Omega's Stepbrother

“You smell different.”
Wyatt stilled, his heart kicking into a patter. Please don’t say it’s Raph’s scent. “I do?”
“Yeah. You smell... sweet.” Penny looked him over, then back up, meeting his eyes. “I recognize that scent. It’s...”
Penny glanced at Hazel. Then she slipped her hand around Wyatt’s arm, dragging him out of the kitchen.
“Dad!” Hazel yelped. “You’re going to burn the eggs!”
Wyatt paused, glancing back at the stove. Penny beamed at Hazel. “I’m giving you a chance to make breakfast for Dad,” she said, winking. “Think you can do that?”
“Sure I can,” Hazel said, hopping off the stool with a grin. “It’ll be the best scrambled eggs you’ve ever had!”
“I’m sure it will. Watch the fire, hon,” Wyatt said. Even if Hazel had made herself eggs several times by now, he couldn’t help but worry. “Don’t burn yourself!”
“Worry about yourself, Dad.”
He was about to answer when Penny dragged him down the hallway, all the way to his bedroom. For an omega, she was plenty strong when she put her mind to it.
“Should I say congrats?” Penny whispered, glancing at the kitchen doorway. “Because you smell pregnant. I know Dr. Kinney smelled just like that, too, but stronger.”
Wyatt stopped breathing. “What?”
“Crap, was it supposed to be a surprise?” Penny tugged him further into the bedroom, stopping by the window so there was no chance of Hazel overhearing.
“What surprise? I’m not—I can’t be...”
Raph had pressed close to him last week, his eyes dark, his cock hot on Wyatt’s skin. I might’ve come inside you, Raph had muttered.
Wyatt’s heart stumbled. It couldn’t happen. It just... couldn’t.
Penny’s forehead wrinkled. “It’s not another Max, is it?”
Then she leaned in and sniffed, and Wyatt stepped away from her, his skin too tight. “No, it’s not another Max.”
“I’ve smelled that other scent before,” she said, looking down, trying to remember. “Like, I’ve smelled it just recently. It’s a scent I should know.”
Please don’t say it’s Raph. Wyatt wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. “Lots of people have the same scent.”
“But this scent isn’t common in Meadowfall, is what I’m saying.”
“There were plenty of people at the party,” Wyatt said. Penny’s eyes darted to his, and Wyatt realized he shouldn’t have said that. “I mean, there were probably people from out of town, too. You might’ve caught that scent there.”
How Penny managed to forget Raph’s scent, Wyatt didn’t know.
But gods, he couldn’t be pregnant. And it couldn’t be Raph’s baby. Wyatt held onto the windowsill, his skin itching where the sun’s rays lingered too long on his forearm. But it all made sense—the sweet honey scent, his sudden sensitivity to light. It had happened before, back when he’d been pregnant with Hazel.
“The alpha didn’t mark you?” Penny whispered, her eyes filling with concern.
Wyatt’s cheeks burned. “I hadn’t planned on seeing him again.”
“Damn it, Wyatt. You know better than that!”
“You think I don’t?” He ran his hand over his face, closing his eyes. Now that his heat had passed, the thought of it seemed ludicrous. Stripping in front of Raph, begging Raph to fuck him bareback? What the hell have I done?
“At least tell me it was a good alpha,” Penny said.
“He is. I’ll—I’ll speak with him.”
“You’re keeping the baby?”
Wyatt bit his lip, sea-blue eyes flashing through his mind. If he really was pregnant... He couldn’t possibly abandon the child. Especially when Hazel was in the kitchen, making them scrambled eggs like she couldn’t be prouder of anything else. Once upon a time, he’d considered aborting her. He’d failed, and he was thankful for it. He owed this new child a chance, too.
He pressed his hand to his belly, looking at his pale fingers, his thin forearm. Raph was his stepbrother; a child between them would likely be born healthy. But hell, he didn’t even know if Raph had a family back in Highton.
“I’ll raise it myself,” Wyatt said. “I think that’ll be fine.”
It was a far better option than telling his family I’m having a baby with my brother. Grandma would implode. His parents would look at him, horror on their faces. And Raph... Well, he wasn’t the one who had decided condoms weren’t necessary. But he deserved to know about the pregnancy, at least.
“When did Raph say he’s stopping by?” Wyatt asked.
The tentative smile on Penny’s face fell. “What does Raph have to do with this?”
Damn it! I shouldn’t have said that. Wyatt forced a smile, his heart thudding. “Nothing. If I’m meeting the baby’s dad this weekend, I figured I could... arrange the meeting at a good time.”
Penny frowned. “You’re going to avoid Raph again?”
“Yes.” Better she thought that, than find out the truth.
“Heavens, Wy. At least speak to him once!”
“I’ll try. Soon,” Wyatt said. “Before you know it, I’ll have exchanged a few words with him.”
Penny wrinkled her nose. “Now that I’m thinking about it, that scent does smell like Raph’s.”
Wyatt held his breath. “You might be too eager to connect everything to him. C’mon, let’s see how Hazel’s doing with breakfast. I don’t want to leave that kid alone at the stove.”
“All right.” Penny allowed him to steer her back into the kitchen, perking up when she spotted the scrambled eggs in the pan. “I’ll let it go just this once, Wyatt Fleming. But don’t think I’ll forget!”
“Of course not.” Wyatt stepped past her to the stove, where Hazel had gotten her scrambled eggs slightly overdone, sticking to the pan. Nothing a little scrubbing wouldn’t solve. “Doing great, hon!”
Hazel grinned up at him, pleased.
She was so very trusting. At her smile, Wyatt knew he couldn’t abandon the baby in his belly, any more than he could give Hazel away.
He would keep Raph’s child. If Raph decided he didn’t want to be a dad, then that would be fine. Wyatt would raise their baby himself.

7
Raph
Raph had planned on stopping by at the drive-in just before the dinner rush began. Then he’d changed his mind, heading for Meadowfall two hours earlier.
It had been a hell of a week. On top of replacing