by J. R Fox
“Okay, Papa,” she nodded vigorously, her blonde curls flying every which way around her pale face.
Straightening, Gabriel whispered, “Who knew your genes would win out in the end, eh?”
“She’s six,” Peter said dryly. “We don’t know who she’s taking after yet.”
“Nah,” Gabriel smiled. “With big sapphire eyes like that? She’s definitely your daughter.”
“Our daughter,” Peter reminded him. “Shouldn’t you be flying off to work right about now?”
“Of course, of course,” Gabriel laughed. With a final kiss to Peter’s lips and Gwen’s forehead, he waved goodbye and left the manor with his briefcase.
“Funny how much quieter it gets when your papa isn’t around,” Peter commented, placing a plate of scrambled eggs and a smiley bacon face in front of her.
“He’s funny,” Gwen said happily, tearing into her bacon.
“Yeah?” Peter asked, sitting down with some bacon and a cup of coffee of his own. Plus, a few golden flakes stirred in. He had never quite gotten over that addiction, not yet, anyway. “Is daddy funny?”
Gwen wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Daddy likes rules,” she said simply.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t be funny,” Peter snorted. When Gwen just shrugged, he nudged her arm and said, “Hey, how’d you like to fly to school today?”
“Really?” Gwen gasped.
“Yep. We’ll fly, just as soon as you’re done eating,” Peter promised.
He’d never seen his daughter gobble down a plate of food so fast.
“C’mon, Daddy!” she yelled, her open backpack thrown over her shoulder while her untied shoes threatened to trip her at her feet.
“Hold on,” Peter said, stooping down to fix them. “And zip up your backpack. You don’t want to lose anything while we’re flying,” he warned.
Gwen just huffed and yanked the zipper closed, sighing and stomping her foot all the while. “Daddy,” she demanded.
“Oh, sorry,” Peter said, amused and not at all sorry. “Am I sucking the fun out of it?”
“Yes,” she huffed, nodding.
“Well,” Peter smirked, standing. “Better safe than sorry. Now, come on,” he said, taking Gwen’s hand as he led her out to the garden. “Don’t want to be late.”
“You can’t be late when you fly,” Gwen told him. “You blink, and you’re already there.”
“But it takes a lot of energy to fly,” Peter advised. “And you don’t want to waste energy by not being prepared.”
“Mhm,” Gwen nodded, biting her lip. It was something she did whenever she wasn’t really listening, but knew that she should be. A little habit that she’d picked up from her papa.
“Okay, we ready?” Peter asked, pulling on his jacket to hide the bond brace. Gabriel and Peter had long agreed to send Gwen to a human school for as long as she could still fit in, and the last thing Peter wanted was for the wrong man to see his brace and kidnap Gwen for a ransom.
“Ready,” Gwen said, squeezing his hand.
“Okay,” he said, breathing deep. He could hear Gwen doing the same beside him, and he smiled despite his concentration. “Here we go.”
The Wizard’s Enchanted Omega
MM Wizard Romance
Chapter One
Wolfric followed Edhel to his tower as he did every night, keeping an eye out for trouble but not really expecting it. Being posted at the university was an easy job for a guardsman, as long as he wasn’t afraid of the risk of being turned into a duck by an errant spell every now and again.
The worst that had happened to Wolfric were a few flowers growing in his beard, and once they’d been plucked out, they’d never grown back.
Edhel always swore he hadn’t done it on purpose, but he had seemed to enjoy the results. If Wolfric hadn’t liked him so much, he might have been less forgiving.
He was glad he hadn’t gotten upset over that incident, though, because now he was going to have to rely on Edhel for help. He’d been rehearsing what he was going to say all night, but when Edhel had come down from his study to be escorted across the grounds to his rooms in the east tower, everything had left his mind.
When they reached the door, Wolfric realized he only had a handful more seconds to broach the subject, or else he’d have to wait until tomorrow night. If he waited until tomorrow night, he’d wait until the next, and the next, and never pluck up the courage to say anything.
