“Hello?”
There was no answer to his call.
He made his way through the house. Most of the doors were closed, but he felt a breeze and guessed at where Luca and Zac were. When he reached the door to the back garden, he found it open, but when he looked outside, he didn’t see anyone. He stepped out, glanced around with a frown, and was about to head back inside when he heard a rustling in the bushes.
Realizing he’d walked into the middle of a game of hide and seek, he decided to take part.
“Ready or not, here I come.”
He turned on his heel and prowled through the garden. A streak of yellow flashed past right in the corner of his vision, but when he turned, there was nothing to see.
With a chuckle, he continued circling.
“I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with L hiding behind the willow tree.”
It was harder for Zac, given the size of his leopard, to keep out of sight. As soon as Beckett named his hiding place, he jumped out with a huff, winding his way around Beckett’s legs.
“But where could Luca be hiding? I can’t see him anywhere.”
There was a suspicious patch of yellow behind the raspberry bush, but he pretended not to see it.
“He must be around here somewhere.”
Knowing Luca’s patience would run out soon, he walked right by the raspberry bush, still acting as if he couldn’t see him. Just as he stepped past, Luca jumped out with a tiny growl, latching onto Beckett’s legs.
“Ahh, you’ve caught me.” Beckett sank to his knees as Luca raced around him, pawing at him excitedly. “Where were you hiding, huh?”
Zac joined them, nuzzling Beckett’s hand and Luca’s head. Luca rolled into his back, and Beckett stroked his tummy as he wriggled around, batting at him with his paws. Soon he lay still, panting and out of breath. Zac butted his head against Beckett’s knee, then turned and went indoors. Beckett stayed where he was, stroking Luca’s fur as the sun slowly dipped lower in the sky.
The omega returned a few minutes later, his hair mussed, barefoot and wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He was the definition of casual, but Beckett’s breath still caught at the sight of him.
“Dinner’s warming in the oven,” Zac told him. “It should be ready in twenty minutes or so.”
They stayed there looking at each other awkwardly before Beckett spoke.
“I’m sorry about the other evening. I shouldn’t have unloaded all my problems on you like that. It won’t happen again.”
Zac looked aghast. “You’re sorry? I’m the one who ran off when you were trying to talk to me. Some nanny I am.”
“Your job is to look after Luca, not be my emotional crutch.”
“This is as much about you as it is about Luca. You needed to talk, and I should have…” The omega trailed off, looking frustrated with himself. “It wasn’t you or what you were telling me. It… it’s hard to explain.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation. But we’re okay, you and I?”
“We’re okay,” Zac agreed with a soft smile, his eyes drifting to Luca, who was more asleep than awake. “We should coax him back to human form. I have no doubt his lion would love lasagna, but we might spend all night cleaning cheese and tomato sauce out of his fur.”
Beckett laughed at the image, lifting Luca into his arms. “I don’t mind. I’ll take bath duty tonight. You deserve a few hours to yourself. Relax, go out, watch a movie. You’ve gone above and beyond these past few weeks. I really appreciate it.”
“It’s my job,” Zac said, biting his lower lip. “And I want to do it. You know how omegas are. We like to be needed. Wanted.”
Desired. The word popped into Beckett’s head, and he inwardly groaned.
“You are wanted,” he promised, knowing his low, rough voice said far more than he meant it to.
Zac flushed and glanced away. “I should go check on dinner.”
“We’ll be in soon,” Beckett promised, watching the omega hurry inside.
He looked down at Luca, whose eyes were just barely open, his paw batting idly at Beckett’s shoulder.
“You are the best son anyone could ask for,” he told him. “Brave and strong. I love coming home to you, every day. Your papa loved you too, more than anything. He would have given the world to be here right now, to play with you, to cuddle you. I’ll have to cuddle you enough for the both of us. And… and maybe Zac can help.”
Luca purred softly at the mention of Zac’s name.
