Chapter 31
“He’s going to have our baby,” Dom said while I was washing the dishes in the sink. “It’s going to look like him, right? Just as cute, and it’s going to have his eyes—” He froze. “I have to find out where I can babysit. Hey, why’re you doing that? We have a dishwasher, you know?”
I wiped my forehead without drying my hand first and frowned, then went right back to scrubbing. “You need to calm down. Don’t text anyone.”
I turned and saw his face fall.
“But why? Oh. You mean because we should wait for it to be official? Come on, you could smell it too. Isn’t it funny? This morning, I couldn’t, but now, loud and clear.”
“Dom, he might not want to be a dad. An omega dad. He might not want to keep it.”
I didn’t want to watch my words hit home, but I did anyway. He looked as if he were about to cry, then he whined and shivered, instinct making him want to shift.
“Shit. I…I didn’t even…” He bit his lip. “That didn’t occur to me.”
“That was very clear when you said you’d build a crib.”
“Well, I will—would. I would. I…” He raked both hands through his hair and made for the door.
“Shit. I hate guys who just assume their girlfriend wants to be a mom. Linc, I’m the kind of guy I hate.
” He clicked his tongue. “I’m going after them.
You have to come too. We’ll tell him we’re not numbskulls who live out in the boonies.
We’ll explain that we don’t expect that from him. Fuck me.”
“I think Ell’s got it for now.” I put a cup on the drying rack, then realized I hadn’t even rinsed it. It oozed fine white bubbles all over. I sighed. “Dom, he’s an omega.”
“A pregnant omega, and I probably made him feel—will you stop with the dishes? We have a frigging dishwasher. Come on, we’re going after them.”
I put the cup back in the water to wash it again. “Ell is handling the situation.”
Dom balled his hands. “I know that, but we are going there, and we are going to be calm and supportive, and we’re going to tell him that we’re going to be calm and supportive no matter what.
Shit. We should’ve gone with them right away.
No, you’re right. It’s better we didn’t.
I was making it worse. Step away from the sink, Linc. ”
I braced against the counter, my wet hands dripping all over the floor. “Just be calm, okay?”
“I am calm.” He didn’t look calm. “I can be calm.”
“I should probably drive.”
He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. “After giving it some thought, you should probably drive.”
Dom kept pacing while I dried my hands and got my keys. He came into the hallway to put his shoes on when I did mine, and it took him two attempts each to tie his laces. I was standing by the door, doing my best not to stress him out more.
“I…” He swallowed. “I know how to do this. I…would be good at teaching someone how to do this.”
I let out a breath in a long hiss. “I’m leaving you here if you can’t cut that out.”
“I know. It’s just—I know. Must be because he’s our mate and… I feel like I need to make sure he can feel safe.” A smile flashed on his lips. “He was nesting, wasn’t he? You knew, right? That’s why you got him to put on my shirt.”
“He probably has no idea what the fuck is going on with him. I have no idea what’s going on with him. But yes, I thought maybe that was what he was doing.”
Dom blushed, and the tension seeped out of his features. “He’s an omega.” He huffed. “He’s rarer than a werewolf. Isn’t that funny? He must’ve thought he’d stumbled into something right out of a fairy tale, but in reality, he’s the fairy tale.”
“I’m not sure you should say that to him either.”
With his laces finally tied, Dom stood and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, I can see how that would be not great.” He looked at me. “You do talking points and shit. I’ve seen you practice your Zoom talks.”
“This isn’t a Zoom talk.”
He nodded. “I could tell from you washing the dishes in the sink when we have a dishwasher. So, things I’ll say: I was being inconsiderate, I didn’t mean it, all the choices are his, and—but if—no. Not doing that. No assuming anything. What else?”
“We’re going to support him, all of us. We’re going to…support…if he… I mean, technically, this is our fault. Do you realize that most packs still have standing rules against having sex with an omega during their heat if the omega hasn’t agreed beforehand?”
Dom’s eyes went wide, and he paled. “You’re saying Vi is going to come here and bite our dicks off.”
“Hopefully not. I’m saying we messed up, in a bad way.” I rubbed my eyes. “This is like… I don’t even know what this is like. It’s not right.”
“We’re going to phrase that differently, right?”
“I don’t think there’s a way to do that. With any luck, he’ll end up not hating us after this.”
Dom bobbed his head once. “I think we should go now. You’re okay to drive, right?”
“We’ll go slowly.”
We headed outside to my car, got in, and drove in complete silence, well under the normal speed I usually went at.
I was in a daze. Dom too. He’d been right about Marcus being something—someone—straight out of a fairy tale.
Not the prince or the princess, nothing so simple.
Marcus was like the courage and joy the heroes had to discover in themselves in those tales.
I thought of the tale of Vasilisa the Brave.
Maybe he was like Vasilisa, who got gifted fire. Vasilisa, who knew how to use it.
My blood chilled when I saw Ell’s car stopped in the road with the passenger door hanging open. Dom gasped. He was out the door before I’d even stopped. I put my car in park and got out.
They were gone.