“What happened to your face?” Jason asked Xan casually, but with a sideways glance at Urho.
“Bar fight. The usual,” Xan said dismissively, waving it away.
Caleb hummed under his breath and took another swallow of his orange juice, sending challenging looks Jason’s way.
“You get in a lot of bar fights for someone who doesn’t go to bars that often.”
“True.” Xan took a bite of oatmeal and closed his eyes tiredly.
Jason flicked a glance at Urho, who tried to appear reassuring. Caleb smiled and finished up his orange juice.
The topic was dropped.
Breakfast proceeded as it normally would at that point with jokes, discussion of the move to Virona, and no further heavy conversation between them. As they broke up, beta servants came in to escort Jason and Urho out. Xan’s only concession to what had passed between them being a tersely stated reminder addressed to Urho that he left for Virona on Sunday, and a significant gaze. Urho had nodded in return.
It was only as they reached the sidewalk in front of Xan’s home that Jason returned to the topic of his original reason for visiting.
“Urho, do I have your word that whatever madness you brought to me yesterday is finished? That Xan is safe and I don’t need to worry about him being hurt?”
“I can’t promise that,” Urho said, opening the front gate for Jason and glancing back at the house behind him. “I made him an offer to act as his surrogate—”his lover, his heart hissed, “—and he accepted it. I’ll obviously hold up my end of the bargain, but I can only say that he’s promised to hold up his. Time will tell if he actually does.”
“So whatever man he was seeing, the man that you believed was unsafe? That’s in the past now? It’s over?”
“He gave his word.”
Jason groaned. “I guess that’ll have to be good enough. It helps that he’s going to Virona. I take it the man lives here?”
“Yes.”
“And his father found out about him?”
“I’m not sure about that, but there seem to be rumors that his father can’t deny or ignore. Rumors that imply something not entirely according to protocol is happening.”
“And you still aren’t going to tell me who he is?”
Urho snorted. “If I knew myself, the animal wouldn’t still be breathing.”
Jason nodded, slowly trailing his gaze up and down Urho’s body. “Just remember what I said about your feelings, Urho. You can say words like ‘surrogate’ all you want, but you sound more like an alpha protecting his omega to me.”
Urho swallowed thickly.
“Hey, that’s all right. In fact, that’s what Xanneeds.” Jason put his hand on Urho’s shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t let your hang-ups and fears prevent you from giving him that.”
“You’re a mouthy pup.”
“Not half as mouthy as Xan can be,” Jason said. “But you like that about him, so you probably like it in me too.”
Urho cuffed Jason’s shoulder and they parted ways, hustling toward their respective cars. “I’ll be by later to check on Vale,” he said. “I’ll phone if there’s a problem, but there won’t be.”
“Thank you,” Jason called out from across the street. “For taking care of Vale, for helping with Xan, and for everything.”
Urho hoped Jason’s gratitude wasn’t unfounded. After all, Xan was leaving town on Sunday, they hadn’t made firm plans to see each other in the interim, and promises made in the heat of the moment always felt less solid in the light of day.
He supposed it was the same as any aspect of life. There were no guarantees. He’d learned that early on with Riki.
He turned to his car and opened the door, climbing inside and starting away from Xan and Caleb’s house.
Only time would tell.
