Page 81 of Dream Mates (Into The Parallel Omegaverse #2)

“I…” I looked up at him. Even though he didn’t seem mad, Evan had never seen his guys comforting me like this. As I got to know them better, I could understand why Evan was with them, why Wes and Spencer formed a pack with them.

“Grace.” Evan’s nose touched mine. “Relax. You can snuggle my guys.”

I got a hint of arousal in his lemonade scent.

“Absolutely.” Jett nuzzled my cheek, amber scent flaring.

Desire surged between my thighs, and I smelled Evan’s perfume. Jett hardened underneath me. My mind flashed back to Evan’s heat, when Jett and Evan took me between them over and over again. I wouldn’t mind that right now. Especially if Brennan let me suck–

What was I even thinking? Why was I so needy?

But the scents of pine, amber, and lemonade wrapped me in a hazy, sexy blanket.

“Should we take this upstairs? That’s where your room is, right?” Evan’s voice went husky.

“Fuck of the morning to you. What’s for breakfast?” Riley strode into the kitchen.

Disappointment zinged through me as I sat up. Snuggle time was over–as was any prospect of sexy cuddles. “Good morning. Let’s order some food.”

“Maybe later?” Jett whispered in my ear as I crawled off his lap.

Later? My pussy clenched at the thought. Down girl. Would I really have sex with them? Was I even ready for Brennan? Sure, I liked looking at him, he had been very kind to me, but was I?

But Jett, yes. Yeah, I’d let Jett and Evan take me…

…as I sucked Brennan’s cock.

Yeah, I’d fuck Brennan. Or nap on his dick.

Pushing my lusty thoughts aside, Riley helped me order food from the console in the kitchen. Jett and Brennan disappeared.

“Hey, Peaches.” Wes came in wrapped in a towel. “I’m going to shower. Are we ordering breakfast or going out?”

“We already ordered for you,” Riley told him.

I made more coffee and was pouring a cup for Wes when Spencer came in.

“Did everything go okay?” I asked Spencer.

“The contract has been signed.” Spencer gave me a kiss. “Should we order breakfast?”

“Already did.” Riley rolled her eyes and put Wes’ cup at his place.

“Excellent. I’ll be right there.” Spencer kissed me again and left.

There was a knock on the door.

“FOOD, FUCKERS,” Riley yelled as she ran to the door. A moment later, she pushed the cart in, and we set everything out on the table.

I made sure everyone had coffee and juice. Riley had ordered herself the fanciest hot chocolate that I’d ever seen. I’d gotten myself a latte.

“Oooh. I want to keep this tiny syrup pitcher.” Riley put it by her plate of waffles.

There was thumping down the stairs.

Jett slid into the kitchen. “I am so hungry.”

Everyone came in and we all sat around the table. I was between Wes and Spencer.

“Can you tell us what the fuck happened, Grace?” Riley asked, cutting into her waffles, smothered with chocolate, bananas, and whipped cream.

“Yeah,” I sighed, taking a bite of fruit.

I started with meeting Creed, going through the events at the university and farm, then yesterday at the testing center, telling them not just about testing, but being in the exam room with the professor and everything he told me–and the events in the parking lot.

“That’s a lot.” Wes squeezed my shoulder.

“It is. So, not only am I apparently from here, but one of the professor’s alphas sold me to my mom’s evil twin who somehow smuggled me to another world.” I sighed. Spencer placed a hand on my bare thigh.

“But how did she get there?” Riley asked. “It’s not like it’s easy.”

“The obvious answer is that somehow my father and Dr. K managed to use their network or tech to send them elsewhere,” Spencer replied. “They had originally wanted to send our illegal designations away in return for taking in omegas from other worlds, it just didn’t work out the way they’d planned.”

“Makes sense. If these designations are illegal in most places it might be hard to find places to put them, and the network thought it was too much trouble or something.” Riley took another bite of waffle.

“That’s what I was wondering. If we got mostly male omegas because many worlds didn’t want them, then how difficult would it be to find a home for sigmas and omicrons?

That could be why you ended up in a world without designations at all.

Especially since unlike alphas and omegas, sigmas and omicrons don’t have discernible anatomical changes.

That’s often how sigma and omicron males are found.

They test as alphas as children, then fail to get knots, though their scents are usually very close, even without chemical help, and their builds and other abilities are about the same.

They even have pheromones that operate similarly but aren’t as potent,” Spencer explained.

Huh. I continued to make inroads in my veggie omelet.

Riley swiped a piece of Evan’s bacon. “Makes sense to me.”

“Hey, that’s mine,” Evan tried to swipe it back.

“You know what they say about snoozers and losers.” Riley shoved it in her mouth.

“I’ll see if I can figure anything out, but I think it’s safe to assume that Rosalind was somehow smuggled, either pretending that Grace was hers, or masquerading as Thora,” Spencer said.

“While I was told it didn’t work out the way they wanted, that doesn’t mean they didn’t get some to other worlds. Just not very many, I’m guessing.”

“Rosalind could be very charming when she wanted, so I can see her spinning a nice sob story. I mean that’s how she got my dad.

He met a pretty, young, down-and-out single mom with her infant.

