Just before I had to leave, I crawled into bed and woke Duke up with kisses, because it was really fun. He rolled me onto my back and kissed me thoroughly, but let go before things got heated on his end.
“I have to go to work,” I whispered.
“Wish you didn’t,” he whispered back.
I grinned. “It’s only a short shift today. I’ll be back in time to make supper.”
“Looking forward to it.” He dropped a kiss on my nose and gave me a light push toward the door. “Don’t be late.”
“I’m never late!” I sat up and gave him a playful push, then got to my feet. “So I’m going now.” I waved goodbye and headed out to put on my boots and my heaviest jacket.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
I set the last of the toddlers down for their afternoon nap on their little foam beds and snuck carefully away to tidy up around the playroom while they slept. My back felt stiff and I stretched and pushed my fists into it to loosen up the muscles.
“How are you feeling?” Jason asked from the doorway.
“Shhh, they’re sleeping. Are you here for Macy?”
He nodded. “But if she’s asleep, I can wait.” We stepped out into the hallway. “Bax tells me you’re eating more.”
“I kind of have to,” I said dryly and gestured at my belly.
He grinned. “Yeah, I remember that.” His own was half the size of mine, which was logical, but I could still see the curve of it bulging out beneath the tails of his loose dress shirt. One of Mac’s old ones, I thought, with a frayed collar and odd buttons.
We found some chairs and sat down just outside the nap room. I was glad to sit, and Jason could see it. “Yeah, they suck a lot of energy out of you. I imagine it’s even worse with two.”
I nodded. “I don’t know. I suppose some day I’ll be able to compare.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I said firmly.
“I’m glad to hear that.” He leaned back in the seat and stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. In a low voice, he continued, “Mac says Duke asked to go play security at the Alphas’ meeting this summer.”
“Oh? Oh.” Yeah, my mate had a temper. It was a long, slow fuse, but Justin and Montana Border had definitely set it alight. It wasn’t a huge worry, because there was half the country between them, but if he was wanting to go to the summer meeting, then he was looking to stir up trouble. “I’ll talk to him.”
“That would probably be a good idea. Mac doesn’t know about…you know, and I can’t push the issue any more than I have without telling him.”
“I will. Tonight.” I leaned back and let out a sigh. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when these guys are full term.”
“Have you started talking about names yet?”
I shook my head. “We’re going for another ultrasound and he says he’ll be able to tell me then whether I’m having boys or girls or one of each.” Names. I’d been so busy trying to get food into me I hadn’t even thought that far ahead.
“I think Duke’s already trying out names, from what I’m hearing.” Jason chuckled softly. “I’m looking forward to having time to think about names with this one. We were so worked up about the trial with Macy that she was born before I put any thought at all into it.”
“You want a boy or another girl?” I asked.
“I don’t really care. Maybe another girl.” He stared at the giant cartoon bumblebee on the wall opposite us. “I worry about this whole True Omega thing. I don’t want to pass it on. It’s too scary.”
“I bet.” I couldn’t imagine living the life he had. I mean, I wasn’t a coward, but some of the stories he told scared me. I wouldn’t want that for my pups either. Casually, I put a hand on my belly, hoping that neither of these would be omega.
“Not much that you can do about it though, except hope.”
“Yeah.”
“Bax said for you to drop over and have a look at baby clothes, see what he can pass on. Though I bet you’ll have to give them back again after—I don’t think he and Abel are done. I suspect they’re going for a round dozen.”
I laughed and got creakily to my feet. “I need to clean up the room before the pups wake up and mess it up again. There’s coffee and juice in the nursing room if you want some. I just put a new pot on—Becca’s feral if she doesn’t have enough coffee.”
Jason laughed and got up too. “I think that’s just Becca. Mac tells me stories sometimes about when they were all kids. Nobody messed with Becca.”
We parted ways, him to the nursing room, me back to my charges.
I had the room tidy and was just wiping down the last of the blocks to make sure I got all the germs and boogers off them when Elise showed up in the door.
“Hey, Bram. Full house today.”
“Yeah. They’re busy. Everything’s clean. Jason’s in the nursing room, waiting for Macy to wake up. Oh, and Sabio is on cold medicine. It’s not bothering him, but you’ll have to keep an eye on his nose. It’s training for the Olympics.”
“Awww, poor snotty-nosed baby. Don’t worry, I’ll keep on top of it. How are you doing?”
“I’m fat. And tired. But Duke’s almost finished the cradles, so I’m finally going to get to see the big surprise.”
“You know, that was the most romantic story I’ve ever heard.”
“What was?” I put the cleaner away in the cupboard and tossed the rag in with the rest of the laundry. My belly felt weirdly tight and I rubbed it absently as I took a final glance around the room.
“Well, how you and Duke were just yearning for each other forever and neither of you thought the other one was interested, and then you told him and he was all like ‘Let’s get mated!’ and then you ended up pregnant right away and it’s just the most romantic thing I ever heard!”
“Uh, okay. Where did you hear that?” Boy, if she knew the real story…
“Oh, I don’t really remember. I think Edmund heard it from the security guys, and he told Felicia, and she told a bunch of people. But really, everyone else just has a boring ‘how we met’ story. I hope I have something that romantic some day.”
