“He says I should stop being so weird.”
Da’s jaw tightened and released in a rhythm Ezer remembered well from the days before the divorce, when Father would make a proclamation that didn’t sit well with Da, but he would just swallow it down like bad-tasting medicine.
“They wouldn’t dare bother you at the mansion, though,” Da said, narrowing his eyes. “The guards would keep them from even getting onto the property.”
Maybe, but maybe not. Given who these boys were, his father might very well send out open-ended engraved invitations for them to come onto the property and choose one of his four omega sons to enjoy. But it would do no good to let his da know that. “Da, it doesn’t matter. I want to see you. I want to be here with you whenever I can.”
Da sighed, getting up to pour water from the now-screaming kettle over the cheap instant coffee. He stirred both mugs and came to Ezer with one held out handle-first, taking the brunt of the heat on his palm. “I love having you here, son. I do. But it’s not safe. This apartment, this side of town, nothing about it is fit for someone like you.”
“Someone like me? What about someone like you?” He couldn’t contain his outrage. “This apartment building isn’t fit for anyone to live here, Da.”
Between the artist with his oil paints and flammable rags on the first floor, and the book hoarder on the second, and the poor dressmaker with her fabrics, and the “chemists” in the attic making Bright’s powder by the truckload, the place was a fire hazard. That didn’t even take into account the mold, the rats, and the tendency for raw sewage to back up.
“Yes, I know. But some of us have no choice. It’s the best I can afford.”
Ezer fiddled with the handle of his coffee mug, forestalling further discussion by taking a hot sip. It burned going down, replacing the icy coldness that had taken hold in the moments when he thought Braden would be successful in getting his pants all the way off, and in whatever else he had meant to do then.
“Why did no one protect you, Da? Not a cousin, not a friend.” He’d wondered this so many times in the past but been too afraid to ask. In his mind, his da was the persecuted innocent and his father the baleful bastard, and the possibility he might learn anything different had been too scary. But now, thinking of his da’s fierce voice preventing further torment and rescuing him from Braden, Ned, and Finch’s attack, he couldn’t help but wonder why no one had loved Amos enough to do the same for him when George had used him so badly.
“I burned too many bridges,” Da said.
“How?” Ezer had never seen his father as anything other than acquiescent and kind, as well as strong and good.
“It’s difficult to explain. There’s a certain way for an omega to be. In society.” He frowned. “I was…not like that. Though I tried.”
“What way?”
“Omegas are happy, pregnant, lustful, and supportive. They don’t put their own needs above the needs of their family and never above the needs of their alpha.”
“You supported Father.”
“I did. But I resented it.”
Ezer tried to reconcile these words with his memory of his happy, laughing, pampered Da. “But you were happy? With us?”
“You and your brothers brought me so much joy,” Da smiled. “But your father and I, behind closed doors, had words quite often about the raising of you, and the need for an alpha heir, even when there were plenty of cousins to choose from, and, of course, I couldn’t stomach the way your father did business.”
Ezer couldn’t stand it either. “He used the way he treated you to prove to his business associates that they shouldn’t test him. That he was willing to do anything to get what he wants.”
“I know. And he is. That’s part of why it’s dangerous being here, Ezer. Being around me? When he loathes me so much? It’s not safe.”
“I’m not going to abandon you, Da.”
“You should,” he said, the steam from his mug drifting up around his face. “Your brothers don’t visit me, and they’ve all been very clear about the reasons. I miss them terribly, but I understand. No, more than that: I approve.”
Ezer’s throat tightened. He wasn’t going to dignify his brothers’ selfishness by discussing it with his selfless Da. They were assholes, like their father, and that was all there was to it.
“They’re protecting their futures. Because reputations matter,” Da said, as if Ezer needed it spelled out. “Distancing themselves from me is a good way to stay safe from your father’s capriciousness,andfrom the likes of those young men today.” Da cocked a brow. “Or better yet, to stay appealing to them.”
Ezer blinked. “What are you saying?”
“I know you’d tell me more about what happened out there if they weren’t powerful boys. That means their fathers are powerful as well, andthatmeans…” Da shrugged. “That means they are heat contract and marriage material. Especially in your father’s eyes. Drawing their attention in a negative way, like you have, is dangerous to your chances, to your brothers’ chances, and to your father’s business goals.”
Ezer huffed. “I was only waiting for my da and working out some math problems for fun. How is that a negative way to draw their attention? I didn’t ask them to stop and attack me.”
“No, of course not. But you have to admit you don’t play the games other omegas do, and that’ll chafe any alpha, particularly a powerful one.”
“You mean an entitled one.”
