Morris was a bundle of nerves when his doorbell rang promptly at eight-thirty the next morning. He’d had similar nerves last night when Jaysan called and asked if he could bring his guardians over to meet Morris and see the house. Alec and Orrin Jensen were direct and to-the-point about their feelings on Jaysan being around an unmated alpha, but they were also polite and seemed very protective of Jaysan, which Morris appreciated. He loved knowing first-hand that Jaysan lived with caring people.

They’d also doted on Aeron, who was droopy and close to bedtime. They hadn’t stayed long, maybe thirty minutes, and Morris had basked in being around his bondmate for those precious minutes. He also hadn’t slept for crap last night, and he’d welcomed Aeron’s three-thirty cry for a fresh diaper.

Morris had been up since six, eaten, and had way too much coffee, so he literally jolted off the couch at the bell’s ring. Part of the salary discussion with Jaysan had included transportation, so Morris had added a stipend for taxi fares. That way his guardians didn’t have to drive him, and Jaysan didn’t have to rely on the bus schedule. And the nearest stop in this neighborhood was several blocks away.

Jaysan smiled nervously from the porch, a canvas tote bag slung over one shoulder and a wrapped package in his hands. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” Morris couldn’t help a quick sniff, but all he got was Jaysan’s lovely rose scent. Thank goddess. “Please, come in.”

“Thanks. I, um, brought Aeron a belated birthday present, if that’s okay?”

“Of course, it is.” Morris shut the front door and followed Jaysan into the living room. Aeron was in the pack-and-play, and he squealed when he spotted Jaysan.

“Hey there, little man.” Jaysan put his things on the couch, then went to pick Aeron up. Kissed his cheek. The pair together was intensely adorable, and it made Morris wistful for what would probably never happen between him and Jaysan.

But he’d never know if he didn’t ask. Maybe Morris should put it all on the table before they began this arrangement. Tell Jaysan he’d like them to get to know each other, maybe date, see if they clicked, so they’d know if acting on the mating bond was a good idea, or if it was a recipe for disaster.

His own parents hadn’t dated. The arrangement had been made between their sires, the same way Kell and Krause’s match was made. With or without the bond, mismatched alphas and omegas rarely ended well for their future family, as Morris witnessed firsthand—not only with his own family, but with the omegas Ronin represented who feared for their lives and needed protection from their alpha mates.

For the most part, the law was rarely on the side of the omega, but Ronin, Kell and the others were working to change omega rights in Sansbury. Kell’s own trial had set a new precedent for an omega’s treatment at the hands of their mate, and new laws outlawing corporal punishment and spousal rape in alpha/omega couples were set to be voted on in a few months. Betas already had those protections; omegas deserved them, too.

Jaysan carried Aeron to the couch and plopped down, Aeron situated on his lap. “Happy belated birthday.” He helped Aeron rip off the paper, which fascinated the kid more than the box inside, and it struck Morris then that Aeron had never had a birthday party.

Morris had been too distracted by grief to remember.

Inside the box lay a small wood photo frame. Behind the glass was a printed photo with words inscribed on top—a poem Morris wasn’t familiar with.

“Liam told me once that he memorized all these ancient poems from a magazine he had in his cell,” Jaysan said. “He’d recite them when he got anxious and it helped relax him. This was one of his favorites. I wanted to get Aeron something meaningful, and this is all I could think of. These words.”

“It’s a lovely gift, thank you,” Morris replied, genuinely touched by the thought Jaysan had put into it. “You can put it in his room, if you like.”

“I will, thanks.”

Now or never. “Jaysan, I’ve been thinking—”

“So have I.” Before Morris could be annoyed at having been interrupted, Jaysan pressed on. “I’m sorry about the other morning, when I came here with another man’s scent. It was cruel, and I shouldn’t have insulted you like that knowing we both felt the mating bond. But I meant what I said about not wanting to mate. That has not and will not change.”

