"Uncle Red, what's wrong?" Leveret asked.
His question took me and everyone else off guard. I wasn'tthatbad at hiding my feelings, was I? I searched his face and found a brow furrowed in concern. How did he know? I knew the kid was intuitive, but apparently more so than I gave him credit for.
Leveret was still waiting for an answer, and everyone else had gone quiet, too. I opened my mouth to quell his worry with a quicknothing!, but my tongue refused. I couldn't lie to him.
I sighed and smiled down at Leveret. "Don't worry, buddy. There's just a little annoying bug on my mind."
"I don't see a bug," he said bluntly, staring at my red hair.
Okay, no more euphemisms.
"Red, is there something you want to say?" Len asked. His gentle demeanor always got me. He was just a nice guy. "If you want, we can put the kids away."
I shook my head. It wasn't anything they couldn't hear. They might not understand right away, but their Uncle Red would help explain it to them.
I glanced at Orpheus, who smiled and nodded encouragingly, then I took in a deep breath.
"There's something I want to tell you all," I said, fidgeting with my fingers. "It's been bugging me for a long time and I need to get it off my chest."
"There's nothing on your chest," Leveret pointed out.
"Not now, sweetie," Len murmured to his son. "Go ahead, Red."
Ugh, this sucks,I thought as anxiety flooded me. I wished I'd fall into a really deep hole in the ground so I didn't have to do this.
Then I felt Orpheus's fingers brushing against my hand. He laced them together, pressing his warm palm to mine, reassuring me that he was there for me, no matter what happened.
It gave me the courage to say my piece.
"You guys know me as an alpha, but that's only half the truth," I said. "I'm also an omega. I'm not just one thing all the time. I'm fluid. My identity shifts."
Lupa tilted her head. "Like how you're sometimes a human and sometimes a fox?"
My heart swelled. Tears sprung up in my eyes again and this time I couldn't hold them back. "Yes, Lupa, that's exactly right."
"Oh," she said. "Okay!"
Ashe bounced up and down, looking like a lanky flea between his two tall dads. "Cool! I wanna be like Uncle Red when I grow up, too!"
Zakariel and Starry were too young to have an opinion about it, but I assumed by the usual wide-eyed way they stared at me, they didn't judge me at all.
A relieved laugh bubbled out of me. Kids were the best.
But it was their parents I was worried about. I lifted my head, cautiously meeting their eyes.
Orpheus's hand gripped mine tighter.I'm here,he said silently.
Four pairs of eyes watched me. Hugo and Len, Dax and Morgan, Sage and Xander, Remington and Nero... I expected disgusted confusion at best, and hatred at the worst.
I didn't see either. All that greeted me was pure acceptance, plain and simple.
Sage scratched his head. "Wait, so... You're sometimes an alpha?"
"Yeah," I said.
"And sometimes an omega?"
"Uh huh."
