“Who gives a fuck what Holland thinks of you? I love you.”
I laughed and pulled him closer, burying my nose in his clean scent. “Let’s go home. I think I’m done for the day.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Just after New Year’s, we left the enclave, right after curfew lifted in the morning. Our tabs gleamed greasily on the collars of our jackets, a bag of dry nausea-proof food sat on the seat beside me, and my nerves jumped like grasshoppers in spring. Anxiety or excitement, who the heck knew? It took five hours to drive to the city where the clinic was, but it seemed like forever.
Duke sat in the front seat while Abel drove, and they chatted casually while I pressed my nose against the glass. I’d never been outside the enclave walls in my life. The guards at the gate scared me and I tried to hide behind Duke, which only made them worse. One of them made me open up my jacket to prove I was pregnant, then he got this look on his face like he’d eaten rotten meat, and turned away from us with a snarl. Duke put an arm around me and pointedly asked, “Can he get back in the van? He shouldn’t be on his feet.”
The other guard nodded casually and wrote something on our papers, then handed them back to Abel. “I’ll leave a note that your pass is open-ended,” he said quietly. Abel nodded his thanks, and we all got back in the van.
This time, Duke got in the back with me. “You okay?” he asked.
I nodded and forced a smile on my face. “What a bunch of creeps!”
Duke gave me an understanding look, like he saw through my bravado, then returned my smile. “Some of them aren’t bad, but every once in a while you get a guy there and you wonder why on earth he applied for the job.”
I snorted, cheered by his comment, and turned back to the window.
The city was huge! Like, the small buildings were bigger than the main one in Mercy Hills. And Duke, darling Duke, he answered every single one of my questions as Abel drove us through the streets. I made him promise to take me for a hamburger at a fast food place, and ice cream somewhere else. Placidly, like he always did, he agreed to everything, but always with an “if nothing happens to change our plans” attached. I couldn’t imagine what could change our plans—I mean, we had all day. And besides, I wasn’t going to let anything spoil my first trip out into the human world. Not even my stupid morning sickness.
I really hoped the doctor could give me something for it so I could eat normally. It was embarrassing—who ever heard of a shifter that couldn’t eat meat? Or be around it cooking? How ridiculous was that? But that’s what it was. Even eggs were dicey and too much butter on toast was enough to send me racing to the bathroom. But maybe the doctor could fix that.
Which reminded me. I chugged the last of the water I was supposed to drink before arriving, and squirmed a little as my bladder let me know it was getting near full capacity.
We passed a sign with a huge picture of chicken nuggets on it, and suddenly I was starving for them. Would Duke let me get chicken nuggets too? I could probably talk him into it. With that in mind, and my stomach starting to send out empty notices, I turned to ask Duke and surprised him watching me with a look in his eye I didn’t quite recognize. It stopped me, and some warm feeling began to grow underneath my heart, spreading out to the rest of my body. Not desire—Justin had screwed me, both literally and figuratively, in that direction. But something that really brought it home how lucky I was that we’d found each other.
His cheeks went pink, just a hint, and he looked away, toward Abel. “Adelaide says the best parking lot is the one to the west.”
“Right.” Abel turned a corner, more careful in his driving than I’d ever seen him. We pulled into a wide flat space, covered in the same stuff that the roads were made of. Abel accepted a ticket from a man in a booth at the entrance, and not long after, I was stretching the kinks out of my back while Abel locked up the van.
Duke pulled a paper out of his pocket. “Through these doors, down the hallway to the second corridor on the left, take the elevator up to the third floor, and he’s down the hallway on the left.” He put an arm gingerly around my shoulders. I leaned into him, borrowing from his strength. Now that we were here, I was nervous. I didn’t want twins.
No, I was afraid of twins.
This was not how I’d seen my life going.