Disappointment curled around his gut. Morris tried to keep his expression neutral, though, because he wasn’t the kind of alpha to force an omega to be with him. He’d never do that. “Okay. I hear you, and I accept your wishes.”

“Thank you.” Jaysan’s entire posture relaxed. “You probably have to get to work, huh?”

“Yes, I should leave soon. Do you have any last-minute questions for me?”

“No, but if I have a question later, I can call the office.”

True. He was totally over-thinking this whole thing. “All right, well, good luck. The kitchen is stocked, but if you think there’s something it needs, call and I’ll pick it up on the way home.”

“I will.”

Morris dropped a kiss to the top of Aeron’s head, and it gave him a strong whiff of Jaysan’s delightful scent. His mouth watered, and it was all he could do not to kiss Jaysan’s head, too. Instead, he picked up his briefcase and keys, and he left the house. Walked to his car. Starting it wasn’t hard, but actually pulling out of the driveway was. He could do this. Jaysan was perfectly capable of taking care of his own child for eight hours or so.

No, he wasn’t worried about that, and he wasn’t worried about Jaysan deciding to take Aeron and skip town. Where would he go?

His unwillingness to leave had everything to do with the small family inside his house, and the omega who’d taken a piece of his heart for good.

Even if Jaysan never wanted Morris back, Morris would want him always.

Jaysan never thought he’d get tired of playing with Aeron, but as noon rolled around, he was so wrong it hurt. He loved his baby more than anything in the world, but Aeron loved to play. Loved. And he loved attention. Maybe Jaysan hadn’t realized it before, because Branson had been around for Aeron to play with, but now it was just the two of them.

He’d turned the television on simply for background noise in the otherwise too-silent house. After three-plus hours of stacking blocks, reading picture books to help with his speech, holding his hands to practice walking, and speaking in baby language, Jaysan was ready for a freaking nap himself.

A few minutes after twelve, a car engine in the driveway startled him into looking out the window. He wasn’t expecting anyone. And he definitely wasn’t expecting to see Morris get out of his car with a pizza box. Jaysan stared dumbly the whole time, until Morris walked in the front door.

And then anger flared. “Are you checking up on me?” he asked.

“Not at all.” Morris smiled as he raised the box. “I brought lunch.”

“You have a fridge full of lunchmeat.”

“I know, I just…” His smile faded. “I missed Aeron. I’ve been near him for a solid week, and I think I was starting to get on Yosef’s nerves while researching a case, so Ronin sent me home for lunch. I thought I’d treat us to pizza.”

“Oh.” Sounded reasonable enough. “Okay, that was nice of you.”

Morris beamed.

He’d fed Aeron about an hour ago, so he installed the baby in the walker while Morris set out plates and cups for them. But when Morris opened the box to dish out slices, Jaysan’s stomach sank. Morris had ordered a supreme, which had mushrooms.

“I’m sorry, I can’t eat that,” Jaysan said.

“You can’t?” Morris stared blankly at him.

“I’m allergic to mushrooms.” The devastated expression on Morris’s face made his omega instincts scream to fix this for his alpha. No, this alpha. Not his. “But it’s okay, I can make a sandwich like I’d already planned.”

“Damn it, I should have asked if you had any food allergies. I am so sorry, Jaysan, that was thoughtless of me. I think some of the soups I bought have mushrooms, too.”

Jaysan stepped closer so he could squeeze Morris’s wrist, and the contact absolutely did not zing up his arm. Nope. “It really is okay. You made a nice gesture, and I appreciate it. Truly.” He released Morris before he got too attached to that zing he didn’t feel.

Morris still looked upset while he sat down to eat, giving the pizza dirty looks, as if its very existence offended him now. It was kind of amusing in its own way, that he’d react so strongly to ordering the wrong toppings on a pizza. But at the same time, Morris was still grieving a huge loss, and this had to feel like a big, fat failure on his part.

