“We can’t tell Adelaide—she’ll tell my parents! I don’t want them to know!” I broke down in tears, and he let me cry until I was wrung out and exhausted. It was probably a good idea anyway—I didn’t think I could stop if I tried. Eventually, though, I didn’t have any more tears to shed, and I sat slowly up and wiped my eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.” I didn’t. I’d always dreamed of having a mate and a baby, once I understood what being omega meant and how it made me different from the other shifters in Mercy Hills, special in a way they couldn’t be. But if I kept the baby, what then? Would they take it away from me and give it to someone else to raise? I glanced over at Taden, so utterly happy against Bax’s chest, and I wondered about the life growing inside me now. “What happens if I don’t want to get rid of it?”
Bax pursed his lips. “That, I can’t say for sure. At home, I know exactly what would happen. Mercy Hills?” He shook his head. “I’ll have to ask.”
“No! You can’t tell anyone!”
“Shh, easy now. I’ll ask Abel. If he doesn’t know, he’ll know who will.”
Abel? I must have made some noise, because Bax patted my hand. “Could you ask Holland to come in here for me?”
I sniffed and slipped off the bed to walk to the door. “Holland?” I called softly, then stepped out into the hallway. “Holland?”
“I’m coming,” came from the kitchen. For the first time, I noticed the smell of something delicious coming from that direction and I remembered that supper was soon. I hadn’t left anything for Mom and Dad to eat, I’d been so focused on my own problems. Guilt poked at me, but I reasoned they’d be happier if they didn’t have to deal with an unmated omega and his child.
Holland came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. “What?”
“Bax wants you.”
He tossed the towel back into the kitchen and followed me down to the bedroom. Bax put up a hand, telling me to stay by the door, so I hung out there kind of uncomfortable while Bax talked to Holland in low tones. Holland’s head drooped and Bax pulled him close to kiss his cheek, then let him go. “You seen my phone, Holl?” he asked in a normal voice.
“I put it on the side table here when you dozed off.” He stretched to get it and gave it to Bax. “You sure about this?”
“It’s hard to put down the Alpha’s Mate mantle, even when you aren’t Alpha’s Mate anymore.” He took the phone, flipped through a couple of screens and tapped something. Faintly, I could hear the phone ringing at the other end, even fainter when Bax put the phone to his ear. “Hi, it’s Bax. Could you put Adelaide on?” A pause, then, “Oh, good. Yes, I can hang on.” He looked up at me. “She’s just finishing with someone, she’ll be—Oh, hi Adelaide. How’s the clinic today?” Bax listened a moment, then chuckled. “Well, don’t bring any of that with you when you come.” Adelaide’s voice squeaked, tinnily indecipherable, from the phone. “Yes, if you could. It’s not me, it’s Bram. He got himself a bit of trouble last night.” I started to panic, but he held up a finger to silence me. Adelaide spoke again and, very carefully, it seemed to me, Bax said, “Yes, that’s exactly it. Could you bring over what we’d need, just in case? And I’d appreciate it if you could talk to us before you spoke to Bram’s parents. Thank you.” He hung up the phone and turned to me. All of a sudden, he looked tired, even more tired than he had before. “She’ll be over after the clinic closes.” He held out his phone. “Call your parents and tell them you’ve been asked to supper and to pupsit tonight so Holland can go out.”
“I left my laundry in the washer at the southwest laundromat,” I said stupidly.
He glanced up at Holland. “Can you get it for him? He can hang it out here, though it won’t dry much tonight, but—” He turned to me. “If you go through with this, you’re going to have to spend the night so we can keep an eye on you, so you might as well let it dry a bit here.”
“Thank you, Bax.” It was such a relief to have someone who knew what to do.
A sharp movement on Bax’s part caught my attention. I looked where he’d jerked my chin, to catch Holland going back out the bedroom door. “Thank you, Holland,” I said, finally remembering my manners.
Holland made a noise that I decided to interpret as “you’re welcome” and disappeared down the hall.
