The sun had already disappeared beyond the horizon by the time we reached Crystal Bay, but my mind was still wide awake, my heart pumping adrenaline through my blood as we approached the gated community.

“Hand me my wallet,” Zander said as when we got close. “It’s in the glove box.” He looked just as alert as I felt. So far our trip had been pleasant, but that could all change in the next few minutes.

As I dug through the glove box, we rolled up to the guard posted outside the community. He looked unfriendly, eyes squinting at us as Zander lowered his window.

I held my breath. This was the man who was going to decide whether or not all our trouble had been worth it. Whether or not I got to see my brother today. Knowing what was expected of omegas in these parts, I handed Zander his wallet and kept my mouth shut. And I hated every goddamn second of it. How could Rhys stand to live here?

“Who are you?” The guard asked, looking only at Zander. Of course. He'd know from our scents alone that Zander was alpha, and as such, naturally the one in charge.

Zander took his ID out of his wallet and showed it to the guard. “Alexander Kerner. This is my mate, Nicholas Kerner.” He nodded at me. “We're here to visit his family. You know how it is. You gotta keep your omega happy or they become hysteric and pretend to have headaches.” On the last words, he laughed, as if sharing a private joke with the guard. I knew this was an act, but it still made my skin crawl.

He was acting like exactly the kind of alpha I did not want to date.

But it worked.

The guard laughed along with him. “Oh yeah, I heard you would be coming. You two are newly married, yeah? Let me give you a word of advice.” He leaned in to Zander. “Take some time to break him in properly. You won’t regret it.” His laugh was dirty and made me feel like a whole bug infestation breaking out on my skin. Beside me, Zander tensed too. Not obviously enough for the guard to grow suspicious, but just enough for me to know he was hating this as much as I was.

Sorry for dragging you into this.

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Zander said, nodding at the guard.

The asshole didn’t seem to notice the cold glint in Zander’s eyes; he simply waved us through.

I’d never been so happy to see someone in the rear-view mirror.

“I’m sorry,” Zander said as soon as we were out of earshot, laying his hand over mine.

My eyes darted to our hands. The bugs had left my skin now. Instead there was only a gentle tingling where Zander and I touched. “It’s all right,” I made myself say. “You had to get us in.”

“I still feel like an ass.”

I shook my head. “I know you’d never treat me like that. If we were together in reality.” Which we weren’t, so I really needed to get a grip. Zander didn’t mean anything by squeezing my hand. He only wanted to reassure me.

“Yeah. If we were together in reality...”

Did I imagine it or did his voice sound wistful? “Not like that would ever happen, right? I mean, can you even imagine that?” I laughed, trying to play my question off as a joke. How was he going to react? I needed to know.

“We were sort of together once,” he said, looking at the road instead of me. We were driving into town now, between the first houses of the community. Glancing at the GPS told me that we were almost there. Not even five minutes before it was show time.

“I don't know if that counts,” I threw in. “I mean, we were children. It was just... “

“Just what?” Half of Zander's attention was on the road, but I could tell the other half was focused solely on me.

“It was just puppy love, wasn't it?”

One of Zander's hands left the steering wheel and went into his hair. “It didn't feel like that to me,” he admitted.

“No?” My mouth ran dry.

“You should know. I told you.” He gave a short laugh, as if the memory somehow amused him in a bitter sort of way. “I called you from the phone box outside my gran's store, you know. Because my parents didn't want me to call you anymore.”

“I...” Really didn't know what to say.

“You're speechless.” Zander smiled at me. “That doesn't happen too often.”

How could he still be smiling at me now—after the way I'd ignored him all those years ago?

He must remember.

And yet… he still cared about me. He wasn't like the alphas in this community at all.

“I really don't know what to say,” I told him honestly.

“Doesn't matter,” he gave back. “We're here. House number 17, that's your brother's.”

He was right. When I looked out the car window, we'd stopped in front of a two-story house. The exterior light came on as Zander parked the car, and in the orange glow, I could make out the number 17 in copper letters next to the front door. The house was built of blue wood. It looked almost... cute.

