Page 3 of Mate Matched: Xavier & Brady
Malik’s pheromones briefly overpowered the filters in the restaurant. They were clouded with his sympathy, worry, and love for me. He’d always been empathetic, which was what made him perfect for family law. As an omega, he was non-threatening to the omegas who came to him for legal advice to end matings and keep custody of their children.
Our friendship got me through law school, even though I went into entertainment law. Then his support got me through the early years of dating Giovanni. Malik, and later Chen, were steadying influences in our lives. Without them, I would havecrumbled under the pressure Gio’s parents put us under at the start of our marriage.
“I’m sorry, Xavier. Just remember, we’re here if you need us.”
My legs shook as I stood. “You’ve got the baby to worry about now. Don’t worry about me, everything will work out.”
Malik had every good reason to worry about me. I’d told a terrible lie: everything was not going to work out.
Gio had been late home from his meeting. Again. By the time he walked in, I was in bed and had missed any chance of talking this out with him. I suspected he was having doubts over Brady because he was recessive and his parents were putting us under pressure to give them grandchildren. Didn’t mean he had to avoid me. I pushed aside the thought that there was something else going on.
I trusted my husband. At least, I had.
The ambient noise from the trendy vegan restaurant barely two blocks from Gio’s marketing firm’s office wasn’t loud enough to drown out the ringing in my ears as I tried to make sense of what Gio had just said to me.
“What?” I repeated. I gripped the edge of the table as if it would stop me from falling apart.
“We’re pregnant! We’re gonna be dads! Isn’t that amazing?” Gio’s smile was overly bright, forced. His tone held a hint of hysteria, as if he knew it was one big lie after another.
“How can we be dads, Gio? That baby isn’t mine.” The omega next to Gio, Candice, winced at the sharpness in my tone. Iwanted to stand up, to bolt out of this damned place, but with the stares of the waiting staff on me, I knew I was stuck listening to this nonsense my husband had fabricated to win me over.
“We’re married, so the babies—”
“Babies? How many are we talking about here?” My voice got higher with my panic. Around me, people had stopped even pretending they weren’t listening in on our conversation. Considering how loudly I’d spoken, I couldn’t really blame them. I worked to quiet my next words. “How many babies did you make without me, Gio?” I hissed.
Candice spoke for the first time since they’d sat down together. “It’s twins.”
“And how far along are you?”
“Five months.”
Close to when I’d spent the night with the omega, but I knew they were banking on me not having anything to prove that. Candice was one of our hookups. We’d met her a few weeks before her heat was due with the plan for us to take her through it if we were compatible.
I hadn’t particularly enjoyed my encounter with her, since female omegas generally weren’t my type. She seemed nice enough, and clearly something about her had caught my husband’s attention. He’d obviously been seeing her since then and if I thought back to his “business trips”, gone through her heat with her.
“Is she the late business meetings? The work trips?” I asked in a flat, low voice.
Gio looked me straight in the eye. “Yes. We fell in love and now—”
“What?” I demanded. “What do you want from me, Gio? We’ve been together for twelve years. Married for a decade. I loved you! What more do you want from me?” Tears pricked my eyes.
“I want us to raise the babies together as a family. The three of us.” Gio wore a mask of calm while Candice sat next to him, clutching his arm for comfort.
“A family?” I let out a bitter chuckle. “We were a family, just the two of us, before you decided to impregnate your girlfriend. Maybe, just maybe, I could have forgiven you for cheating—”
“It wasn’t cheating!” Gio protested loudly. “We’re open.”
“With rules!” I bit back. Candice’s face paled with shock. “You didn’t tell me you were still seeing her. You made me think things were done with her. We met other people. Brady! You let me fall in love with him all while knowing your girlfriend was pregnant. His heat… were you going to pass his heat with him?”
Gio casually shrugged, though he looked defensive. “Not like he can get pregnant.”
Fury, boiling hot, flooded my veins. My pheromones leaked out, cowing everyone within a three-meter radius until the filters kicked on higher. “Sorry,” I muttered to the staff, embarrassed at losing my control like that.
“Sir, I think your party should leave,” the manager suggested in a firm tone as they approached our table, a mask on their face.
I stood, happy for an excuse to leave, and stalked for the door after throwing a fifty on the table. We hadn’t even ordered drinks, but I wanted to give them something after our display.
“Xavi! Wait!” Gio called after me. He and Candice were moving quickly, darting around people on the sidewalk.
