Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Maybe he had grown up, after all.
The thought was a little depressing. Eric suddenly missed the simpler times, when all he’d been interested in were his computer and chatting with his equally geeky online friends. The old Eric hadn’t known what it felt like to need a man, to need him so badly his thoughts constantly returned to him, unable to focus on anything else. Now his childish infatuation with Jerome seemed ridiculously weak in comparison. It hadn’t been a tenth as strong as what he felt for Hugh.
Just his luck that the first alpha he’d had feelings for was responsible for his public humiliation, and the second alpha he was head over heels for turned out to be already mated.
He was either the most unlucky omega in existence or the most pathetic.
Chapter 14
Being back in Pelugia was strange.
His brothers greeted him with warm, tight hugs, and their familiar scents immediately made him feel at ease. But strangely, the feeling of home that he’d expected to feel upon his return failed to materialize.
Eric wasn’t sure whether his brothers picked up on his disquiet or not, but he could see the worry in their eyes, the concerned looks they exchanged when they thought he wasn’t looking.
“You smell weird,” Anthony said, his nostrils flaring as a puzzled expression appeared on his face.
Eric’s heart started beating faster. “What do you mean?” he said, wondering if his family alpha was picking up on his hormonal imbalance or somehow smelled Hugh on him. He told himself the latter was impossible. It’d been twenty-two hours since he’d last seen Hugh. Not that he was counting or anything.
Anthony gave a half-shrug. “I’m not sure. Just different.”
Jules shoved his nose against Eric’s scent gland.
“Hey!” Eric said, pushing him away with an uncomfortable laugh.
“Huh, you’re right, Ant,” Jules said. “He does smell off.”
“Stop being rude, both of you,” Liam said, taking Eric’s arm and walking with him toward the house. He smiled at Eric, a little uncertainly. “How have you been?”
“I’m fine,” Eric said. “Where’s Anthony?” He winced. “I mean Jon. Damn, this is so embarrassing.”
Liam smiled ruefully while Anthony made a face.
Jules outright laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I just recently got used to calling him Jon, and I still misspeak sometimes! He doesn’t take offense. I think Ant gets more offended than Jon does.” Jules stuck his tongue out at their eldest brother and grinned. “It’s not my fault he was a better older brother than you!”
Anthony rolled his eyes, ruffling Jules’s hair. “You’re a child. I can’t believe you’re going to have a child of your own.”
Jules lovingly patted his small baby bump. “Shut it, Devlin junior is going to be the luckiest boy in the world.”
“It’s going to be so embarrassing for you if it’s a girl,” Liam said with a grin.
“I know it’s a boy! I just know it.”
“Your intuition sucks, Jules. I’m going to laugh at you so hard if they don’t find a penis during your ultrasound.”
Eric listened to his brothers’ familiar banter with a small smile.
It was good to be home.
And he was home, no matter what his stupid heart said.
***
The first day of the wedding was tolerable. The reception was pretty small, with only the Blake relatives present: around forty people. There were just seven people from Jon’s extended family, as was custom. Eric managed to live through that day with a firmly pasted smile on his face, deflecting the well-meaning questions and advice. When the day was finally over, he felt like crying from sheer relief.
He talked Liam out of including him in the wedding party on the second day, the one at Jon’s house, and that day was a very welcome reprieve.
But he couldn’t not attend the main reception on the third day, and that was the one Eric was anxious about the most. There were apparently going to be four hundred and fifty people in attendance. He knew he shouldn’t have trusted Liam when his brother had assured him that it would be a “fairly small” wedding. Fairly small, his ass.
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Liam said, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Eric looked at his brother, surprised that he even had time to talk to him given how important—and crazy—the day was for him.
Liam looked ethereal, and it wasn’t even about his fancy wedding attire, or the ridiculously expensive gems adorning his collar and cuffs. He was glowing, his eyes shining with happiness that amplified his objectively perfect appearance.
“Don’t be silly,” Eric said. “If I don’t go, people will talk. The gossip was bad after I didn’t stay for Jules’s wedding reception. Jules’s press officer is right: if we don’t act like we’ve moved on from the scandal, people won’t, either.”
Liam walked over and took his hands into his own. He looked a little awkward and unsure as he peered into Eric’s eyes. “Forget the gossip. If you will feel miserable at my wedding, I don’t want you to suffer through it. I can make up some excuse for you. You know I’m good at lying.”