This was so not what I'd expected.

What, did you think there were going to be cobwebs and spiders and crying children in the street?

Just because this was a horrible place didn't mean it had to look the part. That it didn't actually made it creepier in a way.

“You look shocked,” Zander noted.

“I'm fine. I've just... thought so much about how to get here that I never prepared a plan for what I'd do once I achieved that goal.”

“The plan was to see how your brother is and talk some sense into him if needed,” Zander reminded me. He squeezed my hand again, and only then did I realize that I'd never withdrawn mine. “You got this.”

“You're right.” I squeezed his hand back. And then I unfastened my seat belt and got out of the car. “Show time,” I whispered to myself.

Together, Zander and I walked up to the front door. When we reached it, we shared a look.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Ready,” I said, grabbing his hand again before I knocked.

Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door, and then it opened. Before me stood my brother. Without wasting a second, I jumped at him and threw my arms around his back.

“Rhys!” God, it felt good to have him close again. He returned the hug a bit more cautiously at first and then he pressed me to himself just as hard as I was holding him. He'd lost weight, I could tell. He'd always been super thin, forgetting to eat when he got absorbed into his studies, but this was extreme. Even for him.

After a moment, I took a step back to look at him. “Sheesh, Rhys, have you looked in a mirror lately?” He had bags under his eyes the size of Texas.

“I'll not have you talk to my mate that way.” Rhys' husband stepped into the hallway, a beast of a man. He was putting on his best smile as if that could fool anyone. This man had isolated my brother from his family, and I knew what his cult thought about omegas.

“I'm only concerned, that's all,” I said. “Your mate and I are family, after all.” But you and I are not.

“There's nothing for you to worry about,” Rhys said, obviously not wanting to see a fight break out between me and his husband. “Nick, this is my mate, Jeremiah. Jeremiah, this is my brother Nick. Oh, and his husband, Zander.” Rhys turned to Zander. “It's nice to see you again. I always knew you and Nick would end up together.”

“You were quite right,” Zander said. “We're perfect together.” Laying an arm around my shoulder, he pulled me closer. Naturally, I leaned into him. His scent drifted into my nose and made me close my eyes for one second, inhaling it.

This role was so easy to play. Too easy.

“I'm so glad you found someone,” Rhys said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Why don't we go into the living room to talk? You must be tired from the long trip. I'll make some coffee.”

“Good idea,” Rhys’ husband agreed. “Strong coffee, though. Not the weak stuff we had this morning.”

“I'll do my best.” Rhys went off to the kitchen with a light bow, like some kind of servant. I glared at Jeremiah, the asshole of an alpha my brother had married, but Zander pulled me closer before I could take any drastic action to defend my brother's honor.

“Wait,” he whispered into my ear.

I knew he was right, too. We'd only just arrived. If I got us kicked out before I could even really talk to my brother that would accomplish nothing. So I ground my teeth together and remained quiet.

“C'mon then. Into the living room,” the alpha-asshole said, leading us there. Once we'd taken seat on his red leather couch, he asked, “So how long have you two been married?”

“Oh, not too long,” Zander answered for me. “We're still newly-wed. Still crazy about each other.” With that, he leaned in to give me a kiss. Just a quick peck on the lips, really. It shouldn’t have roused me, but for some reason, it did. Heat crawled along my spine and down to my groin. I stared at Zander as we broke.

What was going on?

Zander didn't seem to notice there was anything wrong and resumed talking to Jeremiah. “You must know what that feels like. You and Rhys haven't been married that long either, have you?”

“No, true.” Jeremiah glanced in the direction of the door, as if wondering why Rhys was taking so long with the coffee. “We've been together long enough to have settled into our lives together, though. Long enough to have told our families that we're married.”

Oh, that was definitely a dig at me. I tried to shake the odd feeling Zander’s kiss had caused in me so I could speak. “Well, the two of us eloped,” I said, intertwining our fingers and making doe eyes at Zander. “We just couldn't wait.”