“You like him too, huh, kiddo?”
Beckett’s resolve to keep Zac at arm’s length was already crumbling. With him, his family felt complete in a way it hadn’t for a very long time. But he had no idea if Zac felt the same.
Chapter Nineteen
Zac was doing the dishes after dinner, humming along to music playing on the radio. Beckett had suggested leaving the dishes until morning, but with the alpha giving his cub a bath, Zac had time on his hands. And who didn’t like to wake up to a clean kitchen first thing in the morning?
His phone rang as he dried the last plate.
“Hey, Harper. I thought you were out with Vincent this evening. Did he pick up another shift?”
“Never mind that,” Harper croaked. “I’ve just had a PI at my door asking questions.”
“A PI?”
“A private investigator,” Harper whispered harshly. “Asking about my relationship with Aaron, and about the clinic.”
“Shit. What did he want? What did you tell him?”
“I don’t know what he wanted. I didn’t wait around to find out, just closed the door in his face. How did he find me, Zac? What does he know?”
Harper’s words were rushed, his panic evident.
“Take a deep breath,” Zac encouraged him. “Grab a glass of water and sit down. I’ll be right over.”
His mind was going a mile a minute while he let Beckett know he was heading out for a few hours and grabbed his coat.
Harper was a good deal calmer by the time he arrived. They sat opposite each other at the small kitchen table with cups of tea in front of them.
“Here.” Harper slid a small card across the table. “He pushed this under the door.”
Zac scanned the card. “Brendan Fairchild.”
“I googled him. He’s legit. Mostly does a lot of missing persons, cheating spouses, that kind of thing. And a bit of bounty hunting on the side. Used to be a cop, too.”
“Fuck.”
“My feelings exactly. Do you think the clinic sent him?”
That was the question. Did clinics use private investigators?
“Wouldn’t they use bigger firms? Not guys like this out on their own?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, duck. What are we gonna do?”
Zac stared down at his tea, deep in thought.
“Nothing,” he said eventually. “We do nothing.”
“How does that help?” Harper asked, bewildered.
“Well, what could this guy know? There’s nothing in writing. You organized the whole thing over the phone with Aaron. The only way this PI can learn anything is if we tell him. Let’s just keep our mouths shut. If they’re hiring private investigators like him and not siccing a whole army of lawyers on us, then they can’t be too bothered about it. They’ll lose interest soon enough.”
Harper nodded slowly. “I guess… I guess you’re right. I just panicked when he turned up at the door like that. I thought Vincent had changed his mind about that extra shift.”
Zac scoffed softly. “Have you ever known Vincent to turn down work?”
“Good point.”
“I’m really sorry, Harper. I should never have let you put yourself in the middle of this.”
Harper raised an eyebrow at him. “Come off it, Zac. No rewriting history. This whole thing was my idea, remember? I wanted to help make things better for you. Instead… I am sorry, you know. Really sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Zac insisted, his voice catching
in his throat. “The chances of this happening have to be, what, a billion to one?”
“You’d have a better chance of winning the lottery.”
“That’s what I should have done with the co-pay. Bought lottery tickets.”
“Not impressed with the blessed gift of life that fate has seen fit to bestow on you?”
“Oh god, you sound like my mother.”
Harper snorted. “I do, don’t I? When she finds out…”
Zac groaned. “No. Let’s just not think about it. There’s no need to add fuel to this dumpster fire.”
He checked his watch and reluctantly heaved himself to his feet. “Time to call it a night.”
“Thanks for coming, Zac. I feel like a bit of a fool, panicking over a guy asking questions.”
“Not your fault. If he’d turned up at my door, I don’t know what I’d have done. We just have to keep it together and keep quiet. This will blow over.”
Except it wouldn’t. The evidence of what had happened was growing inside him. It would only get bigger and more noticeable as the weeks went on. He just had to hope they’d stopped looking by then.
