"It looks great," Mika said. "Even with the temporary ink, the eyes are so expressive."
"Thank you." Keith bowed his head. "I know you probably need to get home," he jerked his chin toward Jett, who was still sleeping in my arms. "Dave wanted me to share how excited he is to meet with you on Monday. He's sketched a few designs that will work with your drawings."
Dave, Keith's husband and designer of awesome otter mobiles, had agreed to meet with me while I was on paternity leave from the courthouse. He'd been keen on my drawings right away. When I'd told him about Becca's porcelain bead designs, he offered to make a mold of them for mass production. We weren't guaranteed success, but if our ideas caught on, it would be easy to replicate them.
"Your art style works better in three dimensions than mine does," Keith continued. "Dave's constantly harping on me to add more detail."
I glanced down at my tattoo, which looked like it could hop right off my arm, it was so lifelike. "I don't understand."
Keith shrugged. "What can I say? Skin is my ideal canvas. It's alive, while everything else is dead."
Mika snapped his fingers. "You're fae."
Keith winked. "Maybe."
"I've been trying to place your scent for the last half-hour." Mika grinned. "A friend of mine is part fae. Your tattoos must be magical. That explains why Gabe felt our bond as soon as I did."
Keith shrugged. "I can neither confirm nor deny what you felt. All I know is, I had a dream of a meerkat, and here you are a year later."
Mika extended his hand, and they shook. "I owe you my thanks. Without the tattoo, Gabe would have kept looking for a big, burly alpha."
I wanted to argue, but he had a point. The pull from the tattoo had given me the courage to question my dad's premise that alphas had to be large, dominant types.
"I'm glad you came to your senses." Keith shook my hand, too, and led us back to the lobby to pay before wishing us a good night.
Jett stirred in the damp air and fussed when I buckled him into his car seat, but he went back to sleep the moment the SUV started moving. Car rides always knocked him out. He didn't wake when I changed his diaper and put him to bed in his crib.
"Now where were we?" I asked Mika as I stripped off my clothes and tossed them in the new wicker hamper we'd bought for our bedroom. The room was just as big as his old bedroom, and I was still getting used to having so much open space. It was a long walk to the bed with my semi-erection swinging between my legs.
Still, it had the desired effect. He swallowed hard and patted the bed next to him. "You said something about meerkat tattoos being sexy."
They sure were.
The next day,people started arriving around noon with wrapped gifts for Jett and bottles of wine for our housewarming. About 15 minutes after Mika's siblings arrived, a yellow SUV pulled up with Nevada plates. I didn't recognize the man who stepped out of the driver's seat. When the passenger door opened, there stood my alpha dad. I did a double take at the driver, and it was Ross, my dad's pretend roommate for the last thirteen years. He reached into the backseat for a box the size of a microwave.
I owed him an apology for all the grief I'd given him when I was a kid, but first, I needed to say hello to my dad, the guy who had given me life and tried to make a happy home with my omega dad until he just couldn't.
"Hey, Dad," I said, holding my arms out to my side for a hug.
"Gabe." He approached cautiously, as though I might drop my arms and run for the house if he seemed too eager. When his arms wrapped around me, something snapped in my chest, the last lock I had erroneously put in place to protect my heart from the big bad alphas of the world. My dad wasn't a bad alpha. He was a man who needed more from life than what my omega dad and I could give him.
"Ross! Good to see you," I said over Dad's shoulder, unable to let go just yet.
"Pipsqueak! You've grown. I hear you have one of your own, now."
I grinned. "Jett's inside with Mika."
Dad squeezed me tight before letting go. "Let's go meet them!"
"Wait," I said, resting my hand on his elbow. "I have something I need to say to you both."
"Just as dramatic as your father." Dad huffed a laugh, but he stayed where he was.
I extended my hand to Ross. "Welcome to the family. I'm sorry I was too stupid to know you were partners."
Ross took my hand, shaking his head. "You weren't stupid, kid. You were blinded by society norms. It's okay."
"We didn't expect you to accept us," Dad said.
