Embracing His Omega: M/M Non-Shifter Alpha/Omega MPREG (Cafe Om Book 1)

  Embracing His Omega

  M/M Non-Shifter Alpha/Omega MPREG

  Harper B. Cole

  Frost & Hazel

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Jace

  2. Naheed

  3. Jace

  4. Naheed

  5. Jace

  6. Naheed

  7. Jace

  8. Naheed

  9. Jace

  10. Naheed

  11. Jace

  12. Naheed

  13. Jace

  14. Naheed

  15. Jace

  16. Naheed

  17. Jace

  18. Naheed

  19. Jace

  20. Naheed

  Epilogue: Jace

  Bonus Scene

  Also by Harper B. Cole

  Accidentally Mated: Chapter 1

  COMING SOON

  About the Author

  Prologue

  There was nothing I could say or do to make Miles feel better other than to hold him as the reality of his results settled in. My arms had instinctively wrapped around my best friend as he sobbed and sobbed. Eventually he would be okay. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t known there was a chance he would be a beta. True, his parents both came from strong alpha/omega pairs and true, his father was one of the most respected alphas in the area. That, however, was never enough to guarantee they would give birth to an alpha. The genetic crapshoot was just that… crap.

  As his sobs continued, Miles curled onto my lap. Part of me secretly wished he was an omega so we could have paired off and made beautiful babies as I conquered the business world. We had always been close, perhaps too close for males without our test results. We might not have felt the pull a true alpha omega pair would have, but we loved each other.

  I had yet to receive my test results. My parents made me hold off until the last possible moment, “for my own good.” How could being in the dark could be for my own good? I was on pins and needles, waiting. Some of my scholarships were dependent on an alpha result.

  An alpha. From the time I was a small child, I had prepared for the role, one that came so very naturally. I was a natural leader and was able to take control of most situations easily. In school, I was put into the alpha tracks and excelled. I had more scholarships waiting than anyone in my class. I was born for this. Yet, a nagging feeling deep down whispered that I might be a beta.

  I looked at Miles. Strong. Sexy. Muscular. Smart. He was everything an alpha should be, minus the genes. Omegas had it easy, in a way. Most of them showed their tendencies early on and settled into Omega schools, learning the skills needed to be the best omega they could be. They were, after all, the future. Without them, there would be no more alphas. Only an alpha omega pairing could produce an alpha.

  Mile’s sobs slowly turned into slow, even breaths as he cried himself to sleep. I rubbed his back and held him close. It was by sheer luck I was with him when his test results arrived, and for that, I would be forever grateful. He needed me. His parents, as “important” as they were, never actually parented. Maybe they had suspected all along their son would be a less than them, for that was how people like them viewed betas. Nothings. Workers. Joe Schmoozes.

  After waiting a few minutes to make sure he was soundly asleep, I slid Miles from my lap onto his bed, covering him with the small afghan his omega grandmother had crocheted him many years earlier. Miles reached for the blanket as it settled upon him, snuggling deep. I gave him a quick kiss on his forehead before leaving him to his sleep.

  I exited the front door just as a delivery truck pulled up to my house. I trotted across the street just as my omega father was signing for an envelope. Not the new printer I was hoping it to be, then. Oh well. As I reached him, he gave me a warm smile. I was lucky with two great parents who actually loved both each other and me and my siblings. So many powerful alphas were paired off exclusively for the purpose of producing strong offspring. Mine, they paired for love.

  “Hi, Dad.” I gave him a hug before heading inside.

  “Hello, Jace,” he sing-songed behind me. “Do you see what I have here?”

  I turned to see him waving the manila envelope the delivery man had just dropped off.

  “Not my printer,” I teased, plopping on the couch and kicking off my shoes. It was good to be home. The afternoon had drained me. But I was glad I had been there for him.

  “You always were my brightest son.” He took a seat on the coffee table in front of me laughing.

  “I always will be since you gave me three sisters.”

  “Touché.” He batted away my feet as I attempted to prop them up on the table beside him Somehow, the coffee table was not for feet, but asses were fine. “These are your test result.” He held them out to me as my stomach dropped. The moment of truth was here. I was either going to have a full scholarship to the alpha business school of my dreams or I would be off to the local beta community college. Or possibly the workforce after the last part of the semester. I thought I had more time. I wanted more time, no matter the results. There was a certain freedom in not knowing.

  “So soon? Miles got his today and he took his two weeks before me.” I willed myself not to cry at saying it out loud. Maybe that was the real reason I couldn’t find anything to say to him. Saying it made it real. No, he needed to process on his own, but if he didn’t, would I have been strong enough, alpha enough, to continue being there for him?

  “Today.” He reached over and squeezed my knee, his omega comfort flowing through me. “I’m guessing Miles results were not what he hoped?”

  Understatement. Of. The. Year.

  “No.” I took a deep breath before spitting out, “He’s a beta.”

