Normally, I would have taken a few deep, calming breaths first. Maybe stopped by one of the airport coffee shops and got a cup of tea. Not this time. I knew if I took the time to calm myself and approach my mother like a sane, rational person, I wouldn’t do what needed to be done. For once, my mother was going to realize the consequences of her actions, so help me, God.

Her phone rang only once before she picked it up.

“Richard, darling! Why didn’t you tell me you and poor, sweet Dusty were having problems!”

Poor, sweet Dusty my ass. She’d always hated him. Hated he wasn’t an omega. Now she hated Josiah because he was an omega? What was her game? What the fuck did she want?

“Stop, Mother.”

“If only I’d known, I could have been there to help. You know your father and I have been through troubles of our own, but we’ve always stuck by—”

“I said stop. Now, stop. You’re not going to bowl me over this time, Mother. You will shut your mouth and listen to me for once or you can kiss goodbye any chance of ever seeing my son.”

I paused for a breath and felt a moment of satisfaction at her stunned silence.

“Dusty and I are, in fact, not having problems. Our relationship is better than ever. A fact you might know if you called to ask about our lives occasionally.” For years, I’d been the dutiful son, calling every week, but when every call was three hours of which party they went to and who they saw and what dumb scandal was happening between people I didn’t know, I’d stopped. It wasn’t that I hadn’t tried. In college, I tried to tell her about my track meets, my classes. Afterward, my schedules and the places I was visiting. I’d try to tell her about Dusty, but the most acknowledgement I ever got was a, “That’s nice, dear,” before she went on to talk about herself. Again.

The only time I drew any of her attention was when she perceived I had fucked up. Like marrying Dusty. She’d been livid I was marrying an alpha. Who was going to give her grandchildren? That bitch was lucky I was self-assured and confident enough that I’d never felt the need to act out to get her attention.

“You are self-centered, Mother. You’re too old not to realize the world doesn’t revolve around you. My relationships with my—” I stumbled for the right word, one that gave each of us equal weight in our relationship. “—partners especially doesn’t revolve around you. My divorce with Dusty is an evolution of our relationship beyond words on a paper. The vows we spoke at our wedding are just as true today as they were then, if not more so. But that piece of paper that said we’re married was keeping us from moving forward in our relationship with each other and with Josiah.”

I heard the deep hiss of her breath as she prepared to launch her missiles of vitriol.

“And I will not hear one word against Josiah. Not only is he the father of our child—mine, Dusty’s, and Josiah’s—but he is our missing piece.”

In the space of a breath, Mother struck. “Well, if you’d settled down with a nice omega girl, you wouldn’t have had any missing pieces, would you?”

Ah. That was the key. It wasn’t just that Dusty was an alpha. It wasn’t just that Josiah was coming in as a third in our relationship. It was that neither of them was a female omega.

“Mother, that was never going to happen.”

“Well. It’s not like you tried, is it? Do you know how they looked at me at the club? How that insufferable twat Nellie Timbleton lorded it over me when her Ivan married Patty Simmons and had a grandbaby within the year?”

Now I did take a deep breath. This wasn’t just about my relationships, but about her fucked-up societal expectations. “I will not argue with you about the moral or legal right of anyone to love anyone else, regardless of gender or designation. And you know what, Mother? Fuck you. Yet again, you’ve attempted to frame the issue as how I’ve hurt you, completely disregarding how you’ve hurt me, hurt Dusty, or hurt Josiah. I am done. I will not answer a call from you until sometime after the baby is born. I don’t know when that will be. You are not welcome at my house until we have had a civil discussion and laid some ground rules. You will not contact Dusty, Josiah, or Samantha in any way until we sit down and have that conversation or you will lose and future possibility of a reconciliation.”

She was sputtering, but I continued on.

