Second Chance: M/M Mpreg Alpha Male Romance

by Aiden Bates

  "What about his mental state?" Smith paused over his notes again.

  "Apathetic." Ty had to think carefully about the right word to use here. "I don't know if that means that he knew that the bomb was a hoax or what, but he truly didn't seem to care about it. I mean there were hundreds of people in here, and he didn't care. He was just doing a job and it didn't matter."

  "Charming. It'll be fun to nail him." Smith handed them both cards. "Okay. Well, if you think of anything, or if anyone turns out to have seen anything, you let me know, okay?" He shook their hands and left.

  Ty and Derek exchanged glances. "Well," Derek said after a moment. "That was more adrenaline than I needed. Go ahead and take the rest of the afternoon, Ty. I'm not sure what the accounting code is for hazard pay, but I definitely think you've earned it."

  Ty couldn't argue with his logic. He made his goodbyes, retrieved his laptop and went home.

  ***

  Ben was more than a little livid when Ty told him about the bomb threat. He wanted to drive up to La Jolla, drive through the gates to Hartmann's estate, and put a fist right through those rotten teeth of his. Ty, being much more reasonable than Ben even on his worst days, intervened. "That's not going to do any of us any good, Ben," he said, putting a hand on Ben's arm. "Bean and I need you here, keeping us safe and taking care of us. We don't need an alpha in jail, you know?"

  Ben growled at that, but what could he do? Ty was right, as usual. The police were doing what they could, now that they were working with the bomb squad and not people assigned to deal with what they'd decided was a "domestic squabble" between omegas and an alpha. If there was even a shred of evidence to prove that Hartmann was involved with the pseudo-attack, they would find it.

  In the meantime, Ben wasn't about to leave Ty alone. Not after someone he couldn't prove was Hartmann had just shown him how vulnerable Ty was.

  "Do you really have to call the baby Bean?" he asked in a pained voice.

  "If you have a better name I'm all ears," Ty said, folding his hands primly on his lap. "But in the meantime, we don't know the baby's sex so we can't call Bean by a proper name. Bean is good enough."

  Ben grabbed him and pressed him into the couch, something Ty didn't fight at all. Ben didn't want to get at all rough with Ty, not right now, but that didn't stop him from wanting to get his hands on Ty's hot little body. He kissed up and down Ty's torso, relishing all the subtle changes that were still invisible to the naked eye. His nipples, for example, were a thousand times more sensitive to touch than they'd been before he was pregnant, and they'd been pretty sensitive then. Now all it took was the lightest graze of Ben's fingers or the barest flick of his tongue to get a reaction out of Ty.

  It didn't take long before they were naked and grinding against one another, laughing and fooling around without the slightest bit of pressure. They could enjoy this, just as they could enjoy full on sex, and Ben was happy just to have his mate in his arms for the night after everything that had happened.

  He did bring a copy of the police report as it stood then to the office, to hand off to HR and to the union for the sexual harassment claim. "I don't know if this will do any good," he said. "I mean it wasn't me that was targeted, it was my omega. And they can't prove that it was Hartmann who was doing it, but he's been hassling that organization for a while. He's only stepped it up since he found out my partner worked there."

  "It's better to have more information than less," said Bridget from HR. "I'm hoping that we won't need it, that it won't come to anything, but you never know. Hopefully he'll back off."

  Hartmann didn't back off. He showed up to the shop the very next day, Friday, just as everyone was getting back from their lunch break. "I demand to speak with Ben Maxwell," he told the receptionists, just as Ben walked in with Bob and a couple of the guys from Safety Management. "I demand to speak with him immediately and I demand to speak with him in private.

  "I've got him right here, Mr. Hartmann." Bob stepped forward, putting himself between Ben and Hartmann. "I'm afraid we can't give you private. Company policy, I'm afraid, but I'm happy to sit down with you, Ben and someone from HR to discuss matters with you."