Jeremiah shook his head. “Some things are worth the wait. We want to do everything the proper way. Engagement, then marriage, then kids, then—”

“You're thinking about having kids?” I cut in, feeling something cold run down my back. Kade had told me once that he had to escape the Vinist community before he had any kids. If he hadn't, he would have been tied to his husband—and the Vinist community—forever.

I didn't want that kind of fate for my brother. Even if it was his own stupid choice, he didn't deserve that. I needed to figure out what had gotten into him and get it out of him, and fast.

“Are you okay?” Zander rubbed my back. “You've gone kind of pale.”

“I'm fine,” I said, even though I really wasn't. My brother was an idiot and my fake husband made me feel like I was getting a fever.

“What's wrong with wanting to have kids?” Jeremiah asked. “Of course, we want kids.”

“Uh...” I didn't have a reply for that. As much as I wanted to tell him exactly why I didn't want my brother to have kids with him, I didn't want to get thrown out of the house yet.

Before I could stumble my way through a response, Rhys came into the living room, carrying a tray with coffee mugs. Like a good omega, I jumped up to help him. “We need to talk in private,” I whispered to him before I lifted two mugs off the tray for Zander and me.

“In the morning” he whispered back.

I gave a subtle nod and sat back down beside Zander, a fake smile plastered on my face.

The morning couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

After dinner—a chicken casserole my brother had prepared, served and cleaned up entirely without his mate’s help—Rhys showed us to the guest room so we could settle in for the night.

“It’s not very big,” he said as he opened the door, “but I think it’s kind of cozy.”

“The whole house is very cozy,” Zander responded, stepping inside with both my bag and his own. I had to agree with him; the house was nice. I did have a problem with some of the interior decoration, though. There was so much religious stuff here it was ridiculous. Oppressive, really. I didn’t need my lord and savior smiling at me from every corner of the house. Even the guest room had a painting of Jesus. Hung above the king-size bed, of all places.

“Thank you,” Rhys said. “Have a good night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I caught myself thinking again that morning had better come here soon, because now I was realizing that I had to spend the night here in this bed with the alpha I was developing an unhealthy crush on. Great. I’d only thought about getting here, but not much further than that. Looking around the room again, I tried to find something to distract me from the inevitable, and maybe Zander was doing the same thing, because he spoke up first.

“This house has a lot of Jesus paintings, doesn’t it?” He was looking at the one above the bed, which depicted God’s son in white robes.

“The Vinists believe that he was alpha, did you know that?” Kade had told me about the Vinist belief system once. It ran contrary to the popular belief that God’s son existed outside the alpha/beta/omega system, loving all people the same, just like his father did. “They claim Jesus was alpha and all his disciples were betas.”

“Aside from the one who betrayed him,” Zander added. So he was familiar with the story.

I shook my head. “One hormone crazed omega betrays Jesus and we all have to be second-class citizens forever. Damn convenient, isn’t it?”

“It’s not a belief system I would put a lot of faith in,” Zander said, digging through his bag. Was he going to change? In here? I licked my lips, unable to decide whether I liked that idea or not. I was in enough trouble sleeping in the same room as him without seeing him naked first.

But I did want to see him naked.

To my relief and my dismay, Zander left for the bathroom with his bag in hand. Well then. I stripped down to my shirt and boxers before my fake mate came back wearing a light blue pajama. He’d obviously put a little more thought into preparing for this trip than I had, showing no skin. Part of me was relieved, and part of me was disappointed.

There was no point pondering Zander’s sleepwear any longer, though. Grabbing my bag, I headed to the bathroom myself to brush my teeth and get ready for what I assumed was going to be a sleepless night.

Zander had already settled into bed by the time I came back from the bathroom. I almost had to laugh when I saw the book in his hands. Of course he’d packed a book. He tried to appear casual, but I knew deep down he was holding on to that book the same way a child far from home held on to their stuffed toy. He was nervous too. I had to think back to what he’d told me earlier, about our last phone call when we were children.

