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But this time, Rowan isn’t trying to get railed as much as he is genuinely curious.

Gideon and Luca come down from upstairs too, Luca in his new pantsless uniform of a giant hoodie and Gideon dressed in a T-shirt and pajama pants.

Not going out, then; huh, Grayson wonders what has changed.

They’re all looking at him. Maybe just as curious about his odd behavior as Rowan is.

He picks up Baby B’s photo and shows Nix. “She’s mine.”

She.

Baby B had been quite cooperative in sharing her current primary gender.

Baby A was still a mystery, but the tech had been optimistic that if all things stayed the same, they’d know in four weeks at Nix’s next appointment.

Apparently, Grayson’s news was food for thought.

His mates are frozen.

Gideonblink-blink-blinks,like he’s processing this new information against the last three months, as Grayson had done, and coming up with the same answer. He responds by laughing maniacally.

“Well, that explains a lot. How could we have missed that?”

Jay is right behind him in connecting all the dots and actually smacks his forehead. “Shit. Well, to be fair, twins are rare.”

Grayson looks at Jay then, gauging his mate’s reaction, unsure if, like Rowan, the alpha had harbored the hope (or worry) that the second babymight have been his. But Jay looks as he always does when he’s got a problem to solve: a tiny furrow between his forehead, eyes distant as his genius brain is entirely caught up in having missed the signs about Grayson’s behavior.

Behavior Jay hadn’t been exhibiting at all.

Jay meets his gaze, like he’d known Grayson would be thinking about him. He’s wearing that small smile he gets when he’s proud of them or happyforthem. Grayson wants to believe that Jay means it when he says their time will come, and that a Jay-and-Nix baby will be planned. Just like they had dreamed, even before they knew it would be their child in body, not just in heart.

“Rare like omegas?” Luca giggles and sits so he can stick his nose in Nix’s neck. It’s his second favorite place on Nix’s body to stick his nose.

“She’s yours, Gray?Ourdaughter? Really?” Nix whispers, and then he smiles that big smile again. “And that makes youhappy?”

Grayson smiles back and nods. Scared, but happy. Especially when Nix bursts into tears.

Whoa.

The faces of his mates would be funny if Grayson weren’t entirely focused on his baby-daddy’s tear-stained face. “Angel? Hey, now what’s this about?” He catches his omega against his chest while he just cries harder.

“I think he’s happy,” Leo says, offering Grayson an open bottle of water so Nix can drink when he’s calmed down.

Rowan pulls out two plastic-wrapped crackers from his pocket. They are the kind hospitals offer with soups at lunch.

Grayson accepts them, and when he meets Rowan’s eyes, he sees nothing but relief and love. He offers one cracker to Nix, who eats the whole thing in one bite and then offers the second to Luca,but holds it so he and Luca can take tiny nibbles of the shared snack.

“You look better already, Rowan,” Gideon teases.

“What!? Me? No. I’m the same. Same. Dad to one baby ortwo, nope, I’m entirely not relieved. I can handle it.”

It’s comical, because the alpha had fainted not an hour ago at the idea he might be a father twice over. He sees their skeptical gazes and bristles. “Youknow what? Fuck off. Everyone. Except you, Nix.”

Nix is laughing the hardest, though, so it just sounds ridiculous.

“Thank you for the crackers, Rowan. I’m starving. Gideon, you promised you were going to cook, right?” Nix gets up so he can straddle Gideon’s lap, bringing hisgameright to the lion’s door.

Or whatever the right metaphor is for a kitten facing down a lion.