Page 92 of The Omega's Fake Mate

I leaned into him, one hand on my belly. “Not long now.”

“Are you two excited yet?” Griff asked.

“Excited and terrified.” I gave a little laugh to show him that I wasn'tsuperserious. Zander tightened his grip around my shoulder. I exhaled, feeling the tension in my muscles ease.

“Oh, right,” Griff said as if he'd just remembered something. “Rhys came by earlier and he'd like you to drop by our house after your visit here. Said he had something to talk about, though I couldn't quite figure out what.” Griff's expression turned thoughtful, but also like he was contemplating something he didn'tliketo think about. “It's awful what happened to him but he seems to have gotten over it well.” He glanced at Dean, at his baby and then at me. “Family is so important when stuff like this happens.”

I nodded, knowing that Rhys was lucky he had all of us. That I was lucky too. I wondered what he wanted to talk about, though.

Somehow, I didn't have a good feeling about this.

* * *

After our tripto the hospital, I had Zander drop me off at Griff's house, since I was pretty sure that whatever my brother wanted to discuss, he'd want to have this conversation in private. With Griff and Dean gone, he probably thought this was the best time for it.

When I knocked on the door, he opened it with a finger on his lips.

“Shh. I just got Bastian down for his nap, and let me tell you, that kid isimpossibleto put to sleep.”

I stifled a laugh. If the kid had anything of his Daddy in him, I could picture that. As quietly as possible, I bypassed my brother and stepped into the house behind him. The walls were full of Bastian's drawings, and of photographs showing the boy. My favorite was the one where he sat in Dean's lap along with the family dog, touching his nose. All of the photographs were nice, though. Really nice. Perhaps I should ask Griff to take some of my kid too, when he was born. Sure paid to have a photographer in the family.

“Griff said you wanted to talk about something?” I said turning back to my twin.

“Yes.” For just a moment, the lines around Rhys' mouth tightened, but then he made himself relax. “Let's go into the kitchen. I'll make us some hot chocolate.”

“Hot chocolate? Why?” Not that I was opposed...

“Because you're going to be upset and Mom always made us hot chocolate when we were upset.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I didn't know how to react. I was going to be upset? I'll admit, I'd had a suspicion that was going to happen, but part of me had still hoped that Rhys called me here to discuss whether he should put some funky color in his hair or something—which would be awesome, if totally unlikely.

Quietly—sort of stumped, really—I took a seat at the spacious kitchen island and watched my brother search the shelves for hot chocolate. “I know it was here somewhere,” he murmured.

“What's going to upset me?” I asked finally as he pulled the box from the upper left shelf.

“Everything that has to do with my husband upsets you,” Rhys said, but paid me no mind as he went on to get mugs for the both of us. For me, he picked one with colorful birds and flowers on it. As if that was going to cheer me up. My hands tightened around it, even though it was still empty.

“What's going on with your husband?” In this context, even just saying the word husband left a bad taste in my mouth.

Without saying anything, Rhys ladled hot chocolate powder into my mug. Then he topped it up with water from a pitcher before taking it from me to heat it in the microwave along with his own mug. “There's nothing goingonreally,” he said as we waited for thebeep.The whole situation seemed kind of surreal to me, how Rhys was trying to comfort me before I even knew what I was going to be upset about, but it was so very like him. He knew I wasn't going to like what he had to say to me, so he tried to make up for it.

That we hadn't actually fought yet was immaterial.

“Did the asshole contact you?” I asked, needing to get to the bottom of this.

“He did.” Rhys spoke calmly. The microwave beeped and he got our mugs out, putting steaming hot chocolate in front of me just as I was starting to feel upset. Okay, maybe hehadplanned this well. It was difficult to get angry when he was being this considerate.

Still... “You shouldn't talk to him,” I insisted.

Rhys shook his head. “He didn't do anything to me. Actually, he wants to apologize for what his family did.” Rhys looked aside. “He sounded really depressed.”

“What, am I supposed to feel bad for the guy now?” Because that was ridiculous. If he was feeling sad now, well, heshould. He was never getting Rhys back and he was never hurting him again. I wasn't going to let that happen.

“He wants to bring me some of my stuff I left behind,” Rhys spoke on as if I hadn't said anything.

“No,” I said flatly. “I'll go get your stuff if you want it.” But I wasn't going to trust that asshole anywhere near my twin again.

“Nick, please. Nothing's going to happen. I'm not gonna get back together with him or anything. He wants to bring me my things and apologize. Don't make a big deal out of it.” He pushed my mug closer to me as if urging me to take a sip and calm down. I inhaled the chocolatey scent and tried to let it soothe my nerves, but it wasn't working. “Dean already agreed,” Rhys said. “This is his house, you know.”

Internally, I growled. How could Dean think this was okay?