“Oh, Duke.” I dropped the papers on the floor and cuddled up against him and just held him as tight as I could. “Can we just stay home today so I can hold onto you forever?”
He rubbed a hand over my back. “Sure. But Abel got Bax some venison for Christmas and he’s going to do it up Texas style. You sure you want to miss that?”
“Venison?” I relaxed my grip so I could look up at him. “What’s that like?”
“You’ve never had it?” He sat up and pulled me up too. “Then there’s no way we’re staying here all day. Sorry, love, you’re going to have to socialize.” He kissed me, wearing a wicked grin. “Now, open the rest of your presents.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Duke knocked on the door that opened into Bax and Abel’s kitchen and waited for Bax’s “Come in” before opening it. He had Bram tucked under his arm, the carved wooden bracelet that had been Bram’s other present from Duke gleaming warmly on Bram’s wrist. It had snowed again overnight, and the light coming in the windows was bright white and cold, but the house was warm and crowded already.
Bax, Holland, and Jason were moving around the kitchen, filling it with smells that made Duke’s mouth water.
“Merry Christmas,” Bax said, and left his place at the table, and the large chunks of meat he was seasoning, to come over and hug them both. “The alphas are all out in the living room keeping the pups busy if you want to go, Duke. There’s beer out there too, and cider.” He took the two potato pies from Duke, exclaiming over them, but was puzzled when Bram handed him the plum pudding.
“It’s an east coast thing,” Duke told him, then kissed Bram and let himself be chased out of the kitchen so the omegas could do whatever magic omegas did. He rounded the corner into the living room, and had to pick his way over to the table where the drinks were waiting, because the pups had Fan’s Legos scattered all over the floor. It looked like they were trying to build a replica of the enclave, though the real one wasn’t anywhere near as colorful.
Not all the pups, though. Taden lay on Abel’s chest, and Macy played on the floor at Mac’s feet, pushing small wooden shapes through holes cut in a board and cackling gleefully whenever she did it. Noah was in the corner, using a small wooden hammer to bash brightly colored wooden pegs through another small board.
“Duke!” Mac gestured him over to a chair beside him. “Sit down, have a drink. We got chased out of the kitchen.” He leaned over to help Macy find the square shaped hole in her board.
Jason’s voice floated around the corner. “No sampling allowed! You all know that.”
“See? Where’s the respect an omega’s supposed to have for his alpha?” Mac raised his voice slightly so it would carry into the kitchen.
Jason popped into sight, a half peeled sweet potato in his hands. “You were pretty well respected last night, MacKenzie Mercy Hills. Don’t push your luck.” He pointed an admonishing finger at his mate, then disappeared back into the kitchen.
By the way he said the word respected, Duke guessed that Mac had had a pretty good night last night. And Mac confirmed it. “Can I help it if you can’t keep your hands off me?”
Muffled laughter came from the kitchen, and Mac shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
“Probably the smartest idea.” Abel glanced down at Taden, sleeping the sleep of the just pup, his mouth open and drool making a damp patch on Abel’s t-shirt. “While they’re all having fun in the kitchen, I have an idea to throw at you.”
“What’s that?” Mac asked. “Duke, hand me another beer, will you? Might as well get Abel one too,” he added, as another burst of laughter rolled out of the kitchen. “We’re going to need the courage.”
Duke laughed and passed out the dark brown bottles. “Which ones are these?”
Abel frowned and drank a mouthful. “I think this is the new one. Honey wheat? They’re still working on the recipe.”
Carefully, Duke sampled the new beer. “Not bad. Not like the lager, though.”
“No,” Abel agreed thoughtfully. “But it’s not far off.” He took another swig and set the bottle aside. “I wanted to talk about the omega campaign and since you two have a personal interest in omega emancipation, I wanted to get your opinion on some things.”
