Chapter 28 Clover
Clover
“Your ice cream is going to melt,” Meadow pointed out.
I stared down at my bowl of Rocky Road. I was definitely pregnant, no way to doubt that now.
Hell, I was almost at viability. How the heck had my little bean managed to go undetected for so long?
And worse, I had no fucking clue who the father was.
I had slept with all four of the pack in such quick succession that it could be any of them.
“Clover, talk to me.” Meadow took my hand in hers, looking at me with her big brown puppy eyes.
“I think I’m in shock.”
“Shock is fair. Your baby was pretty sneaky.”
“This is beyond sneaky. Four months and nothing? What am I even supposed to do now?”
“Maybe Yale will defer for a year?”
I had tentatively accepted enrollment there in a moment of panicked spite.
Not because I thought it was the best choice for me, but because I’d been so overwhelmed and the thought of running away had been too tempting.
I’d instantly regretted accepting, but I’d done it late at night a couple of months ago after a call with Meadow, when everyone was asleep and couldn’t talk me out of it.
“Yale might, but my scholarship won’t.”
Meadow frowned. “Call admissions and explain? Lots of places are flexible with omegas.”
“Lots of places aren’t Ivy League,” I countered. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t have accepted, anyway. It was a moment of weakness. I felt sick as soon as I hit the button, knowing I would be away from you and Forest for so long.”
“We would come visit.”
“That’s not the same and you know it. I feel like I’ve lost so much of my ambition.”
Meadow hummed, giving my hand a squeeze.
“I don’t think that’s true. You’ve been grinding yourself down for a long time, and you got a taste of what it was like to live day to day.
I totally get how it would be daunting to get all that freedom and then take it away from yourself.
It’s not like lawyers have a lot of chill time, even after they’re out of school. It’s okay for dreams to change.”
“Is it?”
“The way I see it, you’re ridiculously smart. Taking more time off won’t change that. If you want to go back to school, there’s nothing stopping you.”
“Except childcare, mom guilt, relearning everything, and all the associated costs.”
“Well, for one, your little bean can hang out with me and Forest, and I bet you the dads would be involved. There’s four of them, and they’ve got a lot of money, so it’s not like you really have to worry about day care.
Maybe they’d even cover you going to school too.
Mom guilt, I can’t help you with, but I’m always down to quiz you on things I don’t understand when you start classes. ”
I wanted to believe her about all of it.
Picking absently at my ice cream didn’t make me feel any better, but it would make Meadow less worried if I ate at least half.
After a moment, she spoke again. “And think about it this way, our babies can grow up together.”
I shook my head, a smile tugging at my lips. “Forest will be more than a year older than my baby, y—”
“Oh, not Forest,” Meadow said brightly. “I’m talking about the one I’m cooking right now.”
Ice cream forgotten, I launched myself at my best friend, pulling her into a bruising hug.
“Another seedling?!” I squealed excitedly. “You’re going to have a whole-ass greenhouse, and I am here for it!”
“Your baby will be part of that.” Meadow snuggled into me with a happy sigh.
“They will!” I beamed. “Plus you make adorable babies, and the dads of my little nugget are cute as fuck, so they’re going to be the cutest pair of squishies we can love on!”
It was both easy and terrifying to think about picking up my phone and texting Logan the news. For some reason, he felt like the safest to tell first and would probably take the news best. If he didn’t, I might disappear into the night altogether.
Mostly what I wanted was to burrow myself in a blanket pile made of his hoodies.
“Ready to go home?” Meadow asked.
“Definitely. I need a nap.”
Before I could even pull out my keys after we left the ice cream shop, I noticed a sleek black car parked blocking traffic next to my pink beauty.
The window rolled down and Avery popped out. “Get in the car, angel.”
“Excuse me?” I angled down to see Logan in the driver’s seat. “What the fuck are you guys doing?”
“Lovingly kidnapping you,” Avery announced with a bright grin. “Hop in.”
I turned back to Meadow, but she didn’t look particularly concerned. “Go on, if you want. I can drive your car home.”
“We’re holding up traffic, mama.” Logan’s gravelly voice rolled down my spine.
“This is ridiculous,” I muttered as I passed Meadow my keys and crossed the sidewalk where Avery flung himself out of the car to open the back door for me. Except, then he redirected me to the front, buckled me in, and hopped in the back himself.
Relief infused every cell as I took my first breath inside the car. It didn’t fully fix my exhaustion, but it was pretty close to how it felt when I downed a triple espresso.
Avery leaned through the gap in the front seats and kissed my cheek. “Missed you.”
My stomach clenched at the sweet brush of his lips. “What are you guys doing here? How did you even know I was in LA?”
“Logan has his ways.” Avery smiled innocently.
Logan rolled his eyes. “You make it sound so fucking ominous. I overheard a phone call, and then we saw your car.” He reached out for my hand, and my whole body lit up at the contact.
I couldn’t help but remember the last time he’d gotten his hands on me, or the multitude of filthy things he’d said to me over our calls, and my bits were very interested in an encore performance with him and Avery.
“That takes all the fun out of it.” Avery pouted. “How are you doing, angel?”
I shrugged, trying to sink lower in my seat.
“How was Seattle?”
“Exhausting. It was nice to spend time with my dads, but I don’t think I’m cut out for being a full-time caregiver.”