Duke squeezed me and I smiled up at him with real gratitude. His lips curled up to match mine, then he looked up at Abel, who was watching us with a meditative expression. “We don’t want to be late,” Duke said, and we began walking across the parking lot. People paid us no attention at all, until they noticed our tabs. Then, it was even odds whether they’d stare in curiosity, or whether they’d step away and walk around us, their eyes wide. I had to suppress a snort and some inappropriate comments, though it was so hard. Duke must have guessed, because he hugged me again, just lightly, and when I looked up he winked at me. That did make me snort, and then everything seemed better.
At least until we got to where we were going.
The place was full of human women, some of them with huge baby bellies, some who didn’t look pregnant at all, and some at various stages of in between like me. There were a few empty chairs in the middle of the room, not conveniently close to anything, but I desperately wanted to sit down. Not because I was tired, but because, while we were standing, we were the focus of every gaze in the room.
I really needed to pee.
“Adelaide said we had to tell the nurse you were here,” Duke murmured as he handed me into a chair. “I’ll be right back.” He was ignoring the stares better than I was, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me, as if I could hide my condition from sight.
A few minutes later, Duke came back, his jaw tight and his expression frustrated. “She says you need to go check in.”
“Oh.” I got to my feet and followed him back toward a window in the wall.
The woman behind the window got up and opened the door next to her desk. “Come in and sit down.” She smiled at me, though it was a bit strained, and I could tell she wished Duke would leave, which made me want to keep him there even more.
I sat in the chair and stared at her, suddenly uncertain. I’d never met a human before, just seen the government inspectors from a distance. Oh, and that nerdy-cute lawyer friend of Garrick’s that kept coming around. The woman here didn’t seem any more certain about me.
Duke cleared his throat, and she jumped, her eyes going wide and the color draining out of her cheeks.
“I have the credit card and insurance information,” Duke said in a quiet voice. I could tell he was trying not to frighten her.
That gave me an idea. “Sit down, you lout,” I scolded him lightly, and pushed his startled ass toward the other chair before turning back to her as if I were exchanging gossip with another shifter. “He looms, doesn’t he? Can’t help it, as tall as he is. I like ‘em tall though.” I winked at her.
She looked more startled than reassured, and it occurred to me that she’d probably never seen a shifter before either. I laid my hands on my belly and tried to look inoffensive.
She cleared her throat, and her eyes went to my hands and the bulge beneath them. “And you’re here for…” Her voice trailed off.
“He’s omega,” Duke put in, leaning into the conversation and scaring the nurse again.
I sighed dramatically and gave him a look. “Duke, dear, you’re looming again.” But I reached out for his hand as well, because I was scared too, though not of Duke, obviously. I think he smelled it on me, because he took my hand and squeezed reassuringly, then sat back and did his best to look smaller. I turned back to the nurse. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do here.” Appeal to her protective instincts. It always worked with the alphas.
She twitched, and seemed to collect herself. “I just need to get some information from you, and do a quick exam.”
“Sure,” I said. “What do you want to know?” I smiled my most winning smile at her.
We went through a serie
s of questions: name, address, age—that one made her eyebrows rise and she did a really poor job of hiding what she thought of Duke at that point. Why? It wasn’t like omegas weren’t mated even younger than me. It was just Mercy Hills that made them wait until eighteen. I’d have to ask someone—there was something I was missing here. I answered the questions about my medical history easily enough, but when it came to my family, I was stumped. Duke stepped in to save the day, listing off problems I’d never heard about back three generations. I stared at him in amazement and he raised his eyebrows at me and smiled. His smile changed his face entirely and, without the anxious glower he’d been wearing since we got here, he was my old handsome Duke again. I laughed and, impulsively, leaned in to kiss him. A wash of anger ran over me, because it was still nothing more than the pleasure of contact. Damn Justin and his fucking ego. I was going to smash him if I ever saw him again.
When I settled back in my chair, the nurse looked more at ease, and we chatted away as she took my blood pressure and I tried to explain omegas to her without embarrassing either of us. It filled the time, and by the end of it, she’d not exactly warmed, but I thought she saw me more as a patient, and less as a monster. Because that was definitely what her first reaction had been.
