“Thanks for helping me move Ellis’ stuff in,” I said as Jayce backed the end of his truck up the front steps.

“What’s family for if not helping you move and recommending hitmen?”

I gave him a look and checked to make sure my neighbors weren’t around, which was probably more suspicious than Jayce mouthing off. “I’m keeping my end of the bargain.”

“You seriously haven’t told Ellis?”

“No. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t know about the accident and it’s not like it came up at dinner.”

Jayce nodded thoughtfully, setting the trunk down in Ellis’s room. I was hoping we wouldn’t stay separated for that long, but I understood why he needed his own space. We weren’t officially mated yet, and there was still a chance he wasn’t going to want to be anytime soon.

“Well, that’s the last of it,” he announced. “I’ll drop the truck off on my way home and Wren can pick me up.”

“Thanks. How’s he doing? Just another month to go, right?”

Jayce grinned proudly. “Yep. If Harriet and Aron’s birthdays are any indication, maybe a week before that.”

“Let me know if you need any help with the kids when it’s time. Anika never passes up a chance to see Harry.”

“Will do.” He glanced out the window and I could hear a car pulling into the driveway. “Looks like your business partner’s here.”

I rolled my eyes. “You guys are never going to let me live this down, are you?”

“After all the grief you gave me and Gray about not just coming out about imprinting right away? Nah.” He patted me on the shoulder before heading downstairs and I followed him. Ellis was just coming in the door with a huge bag on his shoulder and my Alpha instincts went into overdrive.

“You shouldn’t be lifting that.”

He gave me a weary look as I took the bag from him. “The doctor said I’m fine to carry on as usual for the next few months.”

“I’d like to get a second opinion,” I muttered.

Jayce laughed knowingly. “Good to see you again, Ellis. How was your trip?”

“Humid, but good,” he replied, smiling at my brother. I knew he’d been wary of meeting my family after that rather tense first dinner, but Jayce had a way of putting everyone at ease. “Thanks for all the help. I’m sure you had other things to do.”

“Hey, Wren’s nesting, so I was bound to get kicked out for the afternoon anyway while he redecorates. We wanna have you both over for dinner sometime this week, if you’re free.” His eyes danced with amusement. “I promise, my father won’t be in attendance.”

Ellis’s face turned beet red. “Sounds good. I’m going to have to work up the guts to face him again anyway.”

“I’m just kidding. He gets it. Trust me, you’re not the first person who’s stormed out of a dinner with him,” he said with a chuckle.

“Thanks again, Jayce. We’ll let you know about dinner,” I promised, walking him to the door. After he left, I turned to face Ellis, hoping that he wasn’t having any second thoughts about moving in. “So, anything else we need to take care of?”

“No, I just handed in my keys to the condo manager so he can keep an eye on things.”

I held my tongue even though I wanted to offer my real estate broker for the sale. It was enough that Ellis was taking this step, and I could understand him not wanting to do anything permanent just yet. “Great. Well, your room’s all set, which brings us to the next step…”

He sighed. “Meeting my family. I know.”

“I’ve already met your brothers,” I reminded him. “It doesn’t have to be a big thing, but I think I owe it to your mom to let her know who the guy is her son’s running off to live with.”

“I know. And I appreciate it that you want to,” he assured me. “It’s just that I’ve never really done this. Bringing anyone home, I mean.”

I smiled. “If it helps, I’m pretty good with parents. Well, other people’s.”

“She’ll love you,” he insisted, taking a step closer. “I’ll call her tonight, alright?”

“Sounds good to me.” I reached out to stroke his cheek. His hair was up again, but I could never get the feeling of those smooth strands running through my fingertips out of my head.

Anika’s footsteps on the stairs made him jump, and I realized it was going to take some time for us all to adjust to being a family. Especially since we were far from a nuclear one at the moment.

“Daddy, look!” Anika cried, holding something in her hands as she took the last few stairs one at a time, careful not to drop it. “I found it in my window.”

“What is it?” I asked, scooping her up into my arms. She opened her hands to reveal a small green lizard wriggling in her palms and cupped them closed again before it could escape.

“It’s a baby dragon!” she announced proudly.

I laughed. “There’s a lot of those running around in the desert. You’d better put him outside where he can get some water.”

“But I wanna keep him and see if he grows wings.”

“I have it on good authority that they only grow wings if they’re outside, where they can stretch out,” I said, putting her down by the door. “But you can put him by the pond and watch him.”

“Okay,” she grumbled, trotting around back with her dragon in her grasp.

“Dragons?” Ellis asked dryly.

“Trust me, I’ve learned to just go with the fantasy. She moves on to a new one eventually.”

Anika came back in and stopped, looking between me and Ellis. She’d taken the news that my “friend” would be staying with us well enough, but I could tell now that it was move-in day, it was setting in for her that something had changed. “I’m hungry.”

“I could make something,” Ellis offered. “What’s your favorite food?”

“Marshmallows,” she said without hesitation.

Ellis laughed. “Okay, then how about we have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with s’mores for dessert?”

“Okay!”