Was there any chance he still felt that way about me after all this time?

I shook the thought off. This was not the time to have that conversation. I was not going to make out with Zander in my twin’s guest room, and if I started thinking about it, I was never going to sleep.

“Something wrong?” Zander asked, making me realize that I’d stood hesitating by the door for too long.

“No, nothing.” I climbed into the bed beside him. “You better not be hogging the blanket tonight.”

“I’ll try not to.” He only gave me a short glance before focusing on his book again.

“What are you reading?”

He actually had to look at the spine before he could reply. His attention so wasn’t on that book, even if he wanted it to be. “The Silmarillion.”

“That sounds boring.”

“No, it’s actually…” He stopped and put the book aside, rubbing his eyes. “No, you’re right. It is boring. I think I’m just going to sleep. Okay if I turn the lights off?”

“Sure, go ahead.” Maybe if I couldn’t see him anymore, I could pretend like he wasn’t there and then my heart would stop beating so fast.

Even with the lights off, though, I could still hear him breathe. I could still feel the warmth his body radiated and I could still smell his scent in the air. Closing my eyes, I inhaled through my nose, catching it in my lungs. It was such a familiar scent. Sure it had changed a bit since we were children, turned all muskier and more alpha like a rich wine ripening over time, but underneath all that, I could still smell the base note—Zander.

I’d feared that I wouldn’t be able to sleep with him in the same bed, but in reality, there was comfort in knowing he was close. Without conscious thought, I relaxed, feeling safe, as if I’d found shelter in a storm, a warm fire to rest by and the guarantee that everything was all right with the world. In the end, I drifted off with Zander’s scent in my nose before my brain could even start overthinking the reaction I had to the alpha next to me.

* * *

Rhys didn’t have time to talk in the morning. Of course not. He was busy cooking our breakfast and then eating and then cleaning up after us. When I offered to help, I was told that was improper. In spite of my omega status, I was still a guest in the house, after all. Jeremiah graciously offered to show us around town while his mate was busy, though.

I grudgingly agreed, if only because I wanted to know what sort of place my brother lived in. To be honest, Crystal Bay didn’t look too different from Oceanport on the surface. I thought the lack of mountains made it less pretty, but I might have been a little bit biased. The streets were cleaner than Oceanport’s, but that was probably because every alpha had an omega trailing behind them to pick up their trash. I didn’t literally see that happen, but I could picture it. The few omegas I saw out and about in the cold seemed sort of demure to me anyway, while the alphas all pranced around as if they owned the place—which they probably did.

I felt eyes on me only twenty minutes after we left the house. Some lusty alpha staring at me from the porch of his house. He didn’t stop looking at me until Zander took my hand and glared him down. I’d never seen my friend act so territorial before, but in the moment, I was glad to have him with me.

When we got back to Rhys’ place after the tour, my brother still didn’t have time. There was always something he needed to do while his husband sat in front of the TV and drank beer. It was infuriating, and I wasn’t going to put up with it much longer.

As soon as dinner was done and my brother vanished back into the kitchen to do the dishes, I got up from the table to follow him.

“Where are you going?” Jeremiah asked.

“I'm going to help Rhys.”

“Rhys can handle—”

“I don't care.” Before Jeremiah could get another word in, I was out of the room. He was probably going to tell Zander all about how he should discipline me for that. Whatever.

“Nick?” Rhys looked up from the sink as I came into the kitchen.

“Yup.” I grabbed a dishrag from the counter and joined him by the sink. “You look like you need some help, and you also owe me a talk. So, I can dry the dishes and you can wash the plates and while we're doing that, we talk.”

For a moment, I got the feeling that he wanted to argue, but then he simply sighed and dropped another plate into the soapy water in the sink. “All right,” he said like someone who knew he had no other choice. “I don't know what you want to talk about, though, so you can start.”

Could I ever.

“Okay, first off, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Excuse me?”