Duke leaned forward with his forearms on his thighs, his hands dangling between his knees, the bottle hanging nearly forgotten from one hand as all his attention focused on Abel. Yeah, this would be a good thing for Bram. He shouldn’t have to be so grateful to have the things that every other pack member took for granted. “What do you want to do?”
“Don’t know. I think we need to get the omegas out doing stuff that normally gets assigned to alphas and betas. Things that put them in charge. Things like Bram going to school.”
“Is Bram going to school? I didn’t think he was interested?” Mac asked with raised eyebrows.
“He’s smarter than people think,” Duke snapped before he had time to consider his words.
Mac’s eyebrows went higher. “I never said he wasn’t. He just never struck me as being that ambitious.” His tone was mild, but something about it rubbed Duke entirely the wrong way.
“That’s because he’s gotten the message all his life that omegas don’t go to school! Or do anything but pop out pups and look after the house.” Duke sat back and raised his beer to his mouth to buy time to get this sudden anger on Bram’s behalf under control. These were his friends—they didn’t deserve to be snapped at any more than Bram deserved not to have the same chances as anyone else in the pack. “Shit, I’m sorry. It’s a bit of a sore point.”
“No big deal,” Mac said, though he seemed to see Duke with new eyes now.
Finally, Abel said, “That’s the point. We don’t want anyone to think that they don’t have as many choices as anyone else. If an Alpha wants to work in the daycare, and they’re good at it, why shouldn’t they?”
Duke nodded.“Yeah. What do you need us to do?”
Mac gripped Duke’s shoulder and gave it a shake. “Things going well between you two?”
“Yeah.” Duke drank another swallow of beer. “Fine. Better than fine, really.” He wondered if he should say anything before they really knew what was happening, then decided fuck it. “Adelaide thinks we’re having twins.”
“Holy shit! Congratulations!” Mac grabbed him and pulled him into an awkward sideways hug, and as soon as he let go, Abel leaned forward to shake his hand, though he gave Duke a searching look to go along with it.
Duke gave him a firm look in return, and sat back with his beer. “Yeah, well, it’s not certain yet. Adelaide wants to send him outside walls for some tests, and if he is, then he’ll have to be careful, being so young.”
“You know you can count on me,” Mac told him with a grin. “Just as well. Jason’s pregnant too.”
“MacKenzie Mercy Hills! I thought we’d agreed to wait until dinner.” Jason stood in the doorway, his hands empty this time.
“But Duke had news!”
Jason turned to look at Duke. “News?”
Duke held his hands up. “Nope. Not risking the omega wrath.” Not that he hadn’t already blabbed.
Bram appeared in the doorway behind Jason. “It’s okay.” He smiled at Duke. “It’s his news too.” Then he blushed. “I already told them anyway.”
Laughter filled the living room, distracting the pups and reminding them that there were adults to climb on. Jason waved to Macy, and Abel snagged Teca before she could run into the kitchen. “Why don’t we put a video on?”
“Lady and the Tramp?” she asked.
“Star Wars!” Fan cried.
“I have something new,” Bax said, slipping into the room in that unobtrusive way of his. He walked over to the wooden trunk in the corner and opened it, reaching deep into one end. “Finding Nemo!”
“What’s a Nemo?” Fan asked, wrinkling his little nose.
“It’s a great movie,” Duke told him. “A little boy fish, about your age, gets kidnapped,
and his dad goes on an adventure to save him and meets all sorts of weird other fish. You’ll love Dory.”
“Who’s Dory?” Teca asked, obviously not certain about the movie.
“There’s no describing Dory. You have to see her to believe her,” Duke told her gravely.
Fan didn’t seem impressed, but a bribe of one Christmas cookie for each pup soon had them all settled on the couch beside Abel and the movie hadn’t been on more than thirty seconds before they were totally engrossed.
Duke looked up to find Bram watching the pups with an uncertain expression on his face, as if he wasn’t sure he was ready for this. He caught his mate’s eye and smiled at him, telling him in that silent expression that he believed in him. After all, he’d seen Bram wrangle a half-dozen over-excited pups. Two babies should be a breeze.
