by Anya Byrne
"He didn't say. You know how silencers are. They dislike giving elaborate reports through any traceable means of communication."
"But was anyone hurt?" Argent insisted.
Sasha hated himself for not realizing Argent would be worried about his former pack members. "I don't think so. Baqir would have probably mentioned it if that was the case. No real details were given, but I can look into it if you want. The Lone Wolf Pack isn't isolated from us, you know."
"Yes." Argent nodded eagerly. "Please, do."
Sasha thought for a few moments, wondering who'd be closest to the area in question. There were plenty of Alphas who could look into it, but Sasha was reluctant to have them intervene in the issue. The Lone Wolf Pack lived in neutral territory, and due to their unique circumstances, it was best to leave them to themselves.
He wished he could have simply contacted the silencer. Baqir had struck him as more reasonable than most guild leaders, since he'd actually freed his brother from the guild when the man had found his mate. There were probably a lot of caveats to that particular affair, but at least someone else hadn't died uselessly. Sadly, like most guild leaders, Baqir was reclusive and couldn't be relied on for a quick response.
Before he could decide on the best choice for a contact, Argent went as white as a sheet. Sasha forgot all about what he'd intended and shot to his feet, rushing to his mate's side just in time to catch Argent and keep the man from falling to the floor. Their bond pulsed with a peculiar, unfamiliar feeling, and his head was spinning with a dizziness not his own.
"Argent? Lyubov moya?"
Argent held onto him, but didn't reply. In a panic, Sasha called out to the one person who loved Argent as much as he did. "Blanchefleur! Argent... He—"
His mate's mother must have already been on the way there, because she stepped inside the room before he could even finish the phrase. "Calm down," she said, sounding strikingly at ease. "He's not sick."
Sasha spluttered, not sure how she could possibly be missing the obvious. Taking advantage of his less than intelligent reaction, Blanchefleur stole Argent from his arms. Sasha allowed it, since he had no idea what to do. It was crazy. He hadn't reacted so badly when Argent had been drugged, so why now?
Blanchefleur guided Argent to the couch, gesturing for him to lay down. "Bring him some water, will you?" she asked Sasha. "It'll settle his stomach."
Sasha hastened to do her bidding, thankful that he had a carafe of water in the room. As he poured the requested glass of liquid, Blanchefleur caressed her son's hair, whispering softly in French.
By the time Sasha joined Argent and Blanchefleur, color had already returned to his mate's cheeks. He took the water from Sasha with a sheepish smile. "Thank you. I'm okay now."
Sasha wasn't so easily placated, especially since Blanchefleur looked displeased. "You've been straining yourself too much lately," she said. "It's not wise. You know better than to abuse your body, especially in your condition."
"Condition?" Sasha and Argent said at the same time.
Blanchefleur blinked at them, and then released a groan of distress. "Men are idiots."
****
As it turned out, Argent did feel like an idiot once his mother was done with him. Why would human men be able to get pregnant, if werewolves didn't have the same ability? When she put it that way, it didn't make any sense, and it made Argent wince when he realized how many clues he'd missed—some of which he'd actively hidden from Sasha.
The nausea, the dizziness, strange cravings and increased libido. Sasha hadn't complained about the latter, and he'd noticed many of the former when he was close enough to Argent to sense potential distress. Usually, Argent disguised it by thinking calming thoughts and projecting them through their bond, but that had obviously backfired spectacularly.
The look Sasha was giving him hurt more than his mother's almost scathing words. She must have realized their need for privacy, because she sighed heavily. "Listen. I think the two of you should talk about this alone. But remember not to strain yourself from now on."
Argent nodded, acknowledging her words and advice. "How do you even know all of this?"
She eyed him with that patented look that only mothers managed to pull off—like he was an idiot for asking, but she still loved him and was going to answer because he was her son. "First thing, I've carried a child of my own, so I know the core mechanics. As for how I learned about the male pregnancy... Well, Sylvain and I were around for a long time, and we saw many things. It's not actually unusual at all. Most people just think it is, because homosexual pairings have been looked down on for centuries."
