The blow to my pride when Ari told me that once with me had been enough to put him off of sex for good was enough to have me red-faced and horrified, but when I offered up my suit and he immediately refused, opening the door as an overt hint that I should go? That was entirely more than I was prepared for.
Being pregnant, scared, and alone was better than being with me? Not gonna lie, that stung.
Despite the open door, I stayed where I was, kneeling in front of the bed, turning to follow his movement. “Ari? Would you mind telling me why you’re declining my suit?”
His teeth worried his lower lip and his hand was visibly shaking on the doorknob. “I didn’t even want to tell you about this,” he mumbled, gesturing vaguely toward his belly. “I still don’t know how they found out it was you.”
Right. Ari wouldn’t understand that. He wasn’t from our world and didn’t know about shifter laws and customs.
“I can explain that,” I offered, shifting from kneeling to sitting on my butt with my legs crossed in front of me. “While you’ve been here, you learned a little about Omegas, right?”
Ari nodded, so I continued. “What about Alphas?”
Ari shrugged. “I’ve heard the term, I guess,” he said slowly. “I couldn’t explain what it means, though.”
Yeah, well, a true explanation was going to take a while, so I skipped to the cliff notes version, watching Ari’s face bloom a bright red when I barely touched on the moreintimatedifferences between Alphas and Omegas. I didn’t even bother bringing Betas up.
“Does that all make sense?” I asked once I’d covered the basics.
“Uh, I think so,” Ari choked out, still standing and clutching the doorknob but staring at the floor.
“Great,” I said, trying to smile encouragingly, even though he wasn’t going to see me with his eyes glued to the carpet. “So, when Alphas are identified in our community, their DNA is entered into a database to track family lineage and so on. When an Omega is impregnated and no Alpha speaks up to accept responsibility for the baby, the carrier’s blood is tested against the database to identify the Alpha responsible.”
“They tested my blood without my permission?” Ari gasped in outrage.
“They’re required to,” I said softly. “It’s a system of checks and balances to ensure that Omegas aren’t being abused or trafficked and abandoned. Although, truthfully, it’s strange that ODI would have done it without telling you, though. No one has talked to you about needing to identify the sire?”
Ari seemed to be thinking hard, and then he abandoned his post at the door and rushed over to a small desk tucked into one corner. Rifling through the stack of papers on the top, he pulled one free and scanned it, closing his eyes with a groan before letting it flutter to the floor.
I was only a few feet away, so I crawled across the floor to grab it instead of rising to my feet. “May I?”
Ari shrugged, his eyes still closed and his face pale.
Glancing over the paper, I saw that it was a signed disclosure form. Not only had Ari acknowledged that his blood was being submitted for testing, but he had also initialed the line authorizing the ODI staff to contact the identified sire on his behalf.
“You forgot you signed this?” I asked softly.
Ari shook his head. “Not exactly. I remember signing it, but it was before I was convinced I could even get pregnant, so I didn’t really pay attention when it was explained to me.”
“That makes sense.” I waited to see if Ari was going to say more but it seemed not. “Would you please tell me why you refused me?” I pressed gently. “I’m going to need to have an explanation for Director Keir.”
“I..” Ari seemed to be at a loss for words. “Could we possibly do it some other time?”
Well, technically, wecouldbut it was going to make it harder for me to formulate a plan to change his mind if I didn’t know what the problem was. I held back a sigh.
“Of course, we can,” I agreed. “In the meantime, maybe we can spend some time together?”
Ari’s eyes were clouded with confusion when he raised them to mine. “Why?”
“To get to know each other better?” I suggested, keeping my voice light. “If we’re going to have a child together, we will be interacting with each other quite a bit, won’t we?”
That didn’t seem to clear anything up. If anything, Ari looked even more confused. “Why would we do that?”
Why indeed?
“Well, we’ll have to work out visitation schedules and parenting time divisions,” I pointed out. “We’ll see each other at school events, too, right?”
“Why would you want to do all of that?” Ari asked with a raised brow. “I thought you were the Alpha thing?”
