Page 68 of His Surrogate Omega

Gray rose to his feet and walked closer. He knelt beside Lake. “No… it won’t be your fault. This was my decision. I don’t have an alpha. I’m giving up nothing but a child… a child who will be loved so very much by two very fine men. He will have everything he could ever need or want… and so will you.”

“I don’t want everything,” Lake whispered.

Gray reached out and hugged the boy.

When he glanced across the table, he saw Auggie with tears in his eyes. “You’re not going to give us away, are you?”

“No! Of course not,” Gray cried. “Come here, you.”

Auggie raced to him and dove into his open arm.

“But you are just going to give the baby away when it’s over?” Lake asked.

“Yes. It won’t be easy, I know. But I’ve signed papers saying the baby is theirs and not mine.”

“But itisyours. It’s our cousin,” Lake said. “You shouldn’t have signed it away. How could you? We don’t have much family left,” the boy said, tears in his eyes. “And now you’re giving away some of it.”

Lake jumped from his chair and raced upstairs to his room. A resounding slam was so familiar from the teenager in recent months. Gray eyed Avery for a moment before the youngest of their clan caught his attention.

“Why couldn’t they have a baby of their own?”

Gray rose to sit in Lake’s abandoned chair. He turned to face Auggie and took the boy’s hands in his. “You’ve met Jamie before, remember?”

“Yeah.”

“When he first started coming here, he really didn’t look well. Do you remember?”

“Yeah.”

“He had cancer. And because of that, he can’t have a baby anymore. I’m helping him and his alpha have a baby so they can become a family.”

“That sounds nice,” Auggie said. “Why’s Lake so upset?”

“I’m not totally sure he even knows,” Gray said. “But he’s entitled to feel however he feels. I didn’t think to talk this all over with you two… but maybe I should have before I made my decision.”

“Will we be able to see the baby?”

Gray shook his head. “I don’t think you will.” Perhaps it was best if none of them saw the baby.

“Oh,” Auggie said. “Uncle Gray?”

“Yes?”

“Can I go finish my dinner now?”

Gray chuckled and released the boy’s hands. “Yes. Please do.”

Later, once dinner was over, Gray and Avery stood shoulder to shoulder washing dishes. Silence, albeit for the sounds of water splashing and the scrub of a brush, filled in around them. He wondered what was going on in Avery’s mind, but he was almost afraid to ask and find out the truth of it.

Because it was likely some of the same things swirling in his own mind.

Chapter Nineteen

Rohan’s office…

Rohan stared at the mountain of work on his desk. Any other time and he’d hate seeing it, but now, suddenly, he was thankful for it. It gave him something to focus on that wasn’t his home life.

Never had he ever thought he’d wish for something to prevent him from going home.

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