“I will be blocking your number on all of our phones. I will be changing lawyers and I will be making certain that Brockton & Turner face consequences for the egregious mistake that initiated this discussion, though they are not to blame for your narrow-minded, prejudiced beliefs. Neither Dusty nor Josiah’s parents are living, making you my son’s only grandmother. If you do not comply with my wishes, you will be depriving him of that. I hope you can grow up enough in the next few months to evaluate your priorities. Good bye.”

I hung up before she could respond and followed through on my promise to block her, knowing that if I didn’t, she would call every minute for the next two hours. Well, she’d still do that. I just wouldn’t have to deal with it. On second thought, I blocked my father’s number, too. He and I had never been close, either, but he always backed my mother up. He was her accomplice, so the same rules were going to apply to him.

I sent Dusty a quick I did it message.

What did you say? What did she say?

Too much to recount before I get on the plane, but we’re no contact until after the baby was born.

Damn, son! Can’t wait to hear about it.

Love you.

I slid my phone in my pocket and hurried to my next flight, the one that would take me home. For so many years, I had put up with my mother’s bullshit because I thought that the hole she would leave if I cut her out would be worse than the stress of having her in.

I had been wrong.

I felt liberated. Free. I’d never had her love, I realized, which is the thing I’d hoped for, hoped to earn at some point, even when my conscious brain realized that was never going to happen, my heart still hoped. But I didn’t need her love. I had so much love in my life right now with the family I’d built, her piddling societally appropriate version of love was such a tiny trickle, I didn’t even notice its absence.

* * *

I texted Dusty as I neared the house so that he could distract Josiah and send Sam to wait for me. She was bouncing by the back door when I pulled up, and together, we unloaded the car of every type of flower imaginable. I may or may not have emptied a small florist’s shop…

“Can you work on arranging these in the kitchen, Sammy? It’s a surprise for Josiah.”

She nodded eagerly, and we heard the thump of feet coming down the stairs.

Hurrying, I pulled three rings out of my pocket. “Can you hide this in Josiah’s tea? Be very careful.”

Sammy nodded and I hurried to the living room. I had some things to say to Josiah while Sam was busy placing the flowers. My mom had already done enough damage, according to Dusty, shouting nasty things with that sweet little girl present. She didn’t need to hear them again, even if it was me negating them.

“Honeys, I’m home!” The phrase had progressed from beyond a joke to reality, and it filled me with joy every time I got to say them.

Dusty’s smile was wide, and Josiah’s was sweet, but even I, as dense as I could be, could tell he was wounded.

“Come here,” I said, and pulled Josiah into my arms. Dusty wrapped him up from behind him and we smothered him in our love.

“First, you need to know that my mother is not welcome here. She is not welcome to contact any of us. She will not be informed of the birth of our child. When we are ready, I will sit down and have a meeting with her to inform her of our expectations. That will include how she is allowed to address us, our relationship, and the consequences if she breaks our rules. But that will only happen when we are ready. When we are all ready. If we’re never ready? That’s fine.”

“But she’s your mother,” Josiah whispered.

“That doesn’t give her the right to act like anything other than a decent human being. Dusty will tell you, I should have laid down the law with her a long time ago. That would have saved us a lot of heartbreak.”

Dusty snorted, which was a mild response coming from him.

“I would love for our son to have a grandma, but she has to actually be willing to be a grandma, not just claim the title.”

Josiah sniffed. “Why didn’t you tell her about... this... before?”

I sighed. “Habit. That’s not an excuse, though. I have a lot of laziness to make up for when it comes to my relationship with my mother. I try to call her about once every three months at this point, or she calls me. I listen to her complain about her friends and brag about who she knows, and then we hang up. That’s it. It honestly never crossed my mind to tell her about any of this because I haven’t told her anything important since I told her Dusty and I were getting married. And that was a royal shit show.”

“She hates my guts,” Dusty added.

Josiah pushed back so he could see our faces. “But she was so defensive about your marriage...”

I rolled my eyes. “Because she loves to cause drama and tell me how I’m living my life wrong. That’s a too-simple interpretation, but it’s been our relationship for so long, I just don’t even pay her any regard any more. That was irresponsible of me. I will be keeping a much tighter rein on her and our relationship, if she chooses to work to have one.”

