PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
His stomach twistingin a giant knot, Xan climbed out of his car in front of Jason and Vale’s blue clapboard house on Oak Avenue. He gazed at the home, noting the fresh coat of paint, the impeccable front lawn and gardens, and the little rocking chairs on the front porch, complete with cheerful cushions. Jason and Vale had nested hard since they’d collided with each other asErosgapéin the library of Mont Nessadare University four years ago.
Xan forced away the dull, familiar pang that was part jealousy and part longing for a love like that. He’d been about to leave his symbolic corner office within the largest division of his father’s business on High Street to head home for the day, but after hearing Jason’s shaking voice and urgent plea, he’d driven over to his best friend’s house directly.
All three of their lives were so different now from those pre-imprint halcyon days. Sometimes Xan barely recognized himself in the mirror. But one thing never changed: he was Jason’s best friend, and he would be there for him through thick and thin.
Frighteningly, things seemed to have gone thin again, because Jason had sounded panicked when Xan picked up the phone an hour earlier. He’d requested Xan come by as soon as possible, refusing to give further details.
Approaching the front door, he stepped back in surprise as it swung open before he’d even had a chance to knock. Jason ushered him inside. His blond hair was messy, and his face very pale. Worse, his long, lanky frame trembled beneath his wrinkled suit. He obviously hadn’t changed since returning from his new job at his father’s shipping business, having set aside his passion for science to fulfill family duty, the same way Xan had when the time came for him to step up.
Xan straightned his own bow tie anxiously as he followed Jason down the hall toward Vale’s study with a sinking feeling in his gut. He hadn’t seen Jason this distraught in years, not since he’d settled things with his olderErosgapéomega, Vale Aman, and settled into domestic bliss. The knot in his gut tightened.
The sun shone through the wide back windows of Vale’s dusty, brick-floored study, but the profusion of colorful, autumnal leaves in the well-tended garden didn’t soften the tense atmosphere at all.
“Glad you could join us,” Vale said softly. His green eyes were red-rimmed and his lips, set in his handsomely trimmed dark beard, appeared dry.
Xan’s throat closed up as he took in Jason and Vale’s other assembled guests—Rosen, Yosef, and—shit—Urho. All held places of high esteem in the couple’s life, and all looked as shaky as Xan felt.
“Sorry if I kept everyone waiting,” Xan said, swallowing thickly. “But I came as soon as I got Jason’s call.”
“And how’s Caleb?” Vale asked, like the entire room wasn’t about to explode with anxiety around them.
“Caleb’s good.” Nervously, he babbled on, “Well, he wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I had to run to the drug store for a tonic for him, which made me late to work, and so it was harder to escape this afternoon.”
“It’s all right,” Vale said with eerie calm from his perch on the leather wingback chair he preferred. “Tell Caleb we hope he gets well soon.” His face was even paler than usual, and his lips drew into a tight, false smile.
Jason took his place rigidly behind Vale, his blond hair flopping onto his forehead and his blue eyes bright with some wild emotion.
Vale nodded toward the sofa. “Rosen just arrived too.”
Xan cast a glance toward Rosen, the ridiculously dark and handsome half of Vale’s best friends, a beta couple sitting closely together on the leather sofa. Rosen’s lover, Yosef, sat at his side with their hands intertwined, a miserable expression on his face. Yosef’s impeccably sculpted white hair and beard gave away that he was quite a few years older than Rosen, but they were still an unfailingly attractive couple. Vale had been close with them for years.
Xan ran a sweaty palm over his own limp hair. If they were in attendance looking so worried, the news he’d been summoned to hear must be that Vale or Jason was very sick.
“So what’s going on?” Xan asked, unable to keep quiet a moment longer. “What the hell’s happening?”
Urho stepped out of the shadows. Xan gulped. Urho was tall, muscled, and full of that strong, alpha energy that Xan craved like a kind of air he was denied the right to breathe. The flames in the fireplace played on Urho’s dark skin and highlighted his salt-and-pepper hair, making Xan’s squirmy gut twist with highly inappropriate lust.
“I’ve been asked to impart the news,” Urho said, solemnly. “It’s both an honor and a burden, but one Jason and Vale have asked me to bear—”
“Just tell us,” Xan interrupted, a bolt of surprise going through him. He normally danced around Urho, tongue-tied and anxious, saying all the wrong things, but tonight he wasn’t going to even try keeping his mouth shut. He had to know why his best friend looked like he’d just been handed a death sentence.
Urho’s chin came up, and he gazed at Xan for a long, calm moment before nodding. “All right. As it turns out, Vale, against all odds, and despite Jason’s best efforts, is pregnant.”
The silence in the room echoed off the windows and buzzed in Xan’s ear like a fly. Jason’s shoulders collapsed, and he ducked his head to hide his face, even as he reached to squeeze Vale’s shoulders, giving support as Vale’s alpha.
“Excuse me?” Xan said, blinking between Vale and Jason. “Did you say that Vale is pregnant?”
“I did.” Urho’s strong mouth drew into a straight line and he regarded Xan seriously. “This is obviously a problem, one that is both private and communal, in that we all love and admire Jason and Vale, and will—”
“What in wolf’s own hell, Jason?” Xan snapped, interrupting Urho without a thought. “You know he can’t have children. Why would you knock him up?”
Jason didn’t lift his head, and Xan almost didn’t make out his muffled response. “It was an accident.”
“An accident?” Xan scoffed.
