Daniel
  
  
  
   As soon as my wife arrives, complaining to her sisters about something I don't understand, I walk over to her and grab her hand. 
  
   "Can we go talk, in your room?" I ask and she falls silent, looking at me with confusion and starting to smell of concern.
  
   I don't have a speech planned, I just follow Clara up the stairs until we reach her room, forcing myself not to breathe so I don't smell Oliver because I already know he ran to hide in his room like the sneaky squirrel he is. 
  
   "Okay... what's wrong?" Clara asks as soon as she closes the door and gives me a look full of concern, "I already know there's something weird going on in the family since yesterday. I'm not stupid. I can tell they are hiding something and I know it's not about my dad."
  
   "No, it's not about that," I start and let out a pained breath, bringing my hands to my face to carve it before continuing, "What I'm going to tell you is delicate and you might get angry, so first I have to start with a disclaimer… that no matter what, I consider you one of the most important people in my life. You’re the woman I admire the most and I don't want to lose you for anything in the world. Ever."
  
   "What?" she blurts out, starting to panic, "W-why would you lose me?"
  
   "Because I did something really bad, but not lately. It was four years ago," I start and Clara relaxes a little, but not completely. Her whole body is rigid as she waits for my words, "As you know, my father is the reason I approached you in the first place."
  
   "That jerk," she rolls her eyes in anger, "Of course. We've settled that issue."
  
   "Yeah... but, uhm...," I take another deep breath. My chest compresses with fear and my whole body begins to sweat. Clara is the main person I consider my family now besides the other Taffy weirdos. If she kicks me to the curb, I'll be all alone in this world and I don't think I can deal with that, "While I was trying to woo you, Oliver presented as an omega and that day he stopped being just my best friend."
  
   Clara doesn't even gasp like I expected. Her shock is even greater. She just squeezes her mouth shut as her eyes grow as big as possible and when I think they're going to pop out, she squeezes them tight like she's trying to disappear. 
  
   "Did you have sëx with my little brother?" she asks, smelling disgusted, still with her eyes squeezed shut, "Oh my god. Of course you did. That's why he hates me."
  
   "What?" 
  
   "Oliver. Hates. Me." she lets out and when she opens her eyes again, they're filled with tears. My sweat and the compression in my chest become even worse when I see the accusation in her eyes, "He's been here for two days and hasn't spoken to me once. Every time I get close to him he radiates hate and when I tried to hug Laurie this morning, he snatched him away from me. He hates me. And I didn't understand it until..."
  
   "Can I tell you how things went?" I interrupt her with a grimace, before she starts getting ideas of her own. Clara is still extremely stiff, but she forces herself to nod, "Okay… well, it wasn’t really a conscious decision. On the day of his presentation, our wolves decided they wanted to be together. We are compatible."
  
  Clara squeezes her eyes shut again but seems to lose all the strength in her body because she takes a couple of steps back and drops onto the bed. Now there are tears running down her cheeks and I can't stop my own tears from coming out too because I hate to make her feel like this. I hate that I created this mess that’s hurting Oliver and her. And myself.
  
  I sit next to her on the bed and hold her delicate hand in mine. 
  
  "For months we had a sëxual relationship...or at least I thought it was strictly sëxual because my father's plan stated that I had to marry you. My stüpid head thought nothing would happen if I indulged my wolf for a while, before marrying you." 
  
  "That's not how it works, Daniel. A natural connection is... much deeper than that." she lets out, her voice obfuscated by tears, but she doesn’t take her hand away from mine. 
  
  "I know that now, but I had tunnel vision back then," I mumble and shake my head, disappointed in myself. "I didn't even think about my own feelings at all, I just had this sense of duty with my family. I didn't feel anything for you and I swore I didn't feel anything for Oliver, either, just animalistic attraction that would go away eventually and then we'd go back to being best friends. My dad needed the connection with Frank to improve his shïtty fücking business, it was incessant talk in my house every damn day. I had to marry you and there were no 'buts' about it." 
  
  Clara nods because she already knows all this. I told her the truth as soon as she agreed to marry me because the guilt was eating me up inside. 
  
  "Do you have feelings for Oliver, still?" she asks in a low, sad voice.
  