Bram smiled back at him and his expression softened, and Duke’s heart swelled with happiness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Back in the kitchen, I picked up another carrot and began scraping the peel off it. Bax was putting together something he called buttermilk pie, and Holland was cleaning up the mess of flour and pastry scraps on the table.
“Should we make more cornbread?” Holland said as he scooped the last of the crumbs off the table.
“We should have enough. We’re not cooking for that many. Remember that time in Buffalo Gap when Uncle Mitchell decided…” They began to reminisce about Christmases in Buffalo Gap, talking about people I didn’t know and wasn’t likely to ever meet. I moved on to another carrot and then another, until the pot in front of me was half full of little orange circles. The first uneasy complaints of my stomach made their appearance as the smell of roasting venison began to drift through the air. Nooooo! At that moment, I hated my body. Well, maybe not all of it, but my stomach was definitely on my shit list.
I filled the pot with water and set it on the stove next to the boiling sweet potatoes, ready to be turned on just before the roasts and the turkey were done. The meat smell was stronger here and my stomach made a weird gurgling noise and twisted inside me.
“Bram, can I borrow your stove for the sweet potatoes?” Jason asked over his shoulder while he washed dishes at the sink.
I couldn’t answer, or my stomach was going to empty itself on the floor. Deep breathing didn’t help. If anything, it only made it worse, and I clamped my hand over my mouth and started to leave, but only made it as far as the closest chair.
“Bram?” Jason left the sink and came over to me, wiping his hands on a dishtowel. Bax followed him after a glance in my direction.
“I’m okay,” I said. My voice was shaky and strained, and it felt like my stomach wanted to come out with the words.
“You’re white,” Bax said, and put the back of his hand against my forehead.
“I’m fine. My stomach is just upset.”
“Hmmm,” Bax said. “Morning sickness?”
“It’s not morning, though,” I protested.
“It can happen any time,” he said with a smile. “When did you last eat?”
“Breakfast?”
He nodded and tilted his head to the side with a thoughtful look. “Okay, not too long ago. I’ll make you something to help settle your stomach.” He stepped away and turned toward the kettle, sitting on the cupboard after being displaced by the pots of Christmas food, but Holland was already there, filling it from the tap.
“There’s still some candied ginger in the cupboard,” he said. “I didn’t eat it all.”
Bax laughed. “You don’t mind sharing?”
Holland smiled and put the kettle on the stove, moving my carrots out of the way. “No. He needs it more than I do. You remember Florinda, her first?”
Bax grimaced. “Yeah.” He brought me a small bowl filled with pale gold slices of candied ginger. “Eat them slowly, just a nibble at a time. Let your stomach rest a bit while you’re eating.”
I did as I was told, trusting that Bax and Holland knew more than I did. It did seem to work, or maybe the distraction of having to eat it just so was enough to settle my stomach a little. By the time Holland brought me over a mug of nettle tea, I was feeling a bit better, though I couldn’t be sure I’d be able to eat.
“Drink that slowly and let it work.” He regarded me for a minute, wearing the expression of someone watching a particularly interesting bug. Or one they expected to throw up all over them. “Maybe I’ll get you a bucket, just in case. Or do you want to lie down?”
I thought about it. I did, kind of, because the sick stomach brought exhaustion along with it, but it was Christmas, and I didn’t want to miss anything. “I think I’ll tough it out.”
To my surprise, Holland patted me on the shoulder, then mussed my hair. “Good. Can we still borrow your stove?”
I waved my hand. “Sure. I’ll just sit here and not throw up.”
He chuckled and turned back to the food.
I didn’t help much for the rest of the preparations. My parents arrived and we visited while Jason, Bax, and Holland got everything ready, somehow working it out that all the food was cooked perfectly all at the same time. I did set the table, and help with the little low table that Abel had borrowed from the daycare for the pups. They were ecstatic, having their own table to sit at, complete with tiny forks and fancy Christmas paper plates and napkins, a gift from Bax’s mom back in Buffalo Gap. Even little Noah, who was struggling with sharing his Dabi now that the baby had come along, couldn’t have been happier to sit on his purple chair and wait to be served, just like an adult.
