Holy scales. That I didn’t expect. I didn’t doubt that Cael would be able to tell without a DNA test, the man had a sense for these things. But it was shocking. We’d had meetings like this in the past and never before had anyone actually been his offspring.
“The two of you will stay here. Dain will escort you to your guest rooms. I’ll look over your business proposal, but rest assured that I’ll provide for you and your friend from now on.”
Which meant I was about to spend time alone with the omega who had haunted my thoughts for weeks. The omega whose scent was currently filling the room and making it hard to think straight.
The omega who was definitely my boss’s son.
This day just kept getting better and better.
Chapter 9
Dain
Watching my mate walk into my boss’s office, swollen with my child but looking at me with fear in his eyes, was like a gut punch. The air whooshed from my lungs, and the only thing in my vision was Nym.
I had once been in a fight in which the alpha pulled a knife and stabbed me through the gut. This was way worse than that. I thought then that I was going to bleed out and die, but my shifter healing kicked in, and I recovered in enough time to take out the man who was threatening me. This time, though, thepain stayed. I was bleeding out, but only metaphorically. When Cael declared that Nym was in fact his child, and that he and his friend would be staying, it was up to me to escort them to their rooms.
If my boss sensed my distress, he didn’t comment on it. I doubted that I pulled the wool over his eyes. Nothing got past Cael.
All the while Nym was looking at me, holding a hand protectively over his belly.
“This will be your room, Preston,” I said, after leading them up to the second floor and into the east wing. This area was reserved for long-term guests. Cael liked to have the rooms ready at any moment just in case they were needed. Today, they were
Preston peeked inside and looked around. “I suppose this is adequate. I’m assuming Nym will be nearby?”
“Just down the hall. There’s actually a connecting sitting room for the two of you. Both rooms have been decorated for the holidays as well. If anything’s not to your liking, reach out to me or Louisa. They are the head of the household.”
“Perfect.” He looked at Nym. “Will you be okay, Nym?”
Nym nodded.
“Great, I’ll get settled and meet you in the sitting room in a bit.”
Nym and I walked side by side down the hall to his room, and I opened the door and gestured for him to go inside. I followed once he did and closed the door behind me.
His eyes went wide. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know you worked for my dad. Dain, please…”
“Please what?” I said. Anger radiated from me. Somehow he still smelled like mine, but what sort of mate would leave me without a word? What sort of mate would be pregnant with my child but not tell me? I knew he had tricked me, yet my heart wasn’t caught up to what my head knew.
“Don’t take my child from me,” he said.
“My child. That is my child you are carrying,” I said. “Don’t think I don’t know that the cub you are carrying is my pup. You cannot lie to me.”
“That may be, but you left me that morning. If you had truly wanted—”
“I left? You left!”
Nym rolled his eyes. “No, sir. I distinctly remember waking up alone in bed and having your little lackey there to tell me exactly where I could go now that our fun had been over. You left me.”
I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t scent any sort of lie on him, nor did he have any reason to lie to me. He wasn’t wrong, I had left himthat morning, but he wasn’t supposed to leave the room. I told him I was coming back.
“Yes, I left to go to work, but I left instructions for you to stay as long as you wanted, and if you needed to leave, to have my guard bring you here. He said you left, telling him that it was nothing. He showed me the vial.”
“I never said that,” Nym said. “Why would I say that? And what vial? What are you talking about?”
“You tell me.”
“Excuse me? No. I do not have to defend myself to you. You are the one who left. I would get a hold of the guard on duty that day and have a serious talk with him because he clearly lied to you and me. I waited for hours, Dain.”