"You're kidding," Sasha blurted out. "So... Another lie?"
"You sound like you're surprised," Argent's mother said with a sigh. "I think by now, it's safe to say that a lot of what we've taken for granted is actually a falsehood."
She left them on that less than optimistic note, and even if he had countless questions, Argent was still somewhat thankful. "I'm sorry that I hid my symptoms from you," he whispered, unable to look his mate in the eye.
Sasha plopped down next to him and reached for his hand. "I won't ask why you did it, lyubov moya, because I understand. Who knows? If circumstances were reversed, I might have wanted to do the same."
Argent grimaced at the idea of Sasha being injured without him there to handle it. Sasha nudged him with his knee. "Not a happy thought, huh? Imagine how I feel when I know both you and our baby were at risk while I worried about the pack."
Argent's mind went blank at Sasha's words. A baby. He didn't know why the realization dawned only now when he'd been talking with his mother about it for the past ten minutes, but he suddenly grasped it. He was pregnant. He and Sasha were going to have a child.
He stared at his mate in disbelief and said exactly that. "I'm pregnant. We're having a baby."
Sasha's expression softened, and he buried his face in Argent's shoulder. "Seems like."
He rested his hand on Argent's belly, and they just sat there in silence, trying to process what they'd learned. Argent threaded his fingers through his mate's and studiously breathed in and out.
Some sort of his impulse had him closing his eyes. He remembered the strange sensation he'd had the day of the challenge, the feeling he'd dismissed as nothing but nervousness. What a fool he'd been. How could he have missed something so big?
"I'm sorry," he said again. "I want you to remember that I was never at risk, but regardless, I shouldn't have hidden it from you."
After all, how could his mate trust him if Argent hid things like this from him? Hadn't they already decided they were in this together?
"Never again," he promised.
"Never again," Sasha repeated.
Argent knew better than to hope he was home free. Sasha was unlikely to let things go just like that. His guess was confirmed moments later, when Sasha got up and took him in his arms.
At a different time, Argent would have protested the mortifying treatment, but today, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He allowed his mate to carry him out of the office and toward the bedroom they now shared. It was a little undignified, and earned them some long looks from some of the people they passed, but Argent couldn't really be embarrassed, not when they'd just received such a mind-melting piece of information.
When they were finally in private and behind closed doors, Sasha gently set him on the bed. "Well then, you heard your mother. No more straining yourself."
Argent looked up at his stern mate and couldn't bear the thought of having Sasha leave his side. "As long as you stay with me, at least for a while."
It was selfish, and he knew Sasha had a duty toward his pack, but he didn't want to be alone, not in such a special moment. Sasha must have understood, because he removed Argent's shoes, toed off his own, then crawled onto the bed next to him.
For the longest time, they just lay there in complete silence. Argent was struggling to process the news, and the way their lives would change after the
birth. He'd seen Finn's mate, Parker, when Parker had been newly pregnant, so he had a fair clue of what he could expect, but Parker was human. Surely it would be different for him. And what about Sasha? What did he think about all this?
Yet again, his mate seemed to guess his thoughts. "You know," Sasha whispered against his forehead, "I never gave much thought to the idea of having children. It always seemed like a distant concept, something I wouldn't have to worry about anytime soon. But now... I'm happy. I'm terrified, yes, but I'm also so... incredibly... happy. "
He punctuated the last words with kisses over Argent's forehead and eyelids. Maybe he meant them to be platonic, but the end result was entirely different. Their bond vibrated with the very same feelings Sasha had just confessed, and Argent's anxiety suddenly melted away. He was left with the not-so-sudden desire to take Sasha inside him again.
They'd made love many times before. There was no night when Sasha didn't come to him, didn't take advantage of the fact that they'd survived Boris's ploy. Today, Argent needed to be with his mate not as a celebration of survival, or of the present, but as a way to rejoice in life, and anticipate the future.
