“Wait,” Haydn said, confused. “You mean he lives here?”
Royce heaved a sigh. “Of course he lives here. He has nowhere to go. He comes from a very old, influential family, but they disowned him after his ‘disgrace,’ especially since he got with child.”
“And your parents took him in even with a child?” Haydn said, a little surprised by such kindness. No matter how unfair it was, rape victims were not treated kindly by society, neither in Kadar nor in Pelugia. It was beyond fucked-up and old-fashioned, but omegas’ purity was still very valued. The Cleghorns were old money. It was surprising that they had taken in a disgraced, disowned omega with a bastard child.
Royce shook his head. “Lucien lost the child due to too much stress. My father took pity on Lucien and claimed him as his second spouse.”
Haydn’s eyebrows flew up. He was bewildered for a moment before remembering that in the Kadarian society an alpha was permitted to marry multiple people as long as the alpha could provide for additional spouses. “Wasn’t Lucien fourteen at the time? That’s gross.”
“My father wasn’t a pedophile,” Royce bit out. “The marriage was on paper only, to give Lucien some respectability.”
“Did it?” Haydn said softly.
Royce grimaced. “Yes and no. People didn’t forget anything, but Lucien is accepted into polite society, as part of our family. He still prefers to stay at home.”
“So he’s actually your stepfather,” Haydn stated.
Royce let out a laugh. “We’re almost the same age. I’ve never seen him as one. But Belinda does see him as a parental figure—Lucien even nursed her, because our mother didn’t want to breastfeed.”
Haydn nodded thoughtfully. Now Belinda’s affection for Lucien made sense, as did Royce’s protectiveness. “Thank you for telling me this,” he said. “I appreciate it. And I promise I’ll be more careful around him.”
Something like surprise flickered in Royce’s eyes, as if he hadn’t expected Haydn to be a decent enough person to make such a promise. It was a little insulting.
“Thank you,” Royce said.
Haydn just nodded. He looked around and raked a hand through his hair, searching for something to say.
“Could you show me to my bedroom?” he said. “I know your housekeeper told me where it is, but I’m not confident I can find it again. The house is huge.”
“Of course,” Royce said, opening the door and guiding him out of the room with a steady hand on his back.
Haydn had to suppress the urge to shrug it off. After fourteen years of fighting a war, it was difficult to accept a hand on his unprotected back. But he had to accept it. This man was his husband. They needed to learn how to get along if they hoped for the peace to hold. It was bad enough that they’d nearly come to blows a few minutes ago. They needed to do better than that.
“It’s here,” Royce said, stopping in front of a door on the second floor. “My room is at the end of the corridor if you need anything.”
Haydn turned to him and hesitated. But they needed to talk about it, to establish that they both understood where they stood. “Do you expect us to have sex?” he said bluntly.
Royce stared at him.
The silence stretched, becoming awkward.
Haydn crossed his arms over his chest.
Finally, Royce said, “Don’t take it personally, but I don’t find alphas attractive.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Haydn gave a clipped nod. “Okay. So I presume this is going to be an open marriage?”
A tiny wrinkle appeared between Royce’s brows.
It was taking him an inordinate amount of time to answer such a simple question.
Haydn raised his eyebrows and laughed a little. “Surely you don’t expect us to be celibate for the rest of our lives?”
Grimacing, Royce said, “I know. I just don’t really like the thought of other people touching my stuff.”
“Excuse you? I’m not ‘your stuff,’” Haydn said, though he was somewhat amused. “I can’t believe you had the nerve to lecture me on my alpha bullshit. Are you sure you don’t have a knot?”
He expected Royce to laugh it off.
Instead, his expression became very strange. Hesitant. Wary.
Haydn’s amusement faded. Wait, what?
Before he could say anything, Royce pushed him inside the bedroom. Closing the door, he turned and regarded Haydn with solemn dark eyes.
“How committed are you to the peace?” Royce said. “Do you truly want it?”
Haydn cocked his head to the side, taken aback by the change of subject. “Of course I’m committed,” he said with a brittle smile. “I’m so tired of this war. I’ve been killing people since I was sixteen, Royce. I might be good at it, but it’s not something I actually want to do.”
Royce’s eyes seemed to look right into his soul.
Finally, after what felt like forever, he nodded. “Then you must know the difficulties we will face. I’m not a beta. I’m an alpha.”