  “Young man.” He pinched my thigh in the way only a scolding omega could and I flinched away, immediately realizing my faux pas. “There’s nothing wrong with being a beta. Your sister is a beta, need I remind you.” Sadly, he did. In all of the tears and worry and brewing anger I felt over Miles being a beta, Sarah never once crossed my mind.

  Sarah was a beta and happy for it. She taught at the local elementary school, had a loving mate, and the cutest dog on the planet. Treating a beta status as less than fabulous was inadvertently putting her down, placing me firmly into “suck ass brother” status.

  “No, sir. I know there is nothing wrong with it.” He could feel the guilt flowing off of me and his hand fell to my knee again, once again his omega calming effect in action. “But for Miles, it was devastating.”

  “And you feel helpless.” It wasn’t a question. He knew it to be true.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, what did you say to him?”

  “Nothing. Nothing I would’ve said would make a difference today. He needed to mourn.” His parents weren’t going to take it well, and part of me wondered if Miles would try to hide it for a while. Unlike me, his family would view his beta status as a blight, and I half expected him to knock on the door at any moment looking for a place to stay. A place I knew my fathers would grant him.

  “You are wise beyond your years.” He moved to sit beside me and wrapped his arm around me. “You make me so proud. Do you want to wait for your father or open it now?” He eyed the envelope I was staring blankly at.

  Did I want to wait? I kept my eyes on the return address, trying to decide. What I really wanted was to have been one of those early developers who knew because of their body changes and not some stupid test results. That would’ve given me a slow time to adjust whichever way it went. But no, in that way I had to be all stupid normal.

>   “Might as well get it over with,” I mumbled as I tore open the envelope and readied myself to pull out the single sheet of paper.

  “Remember what I said.”

  I felt his lips on my cheek, as he often had when I was young.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being a beta.”

  “I know,” I lied as I pulled out the paper slowly, my eyes clasped shut. As I heard a sharp intake of breath, my eyes popped open to see the three most shocking words of my life shouting at me from the middle of the document.

  Test Results: Omega

  1

  Jace

  “Welcome to Café Om. How may I help you?” I asked on auto-pilot. Three years I had been schlepping people’s coffee, not at all how I envisioned my life at twenty-five. I had plans, huge plans. I was going to be moving rapidly up the corporate ladder by now with my omega by my side.

  Instead? Instead, I was the omega.

  Omega. I still couldn’t wrap my head around how so incredibly wrong I had been in my expectations of myself growing up. Not just me, but my parents, teachers, pretty much everyone. I had shown all of the characteristics of an alpha and yet here I was, an omega making frou frou coffee drinks and biding my time while I waited for an alpha to come rescue me from all of this so I could begin my family.

  Yeah right. I didn’t need rescuing. I wanted someone to come and say, “Just kidding, you’re an alpha”, sure, but to turn me into a stay at home dad…heck to the no. Not that anyone would. I was the absolute worst omega there was.

  My personality was alpha, even if my biology wasn’t. That would never fade. I was a leader, not a follower. Submitting to my bosses took a lot of strength and determination. I was constantly fighting the urge to be in control. Heck, I wasn’t even the right size for an omega, my muscles and height shouting alpha.

  “A mocha. Large,” the beta in front of me demanded. That was one of the worst parts of being an omega, everyone knew and treated you as such. My pheromones were great for calming those in distress and, I imagined, attracting someone to warm your bed, but they also told everyone of your gene status, which sucked monkey balls.

  “Five forty-three, please.” They paid without a word. Why should they waste their time on an unmated omega after all? We were useless, or so society seemed to believe. “Thank you and have a nice day.”

  They moved to the where their hot coffee would be waiting and I wiped the counter in front of me. It didn’t need it, but my boss believed “if you have time to lean, you have time to clean,” and being the only omega shift leader, it was my duty to show that in all I do. Or so I was constantly reminded. At least my boss gave omegas a chance at leadership roles. Most places didn’t bother, thinking they’d find and alpha and leave the workplace as soon as they were fully trained.

  “They never get more polite, do they?” Marcus snuck up behind me. He had a bad habit of that. He was one of those omegas who’d shown signs at an early age and his parents embraced it, giving him dance lessons among other things. Those dance lessons made him so graceful he got underfoot. A lot. Half the time I was pretty sure he did it on purpose, so now I tended to pretend I knew he was there all along, which I so did not.

  “Not so much,” I shrugged. It was simply how things were. It wasn’t like I could change the whole of society simply because I disagreed with it. “But at least he wasn’t an outright asshole.”

  “True story.” Marcus leaned on the counter, probably trying to get me to take the bait and remind him if he had time to lean… He was such a pain in the arse, but he was my pain in the arse. If it weren’t for him, I would be beyond lonely. As it were, I had few friends. After my entire social group abandoned me upon my test results I was gun shy, to say the least, about making friends. “What time do you get off?”

  He asked every day. When our times aligned, it was always followed by begging. Marcus loved the omega club scene. It was the one place where omegas were treated well. Not really well, but to Marcus, it felt that way. We were treated like a commodity. The clubs made money off of our presence and the alphas, under the pretense of finding a mate, got to get laid. It was so not my scene.

