Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3)

by Ann-Katrin Byrde

  “Sure.” That put a damper on my mood. I couldn’t help remembering the other times I’d gone through the gate, past the humans. The things that had been said, how helpless I’d felt. But it was a torment I had to pass through in order to go home, so I steeled myself to it.

  We pulled up beside the guardhouse and I passed over the papers. As much as I wanted to huddle in the seat and hope they didn’t see me, I knew that wasn’t an option. Besides, humans weren’t so strange to me anymore, so I sat straight and proud and hoped the babies wouldn’t wake up. I didn’t want them to attract any more attention than necessary.

  The guard I remembered, the young one who thought we were all disgusting, wasn’t there. Instead, the old one, the grizzled man who never smiled, but seemed calm and unafraid of us, was there. He stepped up to Duke’s window and held out a hand for our papers, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention to them. “These the twins?” he asked in a mild voice.

  “Yep. Isolde is closest to you, Jedrick’s on the other side.”

  “What is it with you shifters and the crazy names, anyway?” He peered in the window and, for the first time, he smiled. “Ah, she’s a beauty.” He glanced up at me. “She’s got your hair. You’ll have to beat the boys off her with a stick.”

  I smiled nervously, but didn’t say anything.

  He shook his head, scribbled on the papers, and handed them back. “I forget how shy those omegas of yours are.”

  “He’s a lot less shy now. I think the trip was good for him.”

  I forgot where I was for a moment and punched him in the arm.

  Duke grinned and the human grinned too, which was a surprise, and I went red as a tomato.

  The babies slept through it all.

  I was so happy to get home. It felt like forever since I’d seen my familiar walls and couch and kitchen. And my bed. I wanted to curl up with Duke again at night, warm and comfortable and safe and home.

  Bax came out the front door of the house. “Welcome back!” He was empty-armed, not a baby in sight. Noticing my surprised stare, he grinned. “I let Pap take them all to the park. I’m expecting a phone call at any moment, with a desperate plea for help. He’s never had all five them together someplace as distracting as the park.”

  “Good thing for cell phones,” Duke commented.

  “Cell phone?” Bax mused. “I think I lost it.” He winked at me.

  I laughed, but smothered it quickly when Duke looked my way. “I’ll take the babies in if you’ll get the bags, Duke?”

  “I’ll help,” Bax offered, and came forward to take Isolde when I pulled her, seat and all, out of the van. I got Jedrick’s seat out and we carried them into the apartment, with Duke coming right behind with our bags.

  I led Bax over to a quiet corner of the living room to set the seat down and we lifted the pups out of the straps that they no longer needed to keep them safe.

  “They’re bigger than I thought they’d be, from the stories I was hearing,” Bax said as he cradled my daughter.

  “They’ve grown a lot since we moved to just formula.”

  Bax looked at me with sympathy, as if he was expecting me to break down over it or something. But I’d already made my peace with all the ways I’d failed my babies so far, and my plan was never to fail them again. Which meant doing what Duke wanted me to, and making sure that we had plenty of credits, and that if they ever got sick, I knew exactly what to do.

  “Yeah,” I added, just to make the point. “Duke really likes being able to help out with the feeding. It’s kind of a relief not to be completely responsible, especially with school this fall.”

  His eyes widened, then narrowed again, and a thoughtful look grew on his face. “Do you want me to watch the babies while you put things away?”

  “Sure,” I said and smiled at him to show I hadn’t meant anything mean by it. Well, maybe a little. I didn’t want to be a target for sympathy I didn’t need. Duke and I were just fine. “They’re going to wake up and be hungry soon. I’ll put some bottles together and you and Duke can feed them while I take the laundry up to the laundromat and made some supper.”

  He smiled and went to sit on the couch with Isolde. “That sounds like a fantastic idea.” He gazed down at my little girl and smiled like he’d already fallen in love with her. It was a power she had, that even the humans seemed unable to resist her. “Yes, we’ll just get to know each other, won’t we, little girl?” And he began to rock her like he’d rock his own.