The pups meals were brought out first, tiny dabs of everything, accompanied by promises of more if they ate a little bit of all the different food on their plates.
Then it was time to serve the adults. We moved the kitchen table out to the living room and lined it up with the one from the dining room. I still found it strange, almost excessive, to have a separate room for eating in, but I figured Abel had earned it. And Duke had shown me the plans they had for the new houses that would be built. Mostly two together, duplexes, with large yards, and so many trees it would be like living in the forest. Four bedrooms, so the pups weren’t all crammed together. And a room like Bax’s. A dining room.
Duke had volunteered to work construction, even though what he was really good at was stuff like furniture and carving—fine, fancy things that took a lot of time. But this would be a lot of credits and he wanted them. For us, and for the pups. For the right to live in one of those houses, instead of being in one of the old ones, crammed into a long row, with tiny back yards and everyone in your business.
Some day I would have a dining room of my own.
Jason and I set out plates and silverware, three different kinds of pickles, and pepper and salt and whatever else everyone wanted, then we called everyone into the kitchen to fill their plates.
Taden was awake on Abel’s chest, not fussy, but he had that look, like he was trying to decide what he wanted. Bax took him and headed off down the hallway, probably to feed and change him.
Holland handed Abel a plate.
Abel gave it back. “I’ll wait for Bax.”
“He’s going to be a while,” Jason said.
“That’s fine.”
“Don’t wait on me!” Bax called from the bedroom. “He’s hungry.”
I had a thought. “Bax, if I make you a plate, can you feed him and eat with one hand?”
Abel glanced at me with raised eyebrows.
“I don’t mind him feeding the baby at the table. If no one else does.”
“He can cover up with a little blanket if anyone’s uncomfortable,” Jason said, wiping his hands on a cloth. “I did it with Macy.”
“I’ll go ask him,” Abel said, and a few minutes later, they were back. Bax cradled the baby against his chest, Taden already enjoying his own Christmas dinner, and Abel helped him into his seat like he was fine china.
We let Bax go first. Abel filled a plate, following Bax’s directions, then carried it out t
o the table in the living room. By the time he got back, half of us had taken what we wanted, we were all so hungry. We filed out to the living room and arranged ourselves around the table. My stomach lurched when I settled into my place next to Duke, and I eyed my plate, which at any other time would have looked unbelievably appetizing, with suspicion. This was my first mated Christmas dinner. I wouldn’t be sick, I refused to.
It was the first time I’d ever had venison. I’d been really looking forward to it, but I had to admit to being pretty nervous as I cut into my piece. My stomach heaved, a weird numbness climbing up the back of my throat, and I closed my eyes and breathed deeply in hopes that would calm it down, except that seemed to make things worse. Then the first bite I put in my mouth sent me racing from the room, headed for the bathroom. I made it, just barely, and heaved over the toilet, though there wasn’t anything but slimy spit to bring up.
Duke was right behind me. He held me as well as he could in the small space. The heaves kept me from saying anything, but I was grateful that he hadn’t left me alone here to deal with it.
When the spasms finally eased off, I slumped onto the floor and a few tears that weren’t from the vomiting trickled down my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m doing this.”
“You’re pregnant. It happens, I’m told.”
“Not like this. Not this bad.”
“We’ll ask the doctor when we go see him. Maybe he can explain it.”
“I hope so.” I curled into his arms and closed my eyes. If only I could spend the rest of my life like this.
“You want to go home?”
“I don’t want to spoil your Christmas dinner.”
“I want to spend my Christmas with you. They’ll understand. Holland already offered to make up a plate for you and he said you can take the rest of the ginger.”
“I don’t think Holland likes me.” Yeah, that was childish, but I was sick.
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 14
