Page 18 of Temporary Omega

Luca then opened his towel and took a step back, and looked at his body. His bump was barely visible, just a slight curve to his lower abdomen, but he could see it and the feeling of love in his chest for his unborn child nearly had him on his knees.

Luca quickly wrapped the towel around himself again, refusing to let the thoughts that were floating in his head overwhelm him. He brushed his teeth quickly, refusing to look in the mirror again.

Back in the room, Luca removed the shirt and jeans he’d worn earlier in the day when he’d gone over to Riley’s before the celebration. Fuck, had it really been twenty-four hours? Felt like so much longer.

He sighed, he was about to put the t-shirt on, but couldn’t bring himself to wear the clothes after his shower. He would throw them in the wash later after asking Linc for permission of course.

Linc… the name popped up in his head even though Luca had been doing his best to not think about the alpha. He wasn’t sure what his feelings were for the alpha but one a.m. in the morning was probably not the time to figure it out.

Luca dropped the backpack with his things beside the bed and sat. He was about to wallow again, when the feel of soft, silky bedding on his body distracted him. He bounced a little on the mattress, and could tell it was memory foam, and the bedding Egyptian cotton, probably a couple thousand thread count. The duvet probably eiderdown or goosedown.

Gods he was drained. The bed was calling to him, smooth and inviting. He could already imagine his body sinking into the mattress, the mattress molding to his form as it was supposed to.

Luca snuggled down in it, closed his eyes and let go.

* * *

Luca wokeup and for a moment, he was a little disoriented until the events of the day before flooded in. And he remembered where he was.

Luca had slept like the dead through the night, which was the first time in more months than he cared to count, but there was the deep sense of exhaustion that he knew had nothing to do with the amount of sleep he was getting.

Luca was tired, and he was tired of being tired and sad. But looking at his current situation seemed to have the effect of completely draining him. He knew he should feel better, having slept in such comfortable quarters, but all it did was make him realize just how bad things had gotten.

Now out of that death trap he called an apartment, Luca asked himself if bringing a child into the world was wise. Without the ability to earn, he would find himself back where he’d started. Luca imagined going home, but he had nightmares where he returned home, his child in his arms, and his parents saying if he got rid of the baby then they would let him return.

It was probably selfish, possibly irresponsible and certainly reckless on his part bringing a baby into the world, not knowing how he would care for it, but the idea of never meeting his child, a child he had come to love so completely, terrified him even more.

But he had no qualifications unless you counted high school and finishing school in Switzerland. It had become completely clear to him when he’d had to go out and look for a job, his parent had never foreseen a future for him where he ended up in the real world.

Luca’s eye began twitching and he could feel the headache coming on. He realized he was going around in circles and it was certainly getting him nowhere.

He decided that since he had a couple of days reprieve with the arrangement he’d made with Lincoln, he could take a beat and plan his next course of action. At the very least, he could ask the man for a job. But right now he had a roof over his head––that had no mold, damp, or rats––he would have food in his belly, without having to decide what to eat and what to save for later, even though he was still hungry, and he had a minute to just breathe and figure out his next step.

The reprieve, however brief, was very welcome and Luca felt the weight lift from his shoulders.

Luca pushed the duvet back, almost hating having to get out of the warm cocoon the bed had provided, but if he wanted to ask the man for a job that could possibly enable him to keep his child, and give him a good life, he couldn’t rest in bed all day, it wouldn’t do for the alpha to think he was lazy.

With a vague plan in mind, Luca got out of bed, more hopeful than when he’d woken up. One thing he’d learned after his time with Frankie and his time on his own, he was a survivor. If his parents could see him now.

None of that, Luca missed them, and he loved them. And he knew they loved him, but he also couldn’t face them, not after how much he’d disappointed and embarrassed them, and how much he’d ruined his life.

“Not you little one,” Luca placed a hand on his stomach immediately, and reassured his baby. Not that he could hear.

So he would make a life he could be proud of, and hope that…he didn’t even know what he hoped.

Yeah, yeah you do… you hope you can go home.

But since that wasn’t an option, he could do this, no… he would do this.

9

Linc

Linc woke up the next day very aware there was someone else in the house with him. It wasn’t that he could hear any sounds coming from anywhere in the house, on the contrary, it was a pretty quiet.

He turned to his right and checked the time, it was still just five in the morning. He had gotten less than four hours of sleep.

It wasn’t that he felt uncomfortable having the omega in his home, Linc just wasn’t accustomed to having an overnight guest at all. He knew that some people would have called him crazy for bringing a virtual stranger home with him, and giving him free reign among his things. His very expensive things, but the truth was he didn’t have that worry with Luca.