He cleared his throat as Edhel took out the huge ring of keys he kept in his robes. “Edhel?”
“Yes?” Edhel blinked up at Wolfric with his huge, grey eyes. People with magic in their blood always looked striking, but Edhel especially so, with his thin silhouette and slicked-back dark hair, the faintest hint of elven heritage noticeable in his very slightly pointy ears.
“I have a question—a magic-related question—that I thought you might be able to help me with.”
Edhel's eyes lit up. They’d long been friends—or at least, Wolfric had long considered them friends—but they never really discussed magic. Wolfric knew vaguely that Edhel specialized in what he as a layman thought of as life magic. He’d seen Edhel grow a tree from seed in a matter of minutes, hatch a bird's egg by touch, and there had been the beard flowers incident.
Whether what he was about to ask for was even possible, let alone something Edhel would be capable of, was yet to be seen. Wolfric wasn't even sure he should be asking at all.
“Do you want to come up stairs?” Edhel asked. “It doesn’t sound like it’s a quick question.”
Wolfric hesitated. He was still on guard duty until sunrise, but Edhel had been the last person still in the university proper, and nothing ever actually happened out here. Aside from the odd wizard going mad or accidentally blowing up part of the building, it was a very quiet job.
“Let me rephrase that—will you escort me up to my rooms, since I’m afraid someone might’ve sneaked into them in my absence?”
Wolfric took the request for the excuse it was, and nodded. “Of course. That’s what I’m here for.”
Edhel smiled at him and lead him up the stairs, bouncing up them nimbly as though the steep, narrow ascent was nothing. By the time they reached Edhel’s rooms, Wolfric was out of breath.
The problem with being on easy duty, as a guardsman, was that Wolfric was less fit than he might have liked to be because of it. Edhel, on the other hand, seemed unaffected by the climb.
“I’d offer you something to drink, but I suspect you’re going to say you’re on duty.” Edhel said, going straight for a decanter on his sideboard anyway.
“I see you’ve finally developed the ability to see the future,” Wolfric joked. Edhel was right—he had no intention of drinking on duty.
Wolfric had never seen Edhel’s rooms before, but they were more or less exactly as he’d pictured them, full of well-worn but comfortable furniture, piles of books stacked on just about every surface, and a large number of artifacts that Wolfric wouldn’t have been game enough to touch. The smell was heady and sweet, not at all like his own quarters, which smelled mostly of other guardsmen.
There was no rule that said he couldn’t take up his own residence, but Wolfric had never seen the need to move out of the barracks. He supposed, if Edhel could do what he was going to ask of him, that he’d have to, though. He wondered briefly what a place of his own would look like, but shook the thought off so he could concentrate on what he’d come here for.
“I believe you had a question?” Edhel asked, settling on a couch in the middle of the room with sagging cushions. It looked as though he slept there regularly, though Wolfric could see a glimpse of a bedroom through another door.
“Well…” Wolfric hesitated. He’d seen magic accomplish the impossible hundreds of times in his three years as a university guard, but this request seemed more impossible than usual. “This may sound ridiculous, but… I’d like to have a child.”
Edhel looked at him carefully for a few seconds
, then sipped the glass of wine he’d poured for himself. “I’m sure any one of the fine ladies of the city would be very happy to have you. I can’t imagine what you’d need my help for.”
“The ladies might be happy to have me, but I wouldn’t be thrilled to have them,” Wolfric confessed awkwardly. He was hardly the first person to feel that way, but it was never easy to tell how someone would react to it.
Though judging by the fact that Edhel had never once expressed attraction to a woman, Wolfric suspected he was in similar company. It was part of why he was asking Edhel at all. If anyone was likely to understand, it was him.
“Oh. Really?”
“Really.” Wolfric held Edhel’s gaze, not wanting to get into an argument with his friend, but willing to defend himself.
