His toes were curling against the rug in the hallway while he listened outside the heavy door that led into his brother's room. It wasn't that he'd meant to eavesdrop, it was just that his brother's booming low voice was often difficult to ignore when one was passing on their way back to their own room after having slipped down to the kitchens to abscond with a late-night left-over scone. And when one's feet were small and one's steps were light, it was too easy to simply skim over the carpet and wolf down said commandeered scone while perking an ear toward the edge of the doorframe. He hadn't meant to overhear anything that concerned himself and, as Bartholomew Hainsley slowly discovered, he hadn't ever wanted to hear this particular conversation.
His brother's voice wasn't overly loud but as an Alpha, it was difficult not to distinguish. "Society knows he exists. He's been present at balls. I kept him from having a presentation ball because he asked to be spared from the embarrassment but if he keeps himself cloistered from the ton, they're going to start speculating and that's the last thing I need in the society papers. When my spinster brother is going to come out of hiding."
Spinster? He was hardly a spinster, he thought, offended. He was but twenty-three.
His brother's mate, a lovely Beta by the name of Ophelia, responded with a light and placating tone. "Julian, he's not like you. He's sensitive, as many of them are. You shouldn't force him toward marriage if it doesn't suit him. The estate is big enough for him and he is protected here. Can you promise that of his eventual mate?"
Julian cursed under his breath and Hollow almost didn't hear it, it was so quiet. "I want him to be happy, my love. Like I am." The obvious affection in his voice was like a blade in Hollow's stomach. As an Earl, he'd been quite the talk of the ton by marrying a girl who was a Beta—one that society didn't think he would ever find to be satisfying for his instinctual needs. The smaller pretty Omega ladies that collected at parties with feathers in their hair were awful towards Ophelia from the get-go, finding her attentions toward an Alpha like Julian unseemly and incorrigible. Nevertheless, they were desperately in love. A love that made Hollow only a little bit jealous.
Ophelia's soft voice was quiet and dear, “I know. But he has different needs. I will inquire among my friends and see if any of them have a suggestion or two, but as your brother hasn't made any distinction about what he prefers...” she trailed off.
Julian growled, obviously put-out over the prospect of having to find Hollow a mate. Match-making wasn't something he was keen about and the situation was putting him into a tizzy. “He has to find someone, Opie. You saw him when it happened. I'd heard about it before. I'd read at Eton what happens but I didn't think it would happen to him. I didn't realize it would be so jarring. So unbearable to witness. He presented so late...I was sure he was a Beta.”
Hollow felt the scone sitting in his belly like a rock. He didn't want to hear about this. He didn't even want to entertain the idea that his body's natural cycle could hurt his brother's sensibilities so badly that he would try to marry him off just to avoid witnessing it. Yes, he admitted to himself, it had been excruciating. He'd been tied down and tended to by the sweetest of the Omega maids who had come by to lay cold presses against his feverish flesh, knowing exactly what was to be done for an Omega who'd not yet been mated. Embarrassingly enough, he'd begged for relief, screaming toward the bed's hanging brocade for anyone who could help him. Fortunately enough, after it was over, he found himself closer to the maids who were more likely to allow him into their chittering circles.
Ophelia responded patiently, “It's not uncommon for men to present later. He will be very popular if he wishes to be, but Julian, please do not force him. He is so lovely and it would be a shame for him to be ruined because of this.”
Ruined!? He knew that to any unrelated Alpha, his scent could induce something the maids called a “rut.” It hadn't been anything he'd heard of before, and being formerly thought of as a Beta, nobody had bothered to tell him. Even Julian had never showed any signs of aggression, but the maids insisted that it was his lack of an Omega mate that was to blame for it. To think that such a gentleman like his brother could be bent into a mindless beast was unfathomable and to think that he, himself, could do such to an unassuming Alpha gentleman or lady was even more so. To be ruined by such a thing was something else to fear entirely. That his virginity was at risk from merely coming into a heat at an unexpected moment—it was all too much.
