Hell. Myron had always had his own idea of it. The line at the DMV on a Friday thirty minutes before closing time. Being forced to attend a family reunion with people he hadn’t seen in a decade. Losing the woman he loved to a man who represented everything he wasn’t.

Now, he knew that hell was none of those things. Hell was knowing that his destined mate, who was pregnant with a child he had always yearned for and never believed he was capable of creating, was halfway across the world in some undisclosed location and wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

And for good reason.

Myron understood why Avery wouldn’t breathe a word about Charles’ location to him, and it burned that Charles himself had asked him not to, but he understood that, too. He’d hurt Charles deeply and it didn’t matter that he’d intended the opposite or that he hadn’t known about the baby. They were all just excuses. The kind of excuses he could no longer use to justify the fact that, a few tough breaks aside, his life was in shambles because he was the one in control of it.

All Avery would tell him was that Charles and the baby were both healthy and that he was receiving regular screenings from some doctor who was supposedly an expert in sigma care. It all sounded like bullshit to him. Whoever these people were that Charles was staying with and Avery trusted so implicitly, they had already raised a ton of red flags in Myron’s eyes. For all he knew, they were just trying to exploit Charles and everything that made him unique by pretending like there were others like him.

They had his mate and his baby under their control, and no matter how furious it made him, there was nothing Myron could do because first, he didn’t have a damn clue where or who they were and second, he had pushed Charles right into their arms. He’d made his own mate feel unwanted, and cast out to the point where he had to seek sanctuary from strangers.

Myron had known a few omegas in his lifetime who’d sought sanctuary within their pack, and it didn’t matter what the details were. He had always judged their mates, because even if they weren’t shameless abusers, they were still pieces of shit in his book for failing to care for their omegas. Omegas didn’t just up and run because they felt like it, they had to feel unsafe or at the very least, unwanted.

And that was exactly what he’d done to Charles. Because he wasn’t sure of his feelings.

Well, he was sure of them now. The old him would have lashed out at Inara, blaming her resurgence for his wandering heart and reckless handling of his own mate’s feelings, but he had come just far enough to know that was bullshit. Inara had nothing to do with his life now, and his feelings for Charles shouldn’t have changed one iota because she had suddenly decided to show up in his life again.

He should’ve told her to have a nice day and a nice life that day in the convenience store aisle, and that would have been the end of it. Charles would still be there, and he would be taking his mate to doctor’s appointments and making sure that he took care of his health rather than having to trust that some unidentified pair across the ocean was doing an adequate job of it for him.

“There you are,” Nicholas muttered. The Alpha met Myron’s car at the gate. He’d been in London for the last week and had just gotten his car at the airport after reposting every last damn member of Charles’ former security team and tying up some loose ends the CEO had left behind. As far as he knew, Charles wasn’t working from wherever he was, so Myron had taken it upon himself to at least make sure that he didn’t come back to a nightmare. He’d cancelled all of his speaking engagements for the near future, since the entire organization was still in an uproar, and focused on picking up the slack and hiring new team members to make up for the ones who’d quit for fear that they would become some anti-Futurus activist’s next target.

“I told you I wasn’t getting back until tonight or tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know. We need to talk.”

Myron sighed. “At least let me park.”

“Park by the gate. I’ll have one of my betas drive your car back to the house.”

“Fine,” Myron muttered, realizing it was going to be one of those days. Not that there had been any good ones since Charles had left. He got out of the car and threw his hands up. “Well, what’s so urgent it couldn’t wait until I got back inside?”

“You’re rarely ever home these days, so don’t pretend like it’s easy to catch you.”

“And home is where these days, exactly?” Myron challenged. “If I’m not in London putting out fires, I’m here with you and your mate, who won’t even tell me where Charles is.”

“You know Avery is only respecting Charles’ wishes, and as for why he doesn’t want you to know where he is, you have only yourself to blame.”

Myron grunted. He was right. It just wasn’t easy to hear.

“I know I used to give you a hard time about not devoting yourself to anything, but don’t you think you’re spreading yourself a bit too thin with Futurus lately?”

“I need something to distract me from the fact that Charles is God only knows where—and by God I do mean your mate.”

Nicholas sighed. “That company was in chaos before Charles took over, and his presence is the only thing that kept it stable for as long as it has been. You can’t hold it together without him.”

“I can try,” he muttered. “At least it’s something.”

“He’s not going to come back to you because you kept his desk organized while he was gone, Myron. If he comes back at all, he and that baby are going to need a stable place they can grow and heal and rebuild. London isn’t it.”

“And Southbend is?”

“I know you always felt trapped here,” Nicholas said, becoming the living embodiment of guilt. “And I know I left you holding the bag when dad got sick. I’m always going to regret that, but I can’t just let you crash and burn like this, Myron.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning that Charles is gone, and you have to face that. If and when he comes back, you need to have something to offer him besides more chaos.”

“So what, you want me to settle back here? Maybe pick up another teaching job I hate and rent a cute little house nextdoor to the woman he thinks I’m going to leave him for?”

“No. As a matter of fact, I don’t think you should stay in Southbend at all.”

Myron blinked. “What?”

