Chapter Forty-Seven
Assa
ONE YEAR LATER
“Sorry I’m late,” Assa whispered, sliding into an aisle seat next to Valentin. “Got stuck at the lab.”
“No worries.” Valentin kissed his cheek. “You haven’t missed anything. The principal just came out to say they’d start in about five minutes.”
Wes took Assa’s hand from Valentin’s other side and rested them together in their alpha’s lap. Next to him, Ryde complained, “I can’t see!”
Calder, sitting beside Ryde, picked him up and plopped him on his knee. “Can you see now?”
“Of course I can now, Papa C, cuz you’re a giant. But I’m too big to sit in someone’s lap. May I please go be with Jordie?”
Assa sighed. Ryde was growing up so fast. And sassier by the day. Six months ago, he’d even forbade them from calling him “nugget.”
Two rows over, Jordie and Kino had an empty seat next to them.
“You can sit with him as long as he doesn’t mind,” Wes answered.
Jordie smiled and waved Ryde over.
“Jordie’s such a great kid,” Assa said. “I can’t believe he’s graduating next year.”
“You’re telling me,” Calder said. “Whenever I hold Lachie, it feels like it hasn’t been that long since Jordie was on my shoulder.”
Valentin tensed at the mention of Calder and Zinn’s four-month-old baby.
Before the tiny omega was born, Valentin and Zinn had reached a sort of stasis.
After months of talking through their past, they’d grown easy with one another, and obviously they were overjoyed to be in Ryde’s life.
Many times, Assa had noticed Valentin or Zinn smiling while watching the other one with him.
Yet ever since Lachie’s birth, Valentin had been hesitant to spend time around Zinn.
Assa hadn’t registered it at first. Zinn had been at home with a newborn and Valentin had a busy job running The Cracked Heart, so it was easy to chalk it up to circumstance.
But when the families got together, he noticed that Valentin was reluctant to hold the baby, and some of the awkwardness from when he and Zinn reunited a year ago seemed to be back in full force.
Before Lachie was born, Valentin had admitted how strange it sometimes was to see the omega he’d once imagined a future with settle into that future with a different man.
He’d reassured Assa and Wes that he was completely committed to their relationship, that what he felt for Zinn was not longing, but something more akin to disorientation.
Assa believed him. He was certain that Valentin was happy.
Just because the alpha could be honest about feeling like the Parkensons had robbed him of his former life did not mean he didn’t love his life now.
And in a way, Valentin had come full circle, because he was helping raise the child Keyes and Deveron had tried to keep from him.
But Assa wondered if Valentin would always be weird about seeing Zinn in his element as a daddy to Lachie.
Shifting in the wooden auditorium chair, Valentin was quick to shake off the tension. He raised their hands and kissed Assa’s knuckles, then Wes’s.
The touch of his lips was reassuring. His alpha’s easy affection soothed the part of Assa that worried about being too much or not enough. Valentin also encouraged Wes to let go and relax.
The three of them healed each other in ways Assa never imagined, and although their relationship had progressed rather quickly, he’d sensed its inevitability from the start.
Eight months ago, half a year after the night they met, they told Calder and Zinn that they planned to move in together and take steps to make their arrangement more official.
At first, Zinn seemed taken aback, but ultimately, he expressed congratulations. He also spoke privately with Valentin that night.
When Assa and Wes asked Valentin what they’d talked about, he’d explained, “Kind of like it’s weird for me seeing him with Calder sometimes, it’s the same for him knowing I’m going to live with Ryde and be with you two.
I told him I’d do whatever I could to not make him feel like he was being left out of parenting our s—parenting Ryde, and he said he was happy for me. ”
“You don’t need to keep correcting yourself,” Assa said.
“Huh?”
“Ryde. He is our son—yours, mine, Wes’s, and Zinn’s. Calder’s too, honestly. You and Zinn have been careful about not overstepping, but I think we’re past that. I mean, you’re going to be living with us.”
“Right,” Wes said. “Legally, we’ll always be Ryde’s fathers, but having his birth parents and Calder nearby has been nothing but positive.”
“A year ago, we had no extended family,” Assa added, teary-eyed. “Now Ryde has big brothers, a little brother on the way, and three extra fathers.”
Valentin pulled them into his arms. “The day Asher made sure you got Zeller’s baby was the luckiest day in all our lives.”
Assa laughed. “Obviously.”
“Seriously,” Valentin said. “Loving you has made me whole again, allowed me to be the man I’ve always wanted to be, and filled me up in ways I never imagined.”
“We love you too, alpha,” Wes murmured.
“So much,” Assa hushed out.
After that day, Wes and Assa disclosed their relationship to their colleagues at the university. While they wouldn’t be flaunting their polycule, they wouldn’t be hiding it either.
Because Jordie was dating Kino McGinn, they were able to sit down with Teal McGinn and ask him questions about how they could make their triad as legally official as possible. The state’s most famous omega lawyer gave them plenty of direction.
