“Behave,” Rob warned me but grinned while he said it.
“I’ll behave if you do.”
Samuel spoke next, eyes still closed. “Stop it, both of you and pipe down. I’m growing a being here. I need sleep, and we know that you two don’t let me get it at night. Shush!”
Samuel’s little nap turned into a three-hour snooze fest where we kept checking his breathing, he was so deeply asleep. It was the only time we’d gotten through a movie.
He woke up a little after noon, and, immediately, his stomach woke up, too, with a grumble.
“Again? I’m going to have to take out a loan to feed you,” Rob joked. “And next time, we keep the cook in town and just try to keep the activity in the bedroom when she’s here.”
“I need to brush my teeth. I think I was drooling. Dreaming about…stuff.”
Samuel tried to get off our laps, but we weren’t having it. I hugged his chest while Rob pinned down his legs.
Rob massaged his thigh. “Define stuff, mate.”
Samuel’s cheeks blushed, but he shook his head, lips pressed tight together.
Rob’s hand moved higher, and my cock stiffened while I watched him rub our mate’s groin.
“Tell us.”
“No,” Samuel finally answered. “But I’ll show you tonight. This baby is starving.”
That broke the spell, a little. Getting Samuel fed overpowered our lusty need for him, but not by much.
“Okay. Let’s change and then Samuel’s going to tell us about his dream.”
Our omega went into the bedroom and changed clothes. Rob suggested we go out to lunch since we hadn’t been outside in almost two days. We rode in his car again to a place that looked like they charged for the air.
“Not this place. No. Back home.” The tension and fear in Samuel’s voice along with his change of scent which had gone from normal to terrified in two seconds flat set my lion on edge.
“What’s the matter? You don’t like this place? We can go somewhere else.”
“No. Nowhere else. Home.”
Rob looked at me in the rearview mirror, and I shrugged. I didn’t know what exactly Samuel was scared of, but there was no doubt he was dead serious about it. My lion roared inside me, pissed off that our mate was not secure.
“Let’s go back to the apartment and order in again. It’s fine.” Rob started to put the car into drive when Samuel reached up from the back seat and stopped him.
“No. Home to the country. There are dragons everywhere. If you don’t get me out of here, they will have me…locked up…chains…me and our baby…so much blood.”
I turned in my seat, eyes bulging. I ripped off the seatbelt and climbed into the backseat, just needing to be closer to my mate talking about dragons and our baby in danger.
“You saw it? When?”
“There. See them? They are everywhere.”
I didn’t see any dragons, but as I pushed the button to let my window down, the smell of sulphur, ash, and fire burned my nose and sent my lion into full alert.
“They’re fucking everywhere.” Rob spoke the words still stuck in my throat.
“Get us out of here. Now.” I pulled Samuel close to me and wrapped him in a blanket that Rob apparently kept in the backseat. He shivered from head to toe and only after getting onto the freeway did the shaking subside. I kissed him over and over and rubbed his back and belly, whispering reassuring words into his ears. Rob reached back at one point and laced his hands with one of Samuel’s, and I put mine on top, needing both of their touches to quell my lion just a little.
“We are safe, Samuel. I bet you’re starving,” Rob said after an hour.
“I am. I think…I think I need chocolate.”
That we could do.
Chapter Twenty
Rob
Months had passed since we’d fled from the city for Haven and Sasha’s cabin, and we hadn’t been back. I’d been to that restaurant a hundred times and never seen a red dragon, so it wasn’t a hangout or anything. They had a reason to be there, and the reason was a certain golden unicorn who currently carried our child. He dutifully kept his appointments with Malinda, spent time with his cousin Grey, and generally laid around eating and growing the baby, but one of us accompanied him at all times, if not both. We’d all had a good scare in the city.
He didn’t mind the company anyway. The basketball-sized baby bump threw his balance off, and being on one of our arms helped keep him upright. Including in the shower where I’d spent a little of our money to add the bench our unicorn had so enjoyed at my penthouse.