It was kind of fun to be able to do something the alphas couldn’t do. Maybe omegas weren’t so useless after all.
A twinge of shame pinged through me. It wasn’t fair to think that of Duke. He’d made sure I got to go to school, and he was working as much as he could to get the credits to make it possible.
We went back to our seats in the waiting room. I was feeling a little cocky, but that quickly disappeared when I noticed one mother pulling her toddler back, as if she thought I would eat him. Like I’d ever do anything to a pup. I kind of wanted to growl at her, just to give her something to really be afraid of.
Duke put an arm around my shoulder and swung me into my seat. “I know that look on your face. This isn’t home,” he whispered. “Out here, we have to be careful. You did great with the nurse—don’t blow it with the other patients.”
I slumped in the chair and, yes, I sulked. Duke looked at Abel and sighed, then pulled out his phone and started playing Alpha Hunt. Abel smirked. I had to laugh, and Duke and I shared a glance that wiped away all the bad feelings.
“Bram Mercy Hills?” came a voice from the other end of the room.
I looked up, scared once more.
Duke took my hand. “It’s okay. You’re not alone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Duke was proud of how well Bram was handling his first trip outside walls. It was scary, to suddenly realize that you were at the mercy of a species that was terrified of you for no good reason. One wrong move, and they could be explaining themselves to the police. Or worse. But Bram was doing better than some of the other young shifters when they’d been introduced to the human world. Especially given the circumstances.
Bram perched on top of a table that closely resembled the one in Adelaide’s office. Duke had been surprised to be invited along for the meeting, but it appeared that, as Bram’s mate, they all assumed he’d want to be there. The doctor hadn’t been in yet, but the nurse—a different one this time—who’d shown them down to the room, had remembered Adelaide and they’d had a short, friendly conversation with her. A kind of catching-up, so to speak. She didn’t seem nearly as unnerved by them as the rest of the office did.
“I have to pee,” Bram complained.
“You can’t,” Duke reminded him.
“I know.” It wasn’t quite snapped, but Bram’s tone was sharper than before. “I just hope I don’t have an accident.” He squirmed in place.
“I’m sure they won’t be long,” Duke said. He hoped.
Bram sighed, but before he could say anything, the door opened on a slightly-shorter-than-average brown-haired man. “Hello, I’m Dr. Stambourg. You must be Bram.” He held out a hand for Bram to shake, then turned to Duke. “And you are?”
“His mate. Duke.”
They shook hands, then the doctor turned back to the file in his other hand. “Adelaide did an internship here with us while she finished her program. Excellent medical professional, and so pleasant to work with. If I’d had more shifter patients, I would have offered her a job. I might still, if she ever gets a hankering for city living.”
“I let her know, though I don’t think she’d ever leave the pack.”
“Too bad, but family first, hm?”
This was a different human from most of them. Even the ones who meant well were so uneducated about shifters; to find one who understood what pack meant and could toss that knowledge in so carefully was worth taking note of. “She’s very loyal.”
“Well, my loss is your gain.” Stambourg grinned ruefully and turned to Bram. “So, I’ve been reviewing all my notes on omegas, what there is of them, for the last couple of days. I understand your cycles are similar to those of female shifters, correct?”
Bram blushed, and glanced at Duke.
“Yes, they are,” Duke said, stepping into the breach, though not without his own blush.
“Then you probably have a pretty good idea when you got pregnant.”
“Um, yeah,” Bram muttered. “November seventeenth.”
Duke clenched one hand into a fist, then forced himself to relax it.
“And a hundred and eighty three days for full-term gestation,” the doctor said, almost to himself. “So that puts you at about seven weeks along. A little more than a quarter of the way through.” He made a note on the chart. “Your blood pressure is pretty good for now, maybe a bit elevated. We’ll keep an eye on that.” He raised his eyes from his folder and gazed at Bram with a look on his face that made Duke’s hackles rise.
