[OMEGAVERSE] Grow with me

1.1

“We can’t leave things like this! I mean… we have to separate them!”

The voice is barely more than a whisper, burning with worries and doubts that seem to weigh a ton. It also carries a form of ignoble fury, leaving a bitter taste on the tongue, heavily mixed with the distress of a mother who has failed to protect her child. She knows everything around her is real, yet she refuses to accept it! The absurd fate her only child has fallen into cannot be reality!

“You can’t do that, MJ, they’re bonded!”

“But just look at them! They’re children! Tiny children!”

“Well, they’re tiny children who are bonded, if you prefer. But… we can’t…”

The owner of the first voice remains aware that her anger is speaking for her, yet no matter that fact or her desire to do what’s right, rage boils deep within her gut. Insidiously, it rises up her throat to snap against her lips, which she tries to keep shut to avoid saying painful words she would regret. She feels powerless in the face of this injustice, a truth she cannot escape and against which she burns to fight. But when she glimpses one of the small shadows asleep on the couch turning in their sleep, the pressure suddenly drops. Life has just played a cruel trick on her, it’s true, but she must calm herself, even if breathing feels difficult. It is her duty to regain her footing and stop bending beneath the storm. It is because she is a mother that this feeling scorches her chest. And for that same reason, she must regain control. She fixes the man who answered her with a dark look, unable to do anything but fall silent and concede without a word.

After all, he is not just anyone. If she cares for the child because she is his mother, he is the other pillar—his father. He is just as swallowed by the unchangeable situation, worrying at his thumbnail in an unconscious gesture. When he feels his wife’s gaze on him, he sighs and offers a joyless smile, yet still opens his arms to invite her in. He can sense it easily through her pheromones—she needs the comfort of her Alpha.

She is a fiercely proud Omega who rarely asks for her bonded partner’s support, and things work perfectly that way for them. Every pair is unique—an undeniable truth—and MJ and Adrien are no exception. They marked each other after more than fifteen years together, the time it took for their pheromones to finally bind. They went through many moments of doubt, but that is all in the past now, especially since the birth of Andréa, their—just as proud as his mother—little boy. He is the culmination of their relationship, a perfect blend of the two of them, and they love him deeply, as all parents should, despite his many tantrums. Their family is happy, and yet it was indeed in the living room of their perfect house, bought six years ago, that the horror occurred…

“We don’t even know who’s Omega or Alpha…”

“Is that really important right now?”

And it isn’t. But trivial words seem far lighter than the silence of the two other adults standing in the open kitchen.

“But they’re just friends—it’s impossible that a bond could have formed so young!”

“MJ… I think we have to accept this. The sooner, the better, or the children will suffer.”

Adrien’s voice is a bitter whisper, yet filled with wisdom. The other woman looks at him, her throat tight with emotion. She blows her nose again, swallowing hard as she fights the intense cold that roots her to the spot. She also battles the terrible urge to clutch her baby in her arms and run far away from all this. To go somewhere this grotesque situation isn’t even possible—just a strange, absurd dream. But she can’t. She isn’t foolish, and no matter how she searches, she sees no solution. Her little Mael had just bonded with his best friend… and they were only five years old.

She vaguely recalls how quickly her own pheromones had bonded with her Alpha’s. It had taken barely eight months for their glands to claim each other. She had just gotten a secretary position at the company where Paul worked, and from the very first glance, they liked each other. He is a perfect Alpha for her—so romantic and full of life! And she ticks all his boxes too, the ultimate homebody who loves falling asleep with his destined partner in his arms. Some said they rushed things, but everything felt natural to them. They met, loved, moved in together, and marked each other—all in barely a year. Paul still rents the apartment they live in today, more than ten years later. It’s a small nest, certainly, but they’ve been happy there and built their family. Still, they had many plans—and Paul’s recent transfer was finally giving them the chance to become homeowners.

That wonderful news is what triggered this nightmare. It was precisely when they told the two boys they would be separated that everything fell apart.