Behind me, Bax laughed. “All done, beautiful boy?” When I turned back to him, he was setting the baby against the middle of his chest, rubbing his back and waiting for a burp. Bax glanced up at me. “He’s a good eater, for being so young. Caught on pretty quick to where the gravy train was to be found.”
The baby gave a small burp, then settled into boneless content against Bax’s body.
Suddenly, I remembered the phone in my hand. “Thank you for everything, Bax. I really mean it.”
He gave me one of those hard-to-read looks of his. “Promise me you’ll listen to all your options before you make up your mind.”
I nodded dutifully. I wasn’t sure, now that the panic had faded a bit, that there was any other option except to get rid of it. I wasn’t promised to anyone yet, not even a sniff of a potential mate, even if you didn’t consider that I wasn’t eighteen yet. Underage for mating in Mercy Hills, according to everyone, though looking at Bax I knew that wasn’t the case everywhere. If I had been promised, we could have had a quick mating and that would have been it. But as it was—I was starting to regret all my flirting.
I called my parents and put on my best cheerful tone, feeding them the whole story as if it were entirely true. Then I put the phone back on the table and fidgeted. Should I stay with Bax? Should I go hang in the living room? Watch the stuff in the kitchen? Had Holland even left yet?
Apparently not, because he came back with a tray filled with dishes and stuff, and the smell of whatever he’d been making filled the room. “I figured I’d bring your supper in to you before I ran to the laundry.” He put the tray—one of those fancy ones with the legs that go on either side of your lap—over Bax’s legs and carefully took the baby to put him in the cradle on the other side of the bed from me. “I brought some for you, too,” he told me with a nod. “Don’t spill anything on the sheets.”
“I won’t.”
Holland handed me a plate with potatoes and carrots and peas and small balls of ground beef glistening with sauce. He checked on Bax, checked on the baby, and finally left when Bax started to tease him about being a hummingbird instead of a wolf.
For the first time since I’d woken up this morning and realized what had happened, I was hungry, and I tucked into Holland’s delicious food with hardly a second thought.
CHAPTER TEN
I cleaned my plate, but Bax didn’t. “I think I’m going to nap while the little vampire is sleeping.” He handed me his half-finished plate. “Put that in the fridge, okay?”
“You sure?”
He nodded. “I’ll heat up the rest later. Or Holland will.” He shot me a wicked smile and nudged me with his elbow. “Seeing as how he’s appointed himself Chief Protector and nursemaid. Don’t let him bother you. This—” He gestured to himself, the swept his hand around in a way that seemed to take in both the baby and myself, “—is hard for him.”
“What happened?”
Bax shook his head. “Not my story to tell, but maybe once we’re past this rough patch, you can ask him. I don’t know if he’ll tell you, though.”
Fair enough. I would have liked to know, though, so I didn’t keep stomping on his toes. But now I was thinking it was something even more horrible than the rumors, and that made me even more curious. “You want any help getting settled?” I wondered how much pain he was in, and my omega line twinged, like it knew what was coming.
“No, I’m fine, just a little tender. It’ll be gone tomorrow. Mostly I’m sleepy, but with a ravenous pup, you get your rest when you can.” He wiggled down into the pillows and pulled the blanket up to his chin. “We borrowed movies from the library, if you want to go watch. Or there’s books. I just fi
nished one—I think it’s still on the kitchen table, if you want to go look for it. The cover’s blue.”
“Thanks.” I glanced back as I was going through the door and he was asleep already, eyelashes a dark half-circle against the faint shadows underneath his eyes. He was beautiful and that bit of jealousy and resentment that I could never quite get rid of prodded me again, then vanished in a puff of sudden understanding. Yes, he was prettier, and had better manners—something I was trying to fix—but he knew a hell of a lot more about being an omega than I did, and I should have listened, instead of getting my underpants in a bunch.
Holland had covered all the pots and left them simmering on the stove. The vegetables were waiting on a wooden cutting board for someone to drop them into a pot of water. I checked the time, then decided to set the table, because it was nearly time for the pups to be home, unless Abel decided to leave them there for the evening. So I set the table for Abel, Holland, and the pups, set out butter and salt and pepper, filled glasses with ice water for the adults and milk for the pups. I was just putting the last of the drinks on the table when Holland walked in.
