Page 8 of A Hal for my Heart

Seb regarded me, surprised. “He told you?”

I nodded.

“Good. Good. Briar is… special, you know? I love him dearly, and he hasn’t always had it easy.” Seb eyed me knowingly. “I assume you can relate to that, Hal?”

“I can,” I whispered, and I didn’t like the way my chest tightened. There were particular parts of my past I didn’t enjoy revisiting, but perhaps Gus had shared some of it with Seb. I didn’t mind if he had, they were mates after all, but I still preferred not to be talked about too often.

“Good.” He waved his hand at me nonchalantly, like I was now dismissed, and I made sure to bow exaggeratedly as I backed out of his office.

I found Briar in the palace gardens in front of a huge lake. He seemed deep in thought, so I made sure to clear my throat loudly as I approached so as not to startle him.

He turned, smiling at me, his blond hair almost golden as the midmorning sun hit him from behind.

“Hal,” he merely said, a nervous flicker in his green eyes.

It was strange how oddly protective of Briar I was already. Not just because he was so much smaller than me, but because of his shy and almost apologetic demeanor. This morning at breakfast, when I’d convinced him to eat the sausage, my chest had almost burst with happiness, like I’d achieved something meaningful. If it hadn’t been for that annoying servant Nial interrupting our peace, I would’ve hand-fed Briar an entire plate of sausages. He was too skinny, and a compulsive need to take care of him had risen inside me. I imagined Briar round and wholesome, with a slightly rounded belly and full cheeks. I knew these were dangerous thoughts because my fingers instantly tingled with the need to reach out and touch him. I wouldn’t, of course. I’d never touch Briar without his consent.

Briar held a journal clasped against his chest, and he gestured at some garden chairs under the shade of a large tree with a view of the lake.

“We’ve been tasked with getting to know each other better,” he said, blushing adorably, as soon as we’d taken a seat.

“We have,” I said, leaning back, folding my hands behind my head. “What do you want to know? I’m an open book.”

His eyes widened, and a careful smile played along his lips. “While you were talking to Seb, I prepared some questions.”

I couldn’t help laughing, and Briar’s blush deepened. “Of course you did. Fire away!”

“O-okay,” he stammered, licking his lips, and suddenly I was thrust back to earlier this morning and how Briar had moaned around the piece of sausage. Oh gods, this was going to be way harder than I’d imagined. “Let’s start with your childhood. Where did you grow up?” He eyed me curiously as he held his pen ready.

Damn, Briar had just asked me the one question I dreaded the most. Then again, Briar had shared parts of himself with me that were clearly painful to him, too. I guess I owed him my truth in return.

“I, uhm… I grew up in an orphanage with other alpha children.”

A gasp flew from Briar’s lips, his eyes huge with surprise. “You didn’t live with your omega father until you came of age? Like Gus did?”

I shook my head, sadness filling my chest. “No. I was left at the orphanage as an infant.”

“Oh,” Briar whispered, compassion pooling in his eyes. “That’s… I’m sorry, Hal.”

“It’s okay. I don’t remember any of it. All water under the bridge now, ay?”

Briar dipped his gaze to the journal in his lap, his lips moving silently as he read something to himself. Then he closed the journal. Looking up at me, his voice vibrated with indignation as he spoke. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Hal. Truly. No child deserves to be abandoned by their family.”

His words stunned me, his anger clear on my behalf.

“It’s okay,” I mumbled. “It all turned out all right in the end, didn’t it? Look at me now, a royal advisor. Who would’ve thought?”

He didn’t seem convinced, though, his voice tinged with sadness when he asked, “So how did you meet Gus?”

“I, uhm… I ran away from the orphanage when I was twelve. I’d had enough, and I couldn’t stand it a second longer.”

“Were they… were they not nice to you? At the orphanage?”

“They were nice enough, I guess. I mean, they didn’t hurt us or anything. I just… I always imagined there were better things out there for me, you know?”

Briar nodded slowly, his eyes not leaving mine, and I realized that Briar perhaps understood me better than anyone. He, too, was trapped in a way. “So what happened?”

“I roamed the countryside for several weeks, trying to get by the best I could. I’m not proud of it, but in the dark, when no one noticed, I stole vegetables from the gardens and fruit from the orchards. I slept in old abandoned sheds or in the woods, trying to stay clear of people. Then the weather took a turn for the worse, and one evening, when it’d been raining all day, I was chilled to the bone and just exhausted, you know?”