Chapter 5 Chapter 5

Caleb's POV

I paced the room back and forth, my chest rising and falling at the same rapid pace. The whole memory came crashing back against me — it felt harsh and almost unbearable.

"Gosh…" I wanted to scream. I wanted to crawl out of my own skin.

I hated that I had spent the night with him. I felt used. I felt like the walls of the room were closing in on me, pressing the memory deeper into my chest where I couldn't reach it to pull it out.

And I couldn't even fully blame myself. I blamed my mother. Why would she go and get remarried? I was already there, already her family. What else could she possibly want?

Now she had gotten me tangled in this mess.

I finally collapsed onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. My thoughts were a wreck.

My hand drifted slowly toward my phone. I didn't hesitate before dialing. My chest grew heavy as it rang.

The sound stretched on forever, each tone hammering against my already fractured nerves. Part of me hoped he wouldn't answer — that I could hang up and pretend this impulse never happened. But another part of me, the part that had been spiraling since the memory came crashing back, needed to hear his voice. Needed confirmation that this nightmare was real.

"Hello?"

My breath caught. That voice — smooth, familiar in a way that made my stomach turn.

"It's me." The words came out rougher than I intended.

Silence stretched between us, thick and uncomfortable. I could hear him breathing on the other end, could almost picture the expression on his face. Surprise? Regret? Did he even care?

"Caleb." He said my name carefully, like he was testing the weight of it. "I wasn't expecting—"

"We need to talk." I cut him off, sitting up abruptly. The ceiling had offered no answers, and lying down made me feel too vulnerable. "About what happened."

"I know." A pause. "Where are you?"

"Does it matter?" I laughed bitterly, running a hand through my hair. "This whole situation is insane. My mom marries your dad, and we—" I couldn't finish the sentence. Saying it out loud would make it more real somehow.

"I didn't know," he said quietly. "When we met that night, I had no idea our parents were—"

"That doesn't change anything!" My voice rose despite my efforts to stay calm. "It doesn't change what we did. It doesn't change the fact that now we're… what? Stepbrothers? This is so messed up."

I heard him exhale — a sound heavy with frustration, or maybe exhaustion. "You think I don't know that? You think I'm not losing my mind over this too?"

His words surprised me. I'd been so caught up in my own horror that I hadn't stopped to consider he might be drowning in the same guilt, the same disbelief at what we'd stumbled into.

"Then what do we do?" My voice came out smaller now, almost childlike. "How do we face them? How do I look at my mom knowing I spent the night with her new husband's son before I even knew he existed?"

"We can't tell them."

The words hung in the air between us — a secret already taking shape, already binding us together in a different kind of way.

"Obviously," I snapped, though relief flooded through me that he'd said what I'd already been thinking. "But that doesn't solve anything. We still have to live in the same house, see each other at family dinners, pretend we're just… what? New stepbrothers getting to know each other?"

"I don't have the answers, Caleb." He sounded tired. "But I know this — we were two people who made a choice that night. We can't undo it. All we can do is make sure it never happens again and try to move forward."

Move forward. As if it were that simple. As if I could sit across from him at the dinner table and not remember every detail of that night. As if this secret wouldn't eat away at me every time my mother smiled at me, trusting and oblivious.

"I hate this," I whispered. "I hate all of this."

"I know."

Two words, but something in his tone made my throat tighten. We were strangers bound by the worst kind of mistake, and now we had to figure out how to survive it.

"When do they want us to meet?" I asked, the practical question the only thing keeping me grounded.

"Dinner. Tomorrow night. My dad's been talking about it all week — how excited he is for us all to become a family."

The irony was almost too much. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

"Okay." I swallowed hard. "Tomorrow night. We meet for the first time. We act like strangers."

"Strangers," he echoed. "Yeah. We can do that."

But as I ended the call and stared at my phone, I wondered if either of us truly believed that.

My mind still raced. He had sounded calm — almost too comfortable with everything — while I felt like someone who had already been used and discarded. Like the decision had already been made for me and I was just catching up to it.

Then a sliver of fear crawled up into my chest.

What if this resulted in a pregnancy?

In the omegaverse, it wasn't a distant possibility. Male omegas could carry pups, and last night I had been deep in heat without even realizing it, my body responding to an Alpha's presence the way it was always wired to. The alcohol had stripped away every guard I had.

I let out a slow breath, trying to push the thought down, but it settled in and refused to leave. The fear sat heavy and cold alongside the shame.

One night with my stepbrother. It was something I had never imagined — not in this life, not in any life I could conceive of.

"Caleb, we're going for dinner at my husband's place tonight and you must be there with me." My mother barged into my room without warning, swinging the door open wide and pulling me clean out of my thoughts.

My stomach dropped at her words.

I had known this was coming. But hearing her say it, standing there with that bright, expectant look on her face, made it suddenly, terrifyingly real. I hadn't prepared myself enough for this. My fear was still very much alive inside me.

I sat up slowly and gave her a small nod, agreeing to go — even t

hough every part of me was terrified of what walking through that door tonight would mean.