With the baby expected in just over three months, we still had a lot to do to be ready for their arrival. The nursery was painted, curtains hung, but, other than a cute unicorn rug in the middle of the floor, it was empty in there. A special project had taken most of our time. Meaning, even when Samuel was kicking it, he did that with a laptop, helping me to set up our foundation. Samuel and Emerson were two of the many held in captivity, and, while Samuel was, of course, our fated mate, we still had to find a permanent home for Emmie. She was staying with Malinda for the time being—still—because we’d been unable to find out if either of her parents were one, still out there somewhere alive and, two, not responsible for her captivity to start with. Since we couldn’t find anyone looking for her, we suspected she was an orphan, an orphan who several families in town had already expressed interest in adopting.
Our idea for the foundation was to set up an organization to help unicorns coming out of the slavery our mate had experienced. Many, like him, had been taken so young, they’d missed out on a lot of their education. And not many, unlike him, had managed to learn so much anyway. They needed schooling, life skills, a place to live, transportation, a support system. The undertaking had absorbed so much of our time, we still had to buy nursery furniture. Not that we didn’t think about our precious baby day and night, just that we wanted to make a better world to bring them into.
“Let’s go!” Sasha walked past his own keys hanging on the rack. “It’s really late for your appointment, Samuel. I don’t understand why Malinda insisted on seeing you tonight. Did she find anything wrong last week?”
“No. She just said she had a thing this afternoon and had to see me later than usual. If it’s inconvenient, I can cancel.”
“No, of course not.” Sasha swung into the driver’s seat. Big surprise. He’d become quite comfortable in the Robmobile, the name he and Samuel had christened my driverless car, and drove it a good deal of the time. Just the other day, I’d had to meet a financial advisor about setting up the foundation accounts in a town halfway to the city. The man almost wet his Armani suit when he saw me pull up outside the coffee shop in the old truck.
Driving…another skill the enslaved didn’t learn. Sasha and I planned to teach Samuel once the baby came.
Following Sasha out the door, I reached back, grabbed Samuel’s hand, and towed him along with me. “Gentlemen, after Samuel’s appointment with the midwife, we’ll get back here, get on the laptop, and order everything we need for the baby.”
“So glad you said that.” Samuel breathed out a big sigh.
“We are cutting it close,” said Sasha before hopping in the front seat.
We were indeed. On our way to Malinda’s, we tossed around some ideas for the baby’s room. Of course, the pale yellow walls and green-and-yellow striped curtains set a color scheme, but we didn’t know whether to get a bassinet or crib, if some people got both? By the time we pulled up in front of the cottage, we had determined that, even though we’d read some books and talked to Malinda often, but we were unprepared?
I thought maybe not, but casting a glance at my mates, Sasha next to me with that little crinkle he got between his eyes whenever he worried and Samuel in the back, rubbing his belly in little circles.
“Come on.” I tried to look reassuring and competent. “We’ve got all the love waiting for our child. The rest is just stuff, and we can do same-day delivery.�
� I was willing to take the blame for letting this get out of hand. After all, my mother had taught me her best skill, shopping, while still in my own pram. “A pram, we’ll need one of those, and baby suits and little socks. And—’
“Diapers,” Sasha put in.
“And binkies…whatever they are,” Samuel added.
“We’ll make a list.” I loved making lists. “And take care of it in no time.” There had to be a website online with suggestions for what we’d need. Someone else already had made the list for me! More cheerful, I eyed the house. “It’s awfully dark. Are you sure this is the right time, Samuel?”
“Yes, seven o’clock.” He shrugged. “I’ll go knock on the door.”
“We’ll go with you,” I said because my gut was telling me something was very wrong. Why so late? Why so dark?
Jaw ticcing, I led the way, Samuel between us. Had something or someone gotten past the wards at Malinda’s? We stepped carefully up onto the porch, trying to avoid all the squeaky boards, but, just as Sasha lifted his hand to knock, the door opened, light spilling out and a chorus of voices shouted, “Surprise!”
