Fagan knew his cheeks were flushing. He could feel the heat blooming in them. He'd just never really received compliments before. The elders weren't big on handing them out. He didn't know if it was because it wasn't part of his omega training or if the elders were just jerks.
He was pretty sure it was a little of both.
"Do you think Elder Ramsey learned anything new?"
Beck stiffened and Fagan knew the man wasn't happy with the change in conversation, but he was just too uncomfortable accepting compliments when he wasn't sure what they meant. Yes, he understood the term breathtaking, but not when someone was referring to him. He had no idea what he looked like. He could be as ugly as a slug for all he knew.
"Why don't we go call him and find out?" Beck asked. "Greyson, I'd like you to join us if you can. I could use your council in this."
"Of course," Greyson replied. "I'd be happy to help."
"Jaggar, can you and the others get the cars ready to go into town? I'd like to take two vehicles."
"You don't want to take the bikes?" Jaggar asked.
"Not today. With any luck, we'll have a few things to bring back with us. The cars would be easier."
"I'm on it."
Fagan kept a tight hold of Beck's arm as they walked down the hallway. He assumed they were headed to the man's office. Beck seemed to do all of his work in there. Fagan still wasn't quite sure what it was the man did, but he seemed to spend a lot of time on his laptop and making phone calls.
"What is it you do exactly?" Fagan asked when his curiosity became too much. "You seem to spend a lot of time in your office on your computer or the phone."
"Well, I've spent the last twenty-five years guarding the council elders. During that time, I took the money they paid me and invested it, so a lot of my work involves making sure my money is making money. It's my duty to provide for the members of my pride, to care for them and protect them."
"Your pride?" Fagan wasn't exactly sure what that meant.
"At the moment, it's a rather small pride." Beck chuckled. "Just the guys you've already met, but we'll get bigger as time goes by and more people join us."
"And you have to provide for everyone?"
"I need to make sure my pride is taken care of, whether that is financial, or emotional, or even just personal safety. That's my job as alpha. As for providing for everyone, they all have income of their own, but I make sure their money makes money just like mine does. I have a master’s degree in finance."
Fagan grinned. "So, smart and sexy?"
Beck chuckled. "If you say so."
That was a weird response. At least, Fagan thought so. He didn't know what to make of it. Beck seemed very self- assured and confident. There was no reason for him to question Fagan's attraction to him.
Beck led him into the office and to the chair next to his desk before sitting down himself. Fagan heard him pick up the phone and start dialing. As he sat there, his mind began to wander, hitting on one of the questions that had plagued him his entire life.
"Do I have parents?"
"Of course you have parents."
"Do you know where they are? Who they are?"
"Yes," Beck replied. "I've met with them several times over the years."
"Did they..." Fagan swallowed tightly. "Did they not want me? Is that why they gave me to the monastery?" That was a fear pretty much everyone student at the monastery had felt one time or another.
"No, baby." Beck took Fagan's hands in his. "Your parents loved you, Fagan. They still love you."
"Then why did they give me away?"
"It wasn't like that." Beck tugged on Fagan's hand until he stood up and moved over to sit down on the man's lap. Beck's arms wrapped around him. "Remember what I told you. When a Sidhe child is born, he or she is taken to the Síceach, the seer, to determine if they are an omega. If they are, then they are sent to the monastery to be trained to be the mate of a shifter king."
"Do the parents get any say in this?" It seemed barbaric to Fagan, taking an infant away from their parents.
"It's a great honor to find out your child is the mate of a shifter king."
Fagan could hear hesitation in Beck's voice. "But?"
"But, no, they don't get a choice. Once it is discovered your child is the mate of a shifter king, there is no choice. There are only five omegas born every twenty-five years. Upholding the mandates of the peace treaty between our people is a duty we all have to fulfill in one manner or another."
Fagan's shoulder slumped. "Do theyat hate me?"
"No, of course not."
"Then why have they never contacted me?" Fagan asked. "You at least sent me birthday cards." Beck became so still, Fagan turned toward him. "What?"
"Your parents sent you birthday cards as well," Beck replied. "Every year."
Fagan gasped. "I never received them."
"You never received them?"
Fagan shook his head. "No."
"Have you had any contact with them?"
"No. The only thing I've ever received was your birthday cards."
"No presents?"
"No, nothing." Fagan's heartbeat sped up when Beck didn't say anything. He pressed his hand to the side of Beck's face. The man was clenching his jaw. "Beck, what's going on?"
"Since I'm not allowed to personally see you until you reach the age of twenty-five, I've met with your parents several times to talk about you. Each time we've visited, they were heartbroken that you refused to see them when they went to visit you. They never understood why, but we all figured it was because you never had time to form a bond with them after you were born. You were only a week old when you were sent to the monastery."
"No," Fagan gasped. "I never knew. No one ever told me they came to visit."
"I suspect that this is all part of what's going on at the monastery. Something is really wrong there."
Fagan leaned his head against Beck's shoulder. His heart felt heavy. With every passing second, it was looking as if he'd missed out on so much in life, all due to that stupid monastery. He wished he'd never been sent there.
Beck's lips pressed against his temple as the man gave him a small kiss. "I know this isn't easy, baby. I wish I could make it all go away, but I can't."