“What about your dad?” Josiah’s eyes were still wary. “Isn’t he still alive?”

I nodded. “I haven’t talked to him yet, I’ll probably send him an email because I’ve blocked his phone, but he’s always been Mother’s sidekick, following quietly around behind her in everything except business. I won’t let her attack us sideways through him.”

Sam’s little voice whispered behind me, “Uncle Richard? It’s ready!”

Josiah’s eyes squinted in confusion. “What’s ready?”

Dusty and I grabbed his hands. “Come see.”

I walked backward so I could see his face as he saw all the flowers. His eyes widened in surprise, and then brimmed with tears.

“I know this is a small token in comparison with the pain my mother caused, but, forgive me?”

Josiah leaned into me for a long embrace. “You didn’t do anything requiring forgiveness.” He looked around at the flowers. “And you’re crazy. This is...”

“A little over-the-top?” Dusty said. “This is nothing. Someday I’ll tell you the story of him proposing to me.”

I glared at Dusty. His hint was a little too pointed, but Josiah didn’t seem to notice. “I think we could all use a hot drink. I’ll get the hot water started. You want to prep yourself some tea, little one?”

Josiah nodded, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. I was distracted as I watched, waiting for him to discover the rings. When he scooped a few spoonfuls of tea into his infuser with no comment, I waved Sam over.

“You put the rings in the tea, right, Sammy?”

She nodded serious. “And I hid them carefully, just like you said.”

I wanted to smack myself on the head. I should have been more precise with my words. “Actually, Josiah—would you mind making me a cup, too? Tea sounds good.”

This time, there was a satisfying clink. Josiah looked at the infuser in confusion, and reached down to pull out the platinum ring. “What is this?”

Damn it. The rings were supposed to be on top where he’d see them. I couldn’t blame Sam for my bad instructions, though.

Dusty started laughing so hard he could speak, and I walked over wordlessly to take the canister of tea from Josiah. I plucked a mixing bowl out of a cupboard and dumped the entire canister into the bowl.

“Richard! What the fuck?” Josiah complained.

I dug through the tea without answering until I found the remaining rings. Dusty’s laughter had died to chuckles, and I held the remaining two rings out to Josiah, a ring in each hand. Sam jumped up and down with a squeak, but Josiah stared at the rings blankly for several moments before his mouth dropped open.

“None of this worked out the way I planned, but in a way, it’s really perfect for us. No one could have predicted the way we’ve come together. It’s been messy and hard. There have been tears and laughter. There have been mistakes, there has been joy, and I know there will be more along the way. But more than anything, the most important thing is that we’ll face it all together. The saying is that a three-strand cord is not easily broken. Dusty and I are much stronger with you than we were alone, Josiah. Would you do us the honor—”

Josiah lunged forward and sealed my mouth with a kiss. I clenched my hands around the rings, terrified they would go flying, and tried to kiss him back. Then he broke away to kiss Dusty as well while Sam giggled and cried, “Eww!”

“Is that a yes?” Dusty asked.

Josiah wiped the tears spilling from his eyes. “Of course it’s a yes, you stubborn alphas. How can I say no after all this?”

I wrapped my two men in a big hug and felt Sam’s little hand press against my side as she joined us.

Something kicked my stomach. I froze. “Was that…?”

Josiah nodded. “That was your baby, Papa. Seems like he’s pretty excited, too.”

When we parted, Sam looked up at me very seriously. “Uncle Rich? I’ve decided what I’m going to call you.”

I knelt down to her level. “Oh yeah, Sammy? What’s that?”

“Well, you’re not my daddy, and you’re not my uncle, but you’re kinda both of those. And the baby is going to call you Papa, so I thought maybe I would, too. Is Papa Rich okay to call you?”

I wasn’t a crier. Never had been, didn’t plan on starting, but this little girl’s sweet words caused a suspicious burning in my eyes.

“I think that sounds perfect, Sammy.”