Page 29 of Accept Me (Fate’s Choice #4)

Going down the stairs, my mind kept circling the same question. How could this have happened? I went over everything between us. The only times we’d had sex without protection were after his heat had already ended; before that, it had always been with a condom.

Maybe the egg had simply lived a little longer, and conception had happened despite the heat being over.

Or maybe it went back to that first day, when I had rimmed him at the edge of his bed and he’d asked me to come on his face, then smeared a bit of my release over his nipples and his hole with his fingers.

Could that have been it? That had been the day before his heat began.

Or perhaps the condom had broken. That happened often enough with my size, though it was impossible to know for sure now, and in the end, it didn’t really matter.

What stunned me almost as much was that Star had said this had been his first heat.

I knew True Mate magic could do a lot, but I hadn’t thought it could accelerate the development of the womb.

This shouldn’t have been possible. I believed him when he said it was his first, but maybe he hadn’t realized he’d had some mild heat before?

Some omegas did have very short heats that barely differed from normal days, though rarely less than two days.

I knew I’d get nowhere with the speculation.

For now, it would remain a mystery. I was about to head to the basement to get on the treadmill and clear my head, to settle the storm of feelings, when I stopped at the sound of knocking.

It was Norman. I had almost forgotten about him… again.

The older omega beamed when he saw me, greeting me warmly, but then his nose twitched slightly.

He blinked, though he didn’t say anything.

Maybe he wanted to be discreet about such a personal matter.

I knew he was naturally curious, though he usually made an effort to keep it in check—this was clearly one of those moments when it was barely contained.

I could tell he already suspected something; I had been surrounded by the scent for a while now and was less sensitive to it, but someone coming in from outside would notice it more sharply.

With a little smile that hinted at mischief, he slipped into the kitchen and began cleaning while telling me some gossip about a politician named Mark Ferguson.

He’d been running in the state elections until a scandal broke, he’d been accused of sexually exploiting omegas and was arrested, ending his political career.

I nodded along, barely listening, sipping my coffee and pretending to care, though my mind was elsewhere.

Had this miracle really happened?

Heat and shivers moved through me in turns.

I closed my eyes for a moment, remembering the last time I touched Olaf’s stomach, when there had only been the smallest bump there, moments before his body was taken from me and the black bag’s zipper slid over his face.

That final touch of the slight curve, and then everything was gone, swallowed by nothingness.

Was such a miracle now growing inside Star? Had fate given me another chance to become a father?

And had it come sooner than I’d dared to hope?

I’d never expected it could happen in the coming years.

Star was supposed to have his first infertile heat, there were usually months between heats, often a year, sometimes a year and a half.

In my mind, I had built a timeline where it might happen in two years at the earliest. Yet here was the surprise the universe had prepared for me, arriving now.

For a moment, fear crept in, not for myself, but for what Star might feel about this.

I doubted he was emotionally ready for parenthood after everything that had just happened; he deserved rest and peace.

Guilt washed over me at the thought that our sex had brought such a life-changing event into his world before we had both decided it was time.

Nervous tension pulsed through me. I didn’t know how he would react, and for an instant, I felt a suffocating fear that he might not want to continue the pregnancy. I ran through every possible scenario but knew I would have to respect whatever choice he made.

"Changes are coming for you two, aren’t they?" Norman muttered, yanking me from my thoughts as he scrubbed at an already spotless fridge.

I cursed quietly under my breath, making sure he didn’t hear. I wasn’t ready for this kind of conversation with someone I didn’t consider a close friend. I somewhat liked him, but we weren’t that close.

"You could say that," I replied in a neutral tone, then stood.

To avoid his curious glances, I stepped out onto the patio and leaned against the building, my gaze drawn to the damaged row of arborvitae.

The fence had been repaired, but the torn shrubs were a clear reminder of what had happened just over a week ago.

Norman hadn’t noticed anything unusual yet, and that was for the best—I saw no reason to involve him in that situation.

And now, in the middle of all that chaos, a child was coming?

