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Finally, after hours of crying, Kayn has fallen asleep in his arms. Zed holds his boy, his precious son, and tries to get a grip on his emotions. The little omega’s slick still clings to his thighs, his son soaked through his trousers already, and a part of Zed thinks he might never be able to fully wash the scent off.
A scent that’s supposed to arouse alphas, that should communicate the chance for mating, but when looking at his thirteen year old boy, Zed couldn’t feel less attracted. The thought that others are is hard to stomach. Others would take the leaking hole as an invitation, the flowery scent as permission.
Kayn's scent still stirs something inside of him, but not between his legs, instead, behind his lungs. A dull ache fills his heart, grief, for the future that now soaks through their clothes, for all the pain his son’s designation will bring him.
Until now, Zed never got why parents pull their omega kids out of school. He already knows he is going to do it. So no alpha, no beta, nobody lays a hand on his son unless he asks for it. His scent is Zed’s to treasure, his dignity his to protect.
He buries his nose in his son’s hair, inhales his shampoo, keeps holding him, before standing up and gently carrying him to his nest. A messy little thing, he even took one of his plastic toys, a huge scythe from a halloween costume, into bed with him.
Zed knows, with adult omega’s, stepping into their nest uninvited is a huge violation. But his son fell asleep in his arms, and he thinks a part of him would die if he let him go now.
So he sits down on the edge, places Kayn into the mountain of pillows and plushies and shirts, some of which belong to Zed. Then, he pushes some of them out of the way before laying down by his son’s side.
“I’ve got you. Nobody will hurt you, you’re safe.”
He whispers, Kayn doesn’t hear him. Or maybe he does, because his small, sticky, babysoft hand reaches for him, Zed presses a kiss to his palm.
His baby boy, his foster child, an omega. Why not a beta, why always curse him with the worst of luck? All the laws and rules, from now on, his beautiful boy will never again be just that. A boy. A person, innocent and curious.
He took his plastic scythe into his nest, and cried for hours in Zed’s arms as his body did all kinds of things he never wanted to think about. But must, because if he doesn’t, someone else will, and they won’t give a damn if Kayn wants it or not.
Not yet, but in a few years, someone will have to get him pregnant, and it won’t be Zed, but must be someone nice.
Kayn cried that he doesn’t want to be a cow, the memory brings tears to Zed’s eyes, which he quickly blinks away. Just to feel them be replaced, until it’s him reaching for his sleeping kid’s body for support. Cradling him, while crying, and pressing kiss after kiss to his forehead, whispering; “I love you” like it can erase that the world doesn’t.