  Hartmann sneered, the kind of sneer that only people on television give. "We don't need a chaperone, for crying out loud. We're consenting adults. Just give us a room."

  Bob set his jaw. "Company policy, I'm afraid, to say nothing of union policy." He turned to Maris. "Call Bridget, please. Let her know that it's urgent."

  Bridget appeared in the lobby within minutes, although as far as Ben was concerned it might as well have been a year. He felt like a bug under a magnifying glass. Everyone was looking at him. Hartmann was looking at him and seething, while Bob kept checking back to look and make sure the poor fragile harassed mechanic was okay. The two receptionists stared openly, trying to make sure that they didn't miss any of the spectacle, and the guys from Safety Management seemed to be looking for an excuse to get away. Ben couldn't blame them. He'd have paid a lot of money to be able to get away himself.

  By the time that Bridget appeared, ready to bring them into a conference room, Ben felt about two feet tall. This was not the right way for an alpha to feel.

  He took a seat at the mahogany conference table, noting with some relief that Bridget and Bob sat beside him. Hartmann could only sit across from him and look affronted. "All right, now that we've convened the entire security council for a chat about the weather, I've come to see if you're available for a charity gala up at the Museum of Contemporary Art. I'll provide the tux, pick you up at seven tomorrow evening?" That funereal scent seemed stronger now than it had before. Ben couldn't quite figure out why, unless it had something to do with Hartmann's anger.

  Ben rubbed at his face. At the end of the day, it didn't matter why Hartmann's scent was stronger right now. All that mattered was that he go away. "Look, I can't do that. I'm sorry." The idea that Hartmann would be trying to get him to go to a charity event when he was trying to destroy a charity that had been around for over a century turned Ben's stomach.

  "Alpha, it's not the kind of thing that I can go to stag. I've been talking you up to just about everyone. You can't say no." He fluttered his eyelashes as though they were the only ones in the room. "Think of it as your debut into San Diego high society."

  Bridget cleared her throat. "Mr. Hartmann, company policy clearly states that an employee cannot enter into a romantic or sexual entanglement with a client or supervisor. Mr. Maxwell can't go to the charity gala with you. I'm sorry, but it's unacceptable to the firm."

  Hartmann waved his hand like he was brushing away a piece of dirt. "He doesn't need you. He doesn't need this place. Alpha, grow a pair. Quit this pathetic job. When you've claimed me you'll have access to all of my accounts. You're not going to need to work your fingers to the bone anymore, you're not going to need to punch a clock. You're just going to get to be with me, together forever."

  Ben put his hands on the table and looked over at Hartmann. "Look. It's… nice, I guess, that you want me to go to this thing with you, but I've told you before. I'm not available."

  "What, that little street rat of yours? He's not my problem. You're so far above him, Alpha. It's like night and day, really." Hartmann rolled his shoulders, like he was shrugging something off of his back. "Come home with me. Claim me, right now."

  There was nothing else Ben could do. "I can't. I'm going to be a father."

  All of the color drained from Hartmann's face. His pupils all but disappeared. "No."

  Ben's entire body felt lighter for having said it, even though once again everyone in the room was staring at him. "Yeah. I get that it's a little backward, but I'd been planning to claim him anyway. Now we have to wait until the baby's born, but whatever. It all works out the same in the end, right?" His grin wasn't entirely forced, although he tried to keep the smugness out of it. Even with everything that Hartmann had done, Ben didn't want to be deliberately hurtful.

  "Not necessarily." Hartman
n leaned across the table and grabbed Ben's hand. His was warm, and soft. "Alpha, there's still time. You're not tied to that street rat. You can live up to your full potential. Come with me. Say goodbye to all this. Say goodbye to everything that would hold you back. Come live with me. Let me bear your children, and you'll see what a dynasty truly is." Tears stood out in his eyes, and he spoke through gritted teeth

  Ben pulled his hand away as gently as he could. There was no way for him to do it subtly, though; he had to jerk it away. "I can't. I don't… I love Ty. I have for a while. Maybe I wasn't expecting to find him again when I came to San Diego, but this is the best thing to happen to me since I was seventeen years old. I'm not giving him up. Me and Ty, we're starting a family. We're going to have this baby, and then I'm going to claim him." He smiled, letting his mind wander. "Maybe we'll have more babies somewhere down the road, who knows? But the fact is, even if we haven't made it official in terms of our bodies, this is it for us. We're all we want, and we're happy."