  I handed Jedrick over to Duke and snagged the baby bag on the way to the kitchen to make the bottles. When I looked back over my shoulder, my mate and my friend were sitting on the couch together cooing over my babies. And I realized, despite everything, that I was happier than I’d ever been in my life.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  Work had already begun on the new houses. Cement slabs had been poured and the frames of the houses were going up like so many wooden cages. Except, in this case, the bars meant freedom, and space. Duke had already been by to visit the site of his and Bram’s house. Close to Abel’s and Mac’s, but on the other side of the wall. They’d have a yard behind the house and a bedroom for each of the pups. Plus, a dining room for Bram. The other half of their duplex would be left empty, only the floors in place. If Bram finished school—when Bram finished school—they’d turn it into a clinic for him.

  Duke had no doubt that Bram would succeed.

  He was running the electric saw, cutting boards to the right lengths while other packmembers distributed them to the half-dozen worksites around him, when he saw something that nearly made him lose control of the saw.

  Justin. Fucking Justin Montana Border was in Mercy Hills. What the fucking fuck was going on? He damn near put the saw down and walked off, but stopped himself barely in time. Justin wasn’t important. Not in public, anyway.

  But maybe this was Lord of Wolves’ way of giving Duke the darkest wish of his heart.

  He put his head down and kept cutting, but a part of him paid close attention to Justin, to where he went, what he did, who he talked to. Once, Justin looked over at him speculatively, but he never approached, and Duke was glad of it. His feelings, when it came to what Justin had done, were a snarled mass of thorns and fangs. While Justin had been out of sight, Duke had been able to ignore the prick of anger in his heart. But with Justin thrust under his nose—and he’d like to know who the hell thought that was a good idea—all his fury came rushing back. It was a foregone conclusion that he’d do something. He just needed some time to think about it before he decided what to do.

  And he needed to warn Bram.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

  One tiny advantage to bottle feeding was being able to feed the two of them at once, if I didn’t mind sitting on the couch with my knees bent so that I could keep an eye on Jedrick and help him hold the bottle while I held Isolde in my other arm. They were good eaters and gaining weight like crazy, and if I still felt guilty that I wasn’t enough on my own to feed my babies, their obvious health and happiness reminded me that it wasn’t about me at all.

  Isolde stared up at me with that eerie focus that she had shown almost from the moment she was born. Even in the hospital, when they’d put her in the incubator, there’d been something more than just baby wandering eyes in that face. Now, it was almost like she was trying to memorize mine, like she knew how close we’d come to losing each other.

  Jedrick, on the other hand, was an independent tyke. He was already crawling and pulling himself up on the furniture. It wouldn’t be long before he was walking, and then running. But for now, a bottle and some playtime, then a cuddle and story time, because Duke and I both agreed with reading to them, and they would be ready for a nap.

  Isolde finished her bottle and I sat her up on my lap to make sure she didn’t need to burp. Neither of them seemed to have much of a problem with that, but it never hurt to be careful. I rubbed her back patiently while she waved the bottle around, turning it upside down and trying to po
ur it out on top of us.

  “Sorry, honey. When it’s empty, it’s empty.”

  She looked at me and let out a tiny, ladylike burp.

  “That’s my girl.” I picked her up and kissed her tiny forehead, then her nose, then her belly. She laughed at me as I did it, and grabbed for my hair. “Nope. I’ve already learned my lesson there, kiddo. Keep that up and I’ll shave it all off.” Duke would have a heart attack, but the pups never managed to get hold of his hair.

  I set her on the floor and watched her barrel off on all fours, headed for the toy box. She pulled herself up on the edge and I groaned internally. Now I was going to have two of them running around the house. Literally running, if the stories I was only now hearing about Duke’s childhood were to be believed.

  Well, you mated him. And I wouldn’t give him up for the world.

  Jedrick let the bottle fall away onto the couch and squawked to be picked up and burped. I shoved myself backwards so I could sit upright and set him on my lap, patting and thumping until he let out a burp. He laughed at the noise and looked up at me.

