Page 143 of Alpha Heat

Xan couldn’t tell Pater that he was wrong. He sat in silence, Urho’s hands on his shoulders, listening to his pater breathe.

Finally, Pater asked humbly, “May I come meet my grandchild this autumn?”

“Yes,” Xan whispered.

“I’ll leave your father at home.”

“Yes,” Xan agreed again.

“Can I bring Ray?”

“Please do.”

His pater sighed in relief. “Good. Let’s talk again soon?”

“Yes.” He felt like fool repeating the same answer, but the conversation felt too weighted and surreal for anything more.

“Oh, and, Xan? You willnotbe disinherited. Your father will do that over my dead body. Expect a call from Ray before long to discuss future assignments and plans with regards to the company. You are Xan Heelies, the rightful heir to Doxan Heelies, and my only living alpha son. You’ll have what’s yours.” His pater’s voice rang with determination.

“Thank you,” Xan said.

When the phone rested in the cradle again, he buried his head in his arms and fought back tears. Urho rubbed his shoulders softly, and then, finally, drew him up into his arms, holding him while he cried.

Urho watched asXan walked out to the beach where Caleb stood staring at the horizon. He hung back, not wanting to assume more than he should, or pressure Caleb in any way. He knew one worried alpha was enough for any omega to contend with, two would be unfair.

Yet when Caleb turned and saw Urho lingering by the dunes, he rolled his eyes and waved him over. “Join us. You should hear this,” he called. Caleb grabbed Xan’s arm and tugged him into a giant embrace.

When Urho reached them, Caleb was saying, “As if I would ever leave you! Why are you such an idiot, Xan Heelies?”

Xan hugged Caleb fiercely, and Caleb reached for Urho too. The sea crashed behind them, waves pounding the sand as the sun slipped lower in the sky. It’d been a long first day after an intense heat, and they were all tired and emotional. Or that’s what Urho told himself as his chest grew tight with feeling.

He heldso muchin his embrace—two wonderful men and a future that, for the first time since Riki’s death, held real promise of joy. He hoped fiercely to keep it forever.

When they finally let go of each other, Caleb drew them down to the sand, where they sat letting the wind buffet their hair and beat at their clothes. Caleb finally spoke. “He says he’s in love with me and he regrets his behavior before.” He sounded tired—disappointed, perhaps, or something close to it. “When he rejected me after I told him that I was asexual.”

“He should regret it,” Xan said fiercely. “You’re wonderful.”

Caleb’s smile was thin, but he nodded in agreement. “I am. And he should. But he also wants me to run away with him.” He laughed at that, a belly laugh that lacked the bitterness Urho had expected. Then he shook his head and tried to shake the laugh off, growing somber again. “I told him no, of course. He cried. I held him. He’s a spoiled child, truly. He’s unaccustomed to not getting what he wants.”

“And you’re what he wants?” Xan asked anxiously. “Does he know…” he touched Caleb’s stomach. “About this?”

“I didn’t tell him. I don’t know if he could scent it. I don’t really care.” Caleb waved a long, lovely hand in the air dismissively. “He doesn’t want me, not truly. He thinks he does only because he’s so lonely and so sad. The life he’s made for himself—seducing married omegas and trying to take Xan’s inheritance for his own—is pathetic. Never choosing something because he wants it, never trying for something that could actually be his, only wanting things because they belong to someone else. It’s a child’s game.” Caleb sighed. “I hoped this illness would be a wake-up call for him. But I think he’s still stuck in the same rut. He has no idea of what he wants for himself. Not truly.”

“What if he truly does want you?”

Caleb snorted. “He doesn’t. But so what? If he did, well, it’s far too late.” He turned to Xan, taking both hands. “Do you really doubt that I want to be your omega? After everything?” He pressed Xan’s hand to his stomach. “After what we’re making together? The three of us?”

Xan shook his head. “I don’t doubt that you love me.” He looked toward Urho, and Urho’s heart skipped a beat. “That you love us.”

“Then don’t doubt that I want this life with you. I chose it. I choseyou, remember? Not the other way around. We’re going to build something unique and perfect for us. Our children will grow up knowing true love comes in all packages. That there are different kinds of love and friendship. We’re going to quietly, gradually, begin to change the world.”

“You’re quite the optimist,” Xan said, laughing, the wind from the ocean tossing his curls wildly. Urho’s heart clenched with affection. He wanted to kiss each of Xan’s curls.

“I suppose I am. Urho can be our pragmatist.”

“Me? I’m the most ridiculous of us all,” Urho muttered. “I’m the one who intends to walk away from a very staid, boring, and safe life to become a happy blasphemer living in the perversion of wolf-god’s law.”

“Oh, wolf-god,” Caleb said lightly. “As if he cares whose dick goes where? Doesn’t he have bigger things to worry about? Like how well we love each other?”