  Bob clapped him on the back, almost hard enough to knock Ben down. "Well hell, congratulations, son. I'm proud of you."

  "I'll look into the best insurance plans we offer," Bridget promised. "This is fantastic news, Ben. Congratulations."

  Hartmann pounded his fist on the table. "No! This isn't fantastic news! This is an outrage! I deserve… I deserve better than this! I told you that I wanted you, I told you that you were mine." His lower lip protruded from his mouth, trembling. "Is it those bastards at Gray House? Did they tell you to leave me?"

  "No. I told you right from the start that I wasn't interested." Ben narrowed his eyes. "I've only ever had eyes for Ty, ever since I came to San Diego, and I've made that fairly clear." He stood up. "Look. I appreciate that this wasn't easy to hear. You want something different and I get that, I do. But me and Ty, we're just ordinary guys trying to live our lives. Try to find a guy more like you, maybe. I think you'll be happier." He backed away.

  "How am I supposed to be happy when that slut got himself pregnant just to spite me?" Hartman shrieked the words, half standing up from his chair. "He got himself pregnant just to spite me and you, you let him!" He stood up. While his face was red and his eyes ablaze, he managed to compose his features and tug his suit into something resembling a normal arrangement. "You'll see, Alpha. This is the biggest mistake of your life, but I'm not going to let it ruin you. Oh no. You're going to be happy, no matter what I have to do to make that happen."

  Hartmann stormed out of the room, ignoring everyone around him. Bridget, Bob and Ben all stared at one another in his wake. "Is it me, or did that sound ominous?" Bob drawled, leaning back in his chair and resting his hands on his belly.

  Ben buried his face in the crook of his arm for the moment. "You don't think he'd do anything stupid, do you?"

  Bridget chewed on the end of her pen for a second, staring at the space where he'd gone. "I don't know. I don't think so. He's a man of serious standing in the community. I can't imagine that he'd be willing to just risk everything on one reckless act, you know? He's too smart for that."

  "Probably," Bob agreed, eyes narrow. "All the same, I think you should put it in your file. And maybe we should have a talk with the officers working on that bombing case, too."

  Bridget lifted her eyebrows and nodded once at Bob in acknowledgment.

  That night, Ben told Ty what had happened. "I know we weren't going to tell anyone about the baby," he said, hanging his head, "but he just wouldn't go away. I figured maybe if he knew, it would help him to kind of move on or something, I don't know."

  "I don't know if he'll ever move on," Ty told him, cuddling up close. "He's still upset that the alpha his parents arranged for him to be claimed by ran away to Gray House instead, and that was seventeen years ago. I don't think he's ever going to let go." He used Ben's chest as a pillow. "I can't really say that I don't understand that. I don't approve, especially when I'm the one getting the bomb calls, but I get it."

  Ben ran his hand up Ty's flank. "Well, I'm still sorry that I spilled the beans— broke the news," he corrected, after he remembered Ty's ridiculous name for the baby.

  "It's okay." Ty looked up at him through his lashes, sending a jolt of need arching through Ben's body. "I've been dying for an excuse to tell Penny. Now I get to figure out just how I want to break it to her." He laughed. "You're making all the other staff members' husbands look bad, you know. She's been getting complaints."

  "That's because I'm not a husband. I'm an alpha. They should be so lucky as to have an alpha. Of course," Ben added, pulling his omega even closer, "they'd have to not only be an omega, but just as awesome as you, so…"

  Ben played himself off as calm and collected, but the memory of Hartmann's vow lasted well into the night.