  “Brad went into heat early so I need to stay into next shift.” Not that I minded. It meant more money for me and a way out of going to the club without rejecting my friend.

  “That sucks, man.” Marcus began cleaning the station next to us, proving that he was in fact egging me on. If things stayed this slow, I planned to make a fake write-up for him. He’d get a kick out of it and it would give me something to do in the office, away from customers. I was in a grumpy-ass mood for some reason, and being alone sounded brilliant.

  My omega dad always teased when I got like this that my heat was acomin’, but I was pretty regular and still had a few weeks, thank goodness. Heat was a pain in the chunk.

  “Glad I’m not shift leader,” Marcus teased, although I knew he was a bit jealous of my title. Not enough to work to get it, but enough to give him pause. He didn’t want to a career slinging coffee, but it meant someone saw me as more than just an omega. As much as he embraced his genes, feeling important always felt good.

  “It pays well.” I raised my eyebrows up and down before winking and adding, “More money for your omega night at the clubs.” I added a little dance move for good measure. Part of me wanted to encourage him to put forth the extra needed to get the night shift leader position I had heard Abrar mention was about to open up. Abrar’s omega was about to give birth and like my alpha father had, he wanted to be present for the birth of his child.

  Abrar was one of the good ones. He treated all of us as valuable employees no matter our status and offered raises and promotions based on actual work and skills. If all alphas were half the man he was, the world would be a better place. Heck, if they were all like him, I might even try to find me one. Goodness knows I could use more action than my left hand.

  “But no time to go.” His hand plunged into the bucket of sanitizer a bit too hard, splashing my arm. “Besides, if I play my cards right, I don’t need to buy drinks at omega night.”

  “You’re worth more than that,” I scolded, not that he would listen. Marcus loved the attention of the alphas, even if it amounted to them using him to get off. He deserved so much better.

  “Says the omega who doesn’t want a mate.”

  That was where he was wrong. I did want a mate. I wanted a mate that was my equal. I didn’t want to submit or be forced into a role. Heck, in my alone time with my palm, I often envisioned myself taking my mate instead of the other way around. That would never happen with an alpha. Maybe I could find a nice beta to settle down with. There would be no babies, but maybe I was okay with that.

  “I never said I didn’t want a mate.” I flung my rag at him, pointing to the mess he had just made. “I do. I just don’t want to be home barefoot and pregnant.”

  “Then wear shoes.”

  Wise ass.

  “Nice. Don’t you have customers at the drive up?” It had been a solid five minutes since anyone had come through and for a moment, I feared someone was on hold. That never ended well.

  “Not today. The construction is killing our tips.” Three weeks, they’d promised. Three weeks and the intersection would be complete. I hoped so because if today was any indication, hours would need to be cut. Abrar was growing a really amazing business with Café Om, but the lack of traffic would be an issue if it didn’t end soon.

  “Whoa. Quick, let me have the front register,” Marcus squeaked as he stared out the front window.

  “Why?” I asked, already knowing the answer. There was a hottie coming. It was always a hottie.

  “Look at the hottie coming in.” Nailed it. “He’s an alpha, I’d bet my tips on it.”

  “Your nonexistent tips,” I reminded him as I stepped out of the way and gestured to my station.

  “Yes, those,” he greedily agreed as he smoothed his hair and took his new position. Good enough for me. It meant I could hide for
a bit.

  “Go for it. I’ll be out back making sure inventory was done.”

  I started to make my way to the back room as the door buzzed and my body started to react. It was an alpha all right, and he was sending out pheromones like nobody’s business. That was when I made my mistake. I turned to see what the fuss was about and my eyes met his.

  2

  Naheed

  I took a deep breath as I entered Abrar’s café. Well, one of his cafés. But it was the original. I loved the smell of coffee shops in general, and Café Om in particular, but today there was something more. An omega… There were always omegas in Café Om. Abrar made a point of hiring them. But today, there was something different, something more. My eyes passed over the over-eager omega manning the cash register. His type was common. There was another man heading into the back office, and my eyes settled on him for just a moment before he turned around, his dark eyes trapping me in their depths.

  It was him.

  I took another deep breath, sifting through the scents, never taking my eyes off of him. Definitely omega. Definitely mine.

  Mine. The word was a mental slap across the face, and I tore my eyes away from him, forcing myself to approach the other omega. I glanced at his nametag—Marcus. “I’m here to see Abrar.” I had to force each word out, trying to bring my focus back. Even though my eyes were locked straight ahead of me, I was overly aware of my omega—no, the omega, not mine—taking a few steps toward us.

  Marcus’s face fell slightly, but he quickly regained his coquettish smirk. “Sure thing, handsome. Can I let him know who’s looking for him?”

  I really should just go straight back to his office. But I’d never seen either of these guys working before, so they didn’t know I was Abrar’s brother-in-law. Not to mention my—the other omega was blocking the path. I didn’t trust myself to get too close to him.