Aosh spent the entire car ride home grumbling to himself and rethinking the argument that occurred. He felt so guilty that he’d snapped at Tiza but in the back of his mind he was telling himself the Omega deserved it. Why was this guy such an asshole?!

Aosh was nothing but nice to the guy and all he got in return were glowering looks and harsh words. It was driving him up a wall! The mass amount of patience Aosh had acquired over the years was wearing incredibly thin.

Kicking the door open he threw the groceries on the kitchen counter, not caring about them in the least, and dug around in his pocket for his phone; only to come up with nothing. For any normal person, this realization that his phone was lost probably would’ve hiked up his agitation from an eight to a ten, but the Alpha deflated at the realization his phone was nowhere to be found.

‘This really is just my luck isn’t it…?’ he thought, a sigh escaping his lips.

He needed to talk to Daniella, he needed to vent. The overflow of emotions had the man wanting to just scream into the void, he was so frustrated with himself, with Tiza, with everything!

After a futile search in his car, the Alpha decided it must still be at work, maybe he’d left it in the employee room. Searching for his phone calmed the fire that was burning in him slightly, feeling more level-headed. He resolved to message Daniella on the web app instead, via his computer, deciding it was too late to go back to work to try to find it and would look for it tomorrow.

Aosh logged on to see Daniella had already messaged him a while ago. His eyebrows furrowed reading her message. All that was sent to him was a phone number.

“We’re home!” Sean called out into the apartment, holding the door open for Tiza to come in with the groceries in tow.

A Beta woman peeked around the kitchen corner, greeting them with a smile. She was dark-skinned, had gentle eyes, and long natural hair that was as bouncy as her personality.

“Ah, I’m sorry for making you wait, but I really needed Sean to help me with the nursery before he left to get you.”

Her apology was genuine as she came up and gave the aforementioned Beta a peck on the cheek. Tiza set the groceries on the island countertop.

“It’s ok, Momo. I wasn’t waiting long,” he lied.

While the two were busy still greeting each other Tiza fished the phone out of the bag he stashed it in, shoving it in his pocket before anyone could see. Momo and Sean set to work putting the groceries away, while Tiza started towards his room. He didn’t get far before Momo’s voice caught his attention.

“Oh! What’s this?”

“What’s what?” Sean asked.

She pulled out a thin, pale blue box with a white ribbon holding it closed, along with a small cellophane bag filled with bite-sized chocolate chip cookies. There was a tag that hung from the box which Momo read out loud.

” ‘This is a thank you for the laundry detergent. – A’.”

Tiza ran back to the kitchen after she read it, just in time to see her open the box to reveal it’s contents. Inside was a small bundle of white peonies, securely wrapped and bundled together to stay fresh. Tiza’s eyes felt like they bugged out of his head.

“What the hell is this?”

Tiza could’ve sworn he thought that instead of saying it out loud until he realized Sean was the one who spoke up. Both Betas looked at him and he could feel his mouth go dry.

“Who’s ‘A’?” questioned Momo, she already had the nosey mom look down pat, she smiled and gave the Omega an arched eyebrow. Sean visibly bristled, anger written all over his face.

“I know exactly who he is.”

Tiza said a short prayer to their unborn child for going to have to deal with parents like these in the future. The Omega’s head already hurt from the oncoming confrontation that was going to take place.

“Is that Alpha messing with you again? I thought you said he left you alone after not showing up to class anymore.”

“An Alpha? What’s going on?” said Momo.

“There’s this Alpha that keeps harassing him! You said you’d handle it, is this what you call handling it?” Sean grabbed the gift in Momo’s hands, shaking it once for emphasis before he threw everything in the trash can nearby.

“Sean! What’s wrong with you? Calm down.” She laid her hands on his shoulders trying to ground him, her tone was angry, but she tried to diffuse his anger rather than trying to stir it up.

“I’m just trying to protect him. I don’t want him to get hurt by another Alpha.”

“And you think I want to get hurt?!” Tiza gestured to himself, getting visibly angry as well.

“I don’t know, with the way you’ve been acting lately I’d say you do! Next time I see him I’m going to make sure he leaves you alone for good!” he leaned over the countertop, trying to intimidate Tiza into listening to what he said.

His brother was having none of it however and leaned over the opposite, getting in Sean’s face.

“I told you to stay out of it!”

“Alright you two, you need to separate, NOW!” Momo’s face was dark and she pointed in opposite directions for the two to go in. No more words were said as the two men went into separate parts of the apartment; Tiza’s room door made an audible slam.

“He’s such a child!” the Beta male growled.

“It’s because you keep treating him like one! For god’s sake Sean he’s twenty-three, you don’t have to baby him anymore.”

“You don’t understand,” Sean says defeated, sitting on the couch in the living room.

“You’ve told me plenty of what you both have been through.”

“Then you know I can’t let him get hurt again,” he sighs into his hands, all the anger from before draining out of him, “I just can’t bear to see him like that again.”

“Is it any better than seeing him like this? You guys are so close, when have you ever fought like this?”

Sean didn’t say anything, but he knew the answer. The truth was these arguments were happening more often and Sean felt like a chasm was forming between them. There was a point in time that they were all each other had and now as times changed so did their relationship.

He knew he was a tad overbearing with Tiza but it was for the others own good, he had to keep eyes on his brother at all times, lest things slip through the cracks like they did before they moved here. He wasn’t going to be a part of Tiza getting hurt by himself and others due to his negligence.