Took her in, gave her a home, married her, and had more babies.

Though I’d be interested in how Rosalind even found the underground network to send her over in the first place.

I wonder what her major was,” I added, in case she’d somehow been one of Dr. Thanukos’ students or something.

“On it.” Brennan speared a potato with his fork.

“Me, too. I called in a favor to see what I could find as well, given Rosalind’s criminal record,” Jett told me, taking a sip of coffee.

“That would be good, especially because I’d like to know what sort of trouble Thora was in when she called the professor and wanted him to keep me,” I replied, trying to figure out the full story.

“Yeah, that sounds like the law was after her, then somehow she ended up in a testing facility,” Jett told me.

“Can someone explain what the illegal designations are and why?” I asked, taking a sip of my latte.

“Sigmas commit crimes to punish people–think eco terrorists and mass shooters. They don’t want to be part of the system, and generally think it’s bullshit,” Riley replied.

“Omicrons are charming, and think that the rules don’t apply to them.

They want to take over the world and fix it and aren’t afraid to use violence.

” She looked at Spencer. “That’s right? I looked it up.

I won't get that assembly until next year.”

Spencer nodded. “It is. Both are very smart designations, too, and passionate about their work. One thing about omicrons is that early on they found their homes in religion and philosophy and often used their belief systems to get others to execute their visions.”

I frowned. Hmmm.

“One of the reasons why people were against Elaris’ research on the illegal designations was because she wanted to include the phi designation as well. A phi is a cross between a sigma and a kappa,” Spencer added.

“I don’t know what a kappa is.” I ate another bite.

“Kappas are fun and adventurous thrill-seekers who make exceedingly bad choices. They’re not illegal, but they’re almost non-existent. Sometimes the military uses them in disruption-oriented operations,” Jett explained.

Oh. Okay. Kappas disrupting governments with chaos. I’d watch that movie.

“A phi is basically a chaotic psychopath,” Jett added.

“While they can be a loner like sigmas, they can also be fun like kappas, and even charismatic like an omicron. They can get violent and aggressive, and unlike the others, can hide among alphas, because they have a bulb that can pass as a slightly-deformed knot. They’re also often selfish.

The running theory is that phis aren’t organic variations, that they were somehow created or bred at some point, probably for military purposes, and it went horribly terribly wrong. ”

Wes nodded. “I could see that.”

“So, you could just hide your designation?” I ate some fruit. It was nice fruit, too, not just melons.

“Once you’re tested in middle school you might not ever be tested again if there’s no need for it. There are ways to alter your scent if you need to,” Brennan told me.

“It’s a lot harder to find illegal female designations without a test, because alpha females just have extra pussy muscles, which is less noticeable than a knot,” Spencer added.

“Hey, digammas aren’t illegal, right? They were mentioned in literature class during our poetry unit.” Riley took a sip of hot chocolate.

Evan shook his head. “No. While it doesn’t always end well for them, they’re not illegal.”

Wes blinked. “I don’t even know what that is.”

“It’s the reverse of Grace–an alpha whose environment was so awful, or their trauma was so great, that their bodies halted the process of becoming alphas,” Evan said.

“Do I even want to know what that would be like?” Brennan shuddered.

Evan shook his head. “No, you do not.”

“I feel so bad for them.” I put my hand to my heart.

So many designations. Wow. Yeah, I had some homework.

“Back to what happened with the Thorne Family. I have all the background checks. They’re all pretty normal, other than a few small arrests for Adriana for being involved in some fringe scientist group,” Jett told me. “Well, Hale is pretty reckless, but he’s done nothing truly bad.”

“Huh. I wonder if Adriana knew that I was sent elsewhere and that’s why she was so adamant I wasn’t the Grace they were looking for,” I said to Spencer.

“She could very well have had science friends that worked with your dad and Dr. K. But both yesterday in the parking lot and at the farm she blamed you. Though it does seem weird that Adriana would trust Rosalind, but whatever.”

Spencer nodded. “Yes, trusting Rosalind does seem like an unstable plan. Adriana… that fringe science group she’s part of protested the company I had with Elaris. Do you remember when I told you that sometimes I wondered if her death was an accident?”

I gasped. “When she said that she had nothing to do with it.”

“Yes. I suppose she somehow thinks I’m getting my revenge by introducing you to your father?” He shrugged.

“That feels like a stretch on her part,” Brennan said.

“Adriana strikes me as the type of person that always needs to place blame on someone,” I replied. I’d encountered them many times, especially at church.

“What are we doing to her?” Riley asked, flexing her fingers.

“Adriana? I think that we should turn everything over to the authorities–if that’s all right with you,” Spencer added to me. “I’m not saying that we need to press charges, but the authorities should have this information.”

I thought about it for a moment, and as much as I didn’t want to cause grief for the professor and his family, giving the information to the authorities seemed wise–especially if it led to justice for Elaris. “I’m fine with that.”

“Great. So can we go to the beach now?” Riley asked, finishing her juice.

“As soon as we’re done eating.” Spencer turned to me. “What do you say? Should we give our beach day a do-over?”

“Yes,” I told him, draining my latte. “This time I’m going to finish my sandcastle.”