Chapter 1

“I missed you.” Delton hugged Duer just a little longer than he normally would have. “I’m so glad you could meet today.”

Delton let go, and Duer studied him, his eyes searching Delton’s face. “What’s wrong?”

Delton didn’t even bother pretending he was fine, that everything was fine. Everything was far from fine. In fact, it hadn’t been so un-fine ever, which was maybe not the nicest thing to feel in this situation, but it was the truth. “Everything.”

To his credit, Duer didn’t laugh at Delton’s over-dramatization. “Talk to me.”

“Let’s walk.”

They headed for the forest, both silent until they’d found their usual trail, a loop that would take them about forty-five minutes. They’d had a heavy thunderstorm the evening before that had drenched the forest, and now the ground was damp, the tapestry of leaves and needles treacherously slippery. The heavy smell of wet soil filled his nose, grounding him as he breathed in deeply. Birds happily called out their song to each other and to the world, a chorus of various melodies that competed for attention. A rabbit sat on the trail, his nose nervously moving as he watched them come closer. A few seconds later, he darted off, his fluffy little tail bobbing as he hopped under a bush.

“I assume this has something to do with Adar and Oliver?” Duer asked.

“Tell me the truth, how much does everyone know? Because it feels like they’re all talking about me and feeling sorry for me.”

Duer was never one to answer impulsively–one of the many things Delton appreciated about him. The beta was thoughtful, perhaps the inevitable trait of a lawyer, although one could argue about the chicken and the egg in this case. Had Duer become deliberate with his words as a result of his legal training? Or had that consideration always been there and contributed to his decision to enter the legal profession? Not that it mattered, but Delton’s brain wanted to know anyway. The puzzle of human behavior was one that was never finished for him.

“I wouldn’t say people feel sorry for you. That term implies… It has a negative connotation, and that’s not the truth. People, me included, want to see you happy.”

The implications of that statement were immediately obvious to Delton. “So they think I’m not happy?”

Duer shot him a look sideways, then bumped his shoulder. “You know you’re not. Hence my question about Adar and Oliver.”

Delton sighed. He was stalling, delaying the inevitable, but why? He could trust Duer. He did trust him, more than anyone else in the pack, probably. What had started as developing rapport with a client had grown into a close friendship, one he valued deeply. So why was he so reluctant to open up?

Maybe somewhere deep inside, he’d still clung to the power imbalance in their relationship, with Duer always being the one who leaned on Delton. Unhealthy as it was—and in his more introspective moments Delton readily acknowledged that—he did get an identity boost from being the strong one, the helper. And now that the roles were reversed, it was uncomfortable.

“Did I ever tell you I thought Adar was my mate?”

“No, but I knew.”

Of course he did. “Sivney mentioned pretty much everyone knew.”

“Sorry, but you weren’t all that subtle about it. Whenever he was near, you literally couldn’t take your eyes off him.”

Delton couldn’t help but laugh at himself. “And here I thought I was being stealthy about it. Delusional, clearly.”

“I don’t think he ever noticed, though. Which, I will admit, I do hold somewhat against him.”

That loyalty to Delton warmed his heart.”Thank you.”

“Do you hold that against him?”

Wow, that was a good question. Did he? “You know what? I think I do. It stung that he never even considered me as a partner, not until…” He sighed. “Let me back up a little. From the second I met Adar, I felt that he was my mate. The connection was so instant and so obvious to me, even though I knew next to nothing about fated mates at that point, that I never questioned it. Not even when he never noticed me. And then Oliver showed up.”

“That must’ve hurt deeply, seeing him fall so hard for Oliver.”

Delton would never stop being amazed at the power of words. Feeling seen and heard meant so much to people, him included. Duer simply acknowledging Delton’s pain made all the difference. “It broke my heart. Not to sound dramatic, but—”

“It’s not dramatic. I can’t even imagine what that must’ve been like. Even more when he asked you to be present for Oliver’s heat.”

So everyone knew about that as well. Great. “Not my best day, no.”

“I hope you know that none of us knew about it beforehand. If Fallon had known, he would’ve done his best to prevent it.”

“I know. Adar didn’t tell anyone before he asked me. Even Sivney apologized to me and swore he would’ve stopped it had he known.”

Duer snorted. “You know he would have. And Adar would’ve listened, too. The alphas are all terrified of that little omega.”

Delton laughed. “And with reason.”

Their laughter was a welcome reprieve, but then Delton grew serious again. “I would do it again in a heartbeat. Oliver needed me. I did it for Adar because he asked me, but I ended up staying for Oliver.”

“Which is to your credit. I’m not sure I could have done it.”

“Yeah, but I’m not in love with Adar. I thought we were mates, but in all honesty, I barely knew him.”

“Thought? You no longer feel that way?”

Time to spit out the truth. “Oliver thinks we’re a triad and I’ve agreed to do a trial period where we test that theory.”

Duer grabbed his arm, bringing them both to a stop. “Hold up. What now?”

“Oliver thinks we’re a triad.”

“And Adar?”

Delton cringed inwardly. The alpha had been honest with him, which he’d appreciated, but that didn’t mean his words hadn’t hurt. “He doesn’t know, but when I told him I was considering leaving, he got distressed and persuaded me to do this trial.”

