Page 40 of Temporary Omega
It made no difference to him who had provided the sperm to create the child that lay beneath Luca’s heart, in every way that counted Linc was more of an alpha father, a daddy, than the loser that stood before him, Frank Laughton.
“Mr. Laughton, do not make me repeat myself, I believe I told you to take your hands off my omega before things become less… civilized.”
Lincoln held the other alpha’s stare, jaw clenched, doing his best to keep his anger in check, especially with Frank’s filthy hands on Luca. The man tried staring him down, but Lincoln was ready to fight for his family. Regardless of if that meant physically.
“Don’t let the Savile Row fool you Laughton,” Lincoln snarled, nostrils flared.
The other alpha must have seen the barely concealed rage in his eyes because he dropped the hand he had on Luca and Lincoln quickly replaced it with his, soothing the spot. Trying to replace Laughton’s with his.
Lincoln loved how Luca burrowed into his chest. He loved that the omega knew he was safe in Linc’s arms.
“I think it’s best you left, Mr. Laughton,” Lincoln’s mouth curled even having to say the man’s name. All he wanted to do was throttle the other alpha for the tears he could feel Luca shedding. He wanted to cause the man pain for daring to make his omega cry.
“You know my name, shame I don’t know yours,” Laughton stepped back, an insincere smile on his face. “I was just telling Luca here that I’ve seen a lawyer. Just so that I could check out my position, you know,” Laughton crossed his arms, his chest thrust out, a triumphant smirk on his face. “I’m going to ask for access, visits and apply for joint custody of my child.”
Luca let out a gasp, his body stiffened in Lincoln’s arms. Linc knew that he was about to speak but he squeezed Luca’s hand, stopping him.
“I’m sure you will also be willing to pay child support, whatever the court deems fit to make sure your child is well taken care of.”
Linc hid his smile when Frank look surprised at his easy acceptance rather than taking it as a threat it was clearly meant to be.
“Also, I do believe Luca has the text where you told him you cleared out his account, an account, I might add, your name is not on, which I believe in the eyes of the law is called stealing.”
“We were living together, they wouldn’t believe him,” Frank snapped, the faux smile disappearing from his face.
“Hmm, that could happen, but I do have excellent lawyers. Not to mention a little matter of the same thing happening in Sunnybrooke, a Mr. Tysdale, I believe his name is, a beta. See, you may think no one would believe an omega, but a beta employer you stole from before disappearing? Well now…” Linc trailed off, his cool having returned at the disbelieving look that twisted into rage on Laughton’s face.
“You…He…I,” Laughton sputtered, his face mottled in rage.
“See here is something you need to understand, Mr. Laughton, or shall I call you, Mr. Morris?” Lincoln paused for effect, making sure Frank knew that his secrets weren’t so secret to Lincoln.
“You can try and gain access to our child,” Linc pointed out. “But I should let you know, I will be adopting that baby, and you see, in case it hasn’t become apparent to you yet, I am very willing to fight to do so.”
Laughton gave him a look that Lincoln could have only described as pure hatred. Until that calculating smile re-emerged.
“I am very happy to relinquish all rights to the...” He looked at Luca where his belly would be but since Luca hadn’t left Linc’s arms–not that he was complaining–his belly was hidden from Frank. Frank met his gaze again, “I’m quite willing and happy to relinquish all rights to the spawn, and I’m sure there’s an agreement to be made to make that possible.”
“Any agreements made will be done so through my lawyers,” Lincoln replied coolly.
“Man, I’m trying to be reasonable here…” Frank began, his voice level, the wheedling look on his face in full force.
“And my lawyer’s will be happy to show you how reasonable I’m willing to be,” Lincoln shrugged like he didn’t have a care in the world. “And they get paid by the hour, I am certain they would drag this out as long as needed.”
“This isn’t over,” Frank threatened, and spun around heading to wherever he’d appeared from.
Linc made a mental note to hire people to track his whereabouts. And it seemed Luca would be receiving a security team of his own.
As Luca’s former alpha disappeared, he could feel the tension drain from Luca’s body like water from a sieve.
“Did you mean it?” Lincoln heard Luca’s muffled whisper, his face buried in Lincoln’s chest.
“Every word. My lawyers will be very happy to deal with Frank Laughton or Morris or whatever his name may be.
“Not that, did you mean what you said about your omega and our child?” Luca leaned back slightly in his arms. And when he met those clear blue eyes that haunted his dreams and saw the hope and longing he saw in the mirror whenever he thought about Luca reflected back at him, he replied simply.
“Every word. I meant every word.” Lincoln met Luca’s gaze steadily, hoping the omega saw the truth in his words reflected there.
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