  Chapter Eight

  Ty had to wait until Monday morning to tell Penny his good news, because he was too caught up in his happiness with Ben to make phone calls. He had a lot of actual, physical activity involved with being caught up in his happiness with Ben to keep him from communicating with the outside world; they had a lot of work to do to make the changes between their apartments to turn them into the very unusual living space they wanted. He was still running, too, and he still needed to work on his thesis if he wanted to graduate.

  Besides, he had a plan for how he told Penny about Bean.

  When he got to work, he set up at his workstation like he usually did. Penny hadn't guessed yet, and part of Ty thought that was ridiculous, but then again he wasn't showing all of the stereotypical symptoms of early pregnancy. He hadn't known a moment of morning sickness, even though Stuart seemed to think that saltines were essential to survival. He didn't have weird cravings and hadn't gotten weepy over card commercials or anything like that. Ty knew the signs well and he thought they were glaring red flags, but he also had to live with them day in and day out. Penny couldn't feel the soreness in his chest, or the omnipresent fatigue. Penny had no way to know that he was drinking half-caf coffees.

  When Penny came over to catch up on the weekend, he made sure that she caught him looking at a baby website. He didn't choose to get caught looking at any of the gross stuff, like ThisIsYourBabyNow.com or This Is How You Change A Diaper, but stuck to things like cute baby clothes and toys. "So, I had a date on Saturday," she told him, sitting on the edge of his desk. "Their name was Star and they were amazing."

  "Ooh." Ty turned to face her. "Star, huh? Sounds… stellar." He cackled at his own terrible pun.

  She flicked his ear. "That's terrible. Just terrible. But because I love you, I'm not telling Star that you said it." She glanced at Ty's screen. "Ah ha! Personal stuff on company time, eh?" She waggled her elegantly drawn eyebrows up and down. "You know your boss has the legal right to see anything you look at on company time, Ostry."

  Ty just smirked.

  Penny peered at Ty's screen. "Seriously? This is just baby stuff. That's not exciting—wait." She turned her whole body to face him. "You're not telling me something."

  Ty grinned and blushed. "Nope."

  "You… You're not."

  "Apparently I am." He put a hand over his still-ridged abs.

  "Oh, Lord, Ty, you've always been so careful! How did this even happen?" She pinched the bridge of her nose.

  Ty expected that initial reaction. "We were careful. Sometimes you can be as careful as you want and things still happen." He shrugged. "It happened, and we're happy. We love each other, and we're going to do the claiming part after the baby's born. It's going to be amazing." He huffed out a little laugh. "It's already amazing, if I'm being honest here."

  Penny bit her lip. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

  Ty nodded and put a hand on hers. "I'm actually really happy. We weren't going to tell anyone until after the first sonogram, but Ben had to blab to chase Hartmann away on Friday so now I get to tell you."

  Penny threw her thin arms around him. "Then I'm happy for you. I can't wait to buy the little critter all kinds of weird toys."r />
  "I wouldn't have it any other way." He hugged her back. "I can't wait for you to meet Ben, Penny. You're going to love him."

  "I will because you do." She turned back to the website. "Okay, these are the most boring onesies I've ever seen. Come on, let's find something that doesn't make your kid look like a clone."

  Ty laughed and sat back to let her work her magic.

  They did have actual work to do and after a little while they had to get to it, but Ty felt like something constricting had been released from around his chest. He couldn't stop smiling. He was starting a family with the man he loved, and his best friend was on board and enthusiastic. Life was good, and it could only get better.

  The kids trickled in at different times, thanks to their exams. Some of them had appointments at Gray House that day. Some of them had interviews for summer jobs. Ty had his hands full coordinating appointments, handling agitated parents, helping clients set up their first bank accounts, and helping clients study for their exams. It kept him busy for the day, until parents and guardians of those who were in the position to pick up their kids could come and get theirs.