by EE Silver
“Not in the slightest,” Katarina said with a grin. “But he’s always been a lot more confident in his ability to hide things from me than is strictly warranted.”
“Okay?” Jonah couldn’t hide his confusion. King had warned him that his family was nuts, but he hadn’t really understood. “I’m pretty sure he hasn’t said anything because he doesn’t want people to get upset about us essentially eloping. But you seem fine with it.”
“Oh, both of my children eloped, too,” Katarina said, and Jonah was proud that he wasn’t the slightest bit surprised that she was old enough to have grown children of her own. “It’s King’s mother who will be upset he didn’t tell her. She’s been planning his mating ceremony since he was born. Trust me when I tell you that the longer you boys wait to come clean, the worse it’ll be.”
Jonah shifted uneasily under her knowing eyes. “I’ll, uh, make sure King knows that.”
“You do that.” Katarina pinned him to the spot with her eyes, the same blue as King’s, and Jonah could barely breathe. There was no way she could know about the lie he’d been living for the past month, and yet he could swear she did. “The truth is always the best way to come at any situation. At least that’s what I’ve been telling my children for years. Speaking of, can I have a couple of those fliers? I’ve got a couple of precious grandbabies with exhausted parents.”
“Uh yeah, sure.” He handed them over, feeling more than a little frightened and confused. “If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t look nearly old enough to have grandchildren. Either of you.”
Rosemary smirked at him. “I wouldn’t have thought we were your type,” she teased.
“You’re not!” Jonah dropped the rest of the fliers in shock. “Not at all! I mean, not that you’re not both gorgeous, it’s just you already know I’m mated, and King—”
“Is here just in time to rescue you from my family?”
“King!” Jonah spun around, pulling his mate in for a hug. “Your family is weird,” he murmured, and didn’t even mind when King laughed at him, kissing him lightly.
“Katarina, Auntie Rosemary, have you been terrorizing Jonah?” he asked, even though he was still laughing.
“Only a little,” Rosemary said. “And only as much as you both deserve for bonding and not telling us.”
“Really, little cousin,” Katarina added, looking almost serious if it weren’t for the laughter in her eyes. “I had to find out from a vision.”
“Then you shouldn’t have been turning that third eye to my business,” King said blithely before leaning in and whispering to Jonah, “Katarina is the family seer. There’s no such thing as keeping a secret from her, but at least she knows how to keep her mouth shut when it matters.”
A seer? Jonah swallowed thickly. “I take it back. Your family isn’t weird, you’re just all terrifying.”
“She’s one of the more normal ones,” King said with another laugh before pulling away to hug his cousin. Jonah used the time to squat and grab the fliers, not to mention order his thoughts so it wouldn’t be clear even to the 3-year old on the other side of the play area that he had more than a little to hide from the local seer.
“We’re heading out,” Katarina said. “I’m supposed to read palms for the locals and pretend I don’t already know everything. King, call your mother and tell her before she hears it some other way. Jonah, you should probably call your dads, too. The both of you will thank me when you do.”
At that, the two women sailed away, and Jonah was distantly impressed at Rosemary’s ability to navigate the soft ground in what he was sure were very expensive designer high heels. His thoughts were derailed when King ran his fingers through his hair, though, and he stayed in his crouch, leaning against King’s hip for a moment. “Are they all like that?”
“Not all of them,” King said. “I have a cousin in town who’s a werewolf and a trouble magnet, and then there’s the uncle that’s been trying to kill his way to the top of the family for a couple thousand years. Scott’s parents are just…yeah, be glad you’re not Quintus, is all I’m saying. That boy’s got a rough meet-the-family ahead of him.”
Jonah laughed awkwardly. “In that case, maybe I should take her advice and call home. Can you keep an eye on things for a few minutes?”
King looked over at the one child in the play area, a little girl who seemed absolutely fascinated by Anya in her car seat. “Yeah,” he said, “I’ve got this. Besides, you’re probably due a break. Let me know if you need me, love?”
