“Your tie is crooked,” Damon said.

Flynn shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Oh right.” He looked down at his tie, and numbly began to tug on it.

“I’ll do it,” Damon interjected kindly, reaching out and adjusting his tie.

“Sorry,” Flynn mumbled. He hated when he got like this. Which is why he didn’t go home often.

“It’s fine,” Damon said, smiling reassuringly and squeezed Flynn’s hand.

 Flynn took a deep breath. Time to face the lions. “OK, let’s get this over with.”

They drove thirty minutes in Damon’s car to his family home and the whole time Flynn just tried to keep his mind blank. Which meant he was going through every worst case scenario in his head. His whole family would be there. His Alpha father, Omega mother, both Alpha and Omega older sisters, older Alpha brother, grandpa, maybe even his uncle, aunts and their kids. Flynn took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes.

“It’s just two hours tops,” Damon said.

Flynn knew Damon was trying to comfort him. He’d been doing that ever since they were kids. It wasn’t like he was a kid anymore. His family shouldn’t still affect him this way.

“I know,” he murmured and they drove in silence the rest of the way.

When they reached the house, Damon drove through the black iron gates and up the long drive to the opulent mansion. As soon as he saw the long row of cars parked in his parent's front drive, Flynn began to grow anxious again. “They’re all here,” he said hollowly.

“We don’t have to go in, you know. You can tell them you’re sick or something.”

“No, it’ll only make things worse. Come on, let’s just go.”

Steeling himself, Flynn led the way into the house. He’d barely reached his hand out when the door was opened by the family butler.

“Hello Master Flynn,” the Beta butler said.

“Hello Carter,” Flynn replied, smiling faintly.

“Father,” Damon said solemnly.

“Thank you for allowing my son to come with you today Master Flynn.”

“Oh no, as usual he’s doing me a favour,” Flynn protested, feeling awkward with Damon’s father as usual. Carter and his wife Annie had been serving his family since before he was born, just like Carter’s parents did. But his relationship with the butler and head cook had always been strained. They were just too formal, too determined to hold onto their status as second generation Beta servants. It always amazed Flynn how such rigid parents had raised a warm and caring person like Damon.

“The family is in the main living room,” Carter said. “Damon, I’m sure your mother would appreciate some help in the kitchen.”

“Of course Father,” Damon replied formally. He squeezed Flynn’s shoulder reassuringly as soon as his father’s back was turned then started heading towards the kitchen. 

Flynn wanted to call after him, beg him not to leave him alone, but he knew that he shouldn’t show any weakness. Not here, or anywhere. Only with Damon. In two hours, it’ll just be the two of them and Flynn can break down and be as weak as he wanted. 

The thought didn’t comfort him as much as he needed so he simply steeled himself and walked into the living room, calling out, “Hello everyone.” His eyes flicked around the room quickly, taking in the twenty-five people inside.

“Please, Finnigan,” his perfectly groomed Omega mother Debra said from her place on the couch next to his equally beautiful Omega sister who was holding her own Omega daughter. “You shouldn’t announce yourself so loudly like that.”

“Yes, Mother,” Flynn mumbled, blushing with consternation as he saw some of his cousins smirk. He glared back at them as he went to greet his grandfather. Self-entitled pricks.

“Hello grandfather,” Flynn said, bending down to kiss the man lightly on his brow.

“Finnigan. Well, well, you are alive. I suppose the next time I’ll see you is my funeral.” Timothy Hale, the current patriarch of the Hale family, intoned severely in his raspy voice. His diminutive form curled into his wheelchair and shaky voice did nothing to diminish the sharp mind, and tongue, of the man who’d been leading the family for the past sixty years. Even though he was retired, no one was in doubt that this was the man who controlled the family, and woe to anyone who dared displease him.  

“Now now, Father,” Flynn’s dad, Charles, cut in from across the room where he was standing with a drink in hand talking to Flynn’s uncle and aunt. “No talking about dying yet. We wouldn’t know what to do without you.”

