Page 74 of Dream Mates (Into The Parallel Omegaverse #2)

“Nate’s a really good man,” Harry said softly, as three small children attacked the professor.

“He’s been looking for you a long time and truly regrets what happened.

Adriana can be a bitch, and you don’t have to forgive her.

But if you can find it in your heart to forgive Nate, it would mean everything to him–even if you just have a birthday call and holiday card relationship, maybe grab lunch when you’re in town for work.

He’ll take whatever you give him, and I implore you to give him something. Anything.”

“I… I could probably handle that.” I gulped, tears pricking my eyes as Nate hoisted a tiny blonde girl that looked like little me in his arms. Hope. I might not be able to handle much more. But I could at least try that? Maybe?

Harry’s eyes flickered over Hope, as he took the hands of a little boy and girl, a little older than her, who favored him in hair, their skin a very light brown. The girl claimed the blanket, her eyes blue.

“Dad, are you okay?” Creed came barreling down the hall in a cloud of alpha concern. He stopped short. “Grace. Why are you here?

“It’s my fault you’re here, and I’m sorry.” Tears streamed down my face as guilt ate at me.

“Hey, you got me out of an exam, I’m not mad.” Hale threw an arm around me. “Dad, is she the missing sister?”

“Yes, but be gentle. I’d like her to, you know, want to see us sometimes.” Anxiety tinged the professor’s scent.

“Oh. Verity was right. It is girl Creed,” a teenage girl who had Adriana’s body type, Nate’s face, and light brown hair, joined us. Her hair was in tight dutch braids and her shirt read Capitol Crushers. She looked like she’d fit right in with the kids at Riley’s school.

This had to be Mercy.

“Hi, Mercy,” I said softly. “My name is Grace.” I looked at Nate. “Where did Theodosia come from?”

Nate smirked. “You play the piano and don’t know who Theodosia is?”

I’d have to ask Brennan. Was that her favorite composer?

“We have another sister?” the little girl holding Harry’s hand asked. She looked maybe kindergarten-aged while the tiny one, Hope, looked maybe two or three.

The little boy grinned at me. “She does look like girl Creed. But shorter.”

“You are so very small.” Hale rested his arm on my head.

Nate stopped. “Everyone, this is Grace. She’s your biggest sister–she’s even older than Creed.

Her mom wasn’t in our pack, so she was raised…

elsewhere. She’s a grown up and has a PhD, a job, a pack, and mates.

” His scent went salty with sadness. “This is Pax,” he indicated the little boy, “Tru,” the little girl holding Harry’s hand waved, “and Hope. I think you know everyone else?”

Hope looked up at me, thumb in her mouth, blue eyes wide. The blue ribbons in her hair matched her dress.

My heart broke. I wasn’t even sure why.

“Don’t cry.” Tru took my hand. “There’s a lot of us. But we’re nice.”

“It’s been a rough day,” I said softly, letting her hold it.

“Why are you wearing a bikini?” Pax asked.

“I was at the beach with my mate.” I shrugged.

“Did you…” Creed grinned, eyeing my neck. “Oooh. I’m telling Verity and Ina as soon as I get my phone back.”

“Yes.” My head ducked, cheeks warming. “Wait, how many pumpkins is this?”

Creed laughed. “Not sure. Two maybe?”

“Who’s her mate? What am I missing?” Hale asked.

“Should I get everyone summer internships?” I joked.

Creed snorted. “Dad, we’re all going to work with Grace for the summer, okay?”

Nate rubbed his face with his hand as we approached the double locked doors. “You can have that conversation with the other parents yourself.”

“Where do you work? Someplace fun?” Mercy asked.

“You do know she was at the PIIP Conference recruiting for their internship program?” Creed goaded.

“She works for Compass BioTek, but, mate ?” Hale asked.

A guard unlocked the double doors. We walked into the small lobby. I immediately saw Pippa, who looked as unrumpled as yesterday.

“My good doctor.” Spencer rushed to me and gathered me into his arms. He’d changed into a suit.

Letting go of Tru’s hand, I started to sob. “I’m okay, I’m okay.”

“Darling, I’ve got you.” He squeezed me tight.

“She’s mated to Spencer Thanukos, the guy who owns Compass BioTek,” Creed said.

“Everyone is okay?” Pippa asked. She held up a bag. “I have everyone’s phones.”

