Chapter 436: The manifestation of a little omega
The renos on the new building that they bought started in March. Dr. Cox was the most excited about it, considering she had her daughter, but the ripple that went through the company as soon as the renovations started could be felt from the bottom up.
Productivity went up, everyone was so excited to have a cafeteria and a daycare that they could trust coming to the company. Maxwell made it clear that it would only benefit the company but it had been a hard sell to some of the board of directors. When they saw that the company was already doing better, and they were only in the renovation stages, any people who had been dragging their feet faded quickly.
Andrew’s school was going well, and so was his therapy. It took him about a month to find a therapist that he actually felt like he could speak to, and a few therapists who were...only in it for the money and fame, but that was okay. Andrew didn’t hold it against them.
Maxwell did, so he didn’t need to.
Jenny and Kim were with them every step of the way, and it was midweek day in May when Leonardo, their son, had to be sent home from school because he finally manifested as an omega.
Leo had been scared, but when Jenny and Andrew pulled up to the school, his worries had faded slightly. Kim had been busy, unable to extract herself from the meeting she was in, and Jenny hadn’t wanted to go alone. Andrew had gotten into the company car, picked up Jenny, and off they went.
That was one of the things with not having to work at the company in a research capacity anymore. He had more freedom. Now that he didn’t have to hide, he could free up the space for someone who actually had the training.
Even if he still kept a desk in the alpha department since he was still a ’willing test subject’. It really just meant he had a place to do his schoolwork away from Maxwell, and near a bunch of people who had gone through similar, if not the same, schooling.
It meant that, when people needed him, Andrew could be there. So, off he went with Jenny to pick up her sweet baby boy, and Andrew got to experience his first rich kid school.
The school itself was normal, and their daughter went there as well. She had been notified that her brother had manifested, so Alyssa met them at the front doors. Her eyes were amber, and she was wrestling with herself.
Andrew gave her shoulder a squeeze and let her know that he had it. He was going to make sure that Little Leo was going to be safe, but she was more than welcome to stay nearby. She had to cover her nose though.
Alyssa appreciated not being pushed aside, while Jenny focused on speaking to the other adults in the room.
Leonardo was in the nurses office, in a part that was sectioned off for when sudden manifestations happened. They had two rooms. One for alphas, and one for omegas. Unfortunately for Leonardo, an alpha friend had been nearby when he had manifested.
Both kids were okay, with the female alpha more concerned for Leonardo, but the poor kid thought he had hurt her in some capacity. He was in heat, blubbering about how he was worried about her, how he needed to get to her to make sure she was okay. His concern melted into the fact that she was an alpha who could ’help’ him.
It was hard to see, and made Jenny tear up as she heard it. Alyssa had been there longer, had heard it the longest, and it was clear that she was upset about it too. Andrew made sure to check in on the female alpha, a girl in the same grade as Leonardo.
His best friend from childhood. She had manifested young, had a bit more control. Did that mean that she was okay? Absolutely not. Her parents had been called as well, and her nanny was on their way.
She was sitting down in the seclusion room, holding onto her arms, her gaze down. She had a bandage around her arm, a classic sign that the girl had refused to hurt her friend when things got hard. Andrew felt pity for the girl, and chose to speak to her while Jenny took care of Leonardo.
The girl clearly was fighting her own demons. She looked shaken that she had attacked her friend. She put on a good show for everyone else, making it seem like she was okay, but Andrew could tell. There was no way anyone who had grown up as Leonardo’s friend, someone who had been welcomed into Jenny and Kim’s house, would be okay with what they had done.
So, Andrew just leant her an ear as Jenny helped the others administer the drugs that Leonardo was okay to take. From Maxwell’s company, of course, and monitored his condition. They couldn’t take him out of the building when he was emitting such potent smells. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if they triggered all of the omega kid’s heats.
That gave Andrew plenty of time to be a kind older alpha to the girl whose parents weren’t even coming to pick her up.