“Hmm as if you weren’t all just waiting for me to pass on. Make things easier for everyone.”

Flynn sat down, trying to drone out the chorus of nos and comforting lies the family spun about their desire to see the family patriarch live for another twenty years. 

As if.

 For as long as Flynn could remember, his family was always waiting for his grandfather to die, calling him a pestilence, a cancer, and a burden on the family. He’d been sick and almost bedridden for a long time as his frail body clearly attested, but as long as he lived he still controlled the family money. Sure, his dad and siblings controlled all the companies and investments, but all the money that had accumulated over the last three generations were under his grandfather’s name. And that’s something he never let anyone forget. Or the fact that he can will the money to whomever he wishes. Which meant that his parents, cousins, aunts, siblings, everyone, were always vying for his affection. 

Flynn didn’t kid himself into thinking that his grandfather liked him any better. They didn’t have any kind of relationship, which wasn’t strange given the huge age gap between Flynn and his older siblings. By the time he came around there were just too many grandchildren for his grandfather to even think of him. Just like everyone else in the family.

Flynn sat quietly next to his mother as the conversations flowed around him as if he weren’t there. Flynn felt his muscles relax slightly and he almost reached out to loosen his tie but stopped. Everyone was ignoring him, and while that had eaten away at Flynn when he was a child, he’d learned the best way to protect himself from the lions was to sink into the background and keep as quiet as possible. No need to draw attention to himself and have them sink their greedy, hateful teeth into him.

They finished drinks, and moved onto the dining room and were almost done with the main course. Flynn was feeling pretty good all things considered, enjoying the lack of attention and his imminent freedom.

“So Finnigan, got yourself an Alpha yet?” Timothy barked from the head of the table, using his Alpha voice so it boomed across the room.

And just like that, all eyes flew to Flynn and he felt his entire body go hot. He knew the question might come up but had prayed it wouldn’t.

He hated that his face was no doubt flushed and blotchy, which everyone will notice. He could imagine their smirks and snide comments to each other, relishing the way Flynn’s body betrayed him as they always did. He lost count of the number of names and insults they taunted him with growing up from his red hair which no one else inherited in four generations, to his easily irritated skin, his hyperactive and weak nature, to-.

 “No, no Alpha sir,” Flynn replied in a small voice, his natural Omega instincts making him almost shrink into his seat under the weight of his grandfather’s Alpha authority.

“What’s the use of an Omega if he can’t land himself an Alpha?” Timothy roared, unleashing his full Alpha voice and scent which made all the Omegas in the room squirm in their seats, shoulders slightly hunched. “I told you Charles, if you wanted him married off to an Alpha you should have done it when he was younger. Look at him now! He’s twenty-four years old! Who would want him? Especially with those obscene heats of his.”

Flynn squeezed his hands into tight balls, sinking his nails into his palms in an effort not to cry. It was the same, every time. He was ignored, treated like an invisible child until someone wished to point out his flaws as an Omega. Growing up, all he heard was ‘Omegas don’t run. You can’t land an Alpha if you run around like a common street rat’ or ‘Omegas don’t laugh loudly. Alphas will think you’re a whore’ or worse, ‘Don’t you dare let anyone know about your crude heats. The last thing we need is for an Alpha to know how vulgar your body is.’

The only one in the entire house who had ever given him positive attention and let him be his happy, carefree self was Damon. With strict parents of his own, Damon had been hesitant to befriend his young master. But Flynn’s constant tears and bouts of loneliness had gotten to the warm hearted Beta and he’d become Flynn’s companion and hero, wiping his tears when his mother or sister told him off for not being a proper Omega and playing with him or just sitting with him when he was alone.

Flynn tuned out the rest of his father and grandfather’s tirade, his grandfather's voice full of Alpha superiority while his father’s was a bit more consoling but still had traces of Alpha steel in it. Instead, he focused on Damon, recalling their last visit to the beach. Or the bookstore because Damon was such a nerd. Or anything to drown out his grandfather's screeching about how he was shaming the family by not snaring an Alpha.

