Second Chance: M/M Mpreg Alpha Male Romance

by Aiden Bates

  "I'm guessing maybe six or seven weeks." Ty bit his lip. Had it really been such a short time? It felt like he'd been with Ben forever already.

  "Okay. We usually wouldn't do an ultrasound so soon, just in case your estimate is early, but there's one thing I can try. Don't get too disappointed if we don't get any results this early though. Six weeks would be on the early side to pick anything up no matter what." He turned to Sandra. "Would you mind asking Obstetrics for one of those fetal heart rate monitors?"

  "I'll be right back." Sandra stepped out of the room.

  The requested piece of equipment came back in ten minutes. Sandra brought it back herself. It took Madison a moment to get it going, and then he put the receiver on Ty's belly. Ty held his breath. He didn't miss the fact that Smith held his too.

  For a moment, they didn't hear anything. Then a quick, almost manic little thumping sound came from the machine's little speaker. "There you go, Mr. O." Madison smiled at him. "You are, in fact, still pregnant. The smoke didn't damage your baby, or at least not so badly that you lost it."

  Ty couldn't help the tears that streamed down from his face. He knew how much Ben had been looking forward to this moment. "When will we know if Bean's okay?"

  Madison hesitated. "We'll see what we can see on an ultrasound this week. You're still my priority, do you understand? But I understand how important this is to you. And because this is important to you, you're going to lie there and focus on getting better. I'm tempted to say bed rest until your lungs are healed, but we'll see how you respond to treatment."

  Ty didn't argue as they smeared thick cream on his burns and bandaged him up. He declined further sedatives, because he didn't want to hurt his baby. He lay back in his bed and stared at the ceiling until he dozed off. He could understand why they'd decided to do things the way they had, but it felt cruel.

  ***

  Ben stood and watched Gray House burn. He knew he should go home and do something, go to bed, clean something, wait for news. Hell, he should at least sit down, but he couldn't make himself do it. At first, he stayed just in case Bement was wrong. Maybe Ty had gotten out and wandered away, confused by the smoke inhalation. If he got away and cleared his head, he'd come back.

  That didn't happen. Instead, Ben stood there and watched the sun come up. At some point some kid wandered up to him, a skinny teenaged omega with dyed-black hair and freckles. "Still no word?" the kid asked, in a raw voice.

  "No." He spared a glance for the boy. "Shouldn't you be… I don't know, wherever they're putting the Gray House kids up?"

  The boy rolled his eyes. "Like they could keep me there if I didn't want to be." He snorted. "Please. Give me some credit, okay?" Then he un-puffed himself. "I can't just go and move on, not until I know for sure. He was so… He was so determined, you know? He couldn't handle the idea of people being trapped in there."

  "Sounds like him." Ben turned back to the wreckage.

  "You're his alpha, right?" The kid looked at him. "The one — the father."

  "He told you?" Ben took himself out of his terror and grief for that one. The idea of Ty sharing that information with a client shocked him.

  "Well, he didn't have to. I picked up on it pretty fast." The kid scratched at his head and bit his lip. The fire reflected off of his wet eyes. "Mr. Ty is special, you know? He's got this way about him. He doesn't judge. He'll tell you if you're being a dumbass, but he doesn't judge. He gets it. Of course he gets it because he's been right where we are, so when he tells us something we kind of have to listen, right?" The boy sighed. "My name's Stuart."

  "You called 911." Ben bit down on the inside of his cheek. He couldn't resent this kid for leaving his mate in the fire, but he did resent this kid. It was a difficult dichotomy. He'd have to call it even at not letting Stuart know.

  "I — I wanted to stay." A couple of fat tears trickled down Stuart's cheeks. "He wouldn't let me. Said he couldn't live with himself if I got hurt, or any of the kids. I didn't want to. I didn't."

