Smiling softly, the alpha looked toward Zinn and Ryde at the nurses’ station.
He froze.
His face went ghost-white, his eyes wide as saucers.
A muted sound, something between a gasp and a choke, escaped his throat.
As his gaze zeroed in on Zinn’s arm around Ryde’s shoulders, his forehead pinched in confusion.
Assa’s phone slipped from his fingers, bouncing twice on the hard linoleum floor before landing at Calder’s feet with a dull thud.
At the disturbance, Zinn looked over.
“Valentin, are you okay?” Assa asked uneasily.
Valentin? Why did that name seem familiar? Where had Calder heard—
Oh.
Shit.
Zinn’s shoulders trembled visibly as he stared at the intruder. He pulled Ryde closer to him.
The alpha’s labored breathing seemed to fill the room.
Finally, he hushed out, “Zeller?”
Chapter Forty-Five
Zinn
“Zeller?”
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
Zinn was supposed to get acclimated to having Ryde in his life. He was supposed to get to know Assa and Wes. He was supposed to navigate the ins and outs of becoming a family with Calder and his sons.
After that, when he was prepared, he would seek out Valentin and get answers to the questions that remained from his past. On his own terms. In the future.
Except now, Valentin stood in front of him. Very much in the present.
And Zinn hated that his first instinct was to call himalpha.
“Not Zeller,” he stuttered out. “It’s Zinn.”
Valentin breathed out, “Zinn.” He looked at Wes. Then Assa.
The couple was unmistakably connecting the dots in real time.
“Stars,” Assa murmured, clutching Wes.
Wes pulled him against his shoulder. “It’s alright, sweetheart. It’ll be okay.”
Zinn sucked in a harsh breath, willing himself to stand tall. He was stronger than before. Different.
Valentin had changed too. At least physically—body thicker, jaw more defined, hair darker.
But his eyes, and the way he looked at Zinn—that had not changed.