They didn't speak again. Instead, they removed each other's clothing slowly, with reverent hands that lingered too long on naked skin for their role to be completely task-oriented. Sasha's fingers traced the lines of Argent's still-flat abdomen, but they both remained silent. It seemed like they'd decided of common accord that it was best to talk through the language of their bodies.
Now naked, they kissed lazily, taking their time in a way they hadn't quite managed before. For once, Argent didn't feel the desperate urgency that guided most of their couplings. His arousal simmered under his skin, like a low fire permeating every cell in his body, but one that didn't burn him. They took their time to explore every inch of each other, with simple, not-quite chaste caresses that teased even if they weren't meant to.
By now, Argent was rock hard, and so was Sasha, but there was no rush to reach for more. When Sasha wrapped a hand around both their dicks, though, Argent gasped his pleasure. The sound was like a trigger, and suddenly Sasha was all over him.
Somehow managing to be both gentle and wild, Sasha left no part of him untouched, from his lips, to his toes and everything in between. He left Argent's cock for last, but he didn't actually tease, simply sucking lazily, following the very same slow pace they'd settled on in silent agreement. Argent threaded his fingers through Sasha's hair and just held on, surrendering to his mate, to the rightness of this moment and the pleasure that only Sasha could give him.
Sasha's mouth was hot and welcoming on his dick, coaxing exhilarating sensations out of him, making every inch of Argent's body flare to life in an impossibly tender seduction. His clever fingers massaged Argent's testes, rubbing his taint, adding more ingredients to the cocktail of bliss Argent was drunk on. Even still, everything flowed so naturally, so smoothly that when it came, Argent's climax took him by surprise. It was like a phenomenon of nature, or a simple cause and effect process, following the laws of physics. Each drop of pleasure filled the glass that Argent's body became—until the glass tipped, and he fell over the edge, gasping Sasha's name as he spurted jets of cum into his mate's mouth.
The pleasure was so intense Argent almost didn't notice the moment Sasha released his dick—almost, but not quite. Even through the haze of lingering rapture, he couldn't miss the absence of Sasha's heat, or the moment Sasha's slick fingers—slick with Argent's cum, perhaps—slid inside him.
Oh, just that thought, the thought that his mate was using his semen to stretch him was more exciting than it should have been. Even if he'd just come, Argent didn't fully soften. And then, Sasha was sliding inside him, his hot length branding Argent from the inside out. Afterglow flared into an even more potent arousal, and the need to belong returned to the forefront of his mind.
At first, Sasha remained entirely motionless inside Argent, giving him time to adjust. Argent managed to nod at his mate, and Sasha started to move, but the rocking of his hips was a far cry from the almost violent couplings they'd shared in the past. Argent could still remember the slap of flesh against flesh, the way Sasha had claimed him in the cabin, and then in the den—oh, the den... Wild, free and feral, just like their wolves. By contrast, this time around Sasha's pace could almost be considered disinterested... or would have been, if Argent didn't read every single emotion, memory and hope for the future in every motion Sasha made and every breath he took.
Argent had heard people ranking their experiences in bed, even with their longtime lovers, but he couldn't do it. Not only did it seem senseless, but he simply didn't have the capacity to process such a train of thought. He half-expected Sasha to move faster, but he wasn't in the least bit disappointed when his mate lingered in that content, lazy pace.
Every second was a gift, he realized. Every time Sasha brushed his dick against Argent's prostate, he relived a thousand memories, flashes of moments they'd spent together. And Argent found that he had to do something he'd been craving for far too long.
Somehow, he managed to gather enough strength to pull Sasha down and buried his fangs into his mate's pectoral muscle, right below the man's nipple. Sasha thrust inside him one last time, so hard it hurt, and then he was coming, pumping Argent full of his spunk. His knot expanded, massaging Argent's prostate, binding them together in that way he could never get enough of.