  "I know." Ben couldn't look at him. "Stuart, it ain't your fault. You had to listen to him. And you calling 911 was probably the best hope for help that any of them had." He took a deep breath and tried not to think about the fact that he might be inhaling all that was left of Ty and their baby. "A lot of those people were in pretty rough shape. The little kids, I guess there's a women's shelter here, they were in pretty bad shape. Getting the ambulances probably saved their lives."

  "Thanks." Stuart hung his head.

  The kid looked so miserable that Ben had to reach out to him, put an arm around his shoulders. He might not have the room in his heart right now to forgive anyone for surviving where Ty hadn't, not yet, but he knew what Ty would want. Ty would want all of these Gray House kids to be taken care of, and not just in a material way. The boy was an omega, and omegas needed physical comfort. It sounded like Stuart had a bit of a case of hero-worship going on when it came to Ty. Ben could honor Ty by helping the boy out, at least a little bit.

  Eventually a woman found them, a woman with black hair and big brown eyes. She was dressed in black, and her heavy eyeliner had gone runny with tears. "Stuart," she breathed, throwing her arms around the boy. "Oh thank God. We thought you'd gone back in after him."

  Stuart disentangled himself from Ben. "Thought about it," he admitted, eyes on the ground. "Too many people around."

  The woman folded her lips together. "Okay, guess who's going directly to the therapist when we get you to the shelter?" She hugged him. "You understand that that's the last thing Ty would want, right? Like, smack you upside your head last thing he would want."

  Stuart nodded. "They chained the doors shut after I got out. I didn't even see them do it. It's like they were waiting for someone to get out to call for help and then… just…" He started shaking, and Ben took him into his arms again. "I can't understand why someone would do this."

  Ben held onto Stuart while the boy cried and shook. The woman, who Ben could only assume was Penny based on Ty's descriptions of her, put a hand on Stuart's back.

  "You must be Ben." Penny offered a weak smile. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances. He. Um. You made him so incredibly happy. He's been floating around the office for the past few weeks."

  Ben grinned at that, even if it felt like his face was breaking when he did it. "I'm glad. He's an amazing guy. He was an amazing guy." He fought against the sudden lump in his throat, jaw working without sound. "I'm glad that he was happy, at the end."

  "There's still hope." Penny looked away, not at the burning building or at Ben but toward the crowd still gawking at the spectacle. "I mean he's still listed as unaccounted for. That's something, right?"

  "Sure." Ben shrugged. He didn't want to tear into Ty's best friend, but he knew that was false hope.

  Penny opened her mouth as though she was going to expound on that, but then she closed it again and curled her lip. "Oh, just what we need. A slimy Dick."

  Ben turned his head, stomach curdling. He thought he knew who she was talking about, but he hoped that he was wrong. He wasn't.

  Hartmann, impeccably dressed as always, approached the trio, shouldering his way through the crowd as though he had any right to be here. Why wouldn't he just go away? Could he not see that Ben was grieving here? "Alpha," he said, a little smile playing around his lips. "I'm so glad I found you. I stopped by your apartment and I got worried when you didn't answer your buzzer."

  "My omega just died," Ben told him. He couldn't bring himself to look at him. He stared back at Gray House. "I probably wouldn't have answered even if I were home. I'm not exactly feeling all that social right now."

  Hartmann giggled and nudged Ben with his shoulder. "Oh come on, we both know how you really feel." He waved his hand at the burning building. "This is a godsend."

  Stuart choked on something, probably Ben's shirt. Penny growled, but Ben put a hand on her arm. He didn't want them to be fighting at what was, in essence, Ty's deathbed. "I can't think of an
y godsends that involve sealing people into a burning building."

  There was that giggle again, like nails on a chalkboard. "It got the job done, didn't it? Come on, Ben. You can't deny that this cleans the slate right up for you." Hartmann smiled a close-lipped smile, one that was probably supposed to be a seductive little thing. "I mean, you're free now. You were free then, you didn't owe the little skank anything, but now there's nothing holding you back from what you really want."

  "What I really want is my omega and our baby, alive." Ben closed his eyes and tried to force his temper down. He couldn't exactly accuse Hartmann of having set the fire, not in public. Hartmann would just sue him for defamation or something. It would cause him more problems that it would solve.