“Want me to pay for someone?” Avery asked.
“That’s sweet, and if it was for one of my other dads, maybe, but Pappa hates strangers touching him. It’s already a fight with his appointments.”
“Parker would probably be like that too,” Avery told me. “He’s a big baby when things are outside his comfort zone.”
Avery chatted away about what they’d all been up to while I was away, and I listened with half an ear, soaking in their scents and pondering the relief they brought.
Was one of them the father, and that was why my body was waving internal pom-poms?
Meadow had felt a million times better when she’d gotten back into proximity with Hendrix, but they’d also been bonded.
I didn’t remember any of them giving me the bite mark on my throat, but we’d been hot and heavy, so the details were a little blurry.
Meadow had also told me being around her other alphas helped at the time, too, because of the scent match.
Was that what this was?
Was I obsessed with them because of a scent match?
“You look like you’ve got a million things running through your head,” Logan said softly.
“Weight of the world on these pretty little shoulders,” I quipped, smiling awkwardly and trying to lighten the mood.
I had to tell them. There was no way around it.
Presumably, once I hit the third trimester, the little bean would actually be visible to the outside world.
It would be easier if I didn’t have to make a peep and could just show off my bump as an explanation, but apparently Bean didn’t want to make my life easier.
What if they were mad?
I didn’t want to do this by myself. Meadow and her pack wouldn’t turn me away, and I was excited for Little Bean to have Forest and his future sibling as besties, but being packless with a baby would be depressing as hell.
Not as bad as being with the wrong pack, of course, but these guys didn’t feel wrong.
Meadow had taken a leap of faith for her pack. Maybe I should give that a go too.
“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out. “I don’t know who the father is, except that it’s one of your pack, based on the timing, and I’m really fucking freaked out about all of it.
I wasn’t keeping it from anyone, I know that sounds dumb with how far along I am, but I really thought I felt like shit because of the stress, and I don’t expect anything, but—”
Avery closed his fingers over my mouth. “Stop panicking, angel. You’re cute as hell when you’re babbling, but you don’t have to freak out. I’m totally down for you walking around with my pack’s mark on you. Do you have any pictures yet?”
I slid the ultrasound photo set from my purse and handed it to him.
“Holy shit. That’s a whole baby in there.”
“Yep.” Everything about this moment was surreal, like I’d slipped into another dimension, where everyone was immediately chill about this life-altering surprise.
Avery held it out so Logan could see when we hit a red light.
Logan stared at it, eyes misty. “We have a kid. Fucking hell, is it too early to love it?”
“Nah.” Avery beamed. “Love away. Can I feel the bump?”
“Uh, sure.” I nodded, utterly confused. “I don’t really have a bump yet. She’s sneaky.”
A bubble of anxiety and adoration burst in my chest, Logan squeezing my hand. “We’re having a girl?”
“Well, I don’t know. They asked if I wanted to know, but I’d rather it be a surprise. I just feel like it’s a girl.”
“Are you all set up for prenatal care now that you know for sure you’re pregnant?” Logan asked.
“Yeah, Meadow got me in with her OB-GYN, so I’m all set.”
Avery leaned forward in his seat and slipped his hand beneath my shirt, laying it over my relatively bumpless stomach.
The warmth of his skin made me shiver, and the sheer intimacy of the moment had my throat tightening.
“She really is sneaky. Has a different firmness than the rest of you, but I can definitely see how you might not have noticed. Maybe she takes after me, being all tricksy.”
“You’re taking this way too well, and it’s freaking me out almost as much as finding out I was pregnant to begin with.”
He tilted his head like a puppy. “Did you want us to be mad?”
“No.” I pouted. “I don’t know what I want.”
Logan pulled off the road and into a parking lot, coming to a sharp stop before he cupped the back of my head and drew me into a kiss.
Affection draped over me like a warm blanket.
Desire coiled hot in my stomach and slunk southward until I was ready to climb right into his lap.
The moment he let me get a full breath, I was stolen away by Avery leaning between the seats to capture my mouth in an equally searing kiss.
When I was finally allowed to breathlessly sink into my seat, I pressed my fingers to my lips, trying to get the lusty throbbing through my body under control. “There’s more.”
“What kind of more?” Avery asked, practically bouncing in his seat. “Twins?”
“Not quite.” I almost lost my nerve under their combined attention. “Meadow found a bond mark on me when she was doing my hair. I don’t know who did it, though.”
Avery’s gaze whipped toward Logan. “Is that why you’ve been so off?”
Oh, shit.
Was that why I’d felt so much better when I’d put on his hoodie? Had it tricked my body into thinking my bondmate was close by and spared me the symptoms temporarily? I hadn’t put the pieces together before, but it made sense now that I thought about it.
“I don’t have a bond mark,” Logan said carefully. “That I know of, anyway.”
“Maybe it’s a secret one?” I suggested. “They didn’t find Hendrix’s for a while because of that.”
Avery looked absolutely delighted. “Where was it?”
“Ass cheek, right on his ‘bite me’ tattoo.”
Avery’s peel of laughter unravelled some of my anxiety, but definitely not all of it.
“I vote we strip-search the whole pack and figure out who has a bond mark hiding,” Avery suggested.
While I wasn’t opposed to seeing the pack naked, arriving with life-altering news was more than enough to keep my stomach turning. Hopefully the others handled things as gracefully.