Page 49 of Free Me

“Not yet,” Hyatt said. “I can’t wait to see everyone, especially Rebel and little Willem, but I really needed to see you two first. Is Linus home? We called Brogan and he said you were over here with him.”

“Yeah, he’s napping.”

“He’s awake,” the alpha in question said, his voice exiting the hallway before his body. He was using the crutches but hadn’t re-strapped the prosthetic, and Miko worried it was from irritation. Then he saw the way Hyatt and Dorian reacted, and he understood: Linus wanted his family to know what had happened, to not sugarcoat what he was going through.

Haven stared at Linus with wide eyes, then pointed at Linus’s leg. “Where’d’t go?”

“I lost it in an accident,” Linus said to the toddler. “It went bye-bye, but I’ll show you my new leg in a little while, okay?”

Haven only nodded solemnly.

“Can I get you boys anything to drink?” Isa asked. “Coffee or juice?”

“We don’t want to impose, sir,” Dorian replied. “We’re actually expected for dinner at the Jenks house in about an hour. As soon as Karson heard we were coming home, he began plotting with Jax to get their family together tonight.”

“Well, that’s good. Hyatt, I imagine you missed your brothers.”

“Like crazy,” Hyatt replied with a hitch in his voice. “These last six weeks were the longest we’ve ever been apart in our lives.” He smiled fondly at Dorian. “But my other family needed me.”

“Good man. I’ll leave you boys to chat then.” Isa headed through the dining room to the kitchen. Haven had already toddled over to a lidded basket in the corner where Liam kept an assortment of toys for any of the visiting grandkids.

Dorian and Hyatt settled together on the love seat, so Miko went to the sofa and sat near Linus. Maybe not as close as he would around their parents or siblings, but enough to feel Linus’s nearness. And catch a hint of his scent. No one spoke for a long, awkward minute.

“Tell me about Orleans Province,” Linus said. “I’ve never been there.”

“It’s so different from here,” Hyatt replied with a wide grin, somehow giving his full attention to Linus and Miko, while still keeping half-an-eye on Haven. “Dorian wasn’t kidding when he said not to bother packing winter clothes. It was so warm down there I barely needed a jacket.”

“I’ve heard they have a hot climate year-round.”

“Hot and humid. I mean, it gets humid here in the summer but even while it’s chilly?” Hyatt made an exaggerated gesture of his thick, black curls poofing out from his scalp.

Miko and Linus both laughed. They all ended up chatting for about an hour. Dorian showed off photos on his phone, including many of a large harbor and the vast bay of water beyond. It wasn’t the ocean, but it was close enough for Miko to be impressed Hyatt had gotten to see it.

“I’d love to see it someday,” Linus said. “It’s beautiful.”

“We’ll go,” Miko replied without thinking. His face warmed. Thankfully, if Hyatt or Dorian noticed anything odd about two best friends vowing to take a long-distance trip, they didn’t speak up. After easing Haven away from a temper tantrum with a sugar cookie, the little family bundled up and headed out for the Jenks house. Miko walked them to the door like he was the host, and when he turned around, Linus was grinning at him.

“What?” Miko asked.

“Nothing. It was a good visit. It’s nice not having the accident or my stump be the center of conversation.”

“I bet. I can’t believe they came right here to see you. It couldn’t have been an easy trip, most of a day on a train.”

“With Dorian’s money, they probably got a private car with a playroom.” Linus was still grinning, though, hinting at a bit of a tease. While Dorian had once stood to inherit one of the largest estates in Sansbury, he’d divested and turned his late sire’s vast fortune into a non-profit, keeping just enough to invest and live comfortably. Miko didn’t know Dorian well enough to be positive he’d splurged on a private train car, but it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.

“Either way,” Linus added, “I bet Hyatt came straight here to see you. You’re his nephew, not me, and you got knocked around in the accident pretty hard, too. Plus, he said he called your house to find you.”

“He wanted to see both of us.” Miko plunked down beside Linus, close enough their knees bumped. “You’re just as muchfamily to him through Layne as I am through Peyton. We’re all one big, crazy, mismatched family.”

“True.” Some of Linus’s brightness dimmed in a way it only seemed to around Miko. “I love our big, crazy, mismatched family, but man, sometimes I just wanna be alone for a few days, you know?”

“Oh, you know I know.” Miko bit his lower lip as a new, strange thought poked at him. “Would you ever consider moving away from Sansbury? To another province?”

Linus blinked at him several times. “I’m not sure. I’ve never really thought about it. I mean, maybe one day after Dad and Papa are gone, but...I don’t know. Could you leave Peyton and your parents? Emory and Caden and our friends? What if we got pregnant and didn’t have our family nearby to help?”

Miko’s heart began jack-hammering and his palms got clammy. Linus’s open curiosity held steady for a few beats before his eyebrows shot up. “I meant, um, if you got pregnant,” Linus stuttered, “with your, ah, future mate.”

For as much as Miko wanted to give Linus more time to get his sense of smell back, his inner omega demanded he soothe his bondmate’s confusion and embarrassment. “It’s okay, Linus, I really like what you said. About us one day getting pregnant.”

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