  What a complicated situation. 
  
  My wolf pines for Oliver. He adores him, and as a consequence, I do too. I miss his wolf. But not only that, I also miss my friend. I miss talking to him, playing with him, running with him... and especially, everything we did as alpha and omega in the privacy of his room. 
  
  But I owe Clara so much, I can't leave her. I can't. 
  
  "No," I lie, but I know it's useless, "I don't, but my wolf does. You know that's not something that can be turned off. However, I am different now and I can control my wolf. I can make decisions he doesn't like. I am in control, not him."
  
  Clara nods, but before we move on and still salvage this relationship, I need to tell her the worst part.
  
  "That's not all of it, Clara. It's not even the worst," I blurt out, though I feel bad calling my son something worse...yet it is. I know it's what's going to hurt her the most, "Laurie is mine. My son. When Oliver ran away from here, he was pregnant."
  
  Clara drops her mouth open and gives a little gasp, but other than that she doesn't react. She doesn't even move for a couple of seconds, but I can feel how much this is hurting her. 
  
  "I'm so sorry, Clara." I whisper and bend down to kiss her hand, caressing it and trying to soothe her pain, "I didn't know. I just found out. Oliver didn’t tell me, obviously." 
  
  My wife raises her hands to cover her face and lets out a sob. I understand the way she’s feeling, so I just let her cry.
  
  “This is not your fault, Daniel."
  
  It is. It's all my fault, but the fact that she thinks it's not is what makes me love her so much. 
  
  "You can’t possibly understand how sorry I am. I hate that I'm hurting you with this. The last thing I want is to hurt you." 
  
  "The only thing that's hurting me is the fact that I'm the only one that's wrong here," She says a few seconds later when she gets her crying under control. She sits on the bed and meets my eyes, "I'm the one in the middle of a compatible couple. I'm the one hurting my baby brother and I'm the useless omega who can't give you children. Your dad was right, I’m a good for no..."
  
  Each one of her words hurts my heart in a stronger way than the other and I can't stop myself from grabbing her delicate shoulders and smashing her against my chest to silence her. 
  
  "Don't you ever say those things again, please," I beg, my arms unable to let go of her, "You don't know how important you are to me, Clara. You've been the only good thing in my life these past few years. I'm so sorry my piece of shït father made you feel bad about what happened. I should have killed him."
  
  "Of course not," she scolds me, thumping my chest. Only then I loosen my arms, but fortunately she doesn't pull away, "What's going to happen now?" 
  
  "Honestly, I have no idea." I admit, chagrined, "I only found out about this two hours ago. Oliver doesn't even want me to talk to him. I don't know if... I don't know if he'll even let me be in Laurie’s life."
  
  "My brother is stubborn," she says and I can only nod. I know, "I have no idea what might happen either, but... do you think we can figure it out together?"
  
  "Of course," I reply and grab her face in my hands to give her a kiss on the forehead. A fücking horrible thought creeps into my head...that I made a mistake. All this time I should have become best friends with Clara and married Oliver, but in a second I push it away because I can't think things like that, "Thank you for everything, Clara. I love you."
  
  
  
  
  ➿➿➿➿
  
  
  
  
  Laurie is sitting next to Hannah and Carolina is stroking Laurie's hair as he plays with her cousin's tiny little hand. 
  
  Clara's obvious tears get the attention of everyone in the house, but I have to walk away as they gather around and start firing off questions I don't want to answer. Lucinda is the only one who follows me.
  
  "Do you hate me?" I ask as she approaches. Lucinda watches me with narrowed eyes and raises an eyebrow.
  
  "Yes. But I also don't," She finally answers and I relax a little, "I still want to punch you though. As soon as I get back to work, we'll have a legal fight."
  
  "You're so honorable," I scoff, shaking my head, "Okay. I'll let you win because I deserve a beating."
  
  "No, I'll beat you because I'm stronger."
  
  "It's not a fight, Lucinda," I roll my eyes, "I have nothing to beat you for, besides your shïtty personality."
  
  I think my sister-in-law changes her mind about making everything legal because without any warning, she drops her fist on my stomach, stealing all the air out of me and knocking me to the floor.