Creed picked up Tru. “We’re okay, Mum.”

“I want to talk to the parents for a moment,” the nurse said.

“Give me the phones and I’ll pass them out,” Mercy asked, rushing to grab the bag.

“Here, distribute these.” The professor gave Hale the candy bars and Hope.

I clung to Spencer like a koala, as Hale divided the candy and Mercy passed out the phones.

“Hi, Spencer,” Creed said quietly. “This is Tru, Hale, Hope, Mercy, and Pax. This is Spencer–he’s one of Grace’s mates.”

“They brought in all your siblings?” Spencer asked softly, still holding me tight.

“We’re missing three,” Creed replied.

“I have nine siblings.” My eyes closed as I tried to drown myself in his leathery scent.

Nine. So many siblings.

“I’ve got your phone, shall we go?” Spencer asked, still holding me. “I also have some clothes for you, if you’d like to change?”

“Maybe in the car? I just want to go.” I needed to figure out what the hell had happened.

“You’re going?” Tru’s voice went small.

“I’m sure we’ll see Grace again.” Creed’s look went pleading and I nodded slightly.

Hope was still sucking her thumb, but her other chubby little hand waved. I tentatively waved back.

“I’ll call a car,” Spencer said, trying to hold me and use his phone at the same time as we left the building. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not an illegal designation, nor am I a carrier. And now I officially vote for trying to figure out Elaris’ research.” My voice was muffled as I kept my face in his neck.

If they could turn betas into omegas couldn’t they make sigmas something else?

“Also, I found out some weird shit. Like the professor is really my dad, and yeah, I need to talk to you about all that,” I added.

Spencer nodded. “I saw that. I have questions.”

“Yeah, I have theories. Also, Thora, my birth mother, had an identical twin.” My eyes squeezed shut. She knew. The betrayal cut me like a hot knife.

He kissed the top of my head and sat us down on a bench. I reached up and put my hand gently on the bruise on his face.

“Adriana hit you?” Anger welled up inside me. That fucking bitch.

“I’ll be fine. She didn’t hit me hard.” He covered my hand with his.

“You can’t actually be her.” Adriana strode over to me, expression panicked. “Rosalind promised me that she’d take you away and that you’d never, ever look for him or come back. That she’d take pains to make sure that you’d never be found.”

Fuck. I hadn’t seen that coming.

“You gave me to Rosalind? Do you know what she did to me?” I started to sob. It was one thing to convince the professor not to return Thora’s call, it was another to give me away.

“You talked to Rosalind?” The professor stood there, Hope in his arms, looking stricken.

“Well, yes. Thora had the audacity to list you as the father on her birth record. They literally dropped the baby off, so I took her to the baby shelter, and they took her to the Silvers. One day, Rosalind called and said that their mother couldn't take care of the baby, but if I gave her money, she’d make the baby disappear and we’d never have to deal with her again.

No support payments. No visit schedule. Rosalind even had an alternate identity created for her so it would be as if she never existed. ” Adriana shrugged.

“Well, that’s where the Cassidy record came from,” Spencer said softly.

Who was Cassidy ? Aside from my middle name.

“You WHAT? You never thought to ask me? You had my child in our home and never thought to ask me what I wanted to do with her? You watched as I searched for Grace, knowing that you gave her away. You even went with me to meet girls we thought were her. How dare you?” Nate’s voice broke, apricot scent a combination of anger and sadness.

“They’re fucking variants–a family of unstable hidden sigmas. Not to mention Thora’s twin and brother were criminals. Why would we want that in our home?” Adriana said in total seriousness.

“Adriana, you’re head alpha, not monarch,” Pippa said, voice thick with condemnation.

“You weren’t keen on Thora,” Adriana pushed.

“You didn’t know Thora,” the professor retorted.

“Did you call in the tip?” I prodded, trying to make sense of everything.

She must not have known that Thora’s record was locked–or what would happen because of it.

“Creed, let’s get the littles in my car,” Harry directed, taking Hope from Nate. “They don’t need to hear this.”

Pippa growled at Adriana. “Did you put our mate and children in danger by calling in a tip on Grace? Last night we decided that we weren’t going to do anything until we’d contacted a family lawyer, gotten proof, and figured out what Grace wanted.”

“I don’t want anything from you, I promise,” I said honestly.

