Rubbing his belly, Alex grinned. “He’s not shy in letting me…and everyone else…know.”
“Definitely not,” Fionn said, starting to rise. “We should head over to the chateau. According to my friends, you are about to be wowed.”
“Wait,” Alex said, his voice betraying his nervousness.
Raising an eyebrow, Fionn paused, watching his brother chewing his lower lip. Sitting back down, he asked, “Everything okay?”
“Uhm…there’s something I need to tell you,” Alex muttered. “It’s about not keeping secrets.”
“Okay, but can you stop eating your lip? I’m afraid there won’t be anything left by the time we sit down to dinner.”
A bark of laughter escaped Alex as his tension eased. “My mates will thank you, since they sure love to kiss it.”
Returning his brother’s smile, Fionn asked, “What’s got you so uptight?”
“Uhm…I just thought you should know I found my grandfather…he’s from my Omega father’s side of my family.”
Fionn’s eyes grew big. “Wow! That’s great! Wait…Thisisgood, right? He’s not an asshole is he? Cause me and Hunter can make sure he never bothers you again.”
“No…no…no…it’s all good, I mean he’s good,” Alex said. “You…uhm…you know him because he works for you…well, he works at the winery. It’s Henri.”
“Henri? The driver? Who picked you up at the airport? That Henri?”
Nodding, Alex replied, “I don’t know the whole story yet, but apparently he’s been searching for his son Jean-Luc…my Omega father…for years.”
Frowning, Fionn asked, “Why wasn’t he there for you after his son died?”
“Henri didn’t know he was dead…or that his son had fathered me.”
“Hold on…so Henri’s son was the man who caused my father to abandon my mother?”
“Uhm…according to Oracle, they were Fated Mates,” Alex said, twisting his fingers together. “I don’t think they had a choice…like I didn’t with either Sawyer or Glenn.”
Fionn’s temper which had begun to rise, was quickly checked at his brother’s mention of Fated Mates. Remembering the pull he felt when first seeing Hunter, he knew it was impossible to resist the mate the Fates chose for someone. “I’m sorry…fuck…I’m apologizing a lot…”
Grabbing his brother’s hand, Alex interrupted him. “Don’t be sorry. This whole thing between us is new, and I have no idea how to be a brother. I barely know how to be a mate. But the one thing I do know is there’s gonna be bumps in the road we’re on that’ll require us to be honest with each other, even if it’s hard for the other person to hear. So I propose we make some rules and the first one is neither of us will apologize for our emotions, stuff we have no control over or didn’t do. Finding my grandfather was a shock to me and I knew when you found out, it would bring up bad memories of what our father did to your mother.”
“That’s why you were afraid to tell me?” Fionn asked. “Because you knew I’d get angry.”
“No…I mean, I expected it, but that wasn’t why I was worried. I knew it could cause you pain…as it did when it reminded you of your mother’s suffering. That’s why I hesitated,” Alex murmured.
“You were right, it did,” Fionn said. “And I also agree with you about the bumps that can hurt us and with your rule…no more apologizing especially when it’s something we had no control over.”
Nodding once, Alex said, “We should have a secret name for our rules…something no one will know except us.”
“Oooh, I like that idea!” Fionn said, with a wide grin. “Something we can shorten so others won’t know what we mean.”
“Yessss…like ROB – Rules of Brothers!”
“That sounds good. So the first rule in our rule of brothers is, no apologizing for stuff,” Fionn announced, smiling. “Maybe that should be our second rule since honesty is technically our first.”
“Right…okay, number two it is,” Alex agreed, just before his stomach growled more menacingly.
Laughing, Fionn stood, pulling his brother up to his feet. “C’mon, Quin, he’s literally bouncing off the walls because you haven’t shown up yet.”
“Then let’s go, before he ends up hurting himself,” Alex said, laughing at the image his brother had conjured up in his mind.
~/~/~/~/~
