After coming home I obviously text Blue, because calling him on a day like this would be too much, he must be dealing with chaos over there, but I have to know if he’s okay.
I get a reply only the next day, saying everything is fine.
By then I have already gone through every possible news report online about the incident.
There’s one more interesting detail. In the shock of the moment I recognize the person who saved Blue as Bay’s own brother, Storm. He turns out to be the purple alpha bodyguard.
It’s hard for me to believe such a coincidence, but apparently he was working as a security guard at Fate’s Choice and happened to be in the right place at the right time.
But my shock doesn’t end there, the whole situation feels like something straight out of a movie, and a few hours later I see Blue’s number flash across my screen, which is surprising enough on its own. He definitely has a lot on his plate after such a major attack and I have no idea why he would call me of all people. Yet I answer the call and immediately hear Blue’s familiar little throat clearing and I know he’s calling with something big.
I start, of course, by offering him my sympathy and telling him how sorry I am that he keeps being targeted so often, but he cuts me off quickly and says,
"Thanks, I appreciate your concern, but that’s not why I’m calling, I finally found a brief moment after all this chaos and I need to tell you something I’ve learned."
I go completely still, literally all ears, because I can feel he wouldn’t have called without a real reason.
"You know that the man who saved me during the attack is Bay’s biological brother, right?"
"Yes, I know, Storm," I reply, pleased that he won’t be able to surprise me with that one.
"That alone is a funny coincidence, the world is small after all as they say, but that’s not the end of it, because he wasn’t the only one who helped save me during that attack, Storm arrived at the agency together with his True Mate."
"Storm has a True Mate? That’s nice, good for him, his family must be happy. I remember him as a very unruly kid, but also someone his brothers didn’t always treat fairly, so I’m glad he found happiness."
Blue cuts me off again with a slightly impatient tone.
"You know what’s even funnier in all of this, it’s who his TM is."
"Who?"
"Your own brother, Sebastien’s son, Damien."
A shiver runs over my back.
"What?" I ask Blue to repeat what he just said because I feel like I must have misheard, and he does, saying it a little slower this time with a kind of delighted emphasis on the strange symmetry of it all.
"You know, it only adds spiciness and mystery to this whole situation between you and Bay. Because the truth is, it’sabsolutelygeneticallyimpossiblefor a case like this to happen, where there are two people that are True Mates but their brothers, or even cousins, turn out to be completely incompatible with the ones from the other family. Such a situation has never been recorded in the history of the ABO population. Do you understand the significance of it? It only strengthens my certainty that your incompatibility with Bay is not normal incompatibility at all, but something entirely different."
I stay silent, his words not yet settling into any clear shape in my mind, but I have to force out this one thing that always hovers somewhere on the edges of all my conversations with Blue.
"What if Bay’s dad told the truth about my birth? What if something strange happened back then that disrupted the balance, maybe because my body was brought back to life it isn’t exactly what it should have been and even though we’re genetically compatible something epigenetic happened."
After all these years of studying the subject, I know enough about genetics to understand that epigenetic changes can occur in fully developed organisms, as environmental factors influence gene expression and subtly modify how genes are switched on or off.
"You know, that crossed my mind too, that maybe there’s a grain of truth in that story and if something extraordinary really did happen to your body back then that changed you in some way, you could say it created some kind of strange ‘allergy’. But it only convinces me even more that the therapy we now have with Compatron could be very effective."
"So why would it all be so significant?"
"Because I have this strange conviction that genetically you and Bay actually are True Mates."
If silence could have a sound, it would be deafening right now.
What did he just say?
Blue lowers his voice a little. "There’s more. I strongly believe that when you go through the Joining, which has healing properties, your TM magic may take over and fix everything between you. It might level out those epigenetic changes and you won’t have to stay tied to Compatron for the rest of your life."
For a few long seconds, I stay quiet as heat rushes to my cheeks, my heart pounding.
