Page 46 of Loving My Omega (The Perfect Designation Trilogy #2)

Chapter

Forty-Six

I was nervous and excited at the time same time. We thought we were going to have a quiet Christmas but it turned out to be the exact opposite. The morning had been quiet but by lunch, the house was full. Beau and Lauren showed up at lunch. Followed by Mr and Mrs. Alford and they even had the kids with them.

Thankfully, we’d gotten presents for everyone despite not knowing when we would see them and be able to celebrate. The house turned into chaos and I loved it. Everyone was happy and excited. Marcus was far more relaxed after last night and he seemed to enjoy hosting everyone.

I even got to meet Peter. He was the quiets and most reserved about of the entire Alford crew but he was really nice as well. For a while, I sat next to him and we talked about school. Being only five years older than I was, I felt like I was able to talk to him like I would Sabrina or Mike.

“Presents!” Audrey screamed as she raced around the house.

“Why is there no tree?” Ellen put her hands on her hips, the sass only cut by the face that she had a milk mustache.

Mason chortled. “Because Uncle Mar is a grinch.”

“Yeah! But now Uncle Colt is here!”

I put my hands up. “I can only do so much. I got him to put up Christmas lights out front. Not much more I can do all at once.”

The kids laughed and Beau came over, kissing my cheek. “And we love you for it.”

“Hey!” Marcus called from the kitchen as he wiped his hands on a towel. “Why are we all agreeing I’m the grinch here?”

“When was the last time you had a Christmas tree, Mar?” Peter asked, taking a sip of some spiked eggnog that Lauren made by hand.

He opened his mouth but his brow furrowed. Everyone laughed I shook my head. We would get there. For now though, I thought just having everyone like this was nice. My parents always decked out the house in Christmas decorations. They were trying to impress everyone who walked into the house. Except all it was good for was taking photos. Nothing about it felt like a home or a family. Not like it did now. It also helped that it snowed a little overnight and now we could see the blanket of snow out back.

“Alright, the kids want presents, the kids get presents!” Beau grabbed the giant bag that she brought in when they came.

Everyone squealed and I leaned back, looking at Marcus. He nodded and headed into his office where we were currently keeping the presents. My eyes widened and I got up, heading up the stairs really quick to grab the box Mike gave me yesterday. It was already wrapped and I had shoved it into my old duffle in the back of the closet after picking up our clothes this morning.

“Colt?” Marcus was setting out the presents in front of the window.

Smiling, I held up the small box before coming back down. “I had to grab the last one.”

His head cocked to the side but Mason and Ellen distracted him but trying to figure out which presents were there’s. Audrey was helping Beau and I could see Mr. Alford pulling out his own from what I realized was a magical bag. Walking over, he let me see it as he pulled out presents.

“Sometimes, there are perks to being a Keeper.”

“This is so cool!” I dove into the specifics of it before Mrs. Alford finally pushed me to the couch with everyone else.

Apparently, they made piles for everyone from where they were sitting or standing. Once the piles were finished, everyone just tore into their pile at the same time. I laughed as the air filled with glitter and wrapping paper. Even Beau and Lauren tore into their presents like animals. Marcus was watching and so was I. Mr and Mrs. Alford were slowly opening theirs as they watched.

Squeals and kisses started as gifts were revealed. I had Sabrina pick up a few things for Ellen in Selene’s shop. Mason got a few new games as well as a little piece of magic that I ordered from another witch. Audrey was yelling and rolling around in her new full blanket that was from her favorite show as well as stuffing it back in and it being a stuffed anime when she didn’t want the blanket.

“What is it?” Mason sat next to me as he held up the figure. “It’s thrumming.”

I nodded and pulled up my legs to show him. “Okay. You know how Marcus taught you to how it feels to shift into your wings?”

He nodded, looking very confused.

“Try to channel that feeling into the figure.”

The figure itself looked more like the wooden figure you used for anatomy drawing. Except that is was painted a dark blue color. Mason focused on in, his eyes narrowing. Suddenly, little wings popped out of the figure. He jumped, nearly screaming. I threw my head back and laughed.

“How?”

“It’s a shift trainer.”

He still looked confused. “What do you mean?”

Taking it from him, I held the figure in my hand. They wings disappeared. Focusing on the figure, I first had ears pop up and then a tail. Mason leaned over, gasping. Finally, I had the entire figure shift into a little wolf. Holding it up, I smiled.

“It’s supposed to help you focus on training what it’s supposed to feel like to shift different parts of your body without endangering someone.”

He took the figure from me and it immediately shifted back into its human form. “No fucking way.”

“Mason! Language!” Mrs. Alford snapped at him.

I looked up at Marcus and he was smiling brightly. Mason got up and handed it to Mr. Alford. He seemed amused by it for a moment before easily having the figure shift into a dragon. Mason started to wiggle where he stood and took the figure back.

“This is so cool!”

“I didn’t even know they made things like that.” Lauren smiled at me. “That is really cool.”

Shrugging, I leaned down and grabbed a present in my pile. “I ran into one years ago and thought it was the coolest thing. It’s not easy to track down but I had some help.”

Marcus motioned to my pile and I started to dig into it. I was happy to receive some new giant hoodies that were super soft, new notebooks and a couple of some very old looking books from Marcus’ parents. I nearly squealed like the kids when I realized they were all written in ancient draconic. The last one was from Marcus and I opened it. My eyes widened and I looked up at him.