“You know they probably think it’s me and not you, right?” Harper said suddenly. “Makes more sense, doesn’t it? That Aaron loaned his cousin his insurance information, rather than someone he barely knows?”
That would be a good assumption for anyone to make. Because they’d be watching Harper and not him. Harper, who wasn’t pregnant.
“Then they’ll soon realize they’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“Exactly. We stick to the plan, then. You play secret surrogate and, when the time is right, we surrender the baby.”
“Right. We stick to the plan.”
Harper still insisted that Zac was wrong about being Beckett’s accidental surrogate. But no matter how hard Zac tried, he couldn’t convince himself that he’d misunderstood the alpha’s situation. And if he was the surrogate, and this baby was the little miracle Beckett had been hoping for, then Zac was in the middle of a much worse mess than he thought.
He headed outside, pausing at the door to the street to zip up his coat. As he went to walk on, someone stepped out of the shadows.
“Hello, Isaac.”
Zac blinked in bewilderment at the familiar alpha standing in front of him. He’d seen him before, at Beckett’s house.
“Uh… Hello…?”
“Brendan Fairchild. I’m a private investigator. I think you and I need to have a talk, don’t we?”
Zac felt sick to his stomach as he took a seat across from Brendan in the small diner. It was late, and the place was mostly empty.
“Coffee,” Brendan said to the waitress, glancing at Zac.
He shook his head. “Nothing for me.”
“He’ll have tea,” the alpha said, handing back the menu. He waited until they were alone before speaking again.
“Care to tell what kind of game you’re playing?”
“G-game? I don’t understand.”
“Well, let me tell you what I know. Almost three months ago, on the eleventh of August, you checked into a clinic on Gracebank Street under the name Aaron Clark. While there, you were implanted with an embryo belonging to my client, Beckett Rayne. Four weeks later, you subsequently took a position in Beckett’s house as his nanny. Have I missed anything so far?”
The waitress returned with their drinks, and Zac was grateful for the reprieve. But as soon as she was gone, Brendan continued talking.
“To me, Isaac, this looks like one of two things—a series of incredibly unlikely coincidences, or an attempt to shake down my client.”
Zac knew his eyes must have been as wide as saucers.
“What?”
“If it’s the latter, there’ll be a money trail, and I will find it. You’d have to have paid off someone at the clinic, probably the doctor or nurse involved in the procedure. Do you know how much jail time a conspiracy like this will get you?”
Anger and fear welled up inside him, tears spilling down his face.
“What, you think this was my plan? All I wanted was my life back. They promised me five heat-free years with an implant, but that stupid doctor can’t tell one omega from another. Instead, I’ve got a baby that I never asked for. And I’m going to lose my job again, and be homeless, and I can’t even afford to get another implant. You think I wanted this?”
He sniffed and grabbed a napkin, scrubbing at his face.
“We were going to surrender the baby back to the clinic when he was born, so he could go where he belonged.”
“We?” Brendan asked.
Zac avoided his gaze.
“You and your friend Harper, I’m guessing. I thought he was the one I was looking for. But the receptionist at the clinic remembered him sitting in the waiting room for hours. It wasn’t hard to figure out who he was there with.”
“It’s not his fault, or Aaron’s. They were just trying to help me. They shouldn’t get in trouble for that. I’ll take responsibility for it. For all of it.” He felt numb at the realization that what he’d feared most had come true.
“No one’s in any trouble, Zac. I don’t work for the clinic. I work for Beckett.”
Zac wasn’t sure he could believe the alpha.
“Does he know?”
“Not yet. I wanted to be sure what we were dealing with.”
“And now you know everything.”
“Almost. The part I don’t get is how you ended up as Beckett’s nanny.”
Brendan still looked suspicious. Zac didn’t blame him; it was an awfully big coincidence.
“I didn’t even know I was pregnant then. I needed a job; he needed a nanny. The timing was right. We were a good fit. It really wasn’t deliberate.”
