses sliding down her nose.

I shook my head. “He’s no–” The words trailed off as I saw Nate flinch. “I can’t be your Grace, Professor.”

Tears pricked my eyes. I didn’t ask for daddy drama.

His head bowed. “I… I understand. What I did is unforgivable–and I can only imagine what growing up was like for you. I won’t push for a relationship, though I’m here if you ever want one. Will you stay in touch with Creed and Verity at least?”

Lark just stood there, blinking. Sadness wafted off Nate and he looked like his puppy had been kicked.

“You misunderstand,” I took a deep breath, getting another hit of hurt through his fruity, creamy scent. He smelled like the apricot custard tarts from the bakery I’d worked at.

I sighed, trying to figure out how to say this.

“Professor, I think it’s great that you are trying to make things right.

I’m just not her. I’m sorry. It’s just not possible.

I don’t know why they think that you’re my dad and I’m sorry to give you false hope–and I’m sorry you got dragged here because of me.

” Tears rolled down my face, because I didn’t want to hurt him. I just wasn’t from this world.

“It’s okay, Grace. But why can’t you be her?” he pleaded.

“My mom’s name wasn’t Thora, and she couldn’t play the piano for shit. She didn’t even go to college.” I sniffed. “I’m also a year too old. Um, I’m going to use the restroom.”

Getting off the exam bed, I made my way over to the little bathroom. Leaning against the door, I cried into my arms, wishing my mates were here with me.