7. Milo
7
MILO
“ B abe, this looks amazing.” Preparations for Matteo Marsh’s gallery show were in high gear, and Noah had taken to bringing me lunch every day so I’d remember to eat.
Today, though, the thought of food made my stomach turn.
I’d woken up feeling queasy, and I’d almost puked while I was brushing my teeth.
I’d chalked it up to nerves, but I’d felt off all day.
First, I was too hot, then I was too cold.
It was like my body couldn’t decide if I needed a sweater or to crank up the air conditioning.
It was starting to drive me crazy.
I prayed whatever was going on with me was a twenty-four-hour thing at most because I didn’t have time to be sick with my gallery’s first show right around the corner.
Noah set the paper bag with whatever he’d brought from the cafe on the counter, and came over to see what I was doing, dropping a kiss on my cheek.
I’d been hanging Matteo’s paintings all day, moving and rearranging the pieces in the most appealing order, but I couldn’t seem to get the one I’d just hung in the right spot.
“I’m not sure. I think the lighting is off.” I grabbed the ladder I’d been using to refocus the track lights to highlight the pieces and positioned it so I could move the lights around.
Noah watched as I hustled up the rungs.
“Be careful.”
“I’m fine. I’ve been doing this all day.” But my words came back to bite me in the ass as I reached up to turn one of the lights to hit the painting more directly.
A wave of nausea roiled through me, and I got dizzy so fast I lost my balance, my foot sliding off the rung.
“Milo!” Noah was right there, catching me as I fell.
The second my feet hit the ground, I bolted for the huge trash can I’d been using to throw away the packaging materials from the paintings, and heaved, my stomach convulsing painfully as I retched.
“Oh, baby.” Noah’s hand landed on my back, rubbing in slow soothing circles as I dry heaved until I started to cry.
“Shh. It’s okay. You’re okay.”
“I don’t have time to be sick, Noah.” I wiped a hand across my face, smearing my tears into my cheeks.
“Oh, sweet thing. You’re not sick.”
“I just puked, Noah. I think that proves you’re wrong.” My stomach roiled again, and I braced my shaking hands on the edges of the trash can and tried to take a few deep breaths.
Noah brushed my hair back from my clammy forehead.
“No, my precious omega. You’re not sick. I think you’re pregnant.”
My hand flew to my flat stomach as his words sank in.
It had been two weeks since my heat.
Noah had fucked me so good through the whole thing, and despite my nausea, my dick perked up at the memories.
Three days of fucked-out bliss.
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
Three days.
That couldn’t be right.
My heats lasted for at least five days, sometimes even a day or two longer.
If it was over after only three days, then Noah might be right.
“Pregnant?” My eyes felt as wide as saucers.
Noah smiled sweetly and nodded.
“I think so. You smell different. I noticed it at the very end of your heat.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I wasn’t sure if you knew and were waiting to tell me, or if it would be better for you to figure it out on your own.”
Now that I was thinking about it, the pieces all fell into place.
Snow leopard omegas often had trouble controlling their body temperatures during early pregnancy.
I definitely had that going on.
The nausea could be morning sickness.
And I’d been exhausted for the last week.
I’d thought it was all because of the show and the long hours I was putting into getting everything ready and then the extra hours I spent with Noah’s cock buried deep inside me when I got to his house or he came to mine after work.
I could check every box on the list of early pregnancy signs, and as I realized what that meant, my heart soared and then plummeted.
I wanted to have Noah’s cubs, I really, really did, but I was so close to achieving my dream of opening my gallery.
It was too much to get both things I’d always wanted all at the same time, and a sob tore from my chest.
Noah wrapped me in his arms, and I breathed in his scent, the citrusy warmth of it driving some of my dizziness away as fresh tears soaked into his shirt.
“I can’t tell if these are happy tears or sad tears, but I want you to know I support you and I love you either way. You are mine forever, Milo, and if that means that you want to wait to carry our babies, I’ll stand by your side.”
I shook my head.
“I’m just overwhelmed. The gallery and now getting the chance to start my own family. I never thought I’d get to have both of my heart’s deepest desires at the same time.”
“So you want to do this with me?”
I loosened my death grip on his shirt and looked up at him.
“I love you too, Noah, and I can’t wait to have your cubs.”
His lips crashed against mine, and my heart shimmied in my chest.
I’d never felt joy like this before.
This hadn’t been part of my plan when I’d moved to Key West, but I wasn’t mad about it.
I was still overwhelmed—there was a lot to do to finish getting the gallery ready and now I had to get ready to welcome a baby, and Noah and I weren’t even mated.
“I need you to claim me. I have to wear your marks.”
Noah’s eyes went wide.
“Now?”
“Yes. Now. I need this, Noah. Please.”
He shook his head, and panic welled up in my chest.
“You don’t want to claim me as your mate?” Fresh tears prickled the backs of my eyes, and I willed myself not to start crying again.
Noah cupped my cheeks in his hands.
“Oh, sweet thing, no. That’s not it at all.” He dropped a tender kiss on my forehead.
“In order for me to claim you, we have to be in the water.”