Duer’s eyes widened. “You’re leaving? Dude, talk about burying the lede. What the fuck?”

Delton spread his hands in a helpless gesture. “What am I supposed to do? Watch Adar and Oliver be nauseatingly happy for the rest of their lives while I’m alone?  I can’t. I want to find happiness too, and apparently, I won’t find that here in the pack. Or the Hayes pack. Everyone is mated.”

“We literally have as many as thirty-five dragon omegas arriving, and we already have a whole bunch that are single.”

“I don’t want anyone else!” Shit, he hadn’t meant to yell at Duer. “Sorry, that came out much stronger than I wanted.”

“All good. It was an insensitive remark on my end. I shouldn’t be so dismissive of your feelings.”

And that was why he appreciated Duer so much. Few people were so willing to admit it when they were wrong. “I don’t even know what I’m feeling myself. I’m so confused by the whole thing.” And then the whole story finally came out and he told Duer what had happened. “I want to believe Oliver, I really do, but there’s so little evidence for his theory. I don’t think of him as my mate, and Adar doesn’t think of me as his. There’s only the connection between him and Oliver and between him, and me. It’s like he’s in the middle of a love triangle, albeit not by choice.”

“Which is the only thing that stops me from kicking his ass. Well, wanting to kick his ass. I might’ve done an attempt verbally but not physically because wow, that man is built like a tank.”

“He is.” Delton hated the dreamy quality of his voice every time he talked about Adar. He needed to cut that shit out.

“I can’t believe his selling point was that you were already hurting so what’s a little more when you agree to this trial. Like, what the fuck kind of argument is that?”

Delton laughed, the incredulity and indignity in Duer’s statement too funny not to. “His communication skills need some work. Oliver’s too, since he kept all this from Adar and tried to force us together, hoping Adar would see the truth himself.”

They started walking again, and Duer was quiet for a while. “I don’t want to speak bad about your possible mate, but that doesn’t sit well with me. It was manipulative and completely dismissive of your explicit wishes and the fact that you’d end up getting hurt.”

“He never considered that. I’m not defending him, but it didn’t cross his mind that he was ignoring my wishes and setting me up for heartbreak.”

“How did Adar react to that?”

“He was furious with Oliver. Oliver apologized and we both accepted his apology because his remorse was obvious, but it did change how Adar sees Oliver.”

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It was about damn time those rose-colored glasses came off.”

“That’s what I told him. He put Oliver up on a pedestal, and that’s not a healthy place to be for anyone. He was bound to fall off, sooner or later.”

“Sooner is better, especially in this case. So this trial, what does that look like?”

Delton sighed. “I don’t know. We didn’t exactly specify that.”

“Kinda hard to do a trial if you don’t have a way to test Oliver’s theory.”

“Tell me about it. I’m an idiot for even agreeing in the first place, but I find it so dam hard to refuse Adar anything. Which says a lot about me and is absolutely something I’ll need to work on, but here I am.”

They’d almost finished the loop, hitting the little brook that was a bit wider after the rain. Delton carefully picked his way across, stepping from stone to stone until he’d made it safely, then waited for Duer to do the same.

“Maybe you could go on a date?” Duer said. “Yitro, Fallon, and I did that when we figured out we were mates. Just to get to know each other.”

Oh, Delton remembered that all too well. Every triad in the pack, including some from the Hayes pack, had shown up for dinner at the barn Sivney and a few others had turned into a restaurant for one night. It had been magical, everyone had reported back to Delton, who had spent the evening alone in his cabin, reading for hours to distract himself. He’d never felt more painfully single than that night.

“I suppose. I’m not really sure what we could do, though. We don’t really have a lot in common.”

“Neither did we, and look where we are now.”

Duer did have a point there. He’d ended up with two omegas, a very unusual combination, and yet it worked wonderfully well for them. “True.”

Part of Delton wanted to believe more than anything that they belonged together, but the other half was so, so scared to even harbor hope. Hadn’t he said it himself to Oliver? Hope was a dangerous thing because believing meant opening yourself up to the possibility of more pain and rejection. Yes that was exactly what Delton had done. Agreeing to this trial meant being vulnerable, which was terrifying.

“If you truly don’t believe you’re a triad and don’t want to do this, you shouldn’t,” Duer said after they’d spent a few minutes walking in silence.

“I’m so on the fence. I want to believe it so badly, but that’s my heart speaking. My brain is convinced there’s zero evidence.”

“Did Oliver explain why he thought it?”

“Something about the strength of my conviction that Adar and I were mates. They’re not questioning the mated bond between them, mind you. Just how I fit into the whole thing.” His throat tightened. “I feel like I would always been the third wheel, you know? The odd one out, the add on. The one who doesn’t belong.”

He angrily wiped away a tear that spilled. Why did he feel this so strongly? The whole thought of not belonging ripped him apart on the inside. Wasn’t that proof he should’ve never agreed to it?

Maybe Duer was right. Maybe he should change his mind and announce he was walking away after all. He always told his clients to listen to their intuition, since it so often predicted trouble. Well, his intuition was screaming at him he was going to get hurt? Or was it his brain? Either way, he’d better heed that warning. He wasn’t sure he could survive his heart getting broken yet again.

“I think you’re right. I’ll talk to them.”

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