He hadn’t been eating more than usual, either. He didn’t think so, anyway.
Could Sammy have just forgotten what he looked like, after just one week? Or had something been troubling her, making her act out by saying something potentially hurtful?
Robbie didn’t mind if kids were allowed to say certain words, or even to swear, but that was in their own homes, their own lives. Here, under his roof, he preferred an atmosphere of politeness and peace and expected everyone to uphold it.
It was a mystery. A small one, but a mystery all the same.
After he completed his circuit of the room, he went over to stand in the corner by one of the bookshelves, with its colorful and chunky tomes, perfect for attracting young attention and fitting into tiny hands. He had read each and every one of these before deigning to put them on his shelf, where his kids might be influenced by them, and he was saddened at the trend books were taking. When he was younger, there were books painstakingly crafted with unique art. Now, everything was monopolized. Movie characters on everything, as if that loud and visual medium was the only way to interest children in this more intellectual of activities.
Interest them? Hell, lure them in was a more apt phrase.
As he reminisced about children’s books, Aaliyah made her way over to join him. “Did you find everything in proper order, Captain?”
He snorted playfully at her. “With you at the helm, there was never any question. Do you think I’m fat?”
The question jumped out before he could even stop it from happening, like his mouth had a mind of its own.
Aaliyah paused as if she didn’t quite know how to respond, because of course she didn’t, and then she let out a soft laugh. “Did Sammy really upset you that much? I’m sorry, Robbie, I don’t know what got into her.”
Most of his other workers called him by his title, and encouraged the kids to do the same, but Aaliyah never did so and Robbie was fine with that. He might have been annoyed had a new hire chosen to do the same thing but Aaliyah was no ordinary person. She had earned his respect and won the right to treat him as familiar.
“She didn’t upset me, just made me think. Has she been acting out in other ways today?”
“Actually, just the opposite. She’s been very well-behaved.” Aaliyah smiled mischievously, then shook her head. Dark curls bounced around her face, which might have been too wide to be conventionally attractive if the rest of her hadn’t matched. She was a big woman, an imposing woman, with a heart the size of a bowling ball. “Maybe she was saving it all up for that one big moment.”
“But, is she right?”
Aaliyah took a look at him, sweeping her gaze up and down his body from head to toe. Her fierce scrutiny would have come across as teasing to someone who didn’t know her as well as he did. “Well, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve probably put on like two pounds.”
“Really?”
“I can’t really tell, actually,” she said. “It’s just a feeling I get when I look at you. Like maybe you’re a little squishier than you were the last time I saw you. You bloated or something? That time of the month?”
He laughed. “I feel fine. Better than fine.”
“Then you must just be eating well the past couple days. Which, I don’t know, it kind of suits you. You might want to pig out more. You seem softer around the edges. It’s a nice look. Very teacherly.”
It had been an on-and-off joke throughout the years, that he didn’t look like someone who would want to take care of kids. He lacked the teacher look, the nerd look, or the intellectual’s stereotypical bad fashion sense.
“Any major life changes for Mr. Roly Poly recently?”
Only to Aaliyah would he say this. “Well, I’ve been seeing someone.”
“Do they make you happy?”
“He does,” Robbie confirmed, flashing back on the way Ulysses had been making him feel. Appreciated and new and somehow familiar all at once. He supposed that was what happened when you got back together with someone after taking such a big break. The entire person was unlikely to have become different, but certain aspects would surely have changed.
“Then, that’s it. Mystery solved. You landed someone and now you’re letting yourself go.” Aaliyah straightened up from where she had been leaning against the wall, and she flashed a devilish smile. “Just be careful. You don’t want to wind up pregnant, or you’ll never hear the end of it from Sammy.”
Robbie laughed, because it was clearly a joke, but something inside him had gone cold. He was thinking about something, the possibility of which he had been trying to ignore this entire time.
What if that little girl was right?
He and Ulysses hadn’t used protection. What if he was pregnant?
For a moment, just a moment, his spirits soared. He had always, always wanted a child of his own and now he might have one on the way. Everything he had ever been looking forward to about having a pup might very well be on its way to being reality.
Then, reality was what asserted itself.
He and Ulysses had only just begun seeing each other again. As pleasant as things seemed right now, things could easily all fall apart and he would be left to raise the baby on his own. What if Ulysses didn’t want a pup in the first place? Robbie had never gotten his opinion on that, had never bothered to ask because it hadn’t seemed important when they were first together. He would only want to bring a baby into the world when he was certain that he was in a place where everything would be stable and certain, so he could provide the best life possible for the little one.
He had that life now. The only uncertain thing was Ulysses.
Quite suddenly, Ulysses’ opinion mattered a whole lot. Robbie could take care of the baby even if Ulysses left him, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to. He wanted Ulysses to be there. He wanted to see his strong, confident lover blossom into a gentle father.
Hold on, he thought, trying to grab at the tailing end of his train of thought so things wouldn’t continue to spiral out of hand. I don’t even know if I’m actually pregnant. I’m just basing all of this on the random, off-hand comment from a child.