He’s not a rival for your mate. He’s human. And apparently delighted to get his medical instruments on an omega shifter. A growl settled itself at the back of Duke’s throat, waiting for the moment it was needed.
The doctor set his folder aside. “All right, I’ll get some measurements and a blood sample, and then I’ll get you to lie down here.” He he patted the table with one hand while he pulled a measuring tape out of a drawer with the other.
A few moments later, some more numbers had been written down in the folder, and two red-topped test tubes had been tucked safely away on the counter, waiting to spill Bram’s secrets to the doctor. Duke helped Bram stretch out on the table. “How you doing?” he whispered.
“I’m fine.” Bram’s fingers flexed in his. “Nervous. I really need to pee.”
“Nothing to be nervous about,” Stambourg said cheerily. “I’m going to do a quick ultrasound to check everything’s okay in there. Adelaide mentioned it might be twins, and given your measurements now, I’d say she’s probably right. Can you pull your jeans down a bit farther, please? I don’t want to get this gel on them.”
Duke could only watch helplessly—though there was no reason to feel helpless; Bram didn’t need assistance to get undressed—while Bram wiggled the cloth out of the way. Bram squeaked when the doctor squirted the rounded curve of his belly with the clear gel.
“Yes, sorry,” the human said absently. He already had some part of the machine pressed against Bram’s belly, moving it back and forth while he watched the images flicker on a small screen. “It’s never as warm as the room for some reason.” He paused, focusing on one spot. “Do you want to see?”
“Yes!” Bram craned his head, and Duke bent down beside him, helping lift him high enough to see the image. “Wow!”
The reality hit Duke with a crash. This was Bram’s baby. Their baby.
“So that’s one,” the doctor said. “And here’s the other.” He moved the image, and another baby-like blob slid onto the screen. “Adelaide was right. You’re having twins.” He gave them a few moments to take it in.
“Two,” Bram whispered, and Duke wondered if he was the only one who heard the fear in Bram’s voice.
“Hey, I’m here,” he wh
ispered back. “We’ll be fine. I’ve got you, and you’ve got this.”
Bram tilted his head back to stare up at him with a strained expression. Duke smiled at him in reassurance and, when that didn’t work, impulsively bent to kiss him quickly on the lips.
Even that brief contact lit Bram’s eyes, and he settled into Duke’s arms, if not with excitement and anticipation, then with at least a little more confidence.
The doctor was watching them with a contented look on his face. “This is my favorite part, other then the actual births,” he told them. “It never gets old, watching people’s faces when they see their baby for the first time.” He pointed out the arms and legs. “And, if you’re going to have twins, these are the safest kind to have.”
“What do you mean?” Duke asked.
“They’ve each got their own amniotic sac, and their own placenta. No risk of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, where one twin gets a better blood supply than the other, with all the problems you can imagine in that. No risk of the cords getting tangled, because they’re each in their own little sac. Like having their own room at the inn,” he said in a joking tone.
“Can you tell if they’re boys are girls?” Bram asked. He squeezed Duke’s hand and pulled him closer.
“Not yet. You’ll need…” Stambourg tipped his head to one side and stared blindly at the wall opposite. “I’d say at about twelve or thirteen weeks, we should be able to see. You’ll probably feel something at that point too.”
“Oh,” Bram said softly, and his free hand cupped the curve of his belly where the gel was absent.
Stambourg glanced up at Duke with a grin. “Another best part. You’ll be there for that, Dad.”
Duke twitched and Bram looked up at him, his expression worried.
The doctor patted Bram’s arm. “Don’t mind him. You’re already used to the idea that there’s a couple of little people in there. This is usually when it hits the dads.”
“Yeah,” Duke said and smiled down at Bram’s still anxious face. “Kind of crazy.” He turned back to the image again. “They’re gorgeous. Like their bearer.”
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 15