  "No, you didn't." Hartmann stroked Ben's face. Ben recoiled, but that didn't stop Hartmann. "You wanted to be with the omega who could give you something, who could give you everything you've ever dreamed of. That's me, and I can still give you that. I can give you a home—I can give you five homes, for crying out loud. I can give you cars. We can go on vacations like you've never dreamed of. You won't have to work for that nasty company that tried to keep us apart anymore, and if they think I'll be giving them any new work they're sorely mistaken." He sniffed.

  Ben looked around. Some of the onlookers had pulled closer, unable to resist the spectacle, and that just made Ben angrier. Penny's face was a twisted mask of hatred, mostly directed at Hartmann but not entirely. Stuart just held on tight, but Stuart had resources Penny didn't. He could smell the absolute lack of attraction coming off of Ben right now. "I like my job." Ben shook his head. "I like my job. I loved Ty. I wanted that baby. I wanted to be with him forever, and now he's gone. I don't need vacations, I don't need six hundred houses or whatever it is. I can only drive one car at a time, but with Ty I had what I needed most. I had the love of my life and he was taken from me. He was murdered, Hartmann."

  Hartmann grabbed Stuart's shoulder and shoved him away from Ben. "I did what I did for us! For you!" He spoke through gritted, rotten teeth. "I set that fire because I love you!"

  Ben lost it. He pulled his fist back and let it fly into Hartmann's face, as hard as he could. The splat of flesh on flesh and bone on bone echoed around the little alcove. He punched again and then again before he spoke. "You did this to him!" he screamed, as the stunned omega fell to the ground.

  "I did it for us!" Hartmann raised a hand in self-defense, blood streaming from his nose toward his mouth. He turned his head to spit a mouth full of blood and teeth onto the sidewalk. "I did it for us! We belong together, Alpha! You know this as well as I do! It was the only way to get the little whore away from you!"

  Ben kicked him in the side. "You had no right to kill him!" Everyone was staring. "We don't belong together. I belong with Ty, and you belong in a hole."

  Strong arms grabbed onto Ben and pulled him away from Hartmann, even as a flurry of onlookers descended onto Hartmann. Ben struggled against his captor, even as the glint of metal caught the sunlight. Were those handcuffs? "Settle," Bement's voice growled in Ben's ear. "Settle, and act like I'm arresting you for something."

  The fight bled out of Ben as he saw the cuffs go onto Hartmann. "All of those bastard gawkers were cops?" he murmured, letting Bement guide him to his squad car.

  Bement settled Ben into the back seat of the vehicle. "Yeah. Sorry, kid, but yeah. They were." He got into the driver's seat and pulled away. "Come on. Let's get you to the hospital."

  "I'm not hurt." Ben looked at the scraped knuckles on his right hand. "Okay, maybe my knuckles are a little beat up, but otherwise I'm fine."

  "I'm not taking you there for you, Ben." Bement sighed. "His lawyers were too good. Even getting the restraining order against him, when he was just harassing Gray House, was almost impossible. So after the whole bomb hoax thing, we knew we'd have to get creative if we wanted to catch him. And we knew that we would have to get a confession. Otherwise, he would destroy the evidence before we could ever get a warrant."

  "So you hung around the guy who'd just lost his mate and waited for the scumbag to come and brag." Ben crossed his arms over his chest and slouched, looking out the window. "I guess I can't exactly fault the logic."

  Bement cleared his throat. "Er, not so much."

  Ben froze, staring right at the back of Bement's neck. He couldn't tell how he felt. Hope existed, although he tried to fight it off. He didn't want to let himself get hopeful only to lose it in the end. "What are you saying, Detective?" he asked in what he hoped was a slow, calm voice.

  "I'm saying that we couldn't admit that firefighters found Mr. Ostry. There's no way that Hartmann acted alone, and until we catch all of the conspirators we need to take his security very seriously."