“Go on up and finish your homework before dinner. I’ll call you when it’s ready,” I promised. Once she was upstairs, I turned back to Ellis and grinned. “Told you it wouldn’t be hard to win her over.”

“Lucky thing I know how to cook, because I’m terrible with kids.”

“Most people are until they have them. But she likes you,” I assured him, following him into the kitchen to help with the dinner prep. “It’s just gonna take some time for us all to get to know each other.”

“I hope so.”

The fact that he cared so much about Anika accepting him had eased my own anxiety about the transition. Being a single father was the primary reason I’d never tried to date sooner, despite my family’s attempts to set me up with other omegas. Things hadn’t been easy since Janie’s death, but Anika and I had created our own little world of security and stability, and until Ellis, there had been no one who interested me enough to risk unsettling that balance.

As we cooked together, my thoughts drifted to the conversation I knew we had to have eventually. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. Something that happened while you were gone.”

He stopped chopping the parsley and stared at me. “Oh… What is it?”

I cleared my throat. “It’s about the reunion.”

“You went?”

“Yeah. Uh, I’d promised a couple of old friends I’d be there, and things got a little crazy toward the end —“

“Wait,” he said, holding his hand up to stop me. “Look, Reece, I get it. I was halfway across the world. Things happen. Hell, there was an Alpha who was hitting on me and some things crossed my mind. If you were with another omega, fine, I just don’t want to know.”

“Another omega?” I frowned, my thoughts racing as I struggled to keep up. “Ellis, no. There’s no one else, and there’s never going to be.” I paused. “But now that we’re on the subject, who exactly was this Alpha?”

His face turned red again. “He was the caretaker at the house my group was staying in. He was cute, but he’s in his early twenties. Not exactly my type.”

“That’s what Wren would have said, before he mated my brother,” I grumbled.

Ellis gave me an appeasing smile and came over to join me on the other side of the counter. “You have nothing to be jealous over.”

“Oh, really? So if I look this guy up on social, I’m gonna find an Alpha who looks like a toad?”

He grinned, clearly enjoying my instant devolution into a jealous pseudo-boyfriend. “Oh, Maynor is very handsome.”

“Maynor, is it?” I muttered.

Ellis wrapped his arms around my neck and when I looked into his eyes, I forgot I was mad about anything other than him. “We flirted a little, but I mean it when I say nothing happened.”

“Why not?”

“Because the whole time, all I could do was compare him and every other Alpha I met to you,” he admitted, his piercing green eyes softening as he spoke. “That was how I knew. No matter how much I want to think I’ve changed over the years, in some way, I’m still just the same omega who only ever had eyes for the most popular guy in school who barely even knew he existed.”

“I knew,” I assured him, cupping his face in my palm. “I was just too dumb to realize what I had, but I’m not that guy anymore.”

“No,” he said thoughtfully. “You’re not.”

I leaned in but stopped myself before my lips met his. “It wouldn’t be very friendly if I were to kiss you right now, would it?”

“No,” he breathed, his eyes glazed. “It probably wouldn’t.” He frowned, as if he’d just remembered something. “If you weren’t with anyone at the reunion, what was it that you wanted to tell me?”

My mood soured immediately and I pulled away. “Oh. Right. It’s uh, Drew.” I saw the fear that came into his eyes as soon as I spoke the dead man’s name, and knew I’d made the right decision. As if there’d been any doubt before. “He was drinking at the reunion, and he got behind the wheel. He wrapped his car around a tree and died at the scene. You don’t need to be afraid of him anymore.”

I decided not to mention the fact that the police report had said his tires were blown out by something on the side of the road that hadn’t been there when they’d gone back to check.

His eyes widened. “Oh my God.”

“Are you alright?” I asked, not sure what to make of the fact that his face had gone as white as a ghost. I helped him over to a stool and made him sit down.

“Yeah, I am,” he said even as tears sprang to his eyes. They didn’t fall, but it was the first I’d seen him show any sign of emotion now that he was sober. “I don’t know why I’m reacting like this.”

I took him into my arms and held him close. He let out a heavy sigh against my neck, wrapping his arms around me. For a long while, neither of us said anything. Somehow, I just knew he needed to be held as much as I needed to remind myself that he was here and safe.

“Do you need some time before dinner?” I offered.

He shook his head, pulling away. “I’m fine,” he said, clearing his throat. “I think it’s just relief. For so long, he’s been this shadow looming over me.”

“Not anymore,” I said, taking his hand. My mate and every other omega Drew came into contact with was safer because of the thing I would have done all those years ago, if I’d known. Maybe it was fifteen years too late, but I’d finally stepped up to protect my mate, and I wasn’t about to burden him by telling him the truth of how it had happened. It was my responsibility to bear, and as far as burdens went, it wasn’t all that heavy.

That night, after we’d eaten dinner as a family, read Anika a bedtime story together, and gone back to my room—even if it was only to cuddle until we fell asleep—I slept more soundly than I ever had. For the first time, the past truly was in the past, and I didn’t just feel like Ellis and I had a shot at a future together. I knew it.

Even if it took time to convince him that it was safe for him to trust me with his whole heart the way he once had, I was certain enough for the both of us.