“Because you’re very manly,” Edhel added, though now he seemed nervous.
“I don’t… see how that has anything to do with it,” Wolfric said, though he understood what Edhel meant. People equated Wolfric’s tendencies with femininity, and didn’t expect to see men like him with other men. It was part of why he was coming to Edhel for help and not settling down with someone, though the issue would still remain regardless of the results of this discussion tonight.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. I, uh, feel the same way.” Edhel crossed his legs under him. “But I still don’t see how I can help.”
“Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding the limits of magic, but I imagined it might be possible for me to carry a child. Through some magical means. Perhaps I’m wrong.”
Edhel opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it again, his brow furrowing. He was silent for several moments, clearly thinking hard. “I was going to say that it was impossible, but maybe it isn’t. I can’t make any promises, but if you’re happy to give me a few days…”
“Of course, of course.” Wolfric nodded eagerly. “And I can pay you. I have savings.”
Edhel snorted. “If this works, I’ll be paying you out of all the innovative research prizes we’ll win. Keep your money for the baby. If we can manage one.”
To Wolfric, that sounded like hope, and he was willing to take it. “I’ll do anything you ask of me. There’s nothing I want more than a child.”
He’d dreamed of being a father for years, though he’d always kept his feelings secret for fear that others would laugh at him. Most guards looked to other trades when they passed their thirtieth year, and Wolfric would as well, but he felt it was more urgent to have a baby first, and since he was unlikely to settle down with a wife, Edhel was his only hope.
“Then I’ll do my best for you.” Edhel shifted to get comfortable. “I hope it’ll bring you a great deal of joy.”
***
A week or so passed between Edhel’s first conversation with Wolfric before he came up with anything. Since there was an obvious, no-magic-required method of creating a baby, there was a limited amount of research in the area. What little there was tended to be purely theoretical, thought exercises that extrapolated from the simple matter of hatching a chicken, as though it was the same thing.
With a parlor trick like that, the living creature was already there, and only needed to be encouraged to grow. This involved creating new life from scratch, which was something Mother Nature had mastered, but wizards were yet to accomplish.
It wasn’t until it occurred to Edhel that he needn’t discount nature that he had a breakthrough, and once he had all the information he needed he could hardly wait for Wolfric’s shift to begin.
As soon as he saw him take up his post, Edhel raced down to meet him. He remained professional in front of the other guard, asking for his usual escort across the campus, but barely contained himself until they were out of earshot.
“I think I have a solution for you. I’ll show you my research and you can decide if you want to go ahead.”
“Already?” Wolfric asked, clearly surprised.
“Did you doubt my abilities?” Edhel glanced over his shoulder at Wolfric. He’d always liked him, and still wasn’t exactly sure how to handle the new information that he was attracted to men.
“Not for a moment.” Wolfric beamed at him. “I’m just surprised by your speed.”
“I made it a priority.” Edhel cleared his throat. “I have to ask you if you have a partner. I wouldn’t pry, but if you do, we’ll need him for this.”
“I don’t,” Wolfric said softly. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“Well…” Edhel already had another idea to clear that particular hurdle, but he wasn’t sure Wolfric would go for it. “That depends on you. I’ll explain once we get upstairs.”
Edhel lead Wolfric up to his rooms, moving more slowly this time to save Wolfric from being exhausted when he got up. Edhel climbed these stairs every day, and wore light robes. Wolfric wore the thick leather armor uniform of the city guard, and was a man built to stay on the ground.
He’d kept all of his research in his private quarters, not wanting anyone else to know what he was up to. There were plenty of people at the university who didn’t like Edhel’s personal brand of research.
“Okay, so, I don’t know how good your history is, but way back before we had cities and universities and noble guardsmen, people weren’t… quite like they are now. We used to be split into two groups—alpha, and omega. Omegas—all omegas—were capable of carrying children, and our reproductive systems were very different. We still develop all the necessary parts before we’re born, but now we split into pretty uniform male and female. However, we don’t have to stay that way. Your body is capable of carrying a child, with a few modifications.”