My stomach dropped, and I thought for a second I might vomit again.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. I can’t take my stingray form on land, and I need to partially shift to mark you. But I think it would work if we were just deep enough for me to shift. You could still touch the ground. You don’t need to be underwater.”
“Okay. I think I can do that.”
Noah nodded.
“Okay. Yes. Good. Let’s go.”
He grabbed my hand and towed me out to his Jeep.
We were at Noah’s favorite spot on the beach ten minutes later.
He’d brought me here a few times before for picnics and to watch the sunset.
It was sort of private, a little inlet tucked away from the more popular beaches and almost invisible to boats passing by on the water.
“Strip.” Noah’s voice was firm, and his command made my cock thicken despite my nerves about having to go into the water.
It wasn’t that I was scared per se, more that since I didn’t know how to swim I was afraid of not being able to get to shore if I needed to in a hurry.
Noah, sensing my reticence, pulled me into him and pressed a hot kiss to my lips.
“I promise I’m not going to let anything happen to you, sweet thing. The second we’re deep enough, you can wrap yourself around me like a spider monkey, and I swear I won’t let go.”
I nodded, and Noah kissed me again, then let me step back so I could strip out of my clothes.
He did the same, and when we were both naked, he took my hand, twining our fingers together, and led me out into the water.
I braced myself for cold, but the water was pleasantly warm, and I relaxed a fraction.
Until we were deep enough that the water was at my chest.
Then I started to panic.
“Breathe, Milo. I’ve got you.” Noah gave my hand a squeeze.
“Just a little farther.” When the water reached our shoulders, Noah stopped and turned toward me, never letting go of my hand.
“Are you good, baby?”
I was still nervous, but I trusted Noah to keep me from drowning or drifting out to sea.
“I’m good.”
“Okay. Come here. Wrap your legs around me.” He tugged me against his chest then hoisted me up against his body, our cocks brushing together as he wrapped my legs around his torso.
In his arms, I couldn’t control my body’s reaction, and my cock went fully hard as I wiggled against him, the feeling of weightlessness heightening the sensation of our bodies pressing together.
Noah kissed me hard and deep, and for a moment I forgot where we were.
He nipped at my jaw and my neck, biting over the spot near my ear that made my cock leak.
I rutted against him and he moaned, the sound vibrating through his chest and into mine so it felt like we were sharing the sound.
“I want to be inside you when I claim you.”
Noah’s lips returned to mine, and I whispered my response against them.
“Yes. I want that too.”
His strong hands spread my ass cheeks, and his fingers grazed along my crease.
Even in the water, I could tell my hole was wet with slick, and I thrust back on Noah’s fingers as he pushed two deep inside me, spreading them apart to stretch me wide.
Since the first time Noah took me during my heat, I’d fallen in love with his cock, and while he hadn’t knotted me since, I craved it.
“I want your knot when you claim me.”
Noah’s eyes widened, and a possessive smile spread across his face before he dove back into kissing me and fucking me with his fingers until I had almost forgotten my own name.
“Please, Noah. Make me yours.”
I felt a tremor roll through him, and five gills appeared on either side of his neck in lines that curved toward his collarbones.
Noah dropped us lower into the water and the gills fluttered, taking in water.
Tentatively, I reached out to touch them.
Noah shuddered when I made contact and I felt his cock jump against my ass.
He lifted me a little, then used one arm to hold me tight to his chest while his other hand positioned his cock at my entrance and he slid home, filling me so full.
He used my buoyancy to bounce me on his cock, creating little splashes and eddies around us as he worked us closer and closer to orgasm.
My lips found his neck, and I bit over the spot where I would leave my mark, teasing Noah with the scrape of my teeth.
“Bite me, Milo. Please. Make me yours.” The words were so vulnerable and needy that I couldn’t resist, and I trembled in Noah’s arms as I called my snow leopard side forward, my teeth elongating and my vision going razor-sharp.
When I ran my teeth along Noah’s neck again, I drew blood, and he thrust into me hard.
“I’m close, baby.” The thin whiplike end of his tail came up to wrap around my neck, the sharp barb at the end sliding over my skin.
“I promise I can’t hurt you. Unlike my wild cousins, my barb isn’t poisonous.”
“I trust you, Noah, and I want to be yours.”
I felt his knot start to swell within me, the split head of his cock pressing hard against my walls until I thought I would burst, and I buried my cry of pleasure in a bite to his neck, claiming him as the serrated edges of his barb cut into the skin over my collarbone.
My vision went white as pleasure sang through my body.
For the first time, I understood what it meant to feel whole.
In that moment, Noah and I were a single entity, a singular being joined together on a soul-deep, cellular level.
I could feel the rush of emotions swirling through him as our claiming bond snapped into place.
His joy was palpable, tangible, and I felt it under my skin, and as his pleasure crested and the hot rush of his cum painted my inner walls, I felt it like it was my own, and my cock erupted between us.
Noah held me to him, his tongue stroking over the mark left behind by his barb, and I did the same, running my tongue over the healing mark that meant he was mine forever.
I’d never been happier in my entire life.
And knowing I was going to have my mate’s babies meant it was only going to get better.
I couldn’t wait.