“How can you stand being ordered around by your husband like that?”

“He's not ordering me around.” He handed me a plate to dry. “I knew what I was getting into when I married him. It's just a different culture.”

“It's just a different culture, my ass,” I said, ignoring the way Rhys cringed at my language. Even before he'd married into this community, he'd been the more sophisticated of the two of us. I really had no idea where he got it from. “Tell me why you're not sleeping.”

“Just as soon as you tell me why you suddenly decided to marry after all these years of saying you never would.”

I looked at him. Had he seen something today that made him doubt my relationship after all? For some reason, that only made me want to dig my heels in. “It’s different with Zander,” I claimed. “You should know. You bet on us.”

“I did…” He turned toward the sink again. “You ever wish we could go back to being children? Things were simpler then.”

“I guess. Yeah. I don’t know.” I loved having all the freedoms I had as an adult, but some things from my childhood I wouldn’t mind going back to. Like holding hands with Zander on the way home from school without worrying about what that meant. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“I’m sorry. I do believe you about Zander. I see the way you look at him.”

What was that supposed to mean? How was I looking at Zander?

“Is something wrong?” Rhys asked. My thoughts must have shown on my face.

“Nothing. Just wondering about something your husband said earlier,” I lied, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from me.

“What did he say?”

“Something about kids. Do you want kids with him? Are you two trying?”

“Is there a problem with that?” Rhys asked, all his attention focused on the plates instead of me. “Because if you don’t want to be an uncle, it’s too late. I’m afraid our older siblings have already procreated.”

I side-eyed my brother while drying a plate. He did have some spark in him when he wanted to. “I'm not saying that you shouldn't have children.”

“No, I get it.” Rhys turned to me. “You're saying that I shouldn't have children with the man I love.”

“Do you really?”

“Do I what?”

“Love him?”

For a second, Rhys only stared at me and I got the feeling that I'd said something really, really stupid. Like that time I thought brown cows gave chocolate milk. “Why do you think I married him?” he asked eventually, still with that disbelieving look on his face.

“Honestly? I don't know. I don't know how you can put up with living here or him being Vinist. I don't understand how you two even got together in the first place.”

“I put up with it because I love him.” He made quotation marks with his fingers. “Why won't you just believe me?” A loud clank followed his words as he dropped some cutlery into the sink a little too forcefully.

I remembered why he'd started ignoring my phone calls. We always ended up fighting lately. But now that I was seeing him in front of me with that pained look on his tired face, I didn't want to fight anymore. “I'm sorry. I'm only worried. I want to know that he's treating you right. I want you to be happy.” In a way, I felt like Rhys ending up here was my fault. I'd left him on his own. He went to college and I was too lazy to go with him.

“There's nothing for you to worry about,” Rhys said again.

I only wished I could believe him, but his husband was giving me the creeps. This whole community was giving me the creeps. That couldn’t all be in my head, could it?

Slowly, I took another plate and started drying it while I considered my next words. “I have this friend, you know. I think that's why I worry so much.”

“Your friend Kade?” Rhys asked, barely glancing at me. “You've told me about him before.”

“I heard a lot of stories about the Vinist community from him.”

“People aren't all the same, you know? That applies to Vinists too. You wouldn't believe how much variety there can be between different states and churches. I've researched all this, it's how I...”

“How you what?”

“How I met my husband, if you must know.”

My eyebrows went up of their own volition. “You were researching him?”

“Yeah. Well, not him especially, but I was doing a paper on Vinism and he offered to help me with it.”

“That's nice of him,” I said drily.

“Don't be passive-aggressive,” Rhys admonished me. “It doesn't suit you.”

“Fine.” I stacked the dried plates up on the counter. “I'll try not to be. But you need to think this through, Rhys. If you're having children with this man, you're never ever getting out of this life. Not completely. Have you considered that?”

My brother glared at me. “I'm not stupid, you know.”

“That's what I'm counting on.” With that, I put the dishrag down and left the kitchen.