My eyes dropped to the blackened lawn. The wind had carried scorched strands of grass onto the patio. Something about all of this gnawed at me, something that didn’t sit right at all.

Hearing Norman clattering around in the kitchen, I moved toward the arborvitae and looked at the still-visible crater in the ground. Here and there, I spotted tufts of artificial fur from the mechanical cat. My jaw tightened, and in that moment, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

To my surprise, it was my uncle Van.

To be honest, I was afraid to call him and ask about the investigation into Dino, even though I knew he was running it more or less on his own.

Van was an old-school retired cop, a former police chief in his city, and he had a lot of interesting connections.

In some ways, he might have had more pull than Arnold, but I also knew he had his own problems at the moment.

His son, my cousin Gabriel, had gotten into trouble with the law, and my uncle had a lot on his plate.

That kept me from pushing him to dig into all the angles in the Dino case that Arnold hadn’t been able to pursue.

"Hey, Hunter, I’m calling you with some pretty unexpected news. Something came up during the quiet investigation I’ve been running…"

Feeling a slight wave of unease, I cleared my throat.

"Really? Detective Arnold called me not long ago and said nothing had come up on his side. He only added that there’s a chance the mechanical cat had two control units, but the tech couldn’t give a definitive answer on that.

So that lead isn’t being looked into right now. "

His snort had a mischievous edge to it.

"Well, well… interesting. That might actually be a key piece of information. You know me, I’m an old-school cop; I like doing things the classic way," Van said with a chuckle.

Even though my uncle was well past seventy, his mind was still sharp, and decades of experience had made him relentless and resourceful when it came to digging into a case.

"I figured I’d look at this from every possible angle. You mentioned Star had been in juvie before, and that stuck with me. I felt this itch to dig deeper. And here’s what I found: on paper, his only listed ‘relative’ at the time was his stepfather, Doug C. Nash!"

I let out an angry huff. "Yeah. That son of a bitch. The one who hurt Star and killed his dad. A real monster wearing human skin…"

"Did you know he actually adopted Star before the whole… killing situation?" My uncle’s tone had that little flair of drama to it.

"Wow, but why?"

"Hard to guess, it could be for inheritance reasons. Probably Star’s dad didn’t want anything of his to ever go to his Nash’s family in the event of his death, but only to Star."

"Adoption… How ironic is that? The bastard ruined everything, assaulted Star, accused him of murder, and poor Star had to take the hit of being regarded as his own dad’s killer…" I burst out, frustrated.

"Yeah. So, I went through the case file just to be thorough, because this guy ended up with Star’s dad’s apartment.

The property was originally purchased by Star’s parents under what’s called ‘tenancy in common’ .

In simple terms, that means when one spouse dies, half the property is inherited by the child, and it does not go entirely to the other spouse.

Which means, legally, half of it has belonged to Star ever since his biological father died. "

"And the half belonging to his dad? Was the law called the Slayer Rule applied there? That law says that someone who intentionally kills the person they’re supposed to inherit from, can’t receive that inheritance."

"Yes, the Slayer Rule was applied. Star lost his share in the half that belonged to his dad after the court ruling. It’s his stepfather’s now. He lives there, and you should know this is prime downtown real estate, a damn nice apartment."

"That’s a cruel injustice! The fucker killed him, not Star! He has no rights to any inheritance!"

"Hang in there, it's about to get interesting. There’s also the matter of a savings account that was set to go to Star only when he turns twenty-five. It’s in a sub-account and his dad was a custodian before, but now it’s under the legal guardianship of—you guessed it—the stepfather.

And it’s a hefty sum. Now, mind you, it’s not inheritance from his dad!

That would’ve been blocked by the court, as the Slayer Rule would apply.

This particular fund actually came directly from Star’s biological father!

The stepfather, as the official custodian of that account, can manage it now, but can’t legally use the money for himself as long as Star’s alive. "

I blinked, feeling a cold shiver crawl up my spine. "How much are we talking about?"

"Star’s father was a model. Quite a handsome piece of an alpha, to be honest. He was modeling high-end menswear: wedding suits, formalwear, stuff like that—"