  “Yes, you’re a gross little critter aren’t you? I bet you’re planning a present for me at the other end too.”

  Like clockwork, his face screwed up, and the sounds of butt grenades going off in his diaper made me shake my head and laugh at him. That’s my boy. Right on time.

  I carried him over so I could scoop up my diaper bag and laid out my supplies, all the while trying to keep my sneaky little pup from escaping. He was good at that, and I shuddered to think what he’d be like when he was walking.

  Smelly bum changed, I grabbed Isolde and performed a quick switch-out of dirty diaper for clean, then left them playing with their squeakies while I wet a cloth to clean them up, and brought the bottles over to the sink so I could wash them once the pups went down for their nap. It was a nice day. Maybe I’d take them to the park to crawl around in different grass for a while. I was going stir crazy anyway, even with visits from Bax and Jason and Rosie.

  So I dressed them in nice outfits, some of the new stuff, picking out gifts from packmembers so that they could see them being used, restocked the diaper bag and threw it over my shoulder, and headed out with the twins.

  I found Jason beside the playground, lounging in the shade of a cherry tree. He waved and I walked over to join him. Seb was chewing on something that I thought was the piece of ice wrapped in cloth that Jason had been talking about before. I’d have to keep that in mind. Mine hadn’t started yet, but Isolde had been drooling more than usual the past couple of days, so it couldn’t be far off. Macy was playing with cups of sand in the nearby sandbox.

  “Going crazy stuck in the house?” Jason asked me.

  “You know it.” I let the twins down onto his blanket and dropped my bag beside his. “I’m hoping they’ll tire themselves out and then I can get some work done around the house. My mother keeps coming over to clean and I’m getting twitchy.”

  “Tell her no.”

  “Because it’ll hurt her and I’ll feel guilty and Dad will be mad.”

  “She’s a big girl.”

  I shrugged. I only had a month left before we moved outside walls. I could put up with it for that long, then I had four wonderful years at least before I had her hovering over me again. It was annoying though, and I sometimes felt like she thought I was still twelve, the way she went on. “I feel like I should be working this summer, since I won’t be around in the winter, but Becca keeps telling me to go home and enjoy my babies.”

  “She’s right. You’ll be back to work soon enough.” He jumped to his feet and strode over to the sandbox to take something from Macy and toss it away. “Pebble,” he said as he sat down again. “I’m going to miss this time with them once it’s over. It felt strange not to be in the gardens every day.”

  “They looked good the last time I went for a walk that way.” I grabbed for Jedrick as he made a break for freedom, handing him a wooden baton with spinning rings on it. Another one of Duke’s projects. I was beginning to wonder when he slept.

  “Yeah, they’re doing pretty well. Not as good as last year, but we haven’t had the weather we had then either.”

  I glanced sideways at him while Isolde hung from my fingers, bouncing in place like there was music only she could hear, and debating asking him if he really could control the weather and make the plants grow faster and healthier. I’d never seen any sign of True Omega powers, but I had to admit, he did have a touch with the gardens. And who was to say that that touch wasn’t True Omega working for the pack, so we had more food, and fresher, and a new way to bring human money into the pack once he got his business up and running. But I suspected that even if he was having some sort of ‘magical’ effect on the gardens, he wouldn’t admit it. He tried hard to ignore that True Omega stuff. “How’s Seb doing?”

  He grinned and glanced over at his little boy. A stray beam of sunlight lit the bright red hair on the baby’s head like it was on fire. “He’s doing well. Starting to let go of the furniture and try to take a step. Doesn’t always go so well, but he’s determined. A lot of his Papa in him.”

  “Another redhead,” I commented.

  “Just how I like them. I think I have a type.” Jason grinned rakishly at me. “How are you two doing?”

  “We’re fine. Duke’s starting to work on beds for the twins in what little spare time he has. We’re not sure if we’re going to be staying here during summers or staying in the city.” I’d be just as happy staying in the city, to be honest. At least, I thought so. Duke was being kind of quiet about that idea. “And he’s started a kitchen table for us.”

