Page 43 of His Snowbound Omega

“That’s…” Thorn rubbed at his temples.

“What were the two of you talking about just now?” Aster graciously dropped it.

“He was asking how my classes were going.”

“Ah, the classes he paid for? I was shocked when I found out you’d accepted.”

“Yeah, well, he didn’t exactly give me a choice.”

“Boo hoo. The big bad alpha is forcing you to get a degree on his dime.”

“Watch it,” Thorn warned, but he couldn’t help but smile back at his brother’s teasing grin.

“Seriously though,” Aster sobered some. “If anyone deserves to be happy, it’s you.”

“And you think the alpha will make me happy? Really?” He nibbled on his bottom lip and blurted, “What if he leaves?”

“So what if he does? Relationships end all the time.”

“What if I get attached?”

“Thorn, you’re the strongest, most independent person I know. Even if the man you love dumps you, you’ll pick yourself back up again and dust yourself off. Have a little faith in yourself.”

He scowled. “I’m notin lovewith him.”

“Not yet,” Aster agreed. Then he waggled his brow suggestively. “But he’s totally in love with you already.”

“Shut up.”

“He is! I swear!”

“Don’t put shit like that in my head. It’s hard enough without it.” Thorn’s device dinged and he turned his wrist to check it, finding another message from the alpha of topic. “He just invited me to a New Year’s party.”

The two of them had talked every day the past week, but for some reason, Thorn’s chest felt tight at the thought of seeing the alpha in person again.

When was his heat due? He’d gotten so caught up in everything, he’d nearly forgotten. Pulling up the app that helped track that sort of thing, he saw it wasn’t for another couple of weeks.

Alphas and omegas could take suppressants to put their heats off, but it wasn’t healthy to skip more than two in a row. Those with extremely strong pheromones often used smaller doses in their daily lives as well, to keep themselves from triggering the ruts or heats of others.

Did Baal need them? He was a dominant alpha. Most of them did.

He also had excellent control over his pheromones though, so maybe it wasn’t necessary.

“Are you going to go?” Aster asked. “I’m supposed to be moved into rehab by then, so don’t worry about me. We won’t be able to spend it together anyway. I’d feel better knowing you weren’t at home alone, or worse, working your ass off at a delivery job like last year.”

“Baal made me quit working, remember?” He typed a simple okay out to the alpha and hit send. “Besides, it’s not like I actually have a choice. Inviting me is just a pleasantry.”

“Boo hoo—”

“I get it, brat,” Thorn cut him off.

A party probably sounded like the best thing in the world to Aster. His illness meant he had to be taken out of school, and couldn’t be around many alphas or omegas at once. If he was, their pheromones would flood his system and risk permanently damaging his internal organs, or worse, could kill him.

If it’d been something else, like a failing liver or kidney, they would have put him on a transplant list, but transplantsfor pheromone disorder weren’t possible. It was still too rare a disease, with not enough research being done on it. According to the doctors, the treatment plan they’d put him on had come from Glyph.

For the first time ever, they were being told it was possible he’d make a full recovery. It’d been years since Aster been around more than a handful of people at once, and it was clear he was eager to get back out there. Enrolling him in the rehab center would ensure he didn’t overdo it and took his time to properly heal before getting the chance to assimilate back into society.

Aster had presented early, at the young age of fourteen, and it’d been mostly downhill from there. It made sense that an alpha like Baal swooping in and seemingly saving them from a life of struggle was viewed as a blessing.