“Great. I feel released from my self-reproach, or at least like I have an accomplice.”
“I’ll always be your accomplice.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Calder’s knot went down and he kissed Zinn’s cheek. “I need to get up in a few minutes and throw something on the stove for dinner. Ked should be home soon. You’re welcome to eat with us, or even stay the night.”
“I wish I could stay,” Zinn said. “But I think I’d better go back to my apartment. I don’t want to confuse your boys.”
“You realize they are going to find out soon enough? We shouldn’t wait too long to tell them about their new brother.” Calder smiled as he buttoned his pants and pulled the zipper up. “And also about you and Ryde and the Pashuks.”
“That’s the reason I’m going to stay at my place for the time being. Let’s get through this dinner with Wes and Assa. Then we can let Jordie and Ked in on it.”
As much as Calder was ready to shout his love for Zinn from the rooftops, not to mention his inner alpha wanting to parade his pregnant omega around, he understood the wisdom of restraint. Now that Zinn had committed to being with him, it was easier to be patient.
There were so many questions that remained to be answered. How would Zinn be involved in Ryde’s life? Would the omega move in with Calder? Or marry him? Would Zinn decide to see Asher? Forgive him?
And of course, there was the question of Valentin.
What had happened to Zinn’s first love?
Chapter Forty
Valentin
Valentin gazed down at his phone, smiling at Wes’s flirty text from this morning. His group chat with the Pashuks was equal parts mundane and hot, and he loved it. He’d woken up to a picture of the couple in bed, shirtless, with a message saying they were thinking of him.
Although the three of them had been messaging every day since he’d admitted wanting them, they still hadn’t been able to get together. But Valentin was enjoying getting to know them over texts. He entertained them with tales of the drunken meet-cutes he witnessed at the club. Wes sent funny stories about his students, and Assa talked about his projects in the omega studies lab.
The couple occasionally mentioned their son, Ryde, and Valentin never tired of their anecdotes about burned pancakes and frantic hunts for field trip permission slips. He’d never dated fathers before, largely because he hadn’t dated much at all, and there was a part of him that expected it to hurt morebecause of what he’d lost with Zeller, but he found the betas’ joy infectious.
They finally had a plan to meet up on the weekend, and he hoped that being in person would help clarify what they were to each other. This was more than just a hookup, but what was it exactly? There was still so muchbig stuffthey hadn’t shared. Valentin hadn’t told them about Bergam or going to prison, and although the couple hadn’t offered specifics, there had been enough context clues for Valentin to gather that they were going through some intense family drama right now. It didn’t seem to be bad, necessarily, but it was something that demanded their full attention.
Valentin didn’t mind waiting. His own situation necessitated the same. While he and Wes and Assa flirted digitally, he was busy in the real world dealing with remnants of his past.
Specifically, the return of Asher Parkenson to his life.
Since that night a month ago when Asher saved him from Bergam’s goons, they had been working their way toward something resembling friendship.
Asher had shown up for Beta Night at The Cracked Heart every week, and each time, they ended their evenings holed up in Valentin’s office. At first, it was mostly practical. They each had answers to questions the other wanted to ask. But now that they’d worked through those pieces of the past, their friendship felt more genuine.
Valentin enjoyed Asher’s company, and he liked having this connection to Zeller and their shared history. Xan only knew the basics of Valentin’s story, and nothing about what happened to him before he went to prison. Asher provided a bridge to the wide-eyed young man he’d once been.
Asher had also given Valentin a shocking piece of information he was still struggling to process.
His son was alive.
Alive and living with adoptive parents.
“Do you know who they are? Where they live?” Valentin had asked immediately.
“Yes, but as much as I’ve been willing to answer most of your questions, I won’t tell you that. I don’t think it’s right for you to know if Zeller is still looking. My brother had so much taken from him. He deserves that information first, because he should be the one to decide what to do with it.”
Valentin had wanted to argue, but seeing Asher’s face, he’d known there was no point. Asher told him enough about his son so that Valentin understood the boy was happy and healthy, and that the beta couple raising him were good people.
“Do they know who their son’s birth parents are?”