“Is there a slice that hardly has any mushrooms?” Jaysan asked. “It’s not so bad that I’ll go into shock over cross-contamination, but if I eat more than the smallest piece, my throat gets super-itchy and I get this weird rash on my face.”

“You don’t have to risk your health for my sake, no.”

Stubborn alpha. Jaysan pulled the box toward him and studied the pie. Morris tried to take it away, and Jaysan shocked himself by lightly smacking Morris’s hand. Morris’s nostrils flared, but he didn’t reach for the box again.

One piece seemed mostly peppers, onions, and pepperoni, so Jaysan pulled it out of the box and ate around the two pieces of mushrooms he saw. It was thin-crust, which was his favorite, and it had a tasty sauce.

“Where is this from?” he asked. “I don’t think I’ve had this pizza before.”

“There’s a place across from the constabulary building Ronin turned me onto. They’re fast and really good.”

“They are, I like it.” Jaysan supplemented his single slice with a ham and mustard sandwich.

“So have you gone upstairs and checked out your room yet?” Morris asked.

Jaysan nearly choked on his soda from the casual way Morris called it “his room.” “No, I haven’t. All I brought today was a few books and a word puzzle, but Aeron has been wearing me out all morning.”

“He’s an active baby.”

“Yeah. I may have to schedule some play dates so he can wear himself out with other kids his age, instead of me.”

“He can be overwhelming.” Morris’s eyebrows dipped. “You aren’t thinking of quitting already, are you?”

“Of course not.” What kind of stupid question was that? “Aeron’s my son, and it’s my duty to take care of him. I’m just not used to it, that’s all. I’ll adapt.”

“I’m sorry, that was a terrible assumption to make. You’re a new parent, and even though you’ve been around your friends’ children, being the primary caregiver can be overwhelming at times. I’ve only been at this for a week, and I still get anxious that I’ll fu—screw up.”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one.” He was also maddeningly surrounded by Morris’s scent and the strength of the mating bond, and these casual conversations were not helping. They were co-parenting, nothing else.

Nose plugs. I’ll buy nose plugs.

“I also forgot to mention I got my first alpha suppressor shot this morning,” Morris said. “It takes about a day to really kick in, so hopefully when I come home tonight, the bond won’t be quite so…distracting.”

Did he read my mind or something? Spooky.

“I appreciate you taking that,” Jaysan replied. “Truly. You know, it’s kind of annoying that there isn’t a similar shot for omegas, so we’re less appealing to alphas.” Annoying, but not surprising, since so many people still looked at omegas as commodities, rather than human fucking beings. But his friends were working to change that. Hopefully, they’d succeed one day.

“You should suggest Kell add it to his agenda. Maybe it doesn’t exist because no one has demanded it.”

“Good idea.” He’d mention it to Kell the next time they spoke—which would probably be this afternoon, if he could ever get Aeron down for a nap. He definitely needed to schedule a play date with Branson.

Morris read Aeron a book and got him down for a nap—thank goddess—before he returned to work. Jaysan needed to learn his secret. With a bit of time to himself, he called Kell, who agreed to bring Branson, plus Jax and his two boys, to the house tomorrow morning.

“How’s it going so far?” Kell asked.

“So far, so good, I guess. He ran me ragged this morning, and then Morris surprised us with a lunchtime appearance.”

“Was he checking up on you?”

“Maybe a little, but he said he was anxious being away from Aeron, so he came home for a visit.”

“That makes sense. After everything he’s been through, Aeron is all the family he has left.”

“Yeah. He also finally managed to get Aeron to take a nap.”

“Morris is more familiar to him than you are yet. Give it time.”

“I mean, Aeron responds to me and seems to know who I am to him, but I guess it hurts a little that he likes Morris more.”

“Like I said, give it time. He’s still so young, and now he’s going to grow up knowing who you are. The older he gets, the more he will love you.”

“Hearing you say that helps.”

