11
RAFF
I stared at the photographs on the collage he’d made and repeated the name Rupert in my head. My wolf liked the name. I did too, but this person who carried some of my DNA was a stranger.
Thorne talked me through a handful of them, showing Rupert as a newborn with drool on his chin. There was another of him as a toddler crying over a broken toy. I awed over my nephew dressed in a cute school uniform and missing his front teeth. The most recent one Thorne pointed out was Rupert as he was now at seven years old. I could see Bodie and me in him as he lay on the couch reading a book.
No wonder Thorne was taken aback the day we met.
This was my nephew and Bodie’s son. Hisson. He was eighteen when he died and yet he fathered a son he never met, who was born after he passed away. Though from what Thorne had related, Bodie would never have met Rupert because he wanted nothing to do with the omega father, Thorne’s brother, or the baby.
Bodie was my world and his passing had cracked and shattered it. Two things could be true, and while I couldn’t excuse his actions, my love for him hadn’t dimmed. Love didn’t fracture like that.
Thorne didn’t interrupt my thoughts or pat my hand. And he didn’t exhibit any discomfort at my silence. I almost repeated what I’d said to Axel and Thorne had said to me, “an angel passed,” but decided against it because I was wrestling with so many emotions.
We’d hardly touched our dinner and pushed our plates away. I stared at the candles Dan’s staff had placed on the table as if they held the meaning of life. But there was no one to help me work through what I was feeling, and I had to be grown up and do it myself.
“Rupert is a strong name.”
Is he a shifter?my wolf wanted to know. It was the first time he’d spoken since Thorne brought out the folder.
It’s too early to tell. You know that.
“He looks like Bodie.” What was left unsaid was that he also looked like me.
“He does. Though I never met your brother, I have a lot of photos belonging to my own brother, Harvey.”
I pushed the chair back, and Thorne gasped. He probably thought I was going to make a run for it as Bodie had when he received the news. I pressed a hand against my mouth, suppressing a scream because I was sitting across from my fated mate after learning that my dead brother had fathered a child and told Thorne's brother to get rid of it.
The universe which had paired me with Thorne was an ass. Why did fate choose me to fuck around with? Hadn’t I suffered enough after the death of my twin?
Stop feeling sorry for yourself. My wolf was fed up with my woe-is-me attitude.A lot of people’s lives were changed because of Bodie’s shitty decision. It’s not just you.
“I didn't know.” It wasn’t an excuse, but it was the truth. “Bodie never said a word to me or our parents.”
“It’s obvious your brother wasn't ready to be a father.”
Instead of the bitterness I expected, Thorne said it matter-of-factly. And that made it worse. Thorne and his family had stepped up, and like my parents and me, they were also grieving.
But I was also hit with the realization that if we started a relationship, he’d think I was doing it out of guilt. Shit, this was more fucked up than I thought. The temptation to crawl under the table and curl up was overwhelming, but I gripped the chair, tethering myself to it.
“He was eighteen.” I wasn't sure who I was defending. The brother I'd adored or the version of him I was meeting for the first time tonight. “He was a fool, and I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not asking you to apologize for him.”
At our first meeting, Thorne was angry, and if I had to guess, he had expected an apology from me, however unreasonable that was.
Thorne’s shoulders sagged. Perhaps, like me, he was letting go of the wariness and anger he’d been carrying since that day in the cafeteria. He wasn’t hugging me or saying we were going to bebesties—not that I wanted that—but the fury that held him in its grip had subsided.
My wolf ached for us to mark one another, and I almost laughed because we were so far from that. But we were closer than we had been, so we got a gold star.
I analyzed how I’d reacted to Bodie’s aroma on Thorne. That scent had presented itself as a threat, but it was the opposite. It was love for my flesh and blood, the one Bodie had created and abandoned. There was a seven-year-old who lived with Thorne and who viewed him as his father. He left traces of Bodie’s scent on my mate’s clothes and skin.
I’d been reacting to a ghost, loathing that Thorne reminded me of my late brother, and not understanding why. Perhaps it was time to put that rage in a box, lock it, and throw it away or bury it.
“I want to meet Rupert. Not tonight but eventually.”
Thorne's expression became more guarded, and he leaned away. “Why?”