And Samuel bolted, racing back down the walkway and heading for a copse of trees across the street, so fast nobody reacted for a moment. Then Sasha and I glanced at each other. We’d screwed up.
Damn.
“What’s wrong?” Malinda and our unicorn’s gram started out the door, but I held up a hand.
“I think we’re seeing a little bit of PTSD. We suggested counseling, but he swore he was fine. He was so happy with us…”
“He never did anything like this.” Sasha shook his head sadly. “We should have insisted.”
After asking everyone at the party, a surprise party for all of us but mostly Samuel, we headed after him, not running, not shouting, trying to emit nothing but calm acceptance and reassurance.
The copse was small even as copses go, and Samuel was not that good a hider. We arrived beside where he crouched behind a holly bush and stopped, waiting to see what he would do. To my great relief, he held out a hand and I helped him to his feet. Even in the shadows, his flushed cheeks were evident. Poor guy. After all he’d been through, he was embarrassed.
“Quite a surprise, huh?” Sasha said. “I almost passed out myself.”
“Uh, yeah.” Samuel released my hand and buried his face in the lion’s broad chest. “Surprised.”
Sasha stroked his hair while watching me over his head. “Who could blame you? But, Samuel, as soon as the baby comes, we’re going to reconsider counseling.”
He jerked free. “No, I told you, I’m fine. I don’t want to be any trouble.”
And wasn’t that the key. All those years of slavery. Of trying to fly under the radar because slaves who got noticed got hurt worse. He’d told us so little, wanted to put it behind him. I thought I had a way to convince him, though. The way to make our good-hearted mate take care of himself.
“Samuel, our foundation is all about helping those who have been through the same experience you did, right?”
He nodded, tears streaking his cheeks, and I wanted to kill every red dragon who’d hurt a single hair on his head. But I forced my voice to stay even and calm. “Then I think you need to step up and be a good example. That way, when a unicorn who really does need intense counseling argues, you can say, in all honestly, we all have to do it, dude. Part of the process.”
He sighed and gave me a huge hug then did the same to Sasha, leaving an arm around each of our waists. “That sounds fair. Will you come with me for the first appointment?”
I kissed the top of his head. “Of course, we will. We are, after all, depending on this person to take care of you and all our unicorns. All three of us need to know they are the best.”
We emerged from the trees to see Malinda’s yard full of people in party hats and party clothes. A lone balloon slipped out the door and lifted into the early evening sky, caught on a breeze. Just when we thought we had everything in hand, we were reminded of the horrors our unicorn—and all the others—endured.
Our foundation would help when they were out, but first they had to be rescued. And the machine that imprisoned them shut down. And found. The auctions and other events were set up by someone or they wouldn’t be able to continue. And the red dragons knew who…and some of them knew where to find them.
I suppressed the weight of that thought for tonight. A party awaited us, celebrating our baby and our love. We had friends and a home and a mission. And each other. “Looks like we won’t have to buy so many of those baby snappy suit things. At least, I think this is a baby shower, since it’s nobody’s birthday.”
“Do you think there’s cake?” Samuel. Always the optimist.
Chapter Twenty-One
Samuel
The party was overwhelming, to say the least—even after I managed to pull myself out of the mini-freak out when I first arrived. Mostly, I was doing amazing as I adjusted to life with my mates in a town I loved filled with people I was slowly beginning to think of as my herd. Which was silly, since there was no actual structure to the people in town save the major, who was more of the guy willing to run town meetings than anything else.
But, sometimes…sometimes when I woke up or was startled, as was the case with the baby shower, I was flung back to a time where my freedom was but a dream and slavery was my reality. It was getting worse the further I got into the pregnancy, and I half hoped it was hormones because those I could work through. A nagging feeling tugged at me when I least expected it, one that had nothing to do with hormones or bad memories but more to do with possible futures, and that scared the tar outta me.
“Cake.” I slapped on my best fake smile as I came to where the beautiful pastry sat. It was a thing of beauty, and not the sheet cake with the silly baby rattle iced on it I remembered from the time I went to a shower all those years ago before—just before.
