Eric frowned, a little puzzled. “I thought omegas could have a relationship. I’ve read that two percent of omegas identify as omegasexual.”
Hugh nodded. “Unlike alphas, omegas really can sustain a healthy, non-toxic relationship. Freddie and Nadine were determined to make it work. My parents weren’t very happy, but accepted it. But then…” He sighed. “You’ve probably read about it.”
Eric gave him a sheepish look. “Sorry. I was just curious about why you were so against following biological instincts. So I looked you up. I’m sorry. I know it’s invasive.”
“It’s fine,” Hugh said, with a wry, humorless smile. “When you’re a Randall, you don’t have a private life. I’m used to everyone speculating about my marriage.”
Eric’s heart clenched. “I know what the rumors say,” he said quietly, stepping forward and taking the alpha’s hand into his own. “But I know better than anyone how misleading gossip can be. I’d like to learn what happened from you, if you’re comfortable talking about it.”
“The gossip sites did get the gist of it,” Hugh said, glancing at their joined hands with a strange expression. “Nadine went into her first heat during our school trip, and we ended up isolated because of a winter storm. Her heat triggered my first rut—biologically we were compatible enough for her heat to trigger what we doctors call acyclic rut.” His lips twisted. “The thing is, siblings’ pheromones are somewhat similar. Nadine’s attraction to my brother made her more susceptible to my pheromones. She was in heat, I was a compatible alpha in rut, and the rest was all instinct. Teenagers have no hope of resisting their instincts during their first heats and ruts.”
Eric crossed his arms over his chest, feeling uneasy. Although he knew that had hardly been a love match, he didn’t like hearing that Hugh had had a compatible mate. Eric knew it was probably just the imprint, but there was a part of him that wanted to growl Mine and sink his teeth into Hugh’s scent gland.
Stupid hormones.
“Your brother must have been angry.”
Hugh’s expression was wiped clean. “Worse than angry. Freddie was heartbroken. Nadine was the angry one. She blamed everything on me, saying that I should have somehow resisted my instincts.” A muscle twitched in Hugh’s jaw. “She told Freddie that I raped her.”
“But you didn’t!” Eric said, stepping forward and peering into Hugh’s eyes.
“It’s not that simple,” Hugh said, the corners of his eyes tight. “She’s a Dainiri omega. Dainiri omegas in heat are unable to give their consent—they’re too far gone for that. So no matter how much she begged me to fuck her, it wasn’t real consent.”
“But you didn’t consent, either,” Eric said, laying his hand on Hugh’s stubbled cheek.
Hugh gave a clipped nod. “I didn’t. I tried my damnedest to resist the pull. I resisted for nine hours while she rubbed herself all over me, but I was just a boy, it was my first rut, and our pheromones were compatible. It was a lost battle.” He smiled without any mirth. “But alphas can’t be raped by omegas, so no one believed that I could be as much of a victim as Nadine was.”
“But surely your brother understood that you weren’t at fault?”
Hugh sighed, pulling him closer and nuzzling into his temple. “He might have understood it rationally,” he said into Eric’s hair. “But emotions and feelings are another matter entirely, sweetheart.”
Eric hugged him tightly. There was a sweet smell in the air, and it took Eric a moment to realize it was coming from him. It appeared he was instinctively exuding comforting pheromones, and it seemed to be working: Hugh’s tall body relaxed a little and he was smelling Eric’s hair, inhaling deeply.
Pleasant warmth curled in Eric’s stomach. He liked pleasing and comforting this alpha. Liked it so much.
“What happened after that?” Eric murmured, keeping his voice low, not wanting to break the spell.
“We were fully bonded by the time her heat was over. My mating bite on her neck took, and there was nothing we could do about it. We had to officially register as a married couple.” Hugh’s lips curled into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “The marriage officiant looked deeply uncomfortable when the supposedly happy newlywed was clinging to her new mate’s brother and begging him to believe that she loved only him.”
Eric frowned, thinking about the omega Nadine was with in the recent pictures he’d seen. He was pretty sure the other omega’s name wasn’t Frederick Randall. He would have remembered it.
“You were married until you turned twenty-four,” Eric said. “So you found a way to break the bond?” Divorces of fully mated couples were nearly unheard of. Married couples that weren’t biologically mated could divorce painlessly. But mating was for life. Mating bonds normally broke only with the death of one’s mate. There were odd examples of bonds fading after a long time, but those exceptions were extremely rare.