“Oh, I believe you.” Brendan smiled kindly at him. “With your friend being so reluctant to talk, and you literally living in my client’s house, I had to apply a little pressure to get to the truth. I’m sorry if I’ve frightened you. How long have you known?”
“That it’s Beckett’s baby?”
Brendan nodded.
“Um… about a week. Harper didn’t believe me. He said I must have heard wrong. I guess I really wanted that to be true.”
“Denial is a powerful emotion,” Brendan agreed, taking a sip of his coffee. “But it often feels better when the truth comes out.”
“Does that mean you’re going to tell Beckett?”
“I have no choice. He’s my client, I work for him.” Brendan paused and added, “I can give you until tomorrow evening, so you have the chance to tell him yourself. That’s the best I can do, I’m afraid. And hey, no running off, no disappearing. I can and will track you down.”
“Will he hate me?”
“Hate you? For being put in an impossible position by other people’s negligence? He doesn’t seem like that kind of person. But you’d know him better than me, now, wouldn’t you?”
Brendan dropped him back at Beckett’s house.
“Here’s my card. If there’s any trouble, anything at all, you call me. Talk to Beckett, give him a chance to get his head around everything. He’s a good man.”
He was, but this was a strange situation, and Zac didn’t know what would happen when the truth came out. Would he be out of a job, out of the house, would Beckett want him around Luca? He’d want the baby safe, of course, so he wouldn’t leave Zac destitute in the streets. That wasn’t the same thing as caring about what happened to Zac or understanding the circumstances that had gotten them there. Maybe, if Zac hadn’t been pretending to be someone else, he’d have asked more questions at the clinic. If he had, the mistake could never have happened. Maybe, in truth, this was all his fault.
Ready to give the day up as a lost cause, he got ready for bed. At the last minute, he remembered he’d promised Luca blueberry overnight oats for breakfast. Trudging to the kitchen, he started pulling out the ingredients.
“Burning the midnight oil again?”
He startled
at the alpha’s voice, almost dropping the carton of yogurt.
“I didn’t hear you come in,” Beckett said softly, crossing the kitchen to stand in front of him.
“I forgot to get breakfast ready. I promised Luca.”
“You have him spoiled,” the alpha teased, taking the yogurt from him. He frowned when he got a better look at Zac’s face.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“I… There’s something I need to tell you.”
Beckett’s face fell. “Oh. You’re leaving.” The alpha stared down at the yogurt. “This is my fault, isn’t it? I let things get out of hand, get too personal between us. I’ve made you uncomfortable in your own home…”
Zac reached out, resting a hand on Beckett’s arm. “It’s not that. It’s not that at all. It’s me. I’m… I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Twenty
Of all the things Beckett was expecting to hear Zac say, it wasn’t that.
“Oh, I see. I…” He cast around for something else to say, something to do, settling for turning to place the yogurt on the counter. “I, um, didn’t realize you were seeing anyone.”
He wasn’t jealous. Because that would be stupid and unfair and such a pigheadedly alpha emotion for him to feel right then. He had no right to be feeling it.
“I’m not seeing anyone.” Zac seemed frozen in place, his gaze fixed on the yogurt as he spoke. “It’s stupid, really. I must be the only omega who’s ever walked into a clinic for contraception and walked out with a baby. I mean, nine months free from heats is nothing to scoff at, but the morning sickness is awful.”
Beckett canted his head to the side, trying to parse through the omega’s words, his joke falling flat.
“Zac?”
“All I did was borrow someone’s name for a day, just so I could get my life back. That’s all. I wasn’t hurting anybody.” He turned to Beckett, his eyes beseeching. “It was a terrible mistake, but it wasn’t me who made it.”
Beckett took a step toward him. “Are you saying you’re pregnant with my baby?”
Zac’s gaze slid away from him, his cheeks flushed.
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