“Because that’s our place in life.” Gabriel looked up from his breakfast and met Adrian’s eyes, worried. “Dad was right to be angry when it turned out both of us were omegas. How is he supposed to leave his company behind when we’re bothinferior?”
Adrian’s mouth went dry. “We talked about this after my first heat, and we decided it was wrong. Remember? I know you werelittle,but…”
“No, I remember.” Gabriel dug his fork into the potatoes and lifted a portion to his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully, then set his fork down. “But I mean, I was only thirteen when you had your first heat, and I wasn’t really… well, I wasn’t an adult, and I didn’t know who I was going to be in life. But why would nature do this to us if it didn’t want us to serve the more powerful? It’s like…” Gabriel bit down on his lip. “It’s like in a pack of wolves, you know? That’s why they call the most powerful members of society alphas, and people like us omegas. Biology says that people like Dad and Garrison and Sterling should be respected, because they can do so much more than we can. They’re strong, and determined, and they’ve got all this willpower. What do we do? We’re little, and weak, and we have soft bodies that make babies. If their purpose in life is to provide and spread their seed, then our purpose in life is to care for them and show how appreciative we are for the things they doforus.”
Eating was no longer an option. Adrian felt sick. He was no stranger to the notion that there were twisted, backward people in the world who thought a human life was worth less because of genetic variation, but to hear his own brother shaped by those views and to see him so willingly oppressed by them washarrowing.
The world had changed in the last thirty years. Movements for equality had succeeded—at least partially. Omegas weren’t bound to the homestead anymore. Gabriel’s future was limitless, and it pained Adrian to think that he was purposefully limitinghimself.
“You think that’s why I’m with Sterling?” Adrian asked in a near-whisper.
“Yeah. I mean. You’re pregnant, right? He must really like you. Garrison would never…” Gabriel blushed. “I kept asking him for a baby, but he would never… never give one to me. I think you’re really lucky. Sterling looks nice, and he has a nice house, and he’s going to take care of youforever.”
Adrian was torn between vomiting and hugging Gabriel so tightly to his chest that Gabriel would never be able to get away. It was like Gabriel had been brought back from the past—two different generations baring their hearts to each other. How was he going to fix this? The task seemedinsurmountable.
“You said you lived with roommates?” Adrian didn’t want to talk about babies anymore. Most of the time, he preferred to forget that he had something of Sterling’s growing inside of him. It made him far too uncomfortable. “Who were yourroommates?”
“Other omegas.” Gabriel picked at a fold in the bedding. “Some of them I got along with, some of them I didn’t. Dylan. He was… he was okay. Quiet, kind of closed off, but he stayed away from Garrison. There was Seth. We didn’t get along, because Garrison… Garrison liked him, and it made me angry because I was the one Garrison said that he loved. He never said he loved anyone else. And it made me jealous every time he’d get up in the middle of the night to go to Seth’s room. I…” Gabriel shook his head and folded his arms around his frame. “So there was him, but we didn’t really get along. His best friend, though? Mal? We were friends. We were goodfriends.”
The nausea momentarily subsided, replaced bysurprise. “Mal?”
“Mm. Yeah. I think his full name was Malcolm? Malcolm something. I never got hislastname.”
“Mal is the name of our new groundskeeper.” Adrian blanched. “He’s probably our age, an omega, a littleawkward…”
Gabriel’s eyes lit up. “Are youserious?”
“I don’t know if it’s the same person.” Adrian studied Gabriel’s face, memorizing the excitement on it. When Gabriel looked like this, it was easy to forget that he wasn’t the same kid he’d been at thirteen. “There are a lot of omegas in Aurora, and I’m sure there’s more thanoneMal.”
“Does he…” Gabriel trailed off, lost for words. “Is he a little short? Kind of cute in anerdyway?”
Adrian frowned. The answer was yes, but he didn’t want to admit it. If Mal was one of the omegas that had been kidnapped by Baylor, and he was now working on the Lowe estate, how many of them were there? The world was small, but for it to be that small? It made Adrian doubt the numbers Sterling had given him in thebathroom.
“Itishim, isn’t it?” Gabriel grinned. “Oh my god. I want to see him. Can we go home, Adrian? We don’t have to go inside the house. He’ll be outside, right? Tending to the gardens or doing… doing something?Canwe?”
“No.” Adrian wasn’t going to take Gabriel back there. It was one thing when their mother was violent with Adrian, but she’d crossed the line when she’d cornered Gabriel. Adrian wouldn’t risk it. “I’msorry.”
Gabriel’sfacefell.
“Why don’t you tell me about your other friends?” Adrian asked, eager to change the topic. “Weretheremore?”
“There were a lot of people that I knew, but not all that many that I was friends with. Garrison didn’t like it when we made too many friends. He said it was better if we kept to ourselves so we could stay focused. Too much chatting meant that we were wastingourtime.”
“Do you know what happened to them?” If Adrian had to go talk to Mal, he would, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving Gabriel alone with Sterling. If there was someone else they could go visit together without suffering potential injury, Adrian would make ithappen.
“No.” Gabriel’s face lost its glow. He looked down at his lap. “The last friend I saw when I was taken away was Lucian. He was… he was calling for me through the chaos, but Icouldn’tstop.”
No.
No, not in a millionyears,no.
Adrian had to keep himself from sounding irritated. “Lucian?”
“We were kind of friends, but he… he didn’t really like Garrison, and it made it hard to talk to himsometimes.”
Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. “What does helooklike?”
“Average height. Slender. Elegant. Really beautiful platinum-blond hair, but not as long as Seth’s. He was a year older than me, so I guess he’d be twenty-onerightnow.”
