Chapter 31 Pregnancy And Birth
PREGNANCY AND BIRTH
Mathlin retched in front of the toilet. Titan skidded into the bathroom and knelt next to him, brushing his hair away from his face.
“Sorry,” the alpha murmured, looking guilty. “This pregnancy thing really sucks for the omega.”
Mathlin shrugged. “Not much I can do about it. It was like that with Jannie too.”
Titan growled. “Well, now you have me.” He stayed next to Mathlin and rubbed his back, before offering him a glass of water to rinse his mouth. When Mathlin was finally done, Titan scooped him up and carried him out of the bathroom.
“I can walk!” Mathlin said.
“Yes, but I like how tiny you feel in my arms,” Titan rumbled. “Small omega. All mine. Besides, you look tired.”
Mathlin sighed. He was tired. This pregnancy was hitting him harder than Jannie’s; he felt sleepy most days.
When he tried waking up in the mornings to follow Titan to the bakery, Titan made him fall back asleep—but he did carry Mathlin and Jannie to the car, driving them to the bakery so they could continue to sleep there while he baked.
Because Mathlin’s fatigue had set in soon after he’d conceived, there hadn’t been time for him to do a proper surgery on Titan’s bicep. It had healed awkwardly. Mathlin kept meaning to fix the muscle alignment... when his eyelids didn’t feel quite so heavy.
“It’s okay. I’m working around it,” Titan kept assuring him. “You need sleep, sweetheart.”
“Fine,” Mathlin grumbled, already asleep before his head hit the pillow.
Titan had not terminated Mathlin’s contract. He was still paying Mathlin even though Mathlin did little more than snuggle up to him and sleep, but Mathlin wasn’t awake enough to realize it yet.
In the meantime, he gnawed on raw steaks, clung to Titan, and dragged Titan into their nest whenever they were home.
It was when they were spooning together in their nest, Titan’s large hand covering Mathlin’s belly, that the pregnancy began to feel real.
Titan was swirling his fingers through the gray fuzz on Mathlin’s belly, pressing soft kisses to Mathlin’s shoulder.
“Your belly is starting to show,” Titan rumbled, curling more snugly against Mathlin.
Mathlin’s heart skipped. When he looked down, he realized that Titan was right. His belly was a bump now, something visible instead of being unchanged like before. Gingerly, he covered Titan’s hand with his own. “Our pup.”
If Titan were the same species as Mathlin, this would’ve been a litter of pups. But because they were different species, there was only one child in there.
One child, but no less precious because of it.
“What do you want to name the pup?” Titan asked. “How did you decide on Jannie’s name?”
“I named her after my grandmother, Janelle. How did your dads decide on your name? I don’t know any Titans.”
Titan huffed sheepishly, ducking his head. “I’m part of a litter. When we were born, my dads decided that they wanted to get to know us first, before choosing our names.”
Mathlin squinted suspiciously. “So you did something weird.”
“So I did something weird,” Titan confirmed.
“We were all in the pack house one night, in the entertainment room to watch a movie. I don’t know why they decided it was a good idea for pups that young, since all we did was roll around and play-fight each other.
Anyway, there was a movie starting up on the screen; they had a movie projector beaming it onto the wall. ”
“And?” Mathlin held his breath.
“Right as the opening credits began to roll, a huge shadow monster filled the screen. A huge, wolf-shaped shadow monster.”
“You?”
“My shadow, because I was standing right in front of the projector,” Titan said with a grin. “It was so all-consuming that they decided to name me Titan. Said it was a portent for the future.”
Mathlin giggled. “It’s true though.”
Titan nuzzled him. “So, what do you want to name our pup?”
“What do you want to name our pup?”
“Oh gods, is this going to be one of those relationship memes where couples ask each other what they want for dinner, and both of them don’t know?”
Mathlin elbowed him. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I know,” Titan said. “Why don’t we name the pup after someone in your family? I have my pack, but you don’t have yours, so... Maybe you could name the pup after your dads or your great-grandma, that might help.”
Mathlin’s throat grew tight. “That... That’s actually an amazing idea.”
Titan nuzzled him. “You don’t have to decide right now, either. Take some time to think about it.”
“Okay,” Mathlin mumbled.
“Oh!” Hamilton said in the next room. “You haven’t heard Titan’s actually embarrassing childhood stories.”
Titan stiffened against Mathlin. “No!” he growled. “You don’t get to tell him that!”
“You still owe me,” Hamilton sang. “I can totally tell him a couple.”
“Fuck,” Titan said. “Not right now. I’m invoking my Buttler Begone card.”
“Really?” Mathlin said.
“As you wish.” Hamilton cackled and stopped listening in.
Twin Buns wasn’t bringing in enough income for Titan to hire Hamilton yet, but they were getting there.
