Page 151 of Tides of Fate

The only way Jay can convince Rowan to let him drive is by tempting the bigger man out of the driver’s seat with a video call to Nix in the other car. He can’t gaze fondly at their omega if his eyes are on the road.

Once the young alpha is seated quietly in the backseat, watching their omega, Grayson closes his eyes beside him and occasionally nods his head or hums in conversation with himself.

The road to their rental is winding and rough, the late afternoon sun at the perfect angle to fill the car with golden sunshine. It takes more concentration than Jay would like to keep them on the road and not in the ditch.

Beside him, Finn shifts Tsuki’s bony butt around on his lap in the passenger seat and sighs occasionally until he finally just blurts out what ever has put ants in his pants.

“I hope he settles down soon, or the next forty-plus weeks will be a nightmare.”

“Your face is a nightmare,” Rowan grumbles vaguely, like it’s an automated response to an age-old song and dance.

“I know you are, but what am I?” Finn mumbles as he turns up the GPS.

Jay can still hear Rowan cooing or humming at Nix through the phone. The ride won’t be short enough for Jay if Rowan and Nix start sexing each other up in a car full of alphas, who are fresh off a rut or going through emotional and physical turmoil.

But at least Tsuki seems nonplussed.

“Are they going to be okay?” It’s not the more complex question that Jay wants to ask. Not when he what he really wants to know is all the specific whys and hows. But it will do in a pinch.

“Yes. I think Rowan is just doing what…uh…fathersdo. You know?” Finn says.

Jay feels his penetrating gaze on the side of his head and a warm hand on his thigh. Tsuki lies down and then puts her head in Jay’s lap. It’s comforting. They both are.

“Are you okay with it? That it’s this way?”

They crest a rise in the road, and the GPS tells them they’ve almost arrived.

You have arrived at your destination.

Have they, though? Is this where they’re headed, or just another stop on the road to only the Goddess-knows-where?

Instead of sharing his momentary existential crisis, he asks, “Why so cagey? It’s not like he doesn’t know—wait. You don’t think he’s figured it out?”

“No.” Finn shakes his head. “No, I do not.”

“Does everyone else know?” Jay’s questioning his own perceptions now. He turns down a long lane toward the ocean and sees a large modern homeon the edge of a cliff overlooking a lake.

“Nix does, and the rest for sure. Might be why…” Finn pointedly nods his head in Grayson’s direction.

“I can hear you. And yes, I know Rowan is the father of my soulmate’s baby. No, I am not upset. Now fuck off,” Grayson growls, as annoyed as he’s ever sounded in all the years Jay has known him—making his statement a blatant lie.

Jay stops the car just in time for Rowan to jolt out of his Nix-gazing stupor.

“What did you say?”

But Grayson just gets out and slams the door, jogging into the house. Jay can hear Nix’s surprised laugh through the closed car windows.

Rowan leans forward between the two front seats, looking back and forth between them. “Wait. Wait. Wait. What did he say? Finn?”

Shaking his head, Jay exits the vehicle, letting Tsuki out on his side so she can wander around the front yard and mark her temporary territory. She finally runs into the wooded area just to the south.

He’s happy to leave Finn handling the new-father freakout.

No, he hadn’t answered Finn’s question. Not because he was upset or jealous—but because he wasn’t.

If anyone had asked him at the start of this if he would be jealous that his beloved wasn’t carrying the Pack Alpha’s child first, Jay might have had to lie when he said “no.”

But now? It’s the truth.

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