Chapter 8
PEYTON
Long after Dalton’s breathing had evened out into the soft rhythm of deep sleep, I lay awake, staring up at the unfamiliar ceiling of his cousin’s spare room. My arm was numb under his weight, pinned beneath his shoulders, but I wouldn’t have moved for anything in the world.
He was here. He was back in my arms.
But the knot of tension in my gut wouldn’t loosen.
In the heat of the moment, I had told him he was enough. And I meant it. I would burn my family’s legacy to the ground before I let it cost me Dalton again. But even as I held him, replaying our reunion, a stray image kept flickering in my mind.
A shy smile. Dark eyelashes against pale cheeks. The scent of rain and vanilla.
Theo.
The omega from the diner.
It made no sense. I was an alpha exclusively devoted to my beta mate. I didn’t have a wandering eye. I didn’t crave variety. Dalton was my center, my anchor.
And yet.
When I had walked into that diner, focused only on finding Dalton, the pull toward that omega had been undeniable.
It wasn’t just simple attraction; it was a biological hook, snagging deep in my chest. And then…
I had seen Dalton looking at that empty stool, his eyes darting back and forth between it and me.
I shifted slightly, and Dalton made a small, protesting noise, burrowing his face into my armpit. I tightened my hold reflexively.
If I bring this up, I could lose him again.
That was the terrifying truth. Dalton had left me because he believed he was inadequate. Because my father had poisoned his mind with talk of heirs and bloodlines, convincing him that a beta could never truly satisfy an alpha’s biological needs.
But Dalton had indicated he was having some of those same feelings. Feeling we couldn’t ignore. The thought made me sick of losing Dalton made me sick. I couldn’t lose him again. Not when I had just got him back.
But ignoring it felt wrong, too. My great-great-grandparents’ story whispered in the back of my mind—Leger, Silas, and their beta, Finch.
A triad. It was rare, almost unheard of now outside of history books or fringe communities, but it was part of my bloodline.
My father never talked about it—he considered it a deviant stain on the family tree—but I had read the journals they left behind.
They hadn’t just “made it work.” They had thrived. Finch hadn’t been a third wheel; he had been the anchor.
He was the glue that held us all together, Silas had written. The one person hormones wouldn’t affect, someone with a clear head when we needed it most.
Was that what Dalton needed? Not a replacement, but a balance?
Dalton often felt like he was fighting against my alpha nature—my protectiveness, my drive. An omega… an omega would soften that. An omega would give Dalton someone to protect, someone to care for alongside me, rather than always being the recipient of my overwhelming intensity.
And Theo…
He had looked so skittish. He’d practically bolted the moment he realized Dalton and I were together. Terror had gripped him. I had seen the way his hands shook when he held his coffee cup. He wasn’t looking for trouble. He wasn’t looking to wreck a home.
But the way he had looked at us? Both of us?
That hadn’t been fear. That had been longing.
I stared at the shadows dancing on the wall, my mind racing. It was a massive risk. If I approached Theo, if I even suggested this, I risked blowing up everything I had just fought to fix. Dalton might pull away. Theo might run for the hills.
But if I was right?
If that pull I felt, that snap of connection, was real?
Then Theo wasn’t a replacement. He was the missing piece we hadn’t known we were looking for. He was the key to unlocking a version of our lives where Dalton finally felt secure, where I finally felt complete, and where an omega who thought he was invisible finally felt seen.
Dalton shifted again, one of his legs throwing itself over my thigh, pinning me down.
“Mine,” he mumbled into my skin, dragging me out of my thoughts.
“Yours,” I whispered back into the darkness, pressing a kiss to his sweaty temple. “Always yours.”
I would tread carefully. I wouldn’t push. I would watch Dalton with Theo, see if that spark I saw was real or just a trick of the light. I would protect my beta first, always.
But tomorrow… tomorrow I was going to pay very close attention to a certain game store owner. Because if fate was handing us a solution to a problem we didn’t even know how to solve, I’d be a damn fool to ignore it.