Titan had posted some social media videos of the new brownies, and orders were steadily coming in on his website.
That, combined with the orders from the townsfolk and Titan’s alpha friends, was helping to boost the bakery’s earnings.
They had been experimenting with other kinds of magical brownies too—brownies that boosted energy and focus, brownies that helped with healing and calming minds. If the pain relief brownie sales were anything to go by, Twin Buns was set to do better in the coming months.
Mathlin was grateful for that. With each day of sustained sales, the stress in Titan’s shoulders eased a little more. Whenever he was awake enough, Mathlin tried to help with the bakery too.
“Math,” Titan said suddenly.
“Hmm?” Mathlin looked up.
Titan’s face was suddenly a lot closer. “Have I ever told you how much I appreciate having you around?”
“Maybe.” Titan said it often, and it always made Mathlin’s heart leap.
Titan grinned, boyish and bright. He pressed a quick kiss to Mathlin’s lips. “I’m glad I’m having a pup with you.”
Butterflies filled Mathlin’s stomach, all over again. “I think you just made my stomach itch,” Mathlin blurted. “It’s full of bugs. Oh gods, that sounds horrible.”
Titan scrunched up his face. “I put bugs in your stomach?”
“Butterflies! But I kind of hate butterflies because if you look closely, they’re still a bug! Ugh. Now all the butterfly lovers will hate me.” Mathlin sagged.
“You’ll always have a place with me, sweetheart,” Titan said. “Whether or not you hate butterflies.”
“Really?” Mathlin perked up.
“Really,” Titan said, kissing him soundly.
Mathlin’s belly was half the size of a watermelon by the time he had enough energy to properly heal Titan’s bicep.
“Math, I can work with this for a long while yet,” Titan said, his forehead crinkled. “You don’t need to use all your magic on me.”
Mathlin scowled. “I told you I would fix it, and I’m going to right now. Sit!”
Titan sat, eyeing him warily. “I just don’t want you to overexert yourself.”
“I won’t,” Mathlin growled. “And I will bite you if you say I’m weak!”
At that, his alpha grinned. “You know you’re fucking hot like that, right? All growly and fierce, your belly round with our pup.”
Mathlin fumbled. “R-really?”
He had been feeling a little like a whale lately, with his swelling hands and feet. Titan still touched him as though he were the only omega in the world, but sometimes Mathlin felt... well, a little ugly.
“Yes, you’re the hottest omega,” Titan purred, leaning in to sniff at him. “Best smelling too.”
“Oh hush,” Mathlin grumbled, his cheeks growing warm. “I’m going to work on your arm and I need to focus.”
“Otherwise you might accidentally connect those nerves to my cock.”
Mathlin rolled his eyes. Titan was sitting placidly at the kitchen table, his arm propped on some plastic sheeting that Mathlin had laid down for easy cleanup.
With a scalpel, Mathlin sliced open Titan’s bicep where the scar tissue was, until he’d gotten down to the deepest part of the old wound, where the muscles were attached out of alignment.
He carefully removed the scar tissue, then reattached the muscles strand by strand, the way they were meant to be.
“Does it hurt?” he murmured. “Want me to stop?”
“Give me a reason to test the new brownies, sweetheart. I can do both the pain ones and the healing ones this way,” Titan said through gritted teeth.
Mathlin snorted and continued to work.
More quietly, Titan said, “I had never truly appreciated having two working arms, until I couldn’t use them both. I didn’t realize how important they are. And... I hadn’t realized just how empty my life was, until you came along.”
Mathlin’s heart skipped a beat. “I’m... trying to focus here.”
“I’ll shut up,” Titan said, but he was grinning.
Slowly, his bicep began to heal. Mathlin had to stop for the day and tape up the surgery site so he could continue working on it tomorrow, but at least this was finally happening. Titan was finally healing the right way.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Titan murmured when Mathlin gathered up the bloody plastic sheet and scalpel. “You’re amazing.”
“Anything for my alpha,” Mathlin said, his pulse thumping.
Titan flushed with pleasure; he always did whenever Mathlin called him his alpha.
He wrapped his unhurt arm around Mathlin’s waist and tugged up his shirt, pressing his face against Mathlin’s bare belly.
“I can’t wait to feel our pup kick. Gods, I want to feel a kick. It’ll make this so much more real.”
Mathlin’s breath hitched. “Yeah. It would.” It was going to happen soon; Mathlin had already felt a few tiny kicks, but they were too faint for Titan to sense them. “You’ve seen the videos of omega bellies with those little kick-bumps. You’ll get to feel the kicks soon enough.”
Titan trembled, his eyes lighting up. “Yes.”
Mathlin’s heart swelled; he dropped a kiss on Titan’s head.