“Because I went through something similar?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Jaysan, and don’t get jealous of Morris’s connection to Aeron. Heck, for a few weeks after I got him back, I swore Branson liked Ronin more than he liked me, but I think some of it was a reaction to the stress I was feeling. Walking out of the courtroom a free man felt great, but I still had a lot to process once it was all over.”

“I can’t imagine.”

“You’ve been through your own trauma and grief. The experiences are different, but a lot of the emotions are the same.”

“Yeah.”

“So do you plan on using the bedroom Morris cleaned for you?”

The abrupt topic change left Jaysan reeling for a moment. “I’m not sure. I mean, I don’t spend the night here, and I only brought over some books. The living room is perfectly fine for reading.”

“The fact that he did that for you, though, is a huge gesture.”

“Maybe, but I told him again this morning, flat out, I don’t want to mate him, and when he came home for lunch, he told me he’d gotten the alpha suppressor shot.”

“Wow. Sounds like he’s willing to abide by your wishes and not push.”

“He is. He’s a…I don’t know, noble doesn’t feel like the right word, but he’s a noble man. I know in my gut I’m safe with him.”

“Because he’s your bondmate?”

Jaysan groaned. “That’s part of it. Mostly it’s being around him, talking to him, seeing how genuine he is. He brought pizza for lunch, but it had an ingredient I’m allergic to, and you’d have thought I’d said I quit for how devastated he was.”

“Sounds like an alpha who knows who his mate is. Ronin mopes on the rare occasions he thinks he’s disappointed me or let me down.”

“But Ronin is your mate.”

“And Morris is yours, too. Your instincts know it, but you still have to convince your heart and mind.”

“Yeah, well, not happening.”

“Okay.” Kell didn’t sound convinced, but whatever.

“Listen, I should go if I want any free time to relax before Aeron wakes up,” Jaysan said. “I have no idea how long he naps.” It hadn’t occurred to him to ask.

“If you’re lucky, you’ve got an hour or two. Enjoy them.”

“I will. See you tomorrow.”

Jaysan managed two word puzzles and one chapter of a book before Aeron’s cry came over the baby monitor. After a quick diaper change, Jaysan carried him into the master bedroom, curious to see what Morris had changed, and uncertain why he hadn’t done it earlier. It seemed like snooping without someone who lived here with him.

The furniture was the same, but the bedding was different. A simple yellow and green pattern that matched the new curtains and really brightened the room. Anything personal was gone—no watches on the dresser or photos of the couple who’d once lived here. Morris hadn’t put the other photos back up downstairs yet. He probably needed way more time before he’d be able to see his brother and not be smacked in the face with grief.

The bathroom was similarly tidy, the cabinet drawers empty except for unused toiletries like a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and deodorant. Things a guest might need if they’d forgotten it. Aeron had fun making faces at himself in the mirror for a few minutes.

But when Jaysan started to leave the bedroom, Aeron screamed, “Dada!” and tried to wrench free.

“Dada’s not here anymore, little man,” Jaysan said. “It’s you and me and Uncle Morris.”

“Dada!”

Curious, Jaysan put the boy down. Aeron got onto his knees and crawled toward the king bed. Used it to stand himself up and tried to climb. He whined in frustration, so Jaysan put him on the bed. He crawled around, seeming confused, before plopping his butt in the center and starting to cry.

“Oh, baby boy.” Jaysan climbed up and tried to comfort him, but Aeron wasn’t having it. He pushed against Jaysan, tears running in fat streams down his cheeks. This was a new kind of crying to Jaysan. He’d heard the hungry cries, the dirty diaper cries, and the I’m-so-tired-but-can’t-sleep cries, but not this soul-deep wailing. The more it went on, the deeper it cut into Jaysan’s heart, and he started crying, too.

He managed to get the weeping baby into his arms and back downstairs where he’d left his mobile. He wanted to call Kell, but what could Kell do? No, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed Morris. So he called the office number Morris gave him.

“Morris Danv—Jaysan?”