  Ben's heart started to beat very quickly, but he kept his mouth shut. He wanted to hear the excuse for this.

  "Since we had to keep his survival a closely guarded secret, we — I — decided that it would be easiest to get that confession if we let Hartmann come and talk to you. And it worked. As far as anyone on site knows, you've been taken to jail for assault." Bement hung his head.

  "You son of a bitch." Ben balled his hands into fists.

  "I'm sorry. I know that was very… very painful for you, Ben. But I honestly couldn't think of a way around the issue of Hartmann and his associates destroying the evidence before we could take him in. I'm taking you right to the hospital right now. He's alive, he's awake, and according to Sgt. Smith he's pissed about keeping you in the dark."

  Ben suppressed a growl. "What kind of shape is he in?"

  "He's got some burns. Second degree," Bement added. "He'll heal, and they're keeping a very close eye on them. He's got some issues from the smoke inhalation that they want to monitor for a few days at least, and it'll be a few months at least before he's running any marathons but he wouldn't have been doing that anyway, right?" Bement managed a little grin.

  "So the baby…" Ben couldn't make himself say it.

  "Is fine. They did a quick check and there is still a heartbeat. You and Ty are still going to be fathers."

  Ben laughed with joy. The deception still pissed him off, but finding out that the people he cared about were safe and alive made him too happy to worry about his rage right now.

  Chapter Ten

  Ty was staring at the ceiling and trying not to cough when he walked in.

  He didn't have to look to recognize Ben. He knew Ben was there as soon as the door opened and his whiskey scent hit Ty like water in the desert. He fumbled for the bed controls and moved himself into a reclining position so he could see his alpha as tears sprang to his eyes.

  He hadn't been sure he'd get to see him again. He knew that Ben was alive, of course, but he'd figured that maybe they would want to put him in some kind of witness protection plan or something. "You smell like smoke," he said, when he could say anything."

  Ben let out a half-hysterical laugh. He looked like crap, if Ty were to be honest with himself. His eyes were ringed with huge dark circles and he could use a shave. His knuckles were bruised and bloody, too. "Yeah, well, I was off watching the world burn down." He stepped forward. "Where — where can I touch you?"

  "Anywhere you want," Ty told him, and meant it.

  "Ahem." Sgt. Smith got their attention. Ben hadn’t noticed the burly cop sitting in the chair. "I'm pretty sure your doctor would have something to say about it. Also there has to be a cop in the room with you at all times, so unless you've got an exhibitionism kink you haven't told me about, please no."

  Ty knew he was blushing. At least his face was partially hidden by his beard. "Right. I'm only burned where you see the bandages. And on the small of my back, but whatever."

  Ben bent down and wrapped his arms around him. Nothing had ever felt that good, not even the first time they'd had sex.

  A middle-aged cop who introduced himself as Detective Bement came in with a set of scrubs for Ben. "I figure this might be cleaner and less distressing," he told them. "The
re's even a shower you can use, if you want. It's all sponge baths for your phoenix here, but the shower's yours."

  Ty blushed again. He didn't feel like a phoenix. He felt like a smelly, sweaty mess. A phoenix would make a pretty cool tattoo idea, though. Maybe after the baby was born he'd get one right above that burn on his back.

  Ben bit his lip, looking torn between going into the bathroom and keeping his eyes on Ty. Ty encouraged the shower. At least one of them should have the right to get thoroughly clean.

  After Ben's shower he came out and helped Ty make room for him on the bed. For the first time since Ty had been brought in, he could feel himself relaxing. His alpha's scent and presence made him feel like everything was okay, or would be. His eyelids dropped like lead weights, and he fell into a deep sleep with his head pillowed on his mate's chest.

  Apparently the idea was that Ben was going to stay in the hospital with Ty. How that was going to work out with Ben's job, Ty didn't know. He asked, when they told him Ben got to stay with him, but Ben just told him not to worry about it and said it was taken care of. "You have enough on your plate, getting better and growing our baby," he said.