“I’ll always need you,” Jonah said, standing up and pulling King in for a lingering kiss. “Always.”
“Quit stalling.” King pushed at Jonah, but not with enough force to actually move him. “Call your dads, then come back and kiss me some more.”
“You got it, boss,” Jonah said, stealing one last kiss before walking away to find a quiet spot to make a phone call. After a while, he found a bench on a not-so busy footpath, and decided that the blond guy on the other end of the bench wouldn’t care about Jonah’s family drama anyway. He pulled out his phone and hit the first speed dial entry.
“Jonah!” Mark’s voice, deep and soothing floated down the line. “We haven’t heard from you in two weeks, is everything okay?”
“I’m fine, Dad,” Jonah said, unable to keep from smiling. “I’m great actually. Things have been…hectic. Is Pops there? Put me on speakerphone. I have news.”
“Yeah. Hang on. Steve! Get in here.” Mark fumbled with the phone for a few seconds before the sound quality changed. Jonah could hear a radio playing in another room, and the sound of footsteps on the hardwood floor.
“What is it, darlin’?” Steve asked in his softer lilt that Jonah had always equated with comfort and home.
“It’s Jonah,” Mark said, and Jonah heard the phone scrape across the table like he was being physically nudged between his parents. “He’s got news, he says.”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Steve said.
“I met someone,” Jonah said, easing into it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blond guy smile indulgently. “He’s really special, Dads.”
“Finally!” Steve exclaimed. “I thought for sure that Maya girl put you off romance for good. When are you bringing him home so we can meet him?”
“How does he feel about moving back to Virginia with you?” Mark asked.
“I don’t think we’re going to be moving any time soon,” Jonah said patiently. Mark had taken Jonah’s move the hardest. “The daycare’s generating a lot of buzz and King’s kind of in love with the house already.”
“That’s his name?” Mark asked. “King?”
“Yeah. Kingston Maris. Well, for now, anyway.” He sucked in a breath. “We’re mated, Dads. I claimed him last week.”
He held the phone out away from his hear while his dads lost their minds, shouting over each other with questions, demands, and congratulations. Both of them whipped out the full “Jonah Michael,” which made Jonah wince. Even the blond guy looked sympathetic, not that he looked at all interested in giving Jonah privacy now that things were getting good, of course.
“…and you didn’t even have the good graces to invite us? Boy child, we raised you better than that,” Steve was saying as Jonah put the phone back to his ear.
“You did, I’m sorry,” he said. “But if it helps, we didn’t tell anyone. It was kind of a spontaneous thing, if you can count weeks of getting to know each other first as spontaneous. We still haven’t told his folks, either.”
There was a long pause, and then Mark asked the question Jonah knew they’d be getting a lot of over the next couple of months. “Did you get that boy pregnant, Jonah Michael Leander?”
“Dad,” Jonah said, putting as much exasperation into that one word as he could. “I know how to use a condom.”
“Yes, well, it wouldn’t be the first time one of them failed you, now would it?” Steve asked tartly. “Anya might be a miracle, but not one of immaculate conceptio
n.”
“About that…” Jonah swallowed, then lowered his voice. “King thinks I adopted her. Everyone in town thinks she’s adopted.” Both of his dads went dead silent, and Jonah was acutely aware of his audience holding his breath. “Dads? It’s not that big of a—”
“Don’t.” Mark cut him off. “Don’t you dare try and justify whatever insane, ill-conceived notion that prompted you to tell such a ridiculous lie. What were you planning on telling your mate when Maya shows up for visitation with her daughter?”
“Maya won’t be showing up, Dad. She signed over all her rights because she doesn’t want to be a mother. Not even for weekend visits.” They’d been over this a dozen times, but Steve and Mark, a pair of omegas unable to make a child of their own together, couldn’t fathom that anyone would do such a thing. “She’d have been miserable if she’d stayed, and that would have made all three of us miserable. Giving me Anya was the most selfless thing Maya’s ever done.”
“You never know. She might change her mind,” Steve said. “What if she decides she wants a family after all?”