He fled, walking briskly back to his room and feeling the weight of the scone he'd eaten inside him, squirming in his stomach. He put the candle down beside the bed and stood near the window, peering outside at the moon before he chanced a glance over his shoulder to the bed. The restraints were gone, removed by the staff after the symptoms of his need had abated. It was his bed. He didn't want to sleep anywhere else. He didn't want to have to get married. He looked back at the moon, full and bright and shining over the little piece of England he called his home.
The Westbrooke Estate was a decent size and the surrounding lands were under Julian's control, held by Earl after Earl of Westbrooke. The farms were tended by the tenants and in turn they were cared for by his brother's easy-going direction. It was idyllic in every way and he didn't want to leave. He loved Julian and Ophelia and he'd never even thought about having to move away from the vast green rolling lawn, the lazy summer days spent with his feet up on the side of the little rowboat he used to fish in the pond, and the sight of the beautiful huge moon he'd always loved from the window right here. Right now.
With grasping fingers, he pulled his night robe tighter around his shoulders and tilted is head to press it against the glass, cooled by the outside air. He wasn't looking forward to the types of awkward conversations he was going to be subjected to if the two of them were actually serious about the permanent solution to the inevitability of their burden Omega's heats. He felt a tear escape his eye and he furiously swiped it away, remembering just how much he hated to cry. But the weight of his status as an Omega wasn't an individual hardship—it was something his own brother couldn't stand to carry, even as it rested on Hollow's shoulders.
Others didn't seem so bothered, but most of the men he'd met who were Omegas were easily married off as the mates of noblemen who'd come back from their tours as soldiers in skirmishes with the French. Almost all the female Omegas he'd stumbled into at balls were silly little chits who'd flirted with him carelessly despite their match-makers steering them away from the Betas and toward more suitable matches for their dynamic. As far as society knew—he was still a Beta. One that had been hiding from balls for a perfectly good reason—because he was often usually sequestered in the personal libraries of the host or hostess anyway and he was painfully shy. Betas were hardly ever those who were considered scandalous and thus were mostly out of the ton's gaze as far as gossip went. It was easier for him to slide out of a dance and into a good book without being noticed as a Beta and he was too short for most of the Beta women to be bothered with until their options had run slim among the other men.
But now? Ophelia had said he could be very...popular. Of course he would be. Because Omega women in the upper echelon were fairly common due to specific breeding principles and despite usually being sought after, plenty of Alphas were hunting for something else that got their blood pumping. Omega men were sought as a curiosity more than anything else and settled with soldiers because they were the easiest landed gentry to wed without much fanfare or courting rituals. Perhaps there was one that Julian knew of who had remained unwed?
No. He shook his head. He didn't want a soldier. He wanted to stay at Westbrooke. Hollow shuffled listlessly back to his bed and climbed under the counterpane and the sheets, snuggling into the coolness of them before he pulled his night robe from his body and tossed it on the floor by the side of the bed. Before his first heat, he'd always worn it under the bedclothes. Now, he couldn't stand the way it hampered his movement and he relished the feel of the linen on his naked body. The pillow pressed against his chest and belly comforted him while he covered it in his own distinct scent with his wrists and throat, cursing the way the freshly laundered linens didn't have any scent at all when they returned to his room every week.
When he awoke, he took breakfast in his room, unable to bring himself to face his brother should he be present in the dining room. After he'd polished off the poached eggs and fresh toasted bread that was brought up, he slipped out of his room and snuck down the servant stairwells until he could slip through the kitchens, dodging the curious staff and especially the butler, Yeatly, who could be quite nosy, and Hollow didn't mind saying so. With quick steps, he flitted through the dewy grass in his riding boots and outfit, readying his horse himself to take on a brisk morning canter around the grounds. The air would do him some good, bringing him back to the pace he'd been in before the unfortunate incident of his...presentation.
He guided Rhineholt, his rose gray gelding, with his thighs and calves mostly and eased him into a steady and tight trot, asking him to canter only when he noticed Ophelia's brilliantly royal blue muslin dress flash in the garden. The rolling green of the estate was muted by the commonly overcast sky but the smells of the warm spring were fresh in his nose along with the pleasant aroma of horse and the leather of his saddle. A couple small blue tits were chattering in the bushes and trees he passed as he rode onward, riding along the edge of the estate when he reached it, slowing Rhineholt to a walk and soaking in the English breeze.
