Page 82 of His Impossible Elf Mate
Except, in my heart, it did. It hurt like fuck that they were rejecting me, that their opinion of me was so fragile, a change in designation could ruin it forever.
“Ah-ha!” Dalton cried as he rounded the corner into my office dressed smartly in a shirt and bow tie covering his shiny new mating bite. “I knew Chase was keeping me away for a reason. Explain yourself!” he demanded.
“I–uh–fuck!” I dropped the photo frame I’d been holding into the box.
Dalton’s false smile fell. “Axel, please don’t avoid me now. I thought we were friends!”
“We are!” I protested, automatically moving to soothe him.
“So friends avoid each other?” He held himself stiffly, arms crossed over his vulnerable middle.
“No. I… I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
He hung his head. “I don’t want you avoiding me because you have what I don’t. You know that, right? Even if I never get to have a baby, I’m still an omega.I’m a step closer than I was before. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to experience it through you.”
“I… never thought about it like that.”
Drawing closer, he reached out a hand. “Can I?”
Nodding, I clasped his hand and placed it gently over my bump.
“Oh! She kicked!” She was really going for it.
I laughed, relieved at seeing the wonder in his eyes without a tinge of jealousy. Maybe I hadn’t been giving Dalton enough credit.
“Of course she did. She’s happy to meet her Uncle Dalton,” I said, extending the olive branch, hopeful he would forgive me for avoiding him these last weeks.
“Uncle Dalton?”
“Outside of my family and my mate, you’re the closest thing to a best friend I have. So would you be her honorary uncle?”
Dalton threw his arms around me and cried into my chest. I just held him and let him get it out before giving him the space to back up.
“I’m going to be the best uncle ever!” Dalton’s grin stretched across his face.
“Just don’t let Chase hear you say that, okay? That’s starting a war you can’t win.”
His eyes twinkled mischievously. “This is going to be fun!” He turned to leave the office before turning and leaning against the frame.
“Ax?”
“Yeah?”
“Just… don’t avoid me anymore, okay? I’m not jealous of what you have because I don’t, yet. I can be happy for you and sad for me at the same time, alright?”
“Yeah. Besides, it’s early days. Plenty of time for it to happen.”
He brightened. “Exactly.”
Blake rapped his knuckles against the doorframe a little while later. My stuff was nearly all packed away.
“Packing?”
I rolled my eyes. “Clearly.”
“You don’t have to do this, y’know.” He crossed his arms, a defeated look on his face.
“We can’t keep going like this, Blake,” I said, chucking the last things into boxes. How had I accumulated so much shit? “You punishing the ringleaders is doing absolutely nothing to change their minds.”