“You hated her before she got pregnant,” Jonah reminded him. “Do you really want her as your daughter-in-law?”
“Not that it matters, since you’re mated now,” Mark reminded them both. “To a young man who has no idea Maya even exists. Good gods, Jonah, what have you gotten yourself into?”
“I don’t know,” Jonah groaned, covering his face with his free hand. Considering the last alpha who broke King’s heart got washed out to sea, Jonah had been trying very hard not to think about how utterly fucked he was.
“Well, call us when you figure it out,” Steve said. “Or when it blows up in your face.”
“We love you, Jonah,” Mark added. “Even when you’re foolish like this.”
“Love you both back,” Jonah replied, exhaustion weighing him down like the world on his shoulders. He sat there for a long while after they hung up, staring at his phone like it held the answers he needed.
“You’re fucked, my friend,” the blond guy said after a moment. Jonah grunted in agreement. The stranger wasn’t wrong. “I’d suggest telling your mate sooner rather than later.” Jonah grunted again. The guy clapped a hand on his shoulder, squeezing him a little too firmly before he let go and stood. “Well, best of luck to you and your King, Jonah Michael Leander.”
Oh goody. Now a random resident of the valley knew his full name and exactly how much of an idiot he could be. Well, there went his intention of keeping Anya’s parentage a secret until she was old enough for him to tell her himself.
He had to tell King the truth. Tonight. Tomorrow at the latest. Before the small-town gossip mill did the job for him. Katarina’s warnings about King’s mother rang in his ears, and Jonah wasn’t so oblivious that he’d missed the fact that it had all been for his benefit. Fuck.
He was so screwed.
Chapter Thirteen
King
It took Jonah longer than King had expected to call his dads, but then again King hadn’t exactly had a lot of practice in telling parents he’d gone and eloped with someone they’d never even heard of before. If he was honest, King was pretty sure his mother was going to drop everything and come straight to Vale Valley the second he told her, if only so she could give him a proper piece of her mind.
And then, knowing her, ask about grandbabies.
King bounced Anya on his hip, making her giggle as the other child’s parents scooped her up and carried her away with promises to see them in September once Jonah opened for business. He’d never thought he’d have children, never even wanted them. Not with all the expectations that came with being a demigod child of two of the oldest divine lineages. Hell, it wasn’t as though a mortal doctor would even know how to treat his pregnancy if he were to have a kid. It had just been simpler to write off the idea as a non-starter for years. And yet…
King’s hand drifted to his belly. He wanted to give Jonah what he wanted. A baby of his own. Because no matter how much Jonah loved Anya, King knew he had to ache for a child born with his name. It was all related to bullshit biology that King suspected was made up by a bunch of chauvinistic alphas, but at the same time, King longed to hold a child with his eyes and his skin and Jonah’s nose and sense of humor, and he knew Jonah did as well. To make their family that much more solid.
They’d have to talk about it, of course. Bad enough they’d rushed into mating, but King wasn’t going to jump into parenthood. Anya blew a raspberry, drawing his attention. Well, he wasn’t going to jump into parenthood more than he had already.
“Maybe you’ll be enough to make my mom lay off the requests for grandbabies,” he said, tapping Anya’s nose. She only laughed at him. “Yeah, you’re right, guppy. I’d be more likely to change the tides.”
“I’m pretty sure you said you can change the tides,” Jonah said as he walked up. His face was pinched and he looked preoccupied.
“Just a figure of speech,” King said, tugging Jonah down into a kiss. “I was just telling Anya how we don’t have a prayer of stopping her new grandmother from pushing for a half dozen siblings for her.” Oh gods, what was he saying? Shut up, King. Shut. Up. Jonah was getting more and more tense with every word, and King’s mouth wasn’t getting the damn message. “She won’t be happy until there’s a whole school of them. Not that we’ll have to give them to her right away. Or at all, if it comes to it. Please stop me, love. This is clearly upsetting you and I sound like an idiot.”
