Page 18 of Rugged Hearts: Part One
She sighs. “You’re right.” I’m so shocked that I literally jerk away from her to look at her face to see if she’s serious. Which of course, she bursts out laughing as soon as I look at her.
“I’m sorry, but the look on your face.” She starts laughingagain before continuing, “Is it that surprising for me to say you’re right?”
“About your work? Yes, you’ve argued staying there the last two years since they got worse about time off,” I mumble.
“I think they were always that bad. It’s just my first few years there I was never in the meetings or around the higher staff to hear what they’d say when people, especially the omegas, were out. It just seemed like a waste of the last six years to go somewhere else before being promoted. I feel like I’d have to start all over. But you’re right. They obviously don’t care about mine or anyone else’s safety and maybe changing jobs will stop whoever is sending the flowers.” Thea settles back against me, my arm now draped across her.
“Don’t make a fear-based decision. If you truly think it’s the right call to move on then do it. I meant what I said about getting the police involved. This isn’t okay,” I say as she turns further into me her scent now having a slight tinge of fear to it.
She pulls out her phone and begins typing something for a couple minutes, before putting it away again. “It’s done.”
“What is?”
“I just emailed everyone you included on that email plus the head of IT since Caldwell was getting him involved in this, that due to them allowing someone to continue to harass me via these deliveries among the other instances of omega discrimination at the company, I was quitting without notice.”
Shock runs through me but I also feel so much fucking pride at my omega standing up for herself. Before I even say anything, she continues, “I had to do it before I talked myself out of it. Plus adding in the discrimination should get them to cooperate a little. It’s a rumor that an omega sued the company almost ten years ago for the same thing, and of course I didn’t hear about that until this past year.”
“I’m proud of you. You’re sticking up for yourself, my strong, beautiful, brilliant omega.” I lean down and kiss her, then wrap my arms around her.“It’s time for a new adventure I think.”
We sit there for a long time just enjoying the scenery, but this time it’s a companionable silence I know we both enjoy. After a while I hear her stomach rumble, making me laugh lightly. “How about we go to my parents for dinner since we’re so close?”
“That sounds good.” She knows my mom always makes enough and we’re there almost every Sunday for family dinner. It’ll just be a surprise going there during the week. Even so I text my mom the heads up we’re coming.
“Honey! Are you okay?” My mom immediately rushes to Thea as we come in. I probably shouldn’t have given her the cliff notes version of what happened over text. My mom has always been protective of Thea since they met. Especially when Thea’s parents passed away within a year of each other around the time we finished college. My parents made a point to make sure she knew they loved her as their own daughter no matter what. It was of course not the same as her own parents, but I know Thea loves them like they’re her own parents.
“Come in, I’m making dinner now and tell me what happened,” she says as she walks into the kitchen, Thea and I following along. Thea looks at me pleadingly. I know she doesn’t want to rehash it herself, so I will.
“Mom, why don’t we wait until the dads are home and I’ll tell you all at once.” I give my mom a look and gesture to Thea behind her back.
My mom’s eyes soften and she murmurs, “Yes of course. Thea, can you help me with some of this?” I silently thank Mom for giving Thea something to do so she won’t ruminate in her head about today.
Time passes quickly and one by one my dads come home. First my Papa, Mateo, an alpha who teaches engineering at a state university nearby. He must not have an afternoon class since he got here early. He greets my mom and Thea first before comingover to sit at the table with me. While my mom and Thea cooked, I was doing a little bit of work on my phone.
“Mijo.” He claps me on the back as he gives me a hug. He begins to ask why we came over but I let him know we’ll talk once everyone’s here. I haven’t told my parents about the flowers or notes attached that she’s been getting. I think we both wanted it to just go away on some level.
My beta father, James, arrives next. He works in finance like I do. He’s followed shortly by my alpha dad, Max, no doubt coming home from the local gym he owns.
We all sit down pretty quickly and begin to eat when, of course, it’s my dad Max that asks, “Okay what’s going on? Did something happen?” He may very clearly be my bio dad based on how close we look alike but I definitely take after my other dads, especially when it comes to patience.
I quickly run through what’s been happening the last month since our boating trip and then what happened today with Thea’s boss.“Why didn’t you mention this sooner?” Max asked with more of a hurt tone than I expected. Thea looks to me. I know she’s still shaken from the day and likely wants to curl up in her nest at this point.
I sigh. “At first we thought it was a wrong delivery but the notes were specific and clearly for Thea. We both just wanted it to go away if her job would have stopped the deliveries.”
“I know you both are upset about how the company handled it but it’s ultimately not their fault,” James says.
I emit a low growl at that, which Mateo lightly slaps me upside the head before saying, “You do not growl at anyone seated at this table.” Despite his stern tone, Thea lets out a small laugh that seems to break some of the tension.
“You should report it to the police,” my mom suggests.
“We have nothing to go on; anyways I quit today so hopefully it’s the end of it,” Thea says suddenly. My parents all exchange looks in the way parents seem to know how to do. I wonder if I’ll be able to do that with my pack when we have kids. I can’t wait tosee Thea pregnant. I know she’ll look like even more of a Goddess than she already is.
“You should have a record of the timeline of events with the authorities in case anything else happens.” Max’s voice snaps me out of my ill-timed daydream.
“You’re right, but maybe we’ll wait in case it does stop. If we receive another note or delivery we’ll report it,” I say, knowing it’s the right way to go. My dads all nod and my mom gets up and hugs Thea tightly, saying something too low for me to hear but I don’t miss Thea’s little sniffles as she nods her head to whatever my mom is saying.
“Don’t worry honey, none of us will let anything happen to you,” Max says in his usual harsh tone but with a softened expression I only ever see when it’s my mom or Thea he’s addressing.
The rest of the night goes as well as it can; we talk about everything else but the stalker issue. I hate even referring it as that in my head. Thea needs this to be over with, I can only hope her leaving that trash company will end it. She eventually ends up playing gin rummy with Mateo, which everyone but them hates. I never get tired of seeing how at home my omega is with my parents.