“He won’t stop.” Jaysan wasn’t sure Morris could even hear his broken voice over the volume of Aeron’s cries, and his own tears weren’t helping. “He got upset in the master and won’t stop. I don’t know what to do.”

“I can barely hear you, but I’m coming straight home, okay? I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Okay.”

Those ten minutes took an eternity to pass, and while Aeron’s volume had quieted a bit, he was no less upset, and he flailed from his spot inside the walker, while Jaysan paced the living room. When Morris barged inside the front door, Jaysan nearly fell to his knees with relief. Morris came straight to Jaysan and pulled him into a hug. Jaysan tried struggling, tried to tell him Aeron needed comfort first, and then that sweet basil scented wrapped around him and calmed some of his buzzing nerves.

“I’ve got you, angel, we’ll fix this,” Morris whispered.

Jaysan pressed his face into Morris’s armpit, using the pressure on his eyes to stop his own tears. He gulped in air and let out shaky breaths, the actions easing him out of his own panicked response to his son’s distress.

“Papa!” Aeron yelled. “Papa!”

Jaysan raised his face and looked into kind, concerned eyes. “He was yelling for Dada before. Upstairs.”

Morris nodded, then led Jaysan to the couch. Helped him sit. Then he fetched Aeron from the walker and brought him over to sit with Jaysan. Aeron’s cries eased a bit, but he still looked so upset it broke Jaysan’s heart. A child that young shouldn’t hurt so much, but the parents he knew had disappeared, and he didn’t understand why.

With Aeron settling more the longer they three sat, Morris said, “Tell me what happened.”

Jaysan tried to explain, everything from exploring the room to calling Morris. “I didn’t know what else to do. He wouldn’t quiet down for me, and then I got upset, and I think that made him more upset.”

“Calling me was smart. Being in their room probably reminded Aeron, in his own way, that two people weren’t around anymore, and he needed to see someone he knew.”

Jaysan didn’t bother hiding his flinch. “Because he doesn’t know me yet.”

“Visually, no. He’s learning you, but right now, you aren’t as familiar a face as I am, and that will change. He’s going to learn you and know you visually, just like he knows you in his heart.”

“I know, it just hurts that he prefers you to me.”

“It’s not about preference. It’s simply about familiarity.” Morris let out a long, heavy sigh. “Sometimes I think it would be better if I sold the house and moved to another home. A fresh start for all of us.”

“You’d stay in Sansbury, though, right?”

“Of course. This is my home now. My work is here, my ma—you’re here. This is Aeron’s home, too. No, just to another neighborhood.”

“Okay.” Jaysan would have died on the spot if Morris wanted to leave Sansbury, because his guardians were here, and the only way he could have followed Morris to another province would be to mate with him.

No fucking thank you.

“Would you be okay with moving?”

Jaysan blinked at him. “It’s your house, not mine. I don’t live here, so it’s not my decision.”

Morris seemed poised to argue, but didn’t. “Anyway, now isn’t the time to discuss it. Again, thank you for calling me. You can call me anytime you need something, even if it has nothing to do with Aeron. All right?”

“Okay.”

“Excellent. Why don’t you go wash your face and relax for a bit? I’ve got the kid.”

“Thanks.”

Jaysan escaped to the downstairs bathroom, glad to be away from Morris’s proximity for a little while. They’d survived this minor disaster by working together. One simple hug from Morris shouldn’t have calmed him as effectively as it did, but they were bondmates, whether Jaysan accepted it or not. He’d always instinctively react to Morris’s comfort.

Maybe his efforts would be futile in the end, but Jaysan was determined to resist his instinctive draw to Morris and the mating bond. He could choose whether or not he acted on it, and the instant he felt the first inkling of his next heat, he’d be out of this house immediately. He’d seek help from a somewhat new beta organization that assisted omegas through their heats with as much comfort as possible, just as he’d done his last heat.

Because Jaysan wasn’t certain about many things anymore, but he was certain about this: he was not mating with Morris Danvers during his next heat, no matter what biology insisted.

Period.