“No, it’s okay, baby.” Jonah managed a smile. “Don’t mind me. My dads were pretty mad at me for keeping you from them, is all. I don’t think I’ve been yelled at so thoroughly since I was a teenager. Trust me when I say that the thought of having a house full of little ones with you is exactly what I want. Whenever we’re both ready, which doesn’t have to be now. I’ve got more than a few years left before I’m too old to play with our babies.”
“More than you think,” King said. Jonah looked at him, head cocked in question. “Long story short? The more we share blood during mating, the longer you’ll live. It’s the whole deal with my family connections, as it were.”
“Oh. Wow, I hadn’t even considered that,” Jonah said, and then shook his head. “So I guess that means I’ll be waiting longer than I thought for those babies I’ve always wanted, huh?”
“Well.” King paused, biting his lower lip as he thought it over. It felt right, though, and his instincts hadn’t steered him wrong yet with Jonah. “We don’t have to wait. I’d be honored to be the one to give you children of your own line.”
But instead of being happy about that, Jonah flinched, just for a split second, before covering the expression with a smile. “That’s a pretty big conversation for here and now,” he said. “Let’s talk about it more tonight? Looks like we have more parents coming over to check us out.”
“Yeah, sure,” King said, biting back questions, smiling at the two alphas hovering over their very pregnant omega when he wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there. He’d been so sure Jonah wanted children, but now he seemed almost reluctant to so much as talk about it. The sense of something being very wrong weighed on him, making it almost impossible to concentrate on anything else. That and the uncomfortable suspicion that maybe Jonah had changed his mind.
“Your daughter is beautiful,” the omega said, his hand resting on the huge swell of his own belly. “She’s the perfect combination of you and your alpha.”
“What?” King blinked at him in confusion. “Oh, she’s not mine.” He looked down at Anya’s light brown skin, and wondered what her birth parents had looked like, if Jonah’s family genes were so clear that strangers kept commenting on how much she resembled her father. “my mate had already adopted her before we met.”
“Huh.” The omega squinted at Anya, then shrugged. “The resemblance is uncanny, though, isn’t it?”
“Your mates say you’re having twins,” Jonah said, interrupting the conversation.
“Yes. Again,” the omega said with an indulgent roll of his eyes. “Two sets of twins is going to have to be my limit, though.” He turned back to King. “Take my word for it: you do not want to be this pregnant in the middle of a heat wave. Get pregnant now so you’ll have a winter baby, it’ll be much easier when you’re not sweating from the effort of putting on your shoes.”
“We haven’t really had a chance to talk about kids of our own,” King said, handing Anya over to Jonah. The thought of standing there and making nice over plans for theoretical babies made King sick to his stomach. “But I’ll keep it in mind. If you’ll all excuse me, I have to go. I was just about to call my mother. Jonah and I mated recently, and I should probably tell her before the family grapevine does it for me.”
He didn’t even stick around to help Jonah deal with the inevitable awkward turn that would cause. The pull to hear his mother’s voice was like the tide rolling out and taking him with it, and King knew better than to resist. He took out his phone and called the number to his parents’ place in Jamaica. A month into hurricane season, King’s mother and father would definitely be settled in their favorite house to oversee the various storms they were so proud of.
“Kingston, baby, is everything okay?” his mother said instead of a regular greeting, and King couldn’t help by smile.
“I’m fine, Mama,” he said, leaning up against the side of a funnel cake stand. “Can’t a guy call his parents just to say hi?”
“A guy? Yes,” Mary said. “You? Not so much. This is the first time you’ve called outside of holidays and birthdays in years. What’s wrong?”
“Why does something have to be wrong?” King said. Hell, he didn’t know anything was actually wrong, so it wasn’t like he was lying. “Maybe I’m calling with good news. Maybe I’m calling because I found my fated mate.”
Mary laughed. “Stop talking crazy, Kingston, and tell me what you need.” When King said nothing, though, she gasped. “You did?”
King nodded stupidly, like she could see him. “His name is Jonah, Mama. He…he makes me feel lovable.”