Chapter 3

I SIGHED. MY brOTHERwasn’t picking up the phone, but it didn’t really matter now. I was already running late, but at least I had the cake I’d promised Nancy I would bring and was on my way there now.

I slid the cake box carefully onto the car seat next to me and shut the door. I hadn’t closed the restaurant early on a Saturday in a long time, but I didn’t have a manager I trusted enough to run the evening shift at the moment, so there wasn’t much choice in the matter. In fact, if I were being honest, I was actually looking forward to a relaxed afternoon and a few beers with my extended family.

Hopefully, the housewarming party would stretch into the evening like so many of our family events did, but if it didn’t... Tommy and I could head out to dinner or have an early night.

God knows I need one!

I’d been going too hard for too long, and so had Tommy. We always said to one another we’d work our butts off until our mate showed up in our lives, then we could slow down, just like Wade and Tanner had. Unfortunately, we were over forty now, and the woman who was meant to complete us was still nothing more than a figment of our collective imaginations.

It took me less than five minutes to pull up outside Tanner, Wade, and Nancy’s new place. The street was literally lined with cars from one end to the other, and the aroma of barbecue filled the neighborhood. I made an appreciative noise in my throat, grabbed the cake box and headed inside. They’d done a great job on the fa?ade, and the gardens were planted and landscaped as well.

I admired their restoration and attitude toward maintaining its original integrity, but I certainly couldn’t imagine doing gardening like that myself. Though gorgeous, the colorful, cottage-style gardens were no doubt hugely labor-intensive and digging in the dirt really wasn’t my thing. I had my hands full with a restaurant, which ran me off my feet as it was.

I knocked on the door and plastered a smile on my face.

Nancy was there moments later, a plate of food in hand. “Oh! David. You made it.”

“Hey, Nancy,” I said, greeting her with a kiss on the cheek. “Where do you want me to put the cake?”

“Oh, on the kitchen counter please. I’m really excited about this.”

I grinned at her. The cake wasn’t just an ordinary cake, it was a gender reveal as well. Nancy had some bloodwork done early last week, and my brother had rushed through the results to find out the gender of the baby for her. Both my pastry chef and I knew the results, but no one else. “Right. I’ll go take it in for you.” I took my leave of Nancy and found Wade standing in the kitchen with a beer.

“Hey, cousin,” I said. “Congratulations on the house and the... you know.” I winked, the unspoken reference to his soon to be baby bundle.

Wade grinned at me. “Yeah... you too, I guess.”

I slid the cake box further away from the edge of the counter, not wanting it to fall and smash. That had taken far too many hours of baking and decorating to have it destroyed. “Me too?” I asked, grimacing at my cousin in confusion. I didn’t have a new house, a mate, or a baby on the way.

What is he talking about?

“Yeah... Stacey and the...” Wade made a belly-rubbing gesture.

It made no sense to me whatsoever. “Huh?”

Wade glanced back at the front door, his expression suddenly one of a man who’d just put his foot in it. “Ah... I thought... I mean, sorry, mate. You need to go talk to Tommy.”

My gut tightened with unease, and a shiver raced up my spine, but I thanked my cousin awkwardly and headed in the direction I’d seen Nancy wander off to. There was another door just off the foyer, and I knocked on it, wanting to know what the hell was going on. The door swung inward, and Nancy was there. “Hey, Nancy,” I said. “Have you seen my brother?”

Nancy inhaled sharply, as though she were carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and my presence had disrupted her balance. “Yeah, he’s in here,” she said. Nancy stepped back and the scene before me unraveled like a bad sitcom.

There was my brother, sitting on a L-shaped sofa next to a beautiful young woman. I was immediately struck by the curve of her cheek and the glistening health of her long blonde hair.

Tommy stood up, turning toward me, and held out his hand to the woman to help her up.

She took his offered hand and stood awkwardly.

And it was only when she got to her feet and her baggy cardigan fell open that I understood why her movement was labored. My eyes widened upon drinking in her huge, pregnant belly. A strangled gasp stuck in my throat as my heart began to race, but I licked my lips and stepped forward, inexplicably determined to introduce myself. “Hello,” I managed to say, walking further into the room. “I’m David.”

“Hi, David,” the beautiful woman answered, a bright smile lighting up her otherwise fatigue-plagued features. “I’m Stacey.”

I stood facing them together, noting the way my brother remained by her side. He wasn’t touching her, but I could feel the protectiveness he felt toward her even from where I stood.

“Hi, Stacey,” I ventured, my world slipping sideways like I was taking a tumble across a ship’s deck at sea.

Nancy slipped out of the room and shut the door quietly behind her, suspiciously leaving the three of us alone.

“How are you feeling?” I asked as I nodded at her swollen belly.

She gripped the sides of her precious bundle, accentuating the round bump even more, and making her seem perfect. “Really tired,” she admitted. “And still a bit nauseous, if I’m honest.”