“One of our neighboring packs outside the Mountain Council system just lost its Alpha to a scandal. The kind of scandal where entire families split up and people don’t speak for generations.”

“And this has what to do with me?”

“There’s a leadership vacuum right now. Could be for a few months, maybe forever if you wanted it to be.”

“I’m sorry… are you trying to get rid of me by sending me to another pack?”

“You always needed a little push,” he said with a smirk. “But I actually think you’d be good for the job. They need someone strong and hardheaded, but not as prone to corruption as the last Alpha was. From what I hear, there’s a need for a major infrastructure overhaul, so they could use someone with a background in architecture. It’s a tough gig, but after the way I’ve seen you step up at Futurus, I’m sure you could handle it. You’re certainly more qualified than anyone else the Council has recommended.”

“I’m an omega. You really think some small towners are gonna go for that?”

“You’re not an omega, and you’re not an Alpha either. Gray Hollow could use something a bit different.”

“Please don’t tell me you believe all this sigma bullshit.”

“Why not? You’ve been defying our expectations ever since we were kids. Me, mom, and everyone else has tried to put you in a box, and you always kept popping out of it,” Nicholas said with a chuckle. “I should have figured that you would prove us all wrong one day, and find a mate who did the same.”

“He may be my mate, but that doesn’t mean he wants to be. And if I don’t have time for Futurus, why would I have time to renovate some pack I’ve never even been to from the ground up?”

“Because it’s a chance to start over,” said Nicholas. “A chance for you to build something that’s uniquely yours, and to put your talents to use in a way that helps other people without confining you to doing one thing you’re going to get bored of in a few months. It’s also a chance for you to create the kind of environment Charles and your baby deserve if he chooses to come back. There’s an old lab from a plant that left town years ago, but like the rest of the pack, it could be something great with a little elbow grease. Charles could turn it into a branch of the company if he wanted.”

“You’re serious…”

“It’s hard to start over somewhere everyone knows you. Even if you think you’ve overcome those expectations, they grasp onto you. In Southbend, you’re always going to be my big brother. The former Alpha’s kid. Inara’s ex.”

Myron winced, because he knew it was the truth. And it wasn’t fair to Charles, if the man ever did decide to take him back.

“Can I as you something, Myron?”

“Have you ever not?” he muttered.

“You said you needed space to sort out your feelings for Inara, and I get it. When you’re that involved with someone, those feelings don’t just disappear over night. You can’t erase someone completely from your mind, but I want to ask you this. Since Charles left, have you even thought of her once?”

As Myron thought about it, the answer surprised him. The only context in which he’d thought about the omega at all was how much he regretted letting her get between him and Charles, even if it was only in spirit. “No…”

“You’re more complex than you give yourself credit for. You overanalyze these traces of feelings that other people would just overlook. It’s the math nerd in you,” he snorted. “But real life isn’t an equation, it doesn’t perfectly balance out and you’re never going to be able to erase every last trace someone left in you. That’s not how it works.”

“I guess not,” Myron sighed.

“At any point in all this, did Charles demand you to forget all about Inara and pretend like she never existed?” Nicholas challenged.

“No…”

“And did he say he expected you to be completely over all the pain she caused you in order to be with him?”

“Of course not.”

“Then I’d say you, dear brother, have fallen prey to the classic Myer habit of making a mountain out of a molehill. And the way we act toward each other doesn’t help,” he said guiltily. “We all demand perfection of each other, and it’s not fair. We put so much pressure on ourselves that we leave no room for anyone else to fall short of what we expect, and for that, I owe you an apology.”

“Guess I’ve done the same to you enough times in the past.” He watched Nicholas, studying his brother for a moment. “What changed?”

“What do you mean?”

“You always treated me like I was your little brother. Like I needed protecting, no matter how many times I bailed your ass out of trouble,” he scoffed. “It drove me insane. But that’s changed lately.”

“I thought you were upset at me for riding you about your mistakes.”

“I mean, it pisses me off. But for once, you’re right,” he sighed. “I fucked up, and I needed the wakeup call. But you’re actually treating me like your equal. Is it because of this whole sigma thing?”

“That’s part of it,” Nicholas admitted. “But it shouldn’t have taken that to realize that you were different. You always have been. I resented mom and dad for putting me in the Alpha box, and I turned around and did it to you.”

“Things are different,” Myron murmured. “The world isn’t as rigid as the one we grew up in. Alphas are mating other Alphas, omegas fall for each other, and then there’s whatever the hell I am.”

“You’re my brother,” Nicholas said with a shrug. “My brilliant, stubborn, pain in the ass brother who’s always driven me nuts… but also the one who’s always been there to hold shit down when I need him. If this label helps you make sense of who you are, that’s great, but the only thing that has to define you is your character. Recent mistakes aside, you’re still the person I admire most.”

“Now I know that’s bullshit,” Myron snorted.

“It’s not. You’ve always come through when push came to shove, but you’ve changed lately. Finding your mate has made you stronger, and more focused. That’s all you were ever missing.”

Myron chewed his lip as he listened to his brother, considering Nicholas’ words. “You really think I’d be a good pack Alpha?”

“No,” Nicholas laughed. “But I think you’d be a hell of a pack leader.”

Myron smiled. “I guess I’ve got time to try.”