“A new laptop?”

He smiled. “I think it was time. You’re going to be doing all your classes online now. You need something reliable.”

I looked down at the brand new box and nodded. “I…this is…thank you.”

Grabbing the box in my lap, I held it out for him. He reached forward and grabbed it from me. His eyes narrowed before looking up at me. I put my hands up.

“Did you think I wasn’t going to get you something?”

“You didn’t have to.”

Rolling my eyes, I snorted. “Says the one who bought me a laptop.”

He chortled, undoing the ribbon and ripping the silver paper off. Inside was a black box the size of his palm. Lifting the lid off, his eyes widened. I smiled, hoping that it meant he liked them. His mouth opened a little before he looked back up at me.

“Colton.”

“They are from Selene. They have a couple different spells woven into the inlayed gems.”

He lifted up the silver ring, looking at it in the light. Silver sandwiched a thin line of black onyx and a thick band of a precious stone. Inside there were actually two rings. One of them was a little bigger and thicker than the other. The bigger one had aquamarine in the center. The smaller one had emerald inlayed into it.

Slipping the ring on his finger, it adjusted to his perfect size and I smiled. He looked down at his hand, before looking at me. Stepping forward, Marcus went down on one knee like a ham. His family laughed as well but Marcus ignored them. He slipped the smaller ring onto my finger, it fitting perfectly on my finger.

“I can’t believe you got us rings.”

“I just thought…it would be nice. I also got as close to our eye color as I could.” Looking down at the emerald in the center, I smiled. “It was pretty close, I think. Merry Christmas.”

Marcus pulled me into a kiss. It was one I would not have approved of in such company but I couldn’t help but allow it. Grabbing his shirt, I held on so he didn’t pushed me too far into the couch.

“Alright, alright. We have kids present. Knock it off.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “Not me. Blame your brother.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

We cleaned up for the most part but there was still large pile of presents off to the side. Marcus pointed to the pile after shoving the last of the wrapping paper into the bag.

“Are we expecting someone else?”

The smiles that covered the Alfords made it very suspicious. “I mean, we aren’t. But you are.”

My heart sputtered and I looked at Marcus. He also looked surprised as well. Grabbing a box, he read the tag and I saw him fighting a smile. Turning it over, he opened it up and pulled out a pair of pink little converse from the box.

“I mean, that’s all that Colt wears, so it seemed fitting.” Beau winked at me.

“Guys…you didn’t…”

Mrs. Alford came behind the couch and rubbed my arms. “We did. Your little girl is going to need a lot. We just thought why not get a few things now.”

“Thank you, guys.” Marcus was holding up a baby blanket.

I nodded, putting my hand on my stomach. “Really. Thank you. I haven’t even wrapped my head around what we will need.”

“That’s what we are here for.” Lauren winked. “We are going to start on the nursery this week too. So it’s going to get very real very quickly.”

“Also, I think we may have found you a midwife.”

My eyes widened and I looked up at Mrs. Alford. “This soon? I thought it would take a while.”

“Dear, I’m an Alford. There is nothing I can’t do.”

Mr. Alford nodded. “The amount of charity events she puts on, it’s not all fun and games. Candy is plugged into every facet the shifter rumor mill. If there was anyone who was going to find someone for you, it was going to be her.”

“I asked Mom to help, since she has more connections than I do.” Marcus handed me the pile of baby items that he opened up from the pile.

“Do they…will the understand and be okay with me hiding my designation?” My nerves wracked up and I looked at Mrs. Alford.

She smiled though. “Her name is Eva Faulkins. Her mate is actually all my kids old pediatrician.”

“And the kids now.” Beau added. “Mrs. Faulkins is really awesome. She sassy and sweet and she’s super smart too.”

“Eva used to work in the hospital as a delivery nurse for over a hundred years. Then, she stepped away from the hospital rush and started helping behind the scenes.”

I nodded. “The underground?”

Mrs. Alford nodded. “Yes. She helped Omegas just like Raine Cardiff does. She did that for I want to say another eighty years.” She checked with Mr. Alford, who nodded, before she continued. “Now, she only accepts special cases. She works with one Omega at a time and pretty much is there for them twenty-four seven. I spoke to her at a recent function and her schedule is currently free and she would really like to meet you.”

“I…” Looking down, I laced my fingers together. “If you think you is trustworthy…”

Marcus sat next to me and put his hand on mine. “I will be there with you, Colt. You won’t be alone. But I trust her. I’ve met her a few times over the years and I trust her mate completely as well. I think she would be really good for you. You can meet her and decide for yourself. This isn’t set in stone but I just wanted to get something rolling sooner rather than later.”

“Alright. Set up a time and we can meet.” I let out the breath I was holding.

“Thank you.” Marcus kissed my forehead before getting to throw away the three bags of trash be ended up having.

My hands ran over the soft blanket and the clothing for our little girl. I had to trust my family. Even though that simple sentence would have never been the case. The Alford’s had become the family I wanted and needed in my life. Trusting them was part of that.

“You okay?” Lauren sat next to me as everyone moved around to get dinner on the table.

“I am. It’s just a lot.”

She snorted. “You’re telling me. One of these days, if we have time, I’ll tell you about the first time Beau introduced me to the family.”

“Did it not go well?”

“You have no idea.”

Chuckling, I smiled and held up a fist her. “Use grounders have to stick together?”

She bumped my fist with her own. “Damn right.”