“Always be honest,” I said immediately, sounding a little firmer than I had meant to. “I mean... there’s no point in covering up the truth, right?” I preferred people who were forthright and truthful. I always had.

Stacey nodded in agreement. “Right.”

I lifted my gaze to my brother, trying to keep the accusation out of my gaze. It was potentially possible—although unlikely—that Stacey was just a patient of his, but there was something about the tension in the room that was telling me there was, in fact, a lot more going on right under my nose than I was aware of... and I had to know. My insides twisted as I grounded myself as best I could for what was coming. “Tommy?”

My brother straightened and tensed as though preparing himself to deliver horrible news. “I met Stacey when I was in the city six months ago, and we slept together.”

My gut twisted again, this time much more violently.

Fuck...

I knew without asking what was coming next, but I had to hear it said. This wasn’t the sort of thing you made assumptions about. I needed to hear the truth. “So, this baby is yours?” I asked carefully.

My shifter howled inside my mind, enraged and heartbroken all at once as the question hung between us. I’d spent twenty-five years being inscrutably careful with every girlfriend I’d ever had, dutifully waiting for our mate to find us before bringing life into this world.

What the hell has my brother done?

Tommy made a pained sounding noise in his throat. “David...” he began.

I swallowed hard.

Maybe I don’t need to hear it, after all.

I took a step away from them both, feeling shame and pain rain down upon me in unfathomable measures. My whole life up until this point had been a lie. Every plan my brother and I had ever made together was now obsolete. It was a farce. I’d wasted my youth on a dream! “Congratulations,” I managed to say as I staggered back to the door I’d come through.

Poor Stacey looked distraught, though I wasn’t quite sure why.

All I knew was that I couldn’t bear to look at her. It hurt too much. And it wasn’t her fault that my stupid brother had broken our ability to be a perfect pair-bonded family like we were always destined to be.

And I knew my brother well enough to know he’d be committed to Stacey and their baby, irrespective of whether or not they ended up together ultimately. But with her being so young and beautiful, not to mention the natural mother of his first child... why wouldn’t he choose to be with her forever? And that left me resoundingly alone, my part in a Fated ménage finally dashed like waves upon jagged rocks.

“David, wait! Come back, please. I haven’t explained yet. Please.”

I shook my head. I just couldn’t. “No, brother.” I was choking now, and I needed to get away. As far away as possible. “You have your path, it seems. And it’s one you obviously need to walk alone.”

“David, I’m sorry!” Stacey called out, her brow furrowed in confusion at my reaction. “I didn’t mean to upset you with my news.”

I offered a grim smile to the young woman who’d just turned my world upside down and inside out. “Welcome to the family, Stacey.” Then I fell through the door and managed to slam it shut behind me. I didn’t go and see Nancy or my cousins. I couldn’t think, couldn’t function. I couldn’t be at a family event making small talk while trying to be happy for my cousins when I wasn’t feeling anything other than a crushing sense of despair.

I jogged through the front door, unable to look back, slid into my car and took off home—the home I shared with Tommy.

Maybe I should move out? Let them have the house?

Tommy could buy me out, and I could get my own place. I’d never lived alone, but it was probably high time I started. After all, I’d have to find my own mate now, because my brother had clearly chosen his woman. That was for sure.

I soon arrived home, I could scarcely breathe. My chest felt too tight, and my wolf shifter was howling uncontrollably within me. I needed to shift and run, to mourn the future I’d worked so hard for—and now lost. Instead of getting out of the car, I turned the engine back on and reversed, driving back toward my parents’ place. They lived on the edge of the forest and owned ten beautiful acres of untouched land.

More than enough room to be able to run while also staying safe. As soon as I pulled up, I jumped out of the car and noticed the lights on. I didn’t bother to check out who might have stopped by, I just ran around the house, letting myself into their yard before stripping off my jeans and shirt.

My wolf tore through me in record time, my skin transforming into fur as my shifter forced me to all fours, and a howl ripped from my throat. In my animal form, the pain was somehow less, more bearable, and the downward spiral of depressive emotions and thoughts I’d been drowning in ground to an unexpected halt.

In fact, in my wolf form, I could feel a blink of hope in the darkness of my human despair, of enjoying my brother’s baby as a family. But I squashed the thought and impulse, upset at my wolf’s baseless assumptions.

How can he think I would just become the third wheel in my brother’s relationship?

I had a lot more pride than that. I deserved a woman who loved me too. One who chose me as well as Tommy. Or that had been the original plan, anyway.

I shook off the morose thoughts and let go of my humanity, my brain shifting fully into my baser wolf as I ran into the forest. My parents didn’t even have a back fence built, their yard just extended back forever. So, I ran and ran, dodging the larger trees and jumping over low lying shrubs that threatened to ensnare me.

Adrenaline began to pound through my veins, and I pushed myself harder and faster, my heart hammering against my ribcage like a drum. Maybe I’d just continue running and never stop.

After all, what is there to go back for now?

My wolf howled, his voice echoing into the night and rising to greet the cold and distant moon.