“And? How’d it go?”
“Wonderfully.” I smiled and kissed his forehead. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Raja sighed and stepped away from the stove. “Okay, if you say so…”
The doorbell rang and Raja nearly leapt out of his skin.
“They’re here!” he cried, running to the door. I quickly lowered the heat on the stove and joined him.
The door opened and Dante threw his arms around me. “Hey, bro! It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages!”
I clapped him on the back. “Good to see you, too. Where’s your better half?”
Dante grinned and put his hand on his mate Gabriel’s back. He held Noah in his arms. “Right here.”
“Nice to see you, Lorenzo,” Gabriel said. With a mischievous glance at Raja, he said, “I take it your trip went well.”
I chuckled and laced Raja’s fingers with mine. “You could say that.”
Raja was still a bit nervous, but was determined not to be shy. “Hi. Are you Gabriel? And Dante?”
Gabriel handed Dante their child, then practically threw himself into Raja as he hugged him. “Yes! Thank gods I finally have another omega to talk to!”
“Wow, he’s cute,” Dante said with a grin. “Good job, Lorenzo.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Ignore my mate. He’s not actually that stupid of an alpha.”
Raja smiled, blushing from all the attention. “Good to know.”
Another knock at the door made us turn around. My father, Anton, stood there with a wave. “Am I late?” he asked.
We exchanged a warm embrace and I told him, “No, right on time.”
Gabriel stood aside as my father approached Raja.
“You must be Lorenzo’s mate. Raja, is it?” Anton asked.
Raja nodded. “Yes.”
“So pleased to meet you.” My father hugged Raja, who was handling all the hugging pretty well.
“Well, I didn’t cook a nice meal for everyone to stand in the doorway and hug all night,” I announced with a playful smile. “Come on into the dining room.”
Everyone took their spots at the grand cherry-wood table, which Raja insisted on polishing earlier. It was so shiny now that you could see your reflection in it. While everyone continued to chat with Raja, I handed out the plates and dining ware before beginning the round of soup.
“I’m only learning about this recently,” Anton said. “How did you and Lorenzo meet?”
Raja paused. “Er, we met on an online dating site, actually.”
Dante snorted. Gabriel nudged him under the table.
“Is something funny?” Anton asked, genuinely curious.
“No, Dante is just being rude,” Gabriel growled, glaring daggers at his mate. I realized they didn’t know where we stood on the whole fake marriage thing anymore. Did they still think we were faking it?
“Nah, he’s not being rude,” Raja said. He shot me a grin. “It’s actually a funny story. See, where I’m from, I wasn’t allowed to leave my village, right? Rare black panther omega and all of that. Basically, my parents wanted an alpha to protect me. So I went online and found Lorenzo, we faked being in a relationship, then faked a wedding - except we realized we reallydidlike each other, so it’s not really a fake anything anymore. That’s the gist of it, right, Lorenzo?”
As everyone’s jaws dropped, I smiled and said, “Yes, that’s it.”