“I hope so too.” I forced myself to smile, though I felt both sick and relieved hearing all the lies going around the pack. “I better get going. Supper to start, and I need to head up to the laundromat.” Duke’s clothes from last night were a muddy mess and I’d left them soaking, planning to scrub the stains out of them when I got back from work today. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Sure. Say hi to your sweetheart for me!”
“I will.” I gathered up my coat and changed my sneakers for my winter boots and headed out the door.
On the way home, I thought about Duke and me and what really happened. And what would happen if Duke went after the Montana Border guys. I knew he was mad, though he never said much to me. But every once in a while the subject would come up, and he’d give off these alpha vibes, violent ones, like if Justin were to walk in the door there’d be blood on the floor. It worried me, because it was so unlike him.
As our home came into sight, I decided I’d have to talk to him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Duke brought one of the cradles with him when he came home that evening. He hoped Bram would like it once it was finished. The whole thing had been sanded smooth, and then he’d carved scenes into the head and foot boards from an old nursery tale that explained how shifters came to be. It wasn’t finished yet—the carvings had only been roughed in—and he thought he’d spread out a sheet and spend the evening watching a movie with Bram and finishing the images at home.
“Hey, I’m home.” He set the cradle down in the living room and went to collect a kiss from Bram, busily stirring something at the stove. As their lips met, he felt that tiny pang of guilt, because he knew Bram did it for him. There was nothing in it for Bram, after all. But Bram always smiled after and asked him how his day went, and at night he curled right into Duke as if it was the most natural thing
in the world, so maybe Duke was overthinking things.
Yeah. That was it. But still, there was that niggling worry. He loved Bram; he certainly didn’t want to hurt him, or push him to do things he didn’t want to do.
Damn that Justin anyway.
Bram smiled. “Supper’s almost ready, if you want to go wash up.” He turned back to his small pot, stirring again. “I made goulash with some of the leftovers out of the freezer, to put over those noodles we got last time.”
“I brought home one of the cradles. I thought I’d stay in with you and finish up the carving.”
Bram dropped the spoon and spun in place. “Really? Where did you leave it?” He pushed past Duke into the living room and stopped dead with his hands over his mouth. “Duuuuuuke!” His walked slowly toward the cradle and fell to his knees beside it. He ran his hands over the smooth wood, tracing the roughed out carvings on the end. “This is Lysoonka and the Lost Children of Men?”
Duke walked over to kneel beside him. “Yes. Here’s the scene where the children were abandoned, and the Firebeast was threatening them. Or it will be, anyway. The other end is when she changed the children so they could protect themselves.”
“I can see that. It’s beautiful. You didn’t need to put this much work into it.”
“My pups. I want them to have something nice. Maybe it’ll get passed down to our grandpups.”
“Grandpups.” Bram put his hands on his belly, his expression one of surprise and a bit of wonder. “I never thought of that.”
Duke draped an arm around Bram’s shoulders. “We’ll be old and gray, and we can spoil them and send them home to drive their parents crazy. I hear it’s fantastic revenge. If my mom still lived here, she’d be making lists.”
Bram leaned into Duke, his fingers still roaming over the rough lines of the carving. “What did she think when you told her about us?” His voice was surprisingly timid for Bram, almost like that first week, before they’d figured out what they felt for each other. The weight of his body against Duke’s almost begged for comfort.
Duke kissed the red-brown hair. “She told me it was time I grew up, if I was going to have a mate.” She had too, in that tone of voice that always seemed to remind him that she saw the irresponsible five-year-old lurking inside him, even now.
Bram snorted, and turned to look up at Duke. “Me too.”
“I think you’re plenty grown up. Enough for me, anyway.”
Bram smiled, but there was a distracted air about him. He traced the lines of the carving over and over, until he finally looked up at Duke, his eyes troubled. “I heard today that you were planning to go to the summer Alpha’s meeting with Quin.”
Where had he heard that? Jason. And Mac. “I was thinking about it.” He was going to have a talk with Mac. Shit, no, he couldn’t. Mac didn’t know. Damn.
“I don’t want you to go.” Bram left off stroking the wood of the cradle and turned into Duke’s embrace. “If you go, you’ll be mad at Montana Border and something will happen.”
“I can look after myself,” Duke told him.
“I know that. But it’ll cause trouble and there’s already trouble between our packs.” Bram’s voice rose and he balled his fists in the front of Duke’s shirt. “Who knows what they’d want this time, if you went there and spilled blood? And,” he raised an accusatory finger, “I know you want to. I know you want to do something to Justin, something bad. I can smell it on you when his name comes up.” He put his hand back, this time flat against Duke’s chest. “Are you planning to leave me alone to raise these pups, because you need to show Justin who’s boss? Because that’s what will happen!” He slammed his hand against Duke’s chest and when Duke went to hold his hands, he fought against Duke’s grip, refusing to be held in any way. “No! Don’t you get it? Oh, for fuck’s sake, why am I crying when it’s you being ridiculous?” And he was, tears creeping down his cheeks and his mouth crumpling around his words. “If you go there looking for trouble, you’re going to leave me alone, and I’m scared. I can’t do this by myself.” With this, he let Duke fold him into a hug. “I’m so mad at you right now, Duke Mercy Hills,” Bram muttered. “See if I don’t make you sleep on the couch tonight.”
