Everette Vale arrived at the family mansion quite early in the morning. Despite his achievement of building Xner from the ground up, he still had a powerful family background.
He was the youngest son of the prominent Richard Vale and his male omega second wife. As a child of the second marriage, he was much younger than his other siblings. Because of this, and his omega gender, he was coddled and doted on by most of his family.
His parents and siblings didn't want him to experience the pressure involved with managing a large corporation, so they tried to prevent him from managing any established Vale businesses. After he went behind their backs to build Xner, they quickly gave up on trying to control his path in life.
Despite their hiccups, Everette had a good relationship with his family. Upon entering the mansion he greeted his fathers in the living room, especially dodging away from his omega father's hugs and kisses.
His alpha father, Richard Vale, simple chuckled at his wife's antics. He was getting on in years, already in his seventies, and required constant trips to the hospital.
Everette next went to greet his two older sisters and his older brother. All three of his siblings were alphas, and his brother and one of his sisters already had teenage children with their omega partners.
He greeted his siblings and his nieces and nephews, before going to sit with his sister that didn't have any children.
"How has the company been?" his sister, Edaline, asked.
"Quite well. Just last night we sponsored the National Science and Innovation Convention and have already signed contracts for the development of some of the promising new communications technology."
"Hmm very good. What about your private life?"
Everette wanted to roll his eyes. Despite Edaline being unmarried in her late forties, she was the one most determined to matchmake him.
"Uneventful," he replied.
"Shame. You're already thirty now. It's not good to wait too long to settle down, especially for an omega."
Everette disdained to respond. Thankfully Edaline changed the topic. "I heard the third branch of the Blackhorn family is coming today."
"Hmm." That was rare. The third alpha of the Blackhorn family rarely got any attention, always in the shadow of the charismatic first alpha. The Blackhorn family cared deeply about alpha purity, and the first alpha had three alpha children, while the third alpha only had one.
After that son had run away from home six years ago, the third branch of the family had felt too embarrassed to continue attending these gatherings.
Everette thought back to his memories of that alpha son. He was about six years younger than him and seemed quite shy. During most gatherings he would sit in the background, reading and trying to avoid talking to others. Now that he though about it, his face seemed to remind him of something.
The Blackhorn family slowly began to arrive, with the first branch proudly supporting the head of the Blackhorns, Thomas Blackhorn, to sit beside Richard Vale.
Thomas Blackhorn had his grandchildren greet Richard Vale as 'grandfather', then had them greet Everette and his siblings as either 'uncle' or 'aunt'. The two grandfathers enjoyed seeing the two families quite close.
A pleasant atmosphere began, although Everette remained with his siblings, preferring not to interact too closely with the Blackhorns. The bias of the Blackhorns towards alphas is very apparent, and as an omega it made him quite uncomfortable.
Everette's family didn't like for him to be looked down upon but also cared for maintaining relations with the Blackhorn family. The Blackhorns were never openly rude, so a fragile peace prevailed.
The door opened, and in walked the third branch of the Blackhorn family. Angus Blackhorn, Cecilia Blackhorn and their alpha son. A young man with long brown hair and oversized glasses.
Everette had no idea why he didn't put the dots together sooner. He should have realised as soon as he heard the Blackhorn name. And if he paid attention to scandalous gossip he would remember that the son of the third branch ran away from home to pursue his dream of becoming a scientist.
Mattias Blackhorn.
The family of three moved to the front. Angus and Cecilia greeted the two elderly gentlemen, before they turned and gave a look to Mattias. Mattias, who previously looked as though he was not paying attention, quickly smiled and obediently greeted them both as 'grandfather'.
Angus then led Mattias around the room, greeting each of the Vale siblings and having Mattias call them 'uncle' or 'aunt'.
When they finally arrived at Everette, Everette did his best to ignore the look of disdain from Angus Blackhorn, instead focusing on the wide, startled eyes of Mattias. Angus elbowed Mattias, who was startled, then remembered to greet, "hello Uncle Everette."
After finishing Mattias looked positively embarrassed, causing Everette to almost chuckle. He looked kind of cute flustered like this.