He needed to find out for sure.
Squaring his shoulders, Robbie took a moment to mentally gather up all the loose ends in his mind. He tucked everything back into proper position, then straightened up and prepared to go about his day. No matter if he was pregnant or not, he had a daycare to run.
The rest of the day went swimmingly, like the universe was trying to make up for this unexpected surprise it had bestowed upon him. When the last child had been sent home, when everything had been tidied up and his last caregiver said farewell, Robbie went through his own check of the facility. He adjusted a few things, made a couple of notes, and then there was nothing else for him to do except gather up all his things and head out.
He stopped by a drugstore on the way home and picked up a pregnancy test. It was often difficult for shifters to find products catered specifically for them, especially when the word was run on the demands of humans. However, slowly, specific products wiggled their way into the market that shifters could use.
One such thing was this particular brand of test, which Robbie had heard through the grapevine was more accurate for shifters. Normal pregnancy tests could often have a false result when it came to male shifters, which meant the only other things to do were to wait or see a doctor for a blood test.
Thanks to whoever was pulling the strings behind the scenes of the factory where this brand of test was made, he had to do neither.
The cashier was an old woman, who looked at him and tutted softly under her breath. He had no idea what her problem was -couldn’t he have been a married straight man with a hopeful wife, for all she knew? It irked him but he did his best to act normal and graciously thanked her when she handed over his receipt.
He went home and did all the things he would normally do if he didn’t have a massive and important question hanging over his head. He prepared dinner, and h
e ate dinner while idly browsing through a textbook that he was using to brush up on some ideas and theories about childhood development. He considered this to be light reading, because it was a subject he very much enjoyed.
Then, after dinner, he went over to pick up the little bag with his pregnancy test inside and brought it over to the couch with him. He took out the box, then looked at the instructions as if this was something he did all the time and there was nothing unusual about it at all.
For best results, the instructions recommended he wait until morning.
Somehow, by pretending everything was normal, he managed to make it to bed at more or less the same time as always. Once there, he lay awake in the dark, waiting for sleep to claim him.
At some point it must have, though he woke in the morning to his alarm, feeling groggy and somehow out of place.
Grabbing the test from where he had left it in the living room, Robbie took it to the bathroom.
Five minutes later, he had his answer.
Again he was overcome by that almost-dizzying sense of euphoria, delight and anticipation mingling inside him as he thought of all the things which lay ahead of him now. The future was wide open, a path he would love to walk.
Then, he thought, I need to tell Ulysses.
While the thought of sharing his news didn’t exactly diminish his pleasure, he closed his eyes and sent up a prayer to whatever deity might be listening, begging them to let Ulysses be as happy as he was when he delivered the news.
11
Ulysses was currently not a very happy camper. In fact, he was more of a confused camper, wondering what it was that was making all that noise in the undergrowth, stalking him as he left the safety of his tent.
In this case, what was following him was another car. It was nondescript and black, with no real outstanding features. The windows weren’t tinted but the vehicle was far enough back that he couldn’t get a good look at who was driving, which was very concerning. Whoever was following him knew what they were doing, always staying at least several cars back so it didn’t really look like they were following. They might have been just another random driver on these busy streets, heading in the same approximate direction as he was.
Yet, as much as he wanted to believe that, he knew it wasn’t the case. Ever since he first noticed them, he had been making some pretty odd turns. The car stuck with him despite that, wobbling along on the strange course he had set.
No, he was being followed, that was for sure. The real question was why? Who the hell would choose to follow him, out of all the other vehicles in the city? His luck couldn’t be that bad.
Maybe this has something to do with that guy, saying I stole his van.
Right now, Ulysses was currently piloting another vehicle that had been scheduled for pick-up. He had been surprised at how soon this one came in after the last one, though in the end he wasn’t really sure if it made a difference or not. Wheeler was the boss, and he was just the delivery boy.
This time, it was a 2004 Ford F-150 in the color blue steel. It was a chubby, rounded truck with a generic feel. Despite the age of the thing, it ran pretty damn well. The engine purred like a kitten and the suspension was on point. Really, the only thing wrong with it that he’d been able to see when he inspected it was a small dent on the bed and a scratch along one side. Easy fixes. Clearly, this had been someone’s baby.
Remembering last time’s fiasco, Ulysses had checked even more thoroughly than usual that this was the right truck he was there to get. It had to be. Why would someone tape their key behind the front license plate unless they had been specifically instructed to by Wheeler?
He hopped behind the wheel and had been glad to discover it steered as well as it drove, providing a sense of limberness that was rare where bigger vehicles were involved.
Smooth sailing, until he realized he was being tailed.
Ulysses pulled in a deep breath as he came up to yet another stoplight. Pensacola was riddled with the things what seemed like every ten feet, which he supposed was to help break up the huge clogs of traffic that could occur on long streets in the middle of the day. It didn’t really work like that, but at least someone had tried to find a solution to the problem.