He didn't know what triggered his following climax—the knot, the taste of Sasha's blood, or the tightening of the bond between them—but in the end, it didn't matter. He held onto Sasha, onto the truest thing he'd found in his life even when everything else had been a lie, and he came and came and came, harder than he ever had before. As he convulsed through the seemingly unbearable pleasure, he became aware of a bright energy flickering inside him, both familiar, yet not.
At first, he was wary of touching it, since it seemed so fragile. Sasha was with him, though, and together, they reached out, and they knew.
The baby was there, inside Argent, just like his mother had said. Beautiful, warm and so alive, it humbled both Argent and Sasha too much to express. When he came down from the high of his climax, Argent's vision was blurry with tears and his heart overflowed with emotion.
For the first time, Argent realized he hadn't replied to Sasha's earlier confession. "I'm happy too," he somehow managed to say, breathless and panting.
The words didn't even scratch the surface of what he felt but Sasha nodded and kissed his brow. Later, as they lay together in bed, Argent reiterated his promise to himself, and to Sasha.
Their lives were still full of secrets, and they would still have plenty of surprises coming their way, but on Argent's part, he would do his best to share everything with Sasha, to start their new life with honesty, trust and respect. After all, Sasha was more than his Alpha. He was his mate, his lover, and the father of his child.
He was also the man who remembered something Argent had completely forgotten in the heat of the moment—their earlier conversation about the Lone Wolf Pack. The moment the memory returned to the forefront of his mind, he was reaching for the phone, ready to provide Argent with the reassurance he sought. As he watched, Argent fell in love with Sasha a little more and smiled to himself. Finally, he had a pack, a family and a future, just like his former Alphas. And just like them, he would do anything to protect the people he loved.
Epilogue
A few weeks later
"So... What are you naming the baby?"
Argent settled his hands on the now more than visible bump in his belly and smiled at Remy. "Sylvain, if it's a boy, and Mariya, if it's a girl."
Remy grinned at him. "You sure Saul or Finn Simmons won't be angry at you for stealing their thunder?"
Argent had actually considered that, which was why he and Sasha had decided to use a Russian form of the name. "They don't have daughters yet, and we'll cross that bridge if we get to it. Besides, if my baby is a girl, she'll be named a
fter my mother too."
He arched a brow at his new friend. "But you didn't come to visit me just to talk baby names, did you? When are you going back to Paris?"
"Later today," Remy replied seriously. "Laurent wants me to look up some more things before the Gathering. Besides, I hear another silencer will be dropping by, and he doesn't want me here when that happens."
Remy's history with silencers still confused Argent, but he didn't dare to ask, especially since he now realized his new friend wasn't wearing the glasses for fashion. He genuinely didn't see all that well, and Argent would bet money that issue stemmed from a silencer-related episode, possibly connected with his parents. He knew the new visitor would be Baqir, the very same Malik who'd contacted Sasha with news on the Lone Wolf Pack, but he'd grown used to having Remy around, and his impending absence made a feeling of loss pool in his gut. "I'll miss you."
"I'll come back soon. It's not like Laurent can keep me away forever."
"I know." Argent forced another smile, even if he didn't feel it. "I simply seem to get more emotional these days."
Argent had never expected to be in such a situation, but his friends and family took his outbursts of temper well. Maybe they were all so thrilled about the baby the temporary side effects didn't count? Argent couldn't even tell anymore.
In a way, it frustrated him, because everyone treated him like he was made out of porcelain. He understood it, maybe even appreciated it, but at times, he felt helpless, and he hated it. He wished he could speak with someone who'd had a similar experience—other than his mother, of course—but even if he'd now learned his former Alphas and their families had not been hurt in the attack on their pack, he didn't dare to contact them for his own convenience.
Despite all that, the comforting warmth building inside him made it all worthwhile. He had never understood why pregnant women tended to touch their bellies a lot, but now, he liked to do exactly that. His son or his daughter was always there, a spark at the back of his consciousness that he only ever shared with Sasha.
