EZRA'S POV
"Daddy, that lady smells weird."
I freeze with my hand halfway to the overhead bin. My four-year-old daughter Lily is pointing at the woman across the aisle, her little nose scrunched up in that way only Omega children can manage. The passenger—a Beta, thankfully—hasn't noticed yet, too busy with her phone.
"Lily, inside voice," I whisper, my heart hammering. "Remember what we talked about? We don't mention people's scents in public."
This is exactly why I hate flying. Too many scents mixing together in a metal tube thirty thousand feet in the air. Too many chances for my children to accidentally reveal what we are. In most of the country, being an Omega is still legal grounds for discrimination, no matter what the new laws pretend.
My son Lucas tugs my sleeve, his silver eyes—those damned silver eyes that aren't mine—wide with worry. "Are we in trouble?"
"No, baby. Never." I crouch down between their seats, forcing my voice to stay calm even though my hands are shaking. "But remember, we're careful about wolf things around humans, right?"
They both nod solemnly. At four years old, they're already better at hiding than I ever was at their age.
The seatbelt sign dings off. Finally. I grab our carry-on bag and take each twin by the hand, squeezing gently. Three times—our secret signal. I love you. You're safe. We're together.
They squeeze back. Three times each.
As we shuffle down the narrow aisle toward the exit, my chest feels tighter with every step. Five years. I haven't been back to this city in five years, and now I'm walking right back into the place that destroyed me.
"Is this where you grew up?" Lucas asks, his voice full of innocent excitement.
"Sort of. I went to school here." The words taste bitter. School. What a gentle word for the place where I learned that love wasn't enough. Where I learned that Omegas like me would always be second-class, no matter how hard we tried.
"Will we see your friends?" Lily bounces on her toes as we step into the jet bridge.
Friends. Right. I had one friend here—Sophie—and she'd escaped this city right after me. Everyone else had just watched and laughed when my whole world fell apart in front of them.
"Maybe," I lie, because that's what good parents do. We protect our children from ugly truths as long as we can.
The airport terminal opens up before us, and suddenly I can't breathe. There are too many people. Too many scents. Too much noise. Somewhere in this city, he exists. Breathing the same air. Living his perfect life with his perfect Alpha family that I was never good enough to be part of.
Stop it, I tell myself firmly. You're not that broken boy anymore. You're Ezra Quinlan, senior consultant. You have your own company. Your own life. He doesn't matter.
Except my hands are still shaking.
"Daddy, you're squeezing too hard," Lucas whimpers.
I immediately loosen my grip. "Sorry, baby. Daddy's just tired from the flight."
Another lie. I'm not tired. I'm terrified.
What if I see him? What if I run into Asher Thornwell in some coffee shop or business meeting and he looks right through me like I'm nothing? What if he's forgotten me completely—forgotten us—while I've spent five years unable to forget anything?
Or worse—what if he remembers, and he's happy? What if he married some proper Alpha woman from a good family, exactly like his mother wanted? What if he has perfect Alpha children who don't have to hide what they are?
My chest aches where the bond used to feel warm, back when I was stupid enough to believe the Moon Goddess knew what she was doing. Now there's nothing there. Just an empty space that never quite healed right.
"Look! Baggage claim!" Lily points at the sign, dragging me back to reality.
We navigate through the crowd, two small children and one Omega who's very good at pretending he has his life together. I can do this. It's just a six-month contract. I'll work, I'll avoid anywhere Asher might be, and then I'll take my children and go back to our safe, quiet life far away from here.
Simple.
We round the corner into the arrivals area, and that's when the world stops.
There's a man standing by the exit doors. Tall. Black hair. Broad shoulders that I used to trace with my fingers in the dark. He's holding a massive banner—I can see the words even from here, big and bright and impossible.
WELCOME HOME, EZRA
No.
No, no, no, no—
My feet stop moving. People flow around us like water around stones. Lily and Lucas are talking, asking questions I can't hear over the roaring in my ears.
It's him.
Asher Thornwell is standing in this airport, holding that stupid banner and an enormous bouquet of red roses, and he's looking right at me with those storm-cloud eyes that haunted my dreams for five years.
He's here. After everything—after the public humiliation, after the cruel words, after five years of silence—he's here.
His mouth moves. He's saying something. My name, probably.
Then his eyes drop down. To the two children clutching my hands. To the four-year-old twins with honey-gold curls and silver eyes that are exactly like his.
I watch his face change. Watch the hope turn to shock turn to something that might be understanding or might be horror—I can't tell anymore. I used to be able to read every expression on Asher Thornwell's face.
That was before he taught me that I never really knew him at all.
The roses fall from his hands, scattering across the airport floor like drops of blood.
His lips form one word. I can't hear it over the airport noise, but I can read it clearly:
"Mine?"
And that's when my son—my precious, innocent Lucas who doesn't understand what he's looking at—tugs my hand and asks in his clear, carrying voice:
"Daddy, why does that man smell exactly like me and Lily?"
Every Alpha within twenty feet turns to stare.
Because there's only one reason a child would share an adult's scent that precisely.
The secret I've kept for five years—the secret I've protected with everything I have—just walked up to me in a crowded airport and demanded to be known.
Asher Thornwell has just discovered he's a father.
And from the look on his face, he has no intention of walking away this time.