Fifteen: Research

*thanks to Niya, xoxchilli, B, sphinx2030, Entity, aseretoynok, and km300 for your support!*

***

Wren knew he was in trouble when Beau invited himself into Wren’s apartment with an armful of books stacked so high Wren couldn’t even see his face. He dropped the stack gracelessly onto the coffee table, ignoring a few books when they tumbled to the ground. His hair was stuck up wildly and his eyes were shiny like he’d been awake for far too long and imbibed way too much caffeine.

Beau planted his hands on the arm of Wren’s couch to stare Wren down. All this had happened within the span of a few seconds, so Wren hadn’t even had a chance to finish the sip of tea he’d been taking when Beau barged in. Wren swallowed his mouthful and set the mug down, acutely aware that he was only wearing boxers and a t-shirt. He’d only woken up ten minutes ago.

It was seven in the morning.

And here Beau was, back again after he’d decided to help Wren only yesterday afternoon.

…Wren sincerely hoped Beau had slept at some point between then and now, and had not been awake the whole time researching Entanglements. Unfortunately, Beau’s manic disposition told Wren that that’s exactly what he’d been doing. A glance at the nearest book title confirmed it: Flirting and Sex in the Entanglement Period: Proper Conduct and Expectations.

Wren gulped.

“First – and I don’t mean to scare you – but Entanglement is some complicated shit,” Beau began. “Like, you need to have a PhD to figure it out. But don’t you worry, bestie. I may have failed out of community college, but what I lack in book smarts I make up for in enthusiasm, and I found YouTube videos explaining it all. It’s easier to understand when it’s not being explained by some long-dead alpha that probably only ever popped his knot into his fist.”

Wren nodded politely, a little worried that Beau had something other than caffeine in his system.

“So, then you may be wondering, what’s up with all the books?” he continued, gesturing emphatically at the pile on Wren’s coffee table. “I’m glad you asked. I got them all so we could do a dramatic studying montage sort of thing, and also because these were all the books I could find on current Entanglement procedures, and not all that icky historical stuff. Plus, I figure you can look through them on your own if you need to.”

While it was a little heartwarming to see how dedicated Beau was to helping Wren, it was also concerning because it made the whole thing a little more real than Wren could handle at seven in the morning.

“So, let’s start with the basics.” Beau plopped onto the couch next to Wren and tugged a notebook out of the stack of books that Wren hadn’t noticed. The pile wobbled precariously, but miraculously no books fell. “Step one: you gotta tell your parents, babe. Because unfortunately, the meeting of the families is the first thing that happens. I’m not sure how cool your parents are, so I have no idea if you want to mention that this is all supposedly fake.”

Wren rubbed his hands together nervously. How to describe his parents? They were…well, they were cool about most things. But there was a reason Wren hadn’t really interacted with alphas until he was well into adulthood. They were incredibly protective of Wren, and perhaps because of Wren’s subdued nature, they were constantly worried that someone was going to take advantage of their little boy.

Wren was an only child as well, which didn’t help matters any. After Wren, Wren’s omega father hadn’t been able to have any more children, so they cherished him all the more.

Wren was well-loved, and he felt comfortable telling his parents almost anything. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure he knew how they would react to him entering a fake Entanglement with an alpha he barely knew.

It wouldn’t be pretty. Wren may be twenty-eight years old and plenty responsible, but his parents were well aware that their son had zero experience in romance, no thanks to their protectiveness over him.

So unfortunately, if Wren was going to tell them about this Entanglement at all, he was going to have to lie and say that it was not only a real Entanglement, but also with someone that he’d known for longer than a week.

Beau watched the emotions play over Wren’s face and scratched his nose. “So, not cool. Alright. New plan. You’re meeting Vincent later, right? It’ll probably be a good idea to straighten out some of those details with him. Moving on – step two of Entanglements is moving in with his family. So, that’s going to be weird. Although a lot of my sources say that the omega stays in a private suite with the alpha, so it’s not like you’ll be sleeping right next door to his parents. I hope. I guess it just depends on how their house is set up.”

If step one was nerve-wracking, step two was a full-on heart attack, because how in the hell was that going to work?

Was Wren going to have to share a bed with Vincent? Was Vincent going to get him a separate room, or even a separate sleeping space? Or would his family notice and think that was weird?

Also, how much time was Wren expected to spend with Vincent’s family? He worked full-time, but beyond that, was Wren supposed to constantly socialize with them?

…Wren was having some regrets.

Well. Too late now. For a moment, Wren wondered if he and Beau were good enough friends that Wren could ask Beau to take his place, but he immediately abandoned the thought. Not only was that not fair to both Beau and Vincent, but it also made Wren’s stomach feel heavy, like he’d swallowed a rock.

“Step three: a party, probably. There’s like a party every week during these proper rich people courting things. And then after that, a bunch of dates. Whether or not they’re chaperoned usually depends on the family. And how much they trust you two not to be constantly fucking at every available moment.”

Wren blushed instantly and Beau grinned. “I didn’t think that was going to be much of a problem, but maybe it will be? Hmmm. Just use protection, okay?”

Wren’s blush deepened and Beau squealed.

“Okay, okay, enough teasing. Back to business. Anyway, after a certain number of dates, the alpha traditionally asks the omega to marry them. Then it’s on to Devotion. But because this is all ‘fake’,” Beau crooked his fingers in air quotes around the word fake while making a face, “it won’t get to that point. You’ll probably go on a few dates and then pretend to fight and break things off. Easy peasy.” Beau went quiet for a moment and pretended to fuss with one of the books before muttering under his breath, “Except he’s obsessed with you so you’ll probably be engaged and knotted after the second date.”

Wren choked on his spit. Beau shrugged innocently.

“I’m making a bet. Twenty bucks says it happens after the second date – no, wait. Probably the third. You don’t want to seem too easy.”

Wren dragged a hand down his face, and prayed that he hadn’t made the worst mistake of his life.