"It just doesn't seem fair," Fagan whispered. He hated feeling sorry for himself, but sometimes it couldn't be helped. If everything Beck was telling him was true—and he suspected it was—then he'd been lied to his entire life. The people operating the monastery weren't just turning him into a slave, they were trying to cut off all contact to the outside world.
"These people have to be stopped, Beck." Fagan's hands fisted as a wave of anger swept over him. "I don't know exactly what is going on, but as one of those affected by this mess, I can tell you, this needs to be stopped."
"I know it does, love." Beck's arms tightened around him. "Would you like to meet your parents?"
Fagan lifted his head. "Do you think they'd want to meet me?" If they thought Fagan had rejected them so many times, why would they open themselves up to that kind of pain again?
"I know they would."
Fagan nodded. "I'd like to meet them, but only if you will be there."
"I'll be there, mate. I wouldn't be any other place." Beck pressed another kiss to Fagan's temple. "I'll give them a call and set something up for later in the week. How does that sound?"
"Good." Nerve wracking.
"I want to get this thing with the monastery dealt with first."
Fagan could kind of understand that. hHe still wanted to meet his parents and would probably spend the entire week on pins and needles, but at least he had hope that they might have wanted him. He wouldn't know for sure until he met them.
"Do you have parents?"
"No, mate." Beck's lips moved against Fagan's temple as the man smiled. "My parents died many years ago."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Beck said. "They died together as they would have wanted."
"Do you have any other family? Like brothers or sisters or anything?"
"I'm afraid not. I was an only child and the rest of my family passed many years ago, but I'm not alone, Fagan. I have my brothers-in-arms, and now I have you, too."
That sounded so incredibly sad.
"And when we have children, I'll have them, too. So, see, there's nothing to be sad about. I have a lot of good people in my life."
Fagan lifted his head and turned his face toward Beck. "We're going to have kids?"
Beck chuckled as he rubbed his hand down over Fagan's abdomen. "Of course we are. Unless you don't want kids."
"I've never really thought about it. Believing I was going to spend my life serving my master, having kids never even entered my mind." He couldn't say he was put off by the idea, though. "Would you prefer to use a surrogate or adopt?"
Beck stilled again.
Fagan hated it when he did that. It always meant the guy was going to say something Fagan had no clue about. "What?"
"I can't believe I'm asking this, but did they teach you what being an omega meant at that school?"
"Yes," Fagan replied. "It meant I was to serve my master. I told you that."
Beck sighed. "No, baby, that's not what it means."
Fagan frowned. "Then what does it mean?"
"It means we won't be using a surrogate or adopting our cubs, Fagan. You'll carry our children."
Fagan sucked in a sharp breath. "You're insane."
Beck's voice was devoid of emotion when he asked, "Does that mean you don't want to carry my child?"
Fagan was positive his eyes were as wide as saucers. "No, it means men can't get pregnant."
"Most men cannot. Omegas can. That's what makes you so special."
Fagan knew he looked like a fish as he opened and closed his mouth several times, but he just couldn't seem to settle on one question when so many were swimming through his head. What Beck was telling him was beyond insane. It just wasn't possible.
"Fagan, listen to me." Beck cupped Fagan's face with his hands. "I know this is really confusing to you and probably quite a bit unbelievable, but I wouldn't lie to you. Male omegas can carry young."
Fagan licked his lips as he let that sink in. He wasn't sure if he believed Beck or not, but he didn't think the man was lying to him. Beck had already proved that shifters were real. Was male pregnancy so far out of the realm of possibilities?
"How?" he finally asked. "How do omegas give birth?"
"An omega's gestational period is five months. At about four and a half months, a line appears from your sternum to your bellybutton. When the baby is ready to be born, that line opens, providing access to a temporary womb where the baby is."
"Temporary womb?"
"Yes, it forms once you're mated. It's part of the claiming process."
"But you said temporary," Fagan pointed out.
"Right, the womb goes away after a baby is born to give the omega time to recover and bond with his newborn. It grows back when that child reaches two years old."
"That's a great form of birth control." And a whole lot scary.
Beck chuckled. "I suppose it isdoes."
"I can really get pregnant?" Fagan knew he sounded skeptical, but come on. Male pregnancy? How could it be real? Of course, if anyone had told him shifters were real a week ago, he would have thought they were nuts.
Maybe he was nuts.
"Yeah, baby, you can, but only with your mate. I think it's fate's way of setting things up so we strive to find out mates. Omegas and shifter kings can only have children with their true mates. No one else."
"Really?" That surprised Fagan.
"Remember what I said," Beck told him. "Your ability to have children doesn't happen until you're claimed, and you have to be claimed by a shifter king."
"Huh." It kind of made sense, if he truly believed what Beck was telling him. hHe still wasn't sure he did. Granted, the man had yet to lie to him—that he was aware of—but this was crazy. Fagan felt he had a right to be skeptical.
Beck patted his thigh. "Don't freak out too much, baby. It's a lot to take in."
"It is." Fagan drew in a heavy breath then slowly let it out. "And it's not that I don't believe you. It's just..."
"Outrageous?"
"Yes!"
"Well, considering I can't keep my hands off you, you'll probably find out pretty soon whether I'm telling you the truth or not."
Fagan frowned. "I'm not sure if that reassures me or not."
Only time would tell.