“The pups will be back—” He paused and looked at the table. “Oh. You’ve already set it.”
“It was the least I could do.” I took my bag of sheets from him. “I’ll go hang these out.”
“Did Bax eat?” he asked as he went to the stove and set water on to boil.
“About half. I put the rest in the fridge. He’s asleep now.”
“Good.” Holland sounded as tired as Bax, now that I was paying attention.
I didn’t really know what to say to Holland, so I went out back and hung my sheets up on the clothesline. The light had turned blue-gold in the time I’d been inside with Bax and the temperature had dropped enough that I regretted not putting my jacket on again. As I came back into the kitchen, I heard the thump of small—and large—feet out front. Fan barreled into the kitchen, saw Holland at the stove and me at the door, then turned on his heel and bolted for the bedroom. I peeked around the corner to find the other three pups, plus Abel, Quin and—oh no! Duke!—in the front hallway.
“Fan!” Abel’s voice rang down the hallway, and the little feet stopped. “Come here.”
Fan dragged himself back, and Abel got down on one knee in front of him. “Wait and see if they’re sleeping, okay? Dabi’s tired, and the baby is small. We’ll go right in as soon as we know that we aren’t waking them up.” The other pups gathered around them, and Abel hugged them all while Fan pushed out his lower lip, but after a moment, he sighed and nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Can I have a cookie?”
“Supper first,” Holland said from the sink. He rinsed whatever he was rinsing, then left it in the sink. “Go wash your hands.”
“I’ll take them,” I offered, willing to do anything to get out of the kitchen while Duke was there. I held out my hands to the pups, ignored Abel’s startled and slightly resigned expression, and herded them off down the hall to the bathroom.
We took our time, making sure we were so clean we shone, and then I sent them back to the kitchen for their supper, and slunk into the living room to hide. Bax’s novel was sitting on the edge of the couch, not in the kitchen like he’d thought, and for lack of anything better to do, I picked it up.
Half an hour later, two-and-a-half year old Beatrice crawled up beside me and curled in against my side. “Hi, Brammie.”
“Hi, Bea. How was school today?”
“It was fun. Did you know that I got a new baby brother now?”
“I do! What do you think about that?”
“He’s not much fun. I thought he’d be bigger.”
“He will someday. But he’s only just born now.”
Someone knocked on the door, but Abel got to it before I could untangle myself from Beatrice. I heard surprise and then concern in his voice, and realized it had to be Adelaide. My face prickled and felt cold, and when Abel came around the corner, his eyes fell on me and I could tell he’d figured it out.
Adelaide gave me a look that said, “Come down when you can do it discreetly.”
I nodded and avoided Abel’s eyes. “Beatrice, did you take your plate to the sink?”
“Ummmm,” she said, clearly trying to figure out if she could tell me no safely.
“Let’s go do that, okay?” I stood up and took her hand.
“Beatrice,” Abel said, his voice rumbling down into that alpha timbre. “You’re big enough to put your own plate in the sink. Bram needs to come with me. Go find Holland.”
“Holland, Holland,” she sang happily and pulled me down so she could plant a kiss on my cheek. “Love you, Brammie.”
“Love you, too, Bea,” I said in a low voice, and watched her bounce out of the room.
Abel waited patiently in the opening to the hall, but it wasn’t a friendly patience; more the kind of patience a wolf shows when it sees a rival. Or prey.
I cast him a quick glance, then swiftly lowered my eyes and followed him down the hall to their bedroom.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
We filed into the bedroom, and Abel closed the door behind us. It felt like a trap closing on my leg, and I had a moment of panic, wanting to run away. The problem was, the thing that I wanted to run away from, I would be taking it with me. I put a hand to my belly, then snatched it away.
Bax woke with a start, and a wary expression. It made me wonder if there were things that went on in their mating that I hadn’t noticed, unpleasant things. But then he saw Abel, and his eyes lit up and the wariness faded, to be replaced with something that my educated guess said was closer to, “Oh, shit.”