“I had no idea they’d take the children or Nate,” Adriana backtracked.

“Mom did what now?” Mercy stood there, frowning, not following the others.

“I protected this family, like always.” She got in Spencer’s face. “And I won’t let you ruin everything I’ve built. You need to stop. I had nothing to do with it.”

“With what?” the professor pushed. “Adriana, what did you do now?”

“Adriana, get in your car, now, before you say something even more idiotic than you have already,” Pippa growled.

“Mercy, you’re with me,” Adriana ordered.

“No, she’s not,” the professor snapped back.

“You… you gave my baby away. You subjected my children to something terrifying after we agreed to take no immediate action. I had it under control. I was going to have lunch with her and talk it out when I went to that conference at Rock Tech over the summer.”

Oh. He had a plan? I would have agreed to that.

“I protected you, Nate. And I still protect you. I have always put you first, this family first. You never would have accomplished everything you have if they were in the picture,” Adriana yelled.

“I’ll never know because you robbed me of that choice, ” Nate yelled back.

“Mercy, get in Harry’s car. It’ll be tight.” Pippa put an arm around Mercy, shielding her from Adriana with her body. “Adriana, get in your car now, so help me,” she growled, oozing dominance.

Adriana looked at the professor. “Nate–”

“Don’t talk to him. Get. In. Your. Car. Adriana,” Pippa barked.

The professor stood there in front of me, looking forlorn, as Adriana stalked off to her car. Mercy gave her dad a hug, he whispered something to her, then she ran off to Harry’s SUV.

I stood and gave Nate a tentative hug. “I’ll text you later. Can I get your number from Creed?”

“Yes. I’d like that so much. Maybe we could still have that lunch?” His head bowed. “I… I didn’t–”

“I know. Let me know when you’re in Rockland.” My heart broke. I’d try to see if I could salvage something with him. Harry’s suggestion of the occasional call and lunch seemed doable. Maybe some texts.

Pippa put an arm around her mate. “Let’s go home, Love. It’ll be okay.”

A car drove up, and Spencer stood, looking relieved.

We climbed in and he immediately put up the privacy shield. I curled into him.

“I’ve got you.” Spencer held me tight.

“That was batshit crazy,” I said softly, resting my head on his chest. “I can barely comprehend what happened, without factoring in that Adriana not only called in the tip but gave me to Rosalind and kept it a secret from her mate for all these years.”

Adriana sold me to Rosalind. Shit.

“What’s a variant?” I blinked.

“The illegal designations are variations, offshoots, of the alpha designation. It’s not considered polite.” Spencer handed me my phone.

“Oh, okay.”

“Who is Rosalind?” He sent a text.

“The woman who raised me that I thought was my mom but was actually the identical twin of my biological mother,” I said softly. Yeah, not calling her Mom anymore. “I have theories.”

He curled me into him. “I’ve got you.”

“She was from here. I don’t know how she escaped to the world I grew up in. But she did. And she knew. It was so much easier to deal with what she did to me because I thought she didn’t know, but she did.” Another sob escaped my lips.

Her knowing exactly what I was, what I was doing, and who and what Wes was, made it all the more unforgivable.

“Who knew what, Darling?” Spencer stroked my hair.

“Rosalind. Taking away my blankets, not letting me nest in the laundry, punishing me for too many stuffies, sending me to that camp, it all hits so differently knowing that she knew my father was an omega so there was a chance that I could be one too.” I buried my face into his chest.

His hands ran up and down my back, soothing me.

“Did she do it on purpose? Did she know that sending me to that place would actually stop it? I mean, I had a heart attack from the electroshock. I was close to being eighteen when she sent me there. That’s what did it right? How badly did that mess me up?” The sobs came harder and harder.

I felt love shoot through the bond, but it didn’t slow my tears. Spencer’s leather scent wrapped around me as his purr filled the car.

His phone rang. “I’ve got her. There have been some upsetting revelations.”

That was an understatement.

I took the phone. “Hello?”

“You’re out?” Wes asked.

“Yeah, I am… I…” While I was with Spencer, I wanted Wes and Evan, too.

“Oooh, I feel that. We’re coming to you, okay?” Wes assured, sending love though the bond. “I’ll love you to the end of the universe. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Yes, please. I needed them. My mates. My pack.

I was from here. Shit.