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Only four years apart, Jackson and I were close when we were growing up. I looked up to him, wanting to be just like him. He was intelligent, bright, charismatic, outgoing, yet, when I presented, and my biology was confirmed, his warmth became a frigid, winter chill and the friendship we did have, soured.

The past began to spill out of the neat little boxes it was shoved into. Shaking my head, I distracted myself from my painful history. “Where are mom and dad? What are the plans for this weekend?”

Jackson sauntered forward. “As usual, everything we do must revolve around you, little brother.” I held my tongue, refusing to take the bait. “The Caldwell-Moore’s have moved back to the area, and they’ve decided to drop by for the weekend.”

The name sounded familiar to me, but I didn’t ask. Truthfully, I didn’t care. “Okay. So, what does that mean?” I was led outside onto the veranda. My father sat at the head of the patio table, my mother on his right. The white tablecloth blew with the gentle breeze, the scent of curiosity and attraction wafting forward. I found the source, freezing as I made eye contact with an omega. His tawny complexion was reddened, his black eyes taking on a coquettish gleam.

Jackson pushed me in the middle of my back, propelling me forward. “That’s Taylor Caldwell-Moore. The eldest and only omega son.”

We “grew up” with Taylor. Which meant that because our parents were in the same social circle, we frequented the same galas and events. I attended the same private school as Taylor, and before I was sent to a boarding school we did begin to flirt with one another, but after I left, he was forgotten.

“Elias,” Taylor greeted me, his voice breathless. “It’s been a while.”

“Taylor.” I nodded my head in his direction, turning to face my mother and father, both of whom were grinning broadly. “Mother, may I speak with you, please? Privately?”

A beautiful grin brightened her face as she excused herself from the table, linking her arm through mine. “Of course, darling,” she chirped over her shoulder. “I’ll be right back. Come, come.”

I waited until we were in the kitchen. Gesturing towards Taylor, I pieced together the truth of the visit. “Seriously, Mother? Matchmaking?”

“I don’t understand what your issue is with your mother setting you up with someone deserving of you, my precious Sonshine. Not everyone is blessed, like your father and I were, and find their fated mate.”

There was a time when I used to bloom under her use of the nickname, now it twisted my stomach. “Fated mates or not, Mother, my issue is that I’m thirty-five and I am capable of finding my own part—”

“Not someone who is suitable for you, Elias. We’ve gone over this. You date alphas and betas, and while there is nothing wrong with that, neither of them are viable options for procreation. Betas cannot conceive and your chances of producing dominant alphas increase exponentially when with an omega.”

The date replayed in my mind. I ended the night practically floating, my heart soaring into my throat whenever I thought about Delaney. Had the restaurant not been busy this morning, and had I not been forced to go to my parents, I would have reached out to him to ask him on another date. Fortunately for me, my mother was just self-centered enough to not catch my grin before I was able to school my expression. I interrupted her attempt to sell me on a man I wasn’t remotely interested in. “I don’t need your help in finding a partner, Mother.” Her scent sharpened. Wanting to decrease my chances of dealing with a weekend long fall out, I rushed out, “But thank you for thinking of me. I appreciate—”

“When will you think of your father and I, Elias?”

I closed my mouth, tilting my head to the side. My eyes narrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Children. Jackson is busy doing what you refuse to do, leaving him no time for dating. You, on the other hand, have lived your life without any pressure, and have done so since adolescence. The one thing you can do, the one thing you are expected to do, is to bring more dominant alpha children into the world. She smoothed out my tie, tightening the knot. “Unless you have an omega that you’ve hidden from your father and I, you will go back out there and make a genuine effort to get to know Taylor.”

Her words echoed in my mind. There wasn’t anyone that I was hiding from them. The fact that she and my father knew but repeatedly ignored how I felt about being with omegas and why, felt like a kick to the gut.

But Delaney…

Granted, he was different. There was something about him that drew me in. While I could say it was his scent—and wouldn’t be wrong if I did—that wasn’t the only thing.

I didn’t plan on stopping to comfort someone. I planned to get back to the restaurant as soon as possible to discuss how we were going to handle me being out of commission after surgery. However, as I was walking back to my car, I caught the faint fragrance of jasmine. Compelled to follow the scent, I was surprised when it led me to a stranger. I allowed myself to bask in the calming aroma of his pheromones. Once the impending panic I felt wore off, I planned to continue forward, but the first hiccupping sob derailed me. A few days later and Delaney had been on my mind more frequently than I’d cared to admit. I felt like I did the first time I had a crush.

That was… highly unusual for me.

Despite all of her flaws, my mother was good about being able to pick up on any shift in my mood. Unfortunately. Her voice held a note of suspicion. “Is there something you’re neglecting to tell me, darling?”

“No, Mother,” I assured her. “But I will not entertain this.” Although I knew what was coming next, the sad truth of it was, I could never fully prepare myself.

“I’ve been asking myself for the past twenty-two years, what did I do? Have I wronged you in some way?”

My heart squeezed, the brief ache nearly stealing my breath. “No. You and father—”

“Then why do you insist on embarrassing me like this? Since you were a child, you refused any attempt to introduce you to someone worthy of becoming a Bordeaux.”

My childhood erupted from the neat boxes, memory after memory flooding my mind and threatening to pull me under the murky water of my past. I fought off the recollection of the first time I was introduced to someone with the instruction to “get to know him”. When I told my mom I didn’t want to be his friend, I was informed that friendship wasn’t necessary for marriage. I thought she was joking until the first time she threatened to ground me if I didn’t, at the very least, “try”. I was thirteen.

I was a child.

When I refused the first time, she sent me away. I didn’t want to endure that same hurt now, but I couldn’t sit by and pretend that I was fine with this to stay in my family’s good graces. I couldn’t.