Shit. “Can’t have that,” Duke murmured into Bram’s hair. It hurt like a punch to let go of his planned revenge, but he could smell the fear and the anger in Bram’s scent. He couldn’t do that to his mate. His other plan was probably better anyway. “If I promise not to go, can I sleep in our bed tonight?”
Bram was quiet for a moment, then he said, in a voice muffled by Duke’s chest, “You mean it?”
“I do.”
Bram held up a hand, the last finger stretched out away from the rest of them. “Pinky swear?” he asked, as if they were five.
Duke laughed and hooked his pinky through Bram’s. “Pinky swear.”
They rested there a moment, then Bram sat up and looked at Duke with the most serious expression Duke had ever seen on his mate’s face. More serious, even, than when they’d found out about the twins. “I mean it, Duke. I’m not fooling around about this. Justin can go suck eggs—I don’t want him to have any effect on our mating at all, even if it’s for revenge. And I’m holding you to that pinky swear, just as if we’d sworn on the moon.” He stared hard at Duke, his expression as severe as anything Abel’d ever worn during his worst days as Alpha. “You hear me?”
“Yes.” Okay, he was a little pissed, but he could wait for his revenge. His cousins had learned, when they were pups, how long he could wait if needed. And that had all been just fun and puppy pranks.
He could wait forever for Justin.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Okay, I didn’t really expect to be comfortable all the way through my pregnancy. After all, I had two rapidly growing pups fighting for space with each other and with my internal organs. But lately, it had moved way past discomfort. My belly was starting to hurt all the time now. Bax said it was normal, that it was just a ligament that was stretching and that it would pass. Except this new pain wasn’t near my bellybutton.
I bit my lip and used the seat of a nearby chair to help me get up off the floor. Storytime, which I normally loved, had left me achy and nerved up, and now with a stabbing pain in the middle of the burning on my omega line.
I was huge. In the two months since Christmas, I’d ballooned like a whale and I was exhausted all the time. It was like I didn’t have any energy anymore—I could fall asleep as soon as I sat down. Actually, I had, one day—just one time—and the pups at the daycare had tiptoed around me until someone needed something and they woke me again. Adelaide said it was normal, but I’d noticed her frowning a lot more during my last two twice-monthly checkups. The pain sharpened and I put a hand under my belly to support it. I also had to pee, which was a total pain in the ass, because I couldn’t see anymore past my belly, and it wasn’t until I couldn’t use my eyes that I realized how much I used them to aim.
Oh, wow, I really needed to pee. “Table time, pups,” I called, and led them over to the rice table and the tiny town. I got out crayons and coloring book pages for the ones that preferred quieter activities and then, as soon as they were all occupied, I stepped out into the corridor to find someone to keep an eye on them while I went to the bathroom. Telinda, from the baby room, agreed to give me a few minutes, as long as I didn’t dawdle. I smiled and hurried to the bathroom—like dawdling was a possibility with two pups dancing hiphop on my bladder.
It had become a habit, ever since the awkward pains and weird sensations had started, to run my hand over the curve of my belly whenever I stopped for a moment. So, in the bathroom, I peed gratefully and, as I was finishing, I stroked the tight skin over the babies, starting at the top, down over the bulge where my bellybutton was already poking out, and under to run my fingers along my omega line. It burned so much lately, like it was being pulled on—a Beaver Burn I was giving myself. And there was that sharp pain, just to one side of the center.
My fingers stroked lightly over the skin, feeling for some change in it. It seemed normal, maybe a little warm, until my fingers got to that painful section on the left side.
My line was opening. It wasn’t big, but that was definitely a gap. I felt the blood drain out of my face and I had to lean against the wall for a moment.
Oh, shit, oh, shit, dammit, dammit, dammit. I felt along my line again, hoping I’d just been wrong, then tried to figure out how to get the mirror off the wall so I could see. I couldn’t have an opening in my omega line yet, it was too early for the babies to come!
The mirror was firmly stuck and, in a panic, I fastened my pants again and ran out of the bathroom, looking for Becca, or Patrice, or anyone I knew well enough to talk to about this. Elise was in with the five-year-olds, but I for sure wasn’t talking to her about omega stuff. I couldn’t stand the giggling. Same with Telinda, who looked at me like she knew what had happened and was still on the fence about me.
The two and three year olds were outside, not like they could be trusted on their own anyway. But… Jason.
He was walking across the park with Macy in his arms, Mac beside him. I could ask Jason—he’d know.
I ducked back inside to check on the pups, then hovered in the doorway, waiting to pounce on Jason as soon as he set foot inside the building.
“Bram, what’s up?” he asked as they got within not-quite-shouting distance.
“Can I ask you something?” The words flew out in a rush.
Mac smirked and took the baby. “I’ll drop her off, Big Brother.”
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 17