Maybe it’s all just a coincidence. Some lost tourist looking for some place in particular.
That didn’t make much sense, though. Someone looking for a particular location would stick to the general area where it was supposed to be, not continue driving around, taking random turns.
But if that wasn’t it, then he had no idea what he was up against. He just knew he couldn’t afford another fuck-up like last time.
Nervous sweat beaded on his brow, trickled cold as ice down his spine. His heart felt light and tingly, though not in a good way. It was as if his insides had come unhinged and were drifting around unrestrained inside his body.
The light turned green again and Ulysses stepped on the gas, making the truck lurch forward so fast it nearly rammed into the back of the vehicle in front of it. A startled gasp left his lips, inaudible. A thought ran through his mind -tires are in good shape. Very grippy- and then he reached for the radio and turned it on, hoping that some background noise would help calm his nerves.
Some Taylor Swift song was playing and he found himself guiltily reciting the lyrics in his head as the music came out of the speaker. He wasn’t a fan, couldn’t even really tolerate popular music very much these days, but this shit was catchy.
The song faded out quickly, having already been near the end when he first turned the radio on.
The voice of the DJ spoke up, coming out of the haze of the last few notes as they hung in the air. “Even if you aren’t in the Taylor fam, you can still rock out to that one. I sing it all the time in the shower, I admit it.”
The DJ’s voice was crisp and clear, broadcasting from a nearby station. Ulysses found himself clinging to the sound, taking comfort from the ramblings of this stranger as if they were in the same room together.
“In just a minute, we’ll be jamming out to Bruno Mars’ new song. After that, we’ll have some updates on our latest giveaway, followed by an entire hour of commercial-free music. But right now, I’ve got an update of a different nature for you fine folks at home and in the car.
“Even those of you who are living under a rock should know that our city has been having a problem with stolen vehicles. The latest in the series of these crimes involves the theft of a 2005… Sorry, a 2004 Ford F-150. Color is blue-gray. If you happen to see a vehicle like that on the road anytime soon, be sure to drop a tip in to the police. You can be completely anonymous, people. No reason not to! And now…”
Ulysses couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. The entire world seemed to have drawn to a halt around him, everything suspended in limbo. He could see everything around him with perfect clarity, that was how fast his mind was racing in comparison with the world around him.
This couldn’t be real, but at the same time he could think of no other explanation for this. He was driving a stolen vehicle.
But he hadn’t stolen it. He had been sent to pick it up by his boss, and everything had been arranged so perfectly. It wasn’t like he’d had to smash a window or jump the engine to get it to work.
There was no reason for this to happen and yet it was.
Which meant that crazy man who had accosted him when he was going to have lunch with Robbie might not have been so crazy after all.
Which meant Wheeler’s strange behavior might mean something altogether more sinister.
Which meant those odd black parts he had seen in the garage, which had been gone the next day, might have been part of a stolen vehicle.
“Holy shit,” he whispered softly, hardly daring to believe this could possibly be happening. He needed to stop somewhere and think.
Up until this point he had been driving almost on autopilot, hardly paying attention to what was going on in the world around him. Now he reached out and turned off the radio, sinc
e the sound interfered with his ability to navigate when he was stressed.
Looking around, he realized he wasn’t actually all that far away from the repair shop by now.
I can’t bring this stolen truck back to Wheeler. No way in hell.
There was another streetlight coming up and he flicked on his right turn signal, then shoved his way over into the other lane without checking to see if he was clear. The driver in the car behind him stomped on their brakes, then laid in on their horn, the honks blaring in his ears until he was finally able to turn off onto the side road.
Jerking on the wheel, he brought the truck over to the sidewalk and parked there. Panting, shaking slightly, he looked around again to try and assess his options from here. He wasn’t exactly out of the way. There were still businesses on this street, still a few straggling pedestrians wandering on either side of the road. If even a single person here had heard what the DJ on that specific radio station had said, they would see him and call the cops.
All the people on the road, in their own vehicles, had seen him. And it didn’t even matter whether or not they had been listening to that particular station, eagerly anticipating an earful of Bruno Mars. They might have heard about it in other ways.
Ulysses reached for his phone in his pocket and had just gotten his fingertips against the slick plastic case when a car pulled up along the sidewalk behind him.
He felt his stomach drop out of his body, leaving behind an empty space that was rapidly filled with dread and doubt. He was sweating even more now, leaving wet streaks on the steering wheel as he gripped it with the hand not currently reaching into his pocket.
He could see into the car windows now the vehicle was so close behind him. Two men, both dressed in matching blue uniforms.
As he watched in his rearview mirror, one of the men reached to the dashboard and then brought something to his mouth. A handset, attached to some holster or base by a length of tangled wire.
A voice, loud and crackling with feedback, seemed to descend upon the quiet street from no identifiable source. Ulysses knew what it was. It was a loudspeaker, the kind that cops used when they were shouting at some fleeing criminal to pull over.
Taming The Alpha: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance (Savage Love Book 3) Page 15
