in a long time. Uncle Samuel did sound pretty good as a title. “You’ll be an amazing uncle. I love you, brother.”
“Love you back.”
Nothing else needed to be said between them that night, and Dorian went to bed alone, but content that it wouldn’t be like that forever. Sometime in the near future, he’d fall asleep every night with his mate in his arms.
Fifteen
The next three weeks sped by faster than Dorian could have anticipated, and he was happier than he’d ever been in his life. He and Hyatt spoke on the phone every single day, sometimes doing nothing more taxing than discussing the television show they watched the previous night. Or what they had for breakfast. Hyatt loved describing his Light House cooking lessons; Dorian talked about the progress on the second Light House Resource Center being planned in River Row.
The board had secured a building that needed quite a bit of renovation to make it what they wanted, but the price was good and they’d gotten several competitive quotes from contractors for the work. Even though Dorian was hands-off on the project, Mr. Kell was kind enough to keep him up to date on their progress, and he appreciated that kindness.
Dorian and Hyatt also tried to spend as much time together in-person as they could reasonably manage, while keeping up with their jobs, friends and other responsibilities. They went on several fantastic dates. Dorian treated him to a fancy restaurant, where Hyatt nearly orgasmed more than once trying all kinds of rare and unusual dishes (potato gnocchi in an uni butter sauce was now his new favorite indulgence). Hyatt cooked Dorian dinner at the apartment—no roommates around—and they worked off the spaghetti Bolognese with a long walk around the neighborhood.
Hyatt had begun texting with Samuel, and the pair even phoned each other once. Dorian loved that his bondmate was getting to know his brother better. Dorian was also enjoying getting to know Rebel, Karson and the rest of the Jenks clan over two large family dinners. The only one who was still standoffish was Symon, and Dorian didn’t blame him at all. He seemed to have silently accepted that Hyatt would be his mate, even if Symon had yet to congratulate them out loud. At least, not in front of Dorian.
Layne’s twenty-first birthday party was a large affair that gave Dorian another chance to get to know Hyatt’s friends. Frey Freel planned and threw a big party for him at the Porter estate, and Dorian couldn’t help a sense of coming full-circle. Not quite a month ago, he’d scented Hyatt and identified his bondmate in this house. He loved walking back into it with Hyatt on his arm.
The birthday boy and his family greeted their guests in the foyer, and Layne had a hug for everyone. Peyton proudly held their boy Caleb in his arms. The tiny baby was, according to Hyatt, already three-and-a-half months old, but still so damned small. Dorian couldn’t imagine being responsible for such a tiny life. But he could picture Hyatt standing there with an infant of his own. He’d be an amazing omegin, but Dorian still couldn’t picture himself as a doting sire.
Not yet.
They mingled and snacked on delicious food, and Dorian found himself in the odd position of feeling almost…accepted by these people. Maybe many were being polite out of respect for Hyatt, but he didn’t get that sense from most of them. He even had a brief conversation with Rebel about the latest on Light House.
Dorian did his best to remember names and relationships to Layne and Peyton as he was introduced to person after person. After two hours, it seemed as if they’d invited half the province, which only showed how loved the mated pair were.
Dorian envied them that love and acceptance.
At nine, everyone gathered in the massive ballroom to sing to Layne. The young omegin stood on a platform with Peyton, both sets of their parents and siblings, and Dorian found himself unexpectedly in the spotlight when Layne insisted Hyatt, as Peyton’s uncle, join them. Caleb must have been asleep in one of the many bedrooms, because he was the only person in the extended Tovey-Higgs clan who wasn’t there.
And for the ninety seconds they all sang, Dorian pretended he was truly loved and accepted by this family. The moment left him both hopeful and melancholy for the rest of the evening. An evening slightly buoyed by the twenty minutes he spent kissing Hyatt in his car, before