Page 154 of Unravel Me

"I don’t understand. You’re True Mates, so?"

I raise my eyebrows. "So…what?"

Alex lets out a soft chuckle.

"Well, I’m guessing you did more than just talk." And he winks.

"Oh, hell yeah," I say, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks.

"Then whatever caused him to be mute should disappear. True Mates heal each other, and not just physically. Emotional wounds and past traumas are eased too… That obviously takes a little more time, but the physical cause of his inability to speak should certainly have been removed by now."

I blink for a moment, then remember that I have a scar along the edge of my left heel from childhood, one I got while riding my bike.

I quickly bend, set Tommy down, and pull off my shoe.

"Oh, shit. There’s no trace of my scar. It was pretty big, and it always annoyed me that in every photo I had to cover it with foundation."

Alex nods with a faint I-told-you-so look.

"So why doesn’t Mauro speak? Shouldn’t he be able to do it by now?"

I hesitate. "Maybe he just doesn’t know about it, so he hasn’t tried. Possibly it never occurred to him?"

Alex tilts his head.

"Perhaps it takes openness from both sides, you have to be open to talking to him too?" He crosses his arms over his chest. "Because I have this strange feeling that you’re a little angry with him… You came here alone, after all."

"You bet I am!" I snort. "It’s complicated to explain, but he kept a lot of things from me. He put me through some really serious emotional turmoil."

"I’m sorry to hear that." Alex closes his eyes for a moment. "But you know, I didn’t know everything about Bay either, about the things that had happened in his life, and you see, I knew he wasn’t telling me everything for very important reasons… he was afraid that if I knew the truth, I would reject him."

I swallow because that hits something inside me.

"Um, to be honest, those were exactly Mauro’s reasons too. And I guess that’s more or less what happened. After I found out about them, I kind of… pushed him away. You could say that. I ran."

"Ahhh…" Alex mutters with an understanding hum.

I blink for a moment, feeling like shit.

Tommy tips his curly head back, grabs my knees with his hands, and tries to pull himself up as if he can sense that something is wrong with me. He’s been sensitive from the very beginning, even as a baby of just a few months, as if he could somehow sense my moods, so I scoop him up again and hold him against me.

For a moment, I just stand there with my son, looking at his little face, his adorable chubby cheeks and big eyes with their long lashes.

Tommy is an omega. Even though it’s officially illegal to perform genetic tests on children to determine their subgender, Mark wanted one done. I’ll admit I felt relieved when I found out, because somewhere deep down I was afraid that if I had an alpha son, Mark would take him firmly under his wing, separate him from me, and raise him according to his own ideas, pushing him toward a brutal political career.

Of course, it wasn’t impossible that he would have pushed Tommy in that direction too, but I believed I would have been able to influence him more strongly. Young alphas are heavily shaped energetically by their fathers during adolescence, while young omegas are influenced to a lesser degree.

"My main concern is Tommy," I blurt out. "I have to make his safety my priority. I don’t want to be like my dad. He hurt me, and I don’t want to create that same wound in Tommy."

"I understand that perfectly. Family is the most important thing," Alex says quietly. "Speaking of which, I have a meeting with my own father in half an hour. I’ll have to go. I was going to leave Tommy with Bay, but now that you’re here…?"

I nod quickly. "Of course. Don’t change your plans."

Alex walks over to Tommy and kisses the top of his head. Tommy turns around and blows him several adorable little kisses with his chubby hand.

The sight melts my heart and calms me down a little at the same time, because I can see that Alex and Tommy have a really good relationship, so I’m hoping my absence didn’t become such a huge trauma for my child.

"I’m going to get ready to leave," Alex says with a smile.