  “Nice. Well, we’ll miss you two around here in the summer, though I can see why you might need to stay there.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a tiny hat to plop on Seb’s head. “There. If that sun’s going to stay on you, you have to be covered. Just in case you got Papa’s hair, and my skin.” He watched the baby chewing on his ice cube for a moment, then turned back to me. “Actually, I was kind of asking how things were between you and Duke. But you don’t have to say if you don’t want to.”

  Oh. “I, uh, well. I mean, I do what I can, what he’ll let me.” My face lit up, brighter than Seb’s hair. “It makes him uncomfortable because, you know, I don’t…” Oh fuck, I couldn’t, just couldn’t talk about this.

  “Yeah, I know. I heard all the stories growing up. The girls filled me in totally on how I’d be a slave to the man who mated me. Not that I’d have any interest in anyone other than Mac anyway. But I thought it might have worn off a little, since he wasn’t around. Bax said it was about six months after Patrick died when he realized he was interested in Abel.”

  I shook my head. “Nothing.” Which was a depressing thought. “Bax and I talked about it, about a month after, but I don’t know if it’ll work for me. I mean, Justin’s still alive.” I let Isolde sit down and dug into the bag for another toy, this one a plastic rattle that had been passed down to me from a cousin on the other side of my family from Mac. She grabbed it and immediately stuck it in her mouth.

  Jason looked down and picked at a blade of grass lying on the blanket in front of him. “Yeah.”

  “I told him that he could leave me if it didn’t fix itself,” I blurted out. “I don’t know what else to do about it. He lets me touch him—” My tongue tripped over itself for a moment, then I made myself slow down. “I want to want him. Holland told me that if I wanted to want Duke, I would have to think at least a little bit about Justin, but I can’t. I just can’t. He doesn’t deserve that.”

  Jason reached out to me. “Hey, it’s okay. You’ll have a heat in November. Maybe that will change things. Don’t give up on this, Bram. We’ll find a way through it.”

  We. He’d said we. I stared at him in astonishment. He did think of me as part of the sub-pack. The omega pack. I nearly laughed, but I wanted to cry, too. I wished I could blame it on pregnancy hormones, but yeah, I was just a weeper. “I thought you guys a
ll thought I was a kid.”

  He smiled. “Bax and I aren’t that much older than you.”

  “Yeah, but you were out, living. I was just here, being a kid.”

  “Sometimes I’m jealous of you, because you had so much freedom here and it was so safe. Bax doesn’t say much, but I think he wishes he’d grown up here too. He’s mentioned a few things that make me think Buffalo Gap wasn’t as safe as he pretends it was. You’re not a kid, Bram. You’re just toughened up differently than us.”

  “How am I tough?”

  Jason rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky. “You spent your life being treated like you weren’t omega, except for people slamming doors in your face. But I heard about your ACT score from Mac. How could they ignore that kind of potential?”

  “Mom and Dad said that that was what omegas were for. Family. The glue that holds packs together.”

  Jason snorted. “Yeah, I’m sticky all right, though it’s usually milk and baby drool.” He rolled over and stared at me. “I’m happy here. I never had a home, not one where I felt safe, until I came to Mercy Hills. You—you should go out and make a noise in the world. I think we need you, to blaze a trail for other omegas.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. You. I think you’re part of Abel’s plan to show that omegas can contribute more than housekeeping and pups. If I were you, I’d take this chance and run with it. Make a lot of noise. Let the world know that you exist and that you’re worth more than your womb.” He looked over at Seb, who had fallen over and was making cranky noises. “You’re getting tired, munchkin. Probably time I took you home.” He patted me on the shoulder. “I’ll see you around. You want to come for supper tonight?”

  “I’ll check with Duke and have him message you.”

  “All right.” He got to his feet, slung his bag over his shoulder, and picked Seb up. “You can borrow the blanket if you want to stay. Just drop it off some time when you’re going by.”