“Modifications?” Wolfric raised an eyebrow.
“Well, you’d need a womb. The details are a little messy, but it’s doable and if it’s what you want, you should have no problem conceiving, carrying, and birthing a child. But, uh, you’ll need an alpha, and it does specifically need to be an alpha.”
“And there aren’t any of those anymore.” All the hope that’d built up in Wolfric’s posture left him, his shoulders hanging sadly.
“But there could be.” Edhel cleared his throat. “I think you’d have a hard time convincing anyone else, but… I could do it? If, uh. If that would be acceptable to you?” Edhel asked nervously. He was sure Wolfric could draw all the necessary inferences about what it would mean, but he wasn’t sure if Wolfric would want that.
After all, he’d never expressed any interest in Edhel. Even for the sake of a much-wanted baby, he might not want to sleep with him.
“Are you serious?”
Edhel swallowed. “I know it’s not ideal, but your baby would have magic blood. It’d live longer and be healthier, not to mention it could train here someday, and you’ve seen what a good life that is and you want that, don’t you?”
“No, I mean, would you do that for me?” Wolfric looked at him, and Edhel realized it was a look of gratitude. “It seems like an awful lot to ask, even of a friend.”
“This is a chance to do something that no one’s ever done before,” Edhel said. He wanted to say that he’d do it for Wolfric because he cared about him, but Edhel wasn’t ready to talk about how deep his feelings for the other man ran. He’d barely started to think about them himself, since he’d only just discovered that it was possible they’d be returned.
“Well, how do we do it?”
“It’s a fairly simple internal rearranging. More medical magic than I’m used to, but I feel confident I can do it without causing you any injury. I imagine it’s going to hurt, though.”
Wolfric licked his lips. “I can deal with pain.”
“You’re sure about this? Because you’re going to have to carry this child yourself, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to reverse the changes to your body. I doubt I will.”
Wolfric shrugged. “I want to raise a child. Carrying it is only an extension of that.” He swallowed. “You must believe I want this. I wouldn’t even consider something this drastic if I didn’t.”
His research suggested that there was no reason Wolfric couldn’t carry a healthy baby. Anything after that was up to Wolfric, and whether he was ready to go through with it.
“Please, Edhel. It would mean the world to me—and as you said, it would be something no one had ever done before. Both of us get what we want this way.”
Looking at Wolfric’s soft, sad eyes, Edhel was powerless to refuse him. Besides, if it worked, it would revolutionize the way both magic and parenthood were viewed. His name would go down in history for it.
“Okay. Then I think you ought to lie down before I start.”
Chapter Two
When Edhel had said that the process of becoming an omega would be painful, he hadn’t been exaggerating. Wolfric curled up on himself involuntarily, Edhel’s hand on his abdomen searing like a branding iron straight from the fire, ready to mark a farmer’s cattle.
As the spell began to take, his insides felt as though they were full of razors, alternating between bitter, icy cold and feverish heat the likes of which he’d never experienced before. Unending waves of pain washed through him as his internal parts were rearranged, and he felt as though he could feel every inch they moved. Perhaps that was exactly what he was feeling.
By the time it was over, tears were streaming down Wolfric’s face, and he was soaked with sweat. He hated the idea that Edhel had seen him like this, but Edhel only seemed sympathetic.
“You should rest a while. If anyone asks, tell them I heard a noise and didn’t feel safe.”
Edhel took a wash cloth from his night stand, wet it with cool water, and placed it over Wolfric’s forehead.
“They’ll think we’re up to something,” Wolfric murmured, already closing his eyes. He couldn’t stay too much longer, but another few minutes would allow him to stand without feeling as though he was going to pass out immediately. At least, he hoped they would.