“You have the right idea,” Teal had said. “It’s best not to do anything that makes it appear as though you’re hiding or, stars forbid, ashamed. Normalizing polyamory requires us to do what we can to make the situation visible.”
Assa wasn’t sure he, Wes, and Valentin were on the level with the McGinns to influence public perception, but he appreciated the thoughtful words.
Not to mention the great advice.
While they couldn’t marry legally, Valentin changed his last name to Pashuk.
He hadn’t spoken to his parents or siblings since before going to prison and had no connection to the Dannon name.
Wes and Assa put away the wedding rings they’d worn for a dozen years, and the three of them got matching ones.
They held a small commitment ceremony in front of Ryde, Calder, Zinn, Jordie, and Ked, along with close friends and colleagues.
Afterward, Zinn pulled Assa aside and told him basically what he’d said to Valentin months earlier, that while it was sometimes disconcerting seeing Valentin with Wes and Assa, he was grateful for the alpha’s happiness.
It did not surprise Assa that Zinn made a point to speak with him.
The past year had solidified their intense bond.
He considered Zinn his closest friend and knew the feeling was mutual.
That was why he reassured him that Assa and Wes had long ago made peace with the palpable energy between Valentin and Zinn.
Laughing, Zinn revealed Calder had said the same thing.
“It’ll always be a little electric between you and Valentin,” Assa said, pulling Zinn into a hug. “It’s only a problem if we make it one. And none of us want that.”
“Agreed.”
Zinn moved in with Calder during his second trimester, and they held their own commitment ceremony shortly before the baby was born. Zinn remained adamant about not getting legally married, although he did change his last name to Rosen.
Now, five months after that, they were finally settling into a rhythm.
Ryde spent several nights a week with Calder and Zinn, but the households often got together, meeting for board game nights at the Rosens’ house, or barbecues in the Pashuks’ backyard. Assa loved seeing Ryde around Calder’s sons, and as a big brother to Lachie.
He just wished Valentin could stop being so weird about the baby.
Tonight, the two families were attending opening night of the high school drama department’s spring production. Ked had a starring role, as did Kino’s younger brother Zane, who was in Ked’s grade at school.
Assa glanced toward the other side of the auditorium and saw three of Kino and Zane’s five fathers—Teal, Ronan, and Niall. He smiled and waved, guessing that the other two men in their polycule were home with their many younger children.
“Hey, where is Zinn?” Assa asked. “Are we saving a seat for him?”
“He’s in the back with Lachie,” Valentin answered, sounding strained. “I saw him on my way in. He said he wanted to stand near the exit in case the baby got fussy.”
Calder peered at Valentin before flattening his lips. “I offered to hold the baby, but Zinn has me on filming duty,” he said, holding up his phone.
Assa spotted Zinn by the side entrance with Lachie on his shoulder.
The omega winked.
Assa delighted in seeing Zinn with the baby.
The resilient omega was finally getting the fatherhood experience he had always deserved.
He hadn’t gone back to work at Felton’s, declaring that he would eventually, but wasn’t ready yet, so Calder had hired another cake designer.
But Zinn still explored his creativity at home.
Recently, he’d begun teaching Ryde the fundamentals of painting with oils.
Although Assa was not as close to Calder as he was to Zinn, he loved the alpha dearly and considered him an integral part of his life.
Not to mention he was still one of the most beautiful men Assa had ever seen.
It had been nearly ten years since they’d met over the phone that fateful day at the assisted living facility, and Calder still took his breath away.
Perhaps even more now that he’d gotten to know him as a father and a friend.
It was interesting that of all the men in Ryde’s life, Calder was the oldest and Zinn was the youngest. They complimented each other in so many ways.
Zinn maintained a zest for life and a desire for freedom that a younger alpha might find intolerable.
But Calder took all of Zinn’s quirks in stride.
Zinn taking his sweet time to move into Calder’s house?
Fine. Zinn wanting a commitment ceremony rather than marriage?
Fine. Zinn having conflicted feelings about Valentin?
More than fine, since Calder did everything in his power to make sure Valentin understood he was neither jealous nor resentful of their connection.
The day after Lachie was born, Valentin had politely declined to hold him in the hospital when Zinn offered. Calder watched the exchange, then pulled the younger alpha aside.
Assa overheard them talking in the hallway.
“I understand this is perhaps strange now. Uncomfortable, even,” Calder said. “But when the day comes that it isn’t strange—and it will—you should know that I want you to be a big part of Lachie’s life. Take your time to feel however you’re going to feel, but when you’re ready, we’ll be here.”
Assa had gotten used to Calder making statements like that. It made sense, after everything he’d been through with his first husband, that he’d remained steadfast in his good humor and equanimity.
The lights in the auditorium flashed on and off.
“That’s the thirty-second signal,” Calder said, pressing buttons on his phone. “Hopefully I don’t mess this up.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Wes said, playfully punching his shoulder. “Just don’t drop it.”
“And probably keep your thumb away from the lens.” Valentin smiled.
A baby cried out and Assa looked over to see Zinn place a pacifier in Lachie’s mouth.
Next to him, Valentin tensed again.