That was how I thought of my life now. Before and after captivity. I refused to dwell on the during. Although maybe that only proved that my mates were right and a counselor of some kind might not be the worst idea.
“My famous three-layer chocolate-strawberry marvel.” My cousin Grey beamed with pride. He wasn’t even being over-the-top, either. He was known for that darn cake. It was a favorite at the tavern, rivaled only by my grandmother’s pies that were quickly becoming a full-time job for her.
While I was happy she was doing so well, I wished she didn’t feel the need to be so productive or whatever it was motivating her. She kept telling me it was because she needed to pay for her keep. And my mates and I kept reminding her that, by binding my powers of sight as a child and therefore hiding my color, she had already given me my life, but that wasn't something she was willing to hear.
I called bullshit, but baby steps.
“I want a piece the size of the of the plate.” I grabbed a fork. Oh yeah, I was going to eat the entire thing.
“It is your shower. And, umm…sorry about before with the surprise.” Grey broke eye contact with me, pretending slicing the cake required all his concentration.
“Eh. The cake more than makes up for it.” I snatched the plate from his hand for effect and began eating away.
“Mr. Samuel.” A small hand tugged at the hem of my shirt. Emerson.
“Yes, buttercup?” I bent down to be eye level. I didn’t like being called mister, but she insisted, and there was really not much anyone in the room wouldn’t do for that little girl.
“I made you a prezzy.” Damn, her smile could melt an igloo. “We should do prezzy time.”
“Absolutely.” I straightened and addressed the room, “I have just been informed there are presents. I think I need all the presents.” I winked down at Emerson, and the entire room laughed as I made my way to the present table, for there were so many it required a table. I scarfed down the last of my cake with zero grace and plopped down on a chair. “Hmmm, I wonder which one I should open first. There are so many amazing ones to choose from.�
��
My mates watched from the back of the room. They had been watching but not interfering the entire party, only stopping by to make sure I had food or to steal a kiss. It was sweet. It also had me ready to jump them the second we finally got alone, which was probably their goal. Sexy mates.
“Mine. Mine. Mine.” Emerson ran over and grabbed a package wrapped in brown paper with a hand-drawn I wasn’t sure what on the top. It was adorable.
“I think you are right. Look at this beautiful paper. I’d better remove the tape gently.” I made a huge show of opening the present carefully. Inside, there was a papier-mâché something covered in green paint. I took it out and held it for all to see as they oohed and ahhed before Emerson grabbed it from my hand.
“I’ll show you. You shake it like this. It’s a rattle.” She shook it, and sure enough it made noise.
“Best rattle I’ve ever seen.” She liked that well enough, handed it back, and skipped to the cake table.
The rest of the gifts were your traditional spoil-the-expectant-omega fare from a car seat to onesies of all kinds to a baby carrier. I’d had so many years without so much as an acknowledgement of a holiday or other gift giving time that I was still half expecting to pinch myself only to wake up on the cold floor.
“Here.” Bart snapped me from my thoughts as everyone was going about the end of the party cleanup. “I got this for you.”
Bart looked better. So much better and younger. He wasn’t much older than me from the looks of him now, and I’d have sworn he was decades older than me when I was first placed in his home.
I looked down at the gift bag below.
“You didn’t need to—” I began before he leaned in close, stopping my train of thought.
“It’s a journal. For writing and stuff.” He was sounding really off, but we were still in the awkward stage of our friendship and probably would be for pretty much ever.
As my owner, and that word still made me cringe, he’d been kinder than most, but never too kind. Like, I had a warm place to sleep but no bed and I had food to eat but only if no one saw, that kind of thing. I knew now he had been trying to protect me in his weird-ass way, and I’d ever owe him my life, but things would never be super easy with us.
The Lion, the Dragon, and Their Unicorn Omega: An MM Mpreg Shifter Romance (The Unicorn Omegas Book 2) Page 10