Later that evening,  Sean knocked on Tiza’s door. He didn’t receive an answer but spoke through the door anyway.

“Hey…I’m sorry for getting mad at you. I won’t talk to that Alpha like I said before, but you have to promise me something. Promise me that you’ll really run him off and that you won’t see him again. If you want to handle it, call the police the next time he messes with you, ok?”

Sean could hear a faint ‘ok’ from the other side. Pleased with the answer Sean wished the other a good night and left. About ten minutes later, when Tiza was sure the coast was clear, he quietly slipped out of his room. He returned shortly after carrying the box of flowers and the cookies into his room.

Digging through his closet for about fifteen minutes, Aosh managed to pull out an older smartphone from a box of random junk. Silently he thanked himself for not getting rid of it when he got his new phone a while back and for keeping the sim card inside it. After letting it get some charge he dialed the number.

He heard a small, raspy voice on the other end.

“A-Aosh…?”

“Daniella?”

Suddenly the voice broke into choked up cries. A sinking feeling in the pit of Aosh’s stomach warned him something was wrong as her sobbing went through the phone. He urged her to calm down and tell him what was wrong.

“I want out! I want out, Aosh, but I don’t know what to do! Klark… He-he…”

“What did he do to you?”

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking…about the advice I gave to you about your fated mate, and I feel like such a hypocrite! All the things I said about being fated mates taking two people was right, yet the idiot who said it never wanted to be in her relationship in the first place!”

Aosh was confused about what she was saying. Weren’t Klark and her happy? She continued through some sniffles.

“Klark forced me into this relationship Aosh! I never wanted to be with him but he told me I did and for so long I believed him! And when I couldn’t give him what he wanted he-he-he-” She broke down into tears once more.

“He did what?”

“He… was the reason I was in the hospital for so long. It’s because I’m infertile and he wants to have kids, months ago he beat me up saying it’s because I wasn’t trying hard enough. Today, I just… I had enough! I told him I didn’t want to be some-some- some Omega baby machine! I told him I don’t want to be with him anymore and that I’m leaving him but he attacked me and he….”

The last part of Daniella’s confession was muffled so he asked her to say it again.

“He bit me Aosh!”

She fell back into uncontrollable tears once more. Aosh almost dropped his phone, his face became flushed with anger and he saw red.

“Daniella, give me your address now.”

“W-what?!”

“I’m coming to get you.”

Aosh was like a tornado walking through his apartment. He stuffed necessities into an old backpack before he headed out the door with his keys. His mind was everywhere but he tried to focus on the friend who needed him right now, and not on the Omega who was slowly breaking his heart. His problems could wait, right now, there was someplace he needed to be.

The white peonies sat in the windowsill in a tall glass cup, because look as he might, Tiza couldn’t find a vase. He didn’t care for flowers anyway, so the cup was sufficient. The Omega had been staring at them for a while from where he sat on his bed. His eyes traced over the petals and he was subtly reminded of Aosh’s cheeks and how his eyes had once traced the petals there as well.

The bag of cookies lay in his lap, the cellophane rustling when he opened it; he was just lucky there was nothing else in that trash can so they could still be eaten. Tiza recognized the logo on the bag, it was from one of those small home bakers that often sold their treats at the farmers market.

Tiza would linger at their stall for a while each time he went before he ultimately decided he didn’t need anything from there and left. He already allowed himself one sweet a day, and that was only after his five-mile run so the calories would even out.

With one hand he popped a single bite-sized morsel into his mouth, deciding one was probably less than a hundred calories so it fit into his budget for the day. The other hand held the note, which Tiza had probably re-read about ten times. Sighing dramatically he put both items on his nightstand and laid down.

Why did he feel like such an asshole right now? Was this guy not stalking him? There had to be proof he was, maybe proof would make Tiza feel better about all this. He dug the phone out of his shorts and inspected it where he lay.

‘What kind of dumbass doesn’t have the passcode enabled…’ he thought, sliding the lock screen up and getting to the main page. The background was a simple one, peonies of different colors.

‘How on brand.’

Maybe there were incriminating photos taken of him on here, he thought. That’s something that stalkers do right? Finding the photo app he swiped through the gallery. Tiza swiped…and he swiped…and he swiped some more until he came to the end of the camera roll.

‘…’

There were no sneaky pictures taken from behind corners, the Omega’s face was nowhere to be found at all! Instead, there were a lot of pictures of koi fish, some gym selfies, and pictures of the Alpha with two other older men who Tiza assumed were his parents since they looked related. Well, maybe there were incriminating texts with his friends! Aosh could’ve been lying when he said he cut ties with them.

‘…What the hell…’

There were only three contacts in the Alpha’s phone: Dad, Pop, and Work.

‘That’s pathetic!’ was his first thought until he realized his contact list was about the same, except he just had Sean and Momo’s respective numbers.

A sudden rush of shame ran through his body realizing what he was doing. Who was being more invasive here, Aosh or Tiza? Confusion was starting to be a regular emotion that came when he thought about Aosh. Wanting to know more about him in private lessons, buying him coffee, sweets, and flowers; staying close but never too far away. All the things this Alpha did were confusing!

‘Sorry for even offering to do anything nice for you, because you’re obviously incapable of doing anything nice, PERIOD!’

Those were the last words that Aosh had said to him, and if Tiza really thought about it had Aosh been anything but nice to him? What did the Omega give to him in return? Glares, disdainful frowns, and harsh words all because Tiza had a hard time differentiating what happened to him in the past versus the present.