Page 42 of His Snowbound Omega
“Why? Because the contract?”
All of the oxygen seemed to be sucked right out of the room and Thorn stared at him, mind blanking.
“Brother-in-law told me I wasn’t supposed to mention it, but that’s obviously what’s holding you back,” Aster continued. “Who cares about a dumb thing like that? Don’t let it hold you back, Thorn.”
…He was going to kill the alpha.
How dare Baal tell him!
“Wait!” Aster grabbed onto his wrist when Thorn shot to his feet, easily guessing he was about to storm out and go find the underboss. “Come on, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“He wasn’t supposed to tell you!”
“Why not?” Aster bristled. “I’m sixteen. I’m not a kid anymore. Hell, before I was hospitalized again, I was offered a breeding contract as well.”
Thorn’s mouth dropped open. “Youwhat?!”
He shrugged it off. “You’re smarter than this. No one actually expects to get pregnant these days. The Imperial family has promised they're working on a wonder drug, and we’re all pretty much just waiting on that to actually happen. There’s not really much else we can do, right? Breeding contracts don’t hold the same intent they used to.”
Thorn dropped back down into his seat, brow furrowing.
Aster gave him a funny look. “You seriously didn’t know? Using the contract for exclusive dating is super popular right now. Brother, you aren’tthatold. How are you this clueless?”
Twenty-two might not be old, but it’d been a long time since Thorn had interacted with anyone his age aside from serving them food.
Baal was older than he was. Even if Aster’s generation was taking things like that more lightly, there was no way the alpha would.
“Ask him if you don’t believe me,” his brother suggested, and Thorn shook his head vehemently.
“I would rather gnaw off my left foot.” It was bad enough Thorn had developed any sort of feelings or attachment to the alpha. The last thing he needed was to tip his hand and make that known. He’d lose any ground he’d covered ifhe did something like that. Their relationship was already so imbalanced. “He didn’t have any right to discuss this with you.”
“In his defense, I was the one who brought it up.”
Thorn’s frown deepened.
“Like I said, it’s pretty common now. A breeding contract ensures that both parties are coveredifa miracle pregnancy happens to occur. Without a contract, one side could choose not to tell the other. There have even been rumors of babies being sold.” He growled. “That’s so fucked, right?”
It was.
“If you’re going to have sexual relations with someone nowadays, it’s smart to cover your bases. I wanted to be sure Baal wasn’t just using you for his own twisted pleasure, so I asked outright if he’d signed a contract with you yet. The fact that he had eased my mind.”
Thorn had been so worried it would add unnecessary burden to Aster, but his brother was telling him it’d actually had the opposite effect?
“Let’s change the subject.” He couldn’t talk about this anymore.
“What are you so afraid of?” Aster asked, the question the same as the one Baal had given when Thorn had hesitated to open his gift.
“Am I really that transparent?”
“Not usually,” he replied. “But lately? Yeah. Whenever your alpha comes up, you are.”
He groaned and ran a hand over his face. “Fuck.”
“I don’t get what’s holding you back.”
“He’s the underboss of the White Frost, for one,” Thorn reminded. “You remember how difficult things were when we were involved with them in the past.”
“Yeah, because we were debtors, and low-level members came around randomly to threaten us for payments. With Baalaround, no one would dare. Plus, he’s not a bad guy. Look.” He motioned to the corner of the room where a decorated Christmas tree stood. “He’s done more for us than our own dad did.”