Eventually, he decided not to go home, reaching the road as he made a wide berth around the manor, trotting off down the dirt and pebble lane toward the estate of his favorite distant cousin, only a few miles away from Westbrooke. A strapping and capable Beta, Edwin was larger than was typical for his dynamic and he was, as yet, single. While Alphas were preferred to transfer titles, Edwin had proven himself more than capable and he had the stated intention not to give up the title of Baron to any of his closer Alpha cousins. Considered attractive and eligible, he had no problem in finding Beta suitors and was highly sought-after for the taller Beta girls who found his height and manner just as attractive as any Alpha. Hollow liked him most because he was prudent and logical. He was also a very, very good keeper of secrets—of which Hollow thought he might have too many to hold by himself. Edwin was a good ear.
Giving his horse to the stable hand, he made his way to the front door and found it opened before he could even tap all the way up the stone steps to the manor, the kind face of Edwin's butler, Orwell, greeting him with a broad smile.
“It is wonderful to see you again, Bartholomew.”
“You as well, old friend,” he replied in earnest, pulling his riding gloves off by the fingers. Orwell offered to take them along with his riding jacket and he allowed it while the butler informed him of his cousin's whereabouts in the study.
As the friendly old man helped him slide his jacket off, he politely murmured, “Perhaps, Bartholomew, it may be prudent for me to stand aside the door?”
He chuckled. “Fear not for my virtue, Orwell. I'm perfectly safe from my cousin.”
“Of course.”
As he made his way toward Edwin's study, he was unsure of how much he would come to hate the way that his new status would make everyone around him so damned different. Although he was ever more popular with the young maids, he was naturally regarded with guardedness and protectiveness from every other servant, to say nothing of how he imagined the other gentry would think of him.
At his appearance in the doorway, Edwin put his feet down off the top of the exquisite hard wood desk in the study, setting down his book and standing immediately. “Hollow, by god,” his smile was ear-to-ear and his voice was light. His massive frame approached and he picked up his favorite tiny cousin and swung him around before immediately putting him down and taking a startled step back. “Oh.”
Hollow laughed and straightened his waistcoat, pulling on his shirt sleeves with blood starting to fill his cheeks. “Oh, yes. I um...I didn't know how to tell you.”
“That's why I haven't seen you.” Edwin's eyes softened. “You know you could have told me, Hollow. I would never have judged you.”
“Consider this my telling you. Outside of Westbrooke, you're the only one who does know.”
Edwin nodded, leading him to one of the overstuffed arm chairs that were set near the fireplace. “I would have thought that Julian would have wanted to present you; was that not something that was in your interest?”
“I told him not to. I couldn't bear the idea of being paraded in front of a bunch of Alphas who tried to get me to dance just to...” He leaned forward, whispering as if it were some kind of dirty word. “Scent me.”
Edwin burst out in a set of hearty chuckles. “So do you plan on staying in Westbrooke for the season? This would be your first as...well...as you. It would be advantageous for you to present yourself this year, as old as you already are.”
“Edwin, are you listening to me? I can't show my face at any society get-together ever again. They'll be all over me like a pack of ravenous dogs. I've got no expertise in fighting off amorous advances, what am I to do?”
His cousin sighed, his green eyes flashing with the flicker of the fire in the hearth. “So you plan to be alone your whole life? To stay at Westbrooke? Do you not think Julian will force you to marry?”
“Please help me convince him not to let them have me, Edwin,” he pleaded. His cousin had to help him, there was no other option for him. Julian, proud that he was, would never let his little Omega brother call any shots and he would have to have someone equally as stubborn on his side.
“I can't force your brother's hand, Hollow. But if he insists on marriage, I can provide an alternative that would be advantageous for both of us.”
He peered into his cousin's eyes with an inquisitive stare, the slight tilt of his head an invitation for Edwin to explain.
“I will marry you.”