She was hesitant to speak at first, cautious with someone like Andrew, but eventually she opened up after Andrew told her that they had met at Alyssa’s birthday party a month prior. That made her soften slightly, and she tensed up again when Andrew admitted that he was Kim’s nephew, so that made him Leonardo’s cousin. Of sorts.
He knew that she probably knew his story, knew something about who he was, but that she was probably also in shock. She wasn’t thinking straight, and so Andrew gave her a brief little explanation about how he manifested. PG, of course. She relaxed, nodded, and finally admitted the truth.
She felt terrible. Like a horrible person. She had prepared for it. They all had. Leonardo had known he was going to manifest as an omega. All of the tests had said so. She had manifested at the earliest age one could as an alpha, so she was aware that if she continued being friends with him, this moment would come.
She had prepared for it.
Her eyes watered as she spoke about the next part. About how his scent had changed in between one second and the next. One moment, he was her best friend, and the next, he had been an omega. It had scared her. Scarred her. She had never viewed anyone that way.
Never taken away their humanity like that before, but she had done so with Leonardo.
She was horrified at herself. Considered herself the scum of the earth. She dug her nails into the bandage when she told this part, purposefully hurting herself more, and it broke Andrew’s heart. Not all alphas were bad.
This girl was living proof.
She had hurt herself instead of hurting her friend, and honestly, this was sounding like more than just a friendship kind of situation given how strongly she was reacting. Andrew wasn’t an idiot. He’d seen a few situations like this before. Where two people had been drawn to each other prior to manifestation and then when they did manifest, they found out that they were made for each other.
It didn’t always work out.
There were situations like the one before him sometimes. Where one hurt the other and either they couldn’t forgive themselves, or the omega couldn’t forgive the alpha for hurting them in such an intimate way. Andrew had to make sure that she didn’t scare herself, or label herself a monster.
So, Andrew told her that what she had done, and the strength that it took, was incredible. The fact that she was able to hold herself back, despite the urges, despite the emotions and pheromones, was remarkable. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how much one prepares themselves, when faced with a real life situation, the body will react.
He made sure that she knew that she wasn’t a monster. That she hadn’t stripped Leonardo of his humanity, she had simply been suddenly faced with a completely different side of him, a new side, and her brain had short circuited with that new information.
He asked her if she still thought of him as just an omega, and she had started crying and shook her head. There was no way she could. He was her best friend, and that was what he was first and foremost.
Andrew had felt his heart ache for this little baby alpha. She had such a big heart, and he told her as much. He also told her that he was glad that it was her that had been at Leonardo’s side when he manifested. He trusted her with him, and that she had done everything right, given the situation. No one blamed her, and that Leonardo didn’t either. He was asking after her, making sure she was okay.
Something in her shattered at that and she sobbed, folding in on herself. Andrew couldn’t watch the girl cry on her own and forced the door open. He hugged her, offering her comfort in the only way that he knew how.
Thankfully, it was shortly after that that her Nanny arrived, and Jenny, now that Leonardo was better, came over to speak to her. Jenny thanked her, over and over, holding onto her hands with trembling ones, her eyes wet, as she thanked the girl for being Leonardo’s support. For taking care of him.
Andrew was glad that she did that, because it had a great impact on the young alpha. To hear it from another omega did something to her, and she left crying, but there was relief in her shoulders.
When she was gone, and Leonardo was almost ready to take home, Andrew updated her on his thoughts.
Jenny sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes as she listened to her son beg for the very girl that they had just sent away.
"I had my suspicions." She told him quietly. "She’ll be taken care of. Don’t worry, Andy. We’ll make sure that they both get through this in one piece. I will not have any family get in between two kids who are meant to be for each other." There was a determination in her voice, a hardness that made Andrew believe her without hesitation.
It didn’t take a genius to realise that Jenny saw herself and Kim in the kids. She would fight tooth and nail for them. Andrew had no doubts, and even when he looked in Leonardo’s older sister’s eyes, he knew that she had an inkling of the same.
No one was going to let the two ’best friends’ get hurt. No one.