Eventually, his grandfather started to cough and his nurse had to wheel him out of the room. As soon as he left his entire family sighed with relief.

“When do you think he’ll finally just give up and croak,” one of his male Alpha cousins asked.

“Probably enjoys yelling at us too much to actually bite the dust,” a female Alpha cousin responded.

“Your grandfather will pass on when he decides it’s time,” his mother replied serenely. “Until then we all must do our parts. Even you Finnigan. Maybe if you finally find an Alpha to settle down with, your grandfather can finally rest and pass on.”

Again all eyes turned to Flynn and he squirmed in his seat, “Not many Alphas around to choose from.”

“Liar,” the same male cousin barked, “You’re surrounded by them. There’s a whole building of Alpha soldiers. I’m sure any of them would be grateful to marry you and join the family.”

“There’s Nicholas Chambers,” his Omega sister cut in. “I’m friends with his sister. Their family is just as important as ours. It would be a good connection.”

His older Alpha brother snorted, “Yeah, as if someone from the Chambers family would want a damaged Omega. One whiff of his abnormal heats and they’d throw him back. And tell everyone in the process.”

The conversation continued in this vein for several minutes and Flynn did his best to block it out. Eventually, after listing all Flynn’s faults, which included his laughter, obsession with work and ‘horrendous’ hair, his family moved on to the topic of the family business. Thirty minutes later, after dessert and another round of drinks and gossiping, family members finally began excusing themselves.

“I should go too,” Flynn said, trying to hide his eagerness.

“You came in your own car?” his mother asked.

Flynn froze, knowing she wasn’t asking a simple question and dreading her response when he told her what she already guessed, “No, Damon brought me.”

His brother laughed mockingly, “You’re still hanging out with that lackluster Beta? I admit, when you were a child it was fine but now it’s just weird. And you work on the same base as well. You’d better pray no Alpha families catch wind of your relationship or you really won’t get any suitors.”

Flynn felt a spasm of panic at the way his brother emphasized the word relationship. Had he guessed that Damon was helping Flynn through his heats? But no, if he did then his parents would have taken extreme measures to separate them, send Flynn away or sell him off to whomever was willing to take a damaged Omega.

Nodding silently, Flynn left the living room. As he walked down the halls his footsteps became more hurried until he was almost running to get to the main door. He found Carter waiting with the door open. “Master Flynn, Damon is waiting for you in his car.”

Flynn barely nodded his thanks before he practically flew down the steps and hurled himself into the car. “Go,” he croaked to Damon, his throat dry and his tone pleading. 

Damon carefully but quickly pulled out, drove down the driveway and got onto the main road. Flynn’s mind was a complete blank. He didn’t know where they were going nor did he care. It required all his energy not to fall apart.

Absently, he realized that the car had stopped next to an empty park. Slowly, as if he were a doll on a string, he turned his head to face Damon. The complete look of despair and concern on Damon’s face was his undoing. He dived across the gear shift and threw himself into Damon’s arms, tears streaming down his face.

He clutched Damon and felt him gently rubbing his back, just like he did when they were kids. Softly, Damon began to sing, the same songs he and Flynn used to listen to on repeat and sing in the privacy of their secret base. 

Sobbing, Flynn tried to focus on Damon’s smooth voice and ignore the memory he had tried to suppress the entire day, the one where he accidentally heard his mother tell his aunt that the only reason Flynn was born was because she had taken a dose of bad contraceptives. The day he realized that the reason his family ignored him, insulted him when they wished, and treated him like he was an invisible annoyance was because to them he was. He was the child they never wanted. He was the child that never should have existed. And that unwanted child was damaged in their eyes. 

After what felt like forever, Flynn’s body began to stop shaking as Damon continued to sing. Flynn closed his eyes, focusing on the warmth and unconditional love he received from his childhood friend.

I’m not damaged. Damon thinks I’m perfect, just as I am. And that’s all that matters.