“Who? Nathan? As you stated, he’s dead. Of course he doesn’t know.”

“Don’t be purposely obtuse. That won’t work with me. You know I meant the son. The omega you won.”

Heath sighed, then took another hearty swallow of brandy and raised a

brow.

“He doesn’t know,” Felix concluded, sitting back with wide eyes. “Do you plan to tell him?”

“I don’t see why I should.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Why would I tell him something like that? It’s not important in the scheme of what we’re doing together. He’ll be gone after the child is born, take the money and…” Heath trailed off. That’s what he’d expected Adrien to do. It’s what Nathan would have done. But Adrien wasn’t Nathan. “There won’t be a reason for him to ever know. Even if he chooses to participate in the child’s life, he won’t be around for long. He wants to be a professor.” He shifted uncomfortably.

Felix lifted a brow. “And if you fall for each other during the gestation period?”

“Unlikely.”

Felix blew out a low whistle. “I fell for two of my boys’ omega parents.

They didn’t fall for me.”

“That’s brutal,” Heath said, throat tight.

“Yes. Well, what do you plan to do?”

Heath took the rest of his glass down in a fast gulp. It wasn’t good form, but he didn’t care. He needed the burn of alcohol to clear his mind. Or muddy it. He wasn’t quite sure which. “I suppose a lot of it is up to him. How well we get on between now and the birth will play a big part. How much of a role he wants in the child’s life. How much of a role he wants in mine.”

“You? Raising a child alone? No. If you want my advice, let him raise the little booger, and you just leave the castle and the fortune to it. Be done with the whole thing after the heat. If you don’t fall in love, all the better.”

“I know you don’t enjoy fatherhood much, Felix, but I think I’ll take to it quite well. He’ll be part Nathan, and I always wanted that.” And part Adrien, too. He no longer seemed only a Nathan substitute, after all, but his own, sweet, trusting person who made Heath feel all alpha.

“Fine, fine. But you intend to let this boy decide what part he’ll play in this child’s life without ever telling him why you knocked him up to begin with?” He lifted a brow again. “That seems unfair.”

“Adrien is—”

“Ah, yes, Adrien. I’d forgotten his name.”

Heath huffed, annoyed by that statement. How anyone could forget anything about Adrien was beyond him. The boy was exquisite, and in bed he made the sweetest, most desperate noises while coming on Heath’s knot. He cleared his throat and adjusted his pants.

“What does Simon think of this?”

“He doesn’t like it.”

“I should say not. The old bugger must be worried that he’ll have to change nappies and sing the baby to sleep when this omega goes trotting off with all that money to, as you say, travel the world or finish his schooling.”

Heath frowned. “I’ll hire a nanny for the child.”

“That was Simon’s job, wasn’t it? Your nanny.”

“And now he’s my general keeper. He doesn’t find it a very fun position.”

“At least you aren’t throwing ragers with the president’s youngest son anymore or keeping omegas on retainer for heat orgies like you did in university.”

“I’ve known you too long, Felix. You have all of my worst secrets on speed dial.”

“I also have your best interests at heart. I suppose there’s no undoing it now. The boy is well and truly fucked in so many ways, and you’ll have to deal with whatever comes.” Felix shrugged.

“Yes.”

“And what if the baby’s not an alpha?”

“Call me new-fangled, but I don’t see why an omega or beta can’t inherit.”

“You wouldn’t. But Lidell will. He and Ned will take it to court to get an alpha back in power after you’re gone.”

“If Lidell outlives me, perhaps he would. But Ned is too lazy. He’ll take whatever money is offered and run. Besides, we’ll fight those battles as they come.” Heath nodded firmly. That was the ticket. Take everything one step at a time. Don’t overthink anything. Nothing was certain yet.

Felix shook his head and downed the last of his drink. Then he stood and said, “Well, don’t let me delay you further. I’m sure your handsome omega is at home right now just aching from all those sweet pregnancy hormones for a good, long, fu—”

“Don’t,” Heath said sharply. “Don’t talk about him like he’s a common whore.”

Felix zipped his lips, but his eyes flew wide. “Good God, you’re in over your head,” he said as he showed Heath out. “Half in love already. He’s not Nathan, you know.”

Heath shook Felix’s hand as he opened the office door. “He isn’t. And somehow I find him all the more appealing because of that.”

On the drive home, anticipation thrummed in him. He thought over Adrien’s arrival earlier in the day and the eager way the boy had stripped for him and gone to his knees. He supposed they should have talked a bit more about the expectations between them, but he’d been overwhelmed with protectiveness and then lust.

It struck him as strange that Adrien knew so little of what to expect from pregnancy, but he seemed to recall Nathan telling him that the man with kind eyes, the one who’d bought his breeding and with whom Nathan had left his son, had been a religious sort. Adrien had confirmed as much in what he’d said about it all. Many religious sects were incredibly backward in their ideas of omega rights.

Regardless, it thrilled some dark, possessive part of him to know that he would be the one to teach Adrien. It was the same part of him that had been thrilled to take Adrien’s virginity, his first heat, and to breed him, too. In some ways, Adrien already felt more his than Nathan ever had.

Chapter Eleven

ADRIEN WOKE UP from his nap hungry and a little disoriented. The sun had gone down and the glass-walled room, which had seemed almost like a fairytale when he could see into the green, leafy forest, now seemed somewhat threatening and gloomy.

He was a little cold, too.

He put on his glasses, relieved by the room coming into focus. His clothes were still where he’d left them on the floor, but Heath had told him not to wear them. Would he really care? He wouldn’t want Adrien to be chilly, would he? That probably wasn’t the best for the baby. He might catch a cold.

Or was that just an old tale?

He got out of the fluffy bed, found his glasses, and pulled on his jeans and T-shirt. Sometime during his nap, someone had come into the room with his luggage, and that felt a little creepy. He glanced around, noting the door to the hallway was shut, though there were human sounds coming from outside it. He hurriedly went through his things until he found a soft, warm hoodie and pulled it on.

Then, still unnerved by the growing darkness of the forest and the creaking of the swaying trees outside, and driven by the gnawing in his stomach, he cautiously opened the door and stepped out into the creamy, concrete hallway. The light shafting in from the skylights above was an amber color now, and some electric lights had been turned on in various corners of the hallway.

He followed the sounds of cooking and the scent of something delicious until he stepped into a wide, open area that housed a very comfortable-looking living room and a big kitchen. There was a circular window encompassing one full end of the room and which looked out onto a spacious flower garden and a gazebo near a bridge that passed over the brook. There were even some twinkling lights hung in the ornamental trees, and that, for some reason, surprised Adrien more than almost anything else all day. It seemed such a twee choice for a gruff alpha like Heath.

“Hello!” a cheery voice called from within a pantry built into the thick wall of concrete. A balding, gray-laced head, sporting merry twinkling eyes and a happy smile peeked out from the pantry door. “I’m Simon, and you must be Adrien.”