“You might as well tell me. I know something happened. I have a pretty good idea what it was too.” Abel walked around the end of the bed and sat on the edge, close to the cradle. He leaned in to give Bax an unhurried kiss, pressed their foreheads together, then turned to peek into the cradle. “Thank the moon he’s asleep.”
“You can stay in one of the other bedrooms if he’s bothering you,” Bax said. “I don’t want you to lose sleep over this.” There was an edge of tension in his words, and Abel leaned back in to him, his mouth moving on nearly silent words. I couldn’t hear anything, but from where I stood, I could see his lips move, and it looked like he said, “I’m not Patrick.”
Bax gave him a startled look, then his eyelids drooped and he peered up at Abel with a wicked smile. “I know,” he said, loud enough for me to hear. He stretched his neck out and kissed Abel again, ran a finger over his mate’s collarbone and down the middle of his chest, plucking at the t-shirt as he went. “I’m sorry.”
“No sorries. I’m good.”
Bax grinned and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. To my delight, Abel turned just the palest shade of pink and sat back, while Bax looked like he’d just caught the fattest rabbit in the glade.
That was what I wanted in a mating.
Adelaide sat on the end of the bed and cleared her throat. “How are you feeling, Bax?”
Bax’s grin relaxed into a contented smile and he reached out to rest a hand on the edge of the cradle. “I’m fine. Tired. I hope he decides to start going longer through feedings. I’ve never had a baby born at night before—they were all morning pups.” But he didn’t appear bothered by the difference as he gazed at the cradle in quiet happiness.
“No discharge? No discomfort?”
“No, it’s pretty much business as usual.” Tiny noises floated up from the cradle. “Abel, could you pick him up for me?”
Abel looked uncertain and startled, which startled me. “I’m not sure…”
“He won’t break.” Bax stroked the backs of his fingers down Abel’s cheek. “After all, look who his Pap is.”
Abel took a deeper than usual breath, then reached into the cradle. A moment later, he leaned back, the baby cupped in his large hands. Taden squished up his face and made tiny squeaking noises, waving his little arms around. Abel held him out to Bax. “Here’s Dabi, Taden.” As if he were hand
ling something made of spun glass and sugar, he oh so carefully placed him in Bax’s arms, then watched with as much fascinated interest as me while Bax tried him at the breast. Taden fussed and kept turning his head away.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Bax laid him in the center of his chest and felt at his diaper. “Well, that explains the fussing. Love, hand me the jean bag over by the wall?” While he waited, he murmured to the baby, “Soggy little boy, aren’t you? I should give you to Pap to hold.”
“You’re going to give him to Pap to hold.” Abel set the bag down on the bed. “I want to learn how to do this.”
“You never diapered Cas?”
He shook his head. “But I bet Quin still remembers how to squash a kid into a diaper.”
“That’s good to know.” Bax started pulling things out of the bag. He handed a small cloth to Abel. “Go wet that?”
“Sure.” Able kissed Bax again—these two were always kissing!—and headed for the bathroom.
Bax spread a small towel out on the bed beside him, and laid the baby down on it. The baby kicked and made noises of protest, but then Abel was back and Bax walked him through the whole take the diaper off, clean the baby, clean all the bits of the baby, put cream on the baby—yes, there too—then wrap the baby back up again.
I was pleased to see he was using the ones I’d made for him. I’d put Velcro on them to hold them closed, like the ones I saw in the shops on the computer. I couldn’t afford the ones in the stores, but I’d scrounged old flannel sheets and other ends of fabric and made him a dozen little diapers in all sorts of colors.
Adelaide slipped in for a moment to check the baby over again, then Abel wrapped him back up in a new little blanket and cradled him in his arms. Taden smacked and dozed off again, and I felt a pang as I watched Abel dote on his baby. I’d never have that, not if everyone found out about last night. And if Justin had been in that room, I would have beat him with the rocking chair in the corner until he wished he’d never been born.
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 5
