Chapter 16 #2
“How will you get to know us if you continue to avoid us?”
“Mio angelo? Are you all right? I am getting that you are feeling uncomfortable.”
“I’m…okay. Carmelo is asking me why I avoid them. That’s all.”
“I will take care of it. We are pulling in now.”
Immediately, I relaxed. It wasn’t that I needed Marcello to take care of the rest of the coven members for me. I just wasn’t exactly comfortable around them yet. There were quite a few of them, and I was me.
“I don’t mean to avoid you,” I finally said.
Carmelo scowled. “Come join us, then,” he said as he gestured to the dining room.
Movement caught my attention, and I looked over as Rio came into view.
“Hello, Abel,” he said. Carmelo glared at the doctor, which I didn’t understand even a little.
“Hi, Rio. I’m eating,” I said. “I can’t eat everything on the plate, but Mazzi said he understood that.”
Rio chuckled. “Yes, I would imagine that he would.” Rio placed a hand on my shoulder before he dropped it. “How are you feeling? Any contractions? Unusual pains?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m good. Getting to that tired-all-of-the-time stage.”
“Yes. You are due in three weeks. I need for you to come see me in the next day or two. I wish to discuss your birth plan with you.” I nodded. Rio glanced over at Carmelo. “Are you keeping Abel company?”
There was talking from the other direction, and I squeaked and slid off the stool when I saw Marcello come into view.
I waddled—yes, that is what you did when you weighed a hundred and fifteen pounds before you became pregnant with twins and were due soon—my way toward my mate and sighed in relief when his arms wrapped around me.
I heard chuckling, but I didn’t care. My mate was back, and I just felt more relaxed around him.
“Did you eat?” Marcello asked.
“Some,” I said as we walked back over to the island.
“Did you wish to take your breakfast out to the gardens? It’s beautiful outside this morning.”
I looked over at the plate and shook my head.
“No. I’m good. I ate enough,” I said. I took my plate and scraped it into the trash, then placed it in the sink.
I did grab my juice, though, and took that with me.
Marcello was talking to the others in Italian, and I thought again that I really needed to hurry up and learn the language.
They’d been speaking it their entire lives though, and I’d just started learning the language.
I didn’t feel snubbed or excluded. I knew that sometimes it was just better for them to discuss things in their native language.
I drank my juice, and by the time I’d finished it, Marcello was through with his conversation with the others.
I went the other way around the island to avoid all of them and placed my glass with my plate, smiling when Marcello’s arm slid around my shoulders.
He kissed my hair, and I closed my eyes as I leaned into him a bit.
“Walk with me?”
I nodded. We walked out of the kitchen, leaving the others behind.
I let Marcello lead me to the gardens, and we continued walking until we reached the back fountain.
I didn’t come out to this one much because it was farthest away and didn’t have the most comfortable benches.
But when Marcello pulled me down onto the grass in front of him, I grinned and leaned back against his chest. He was most certainly a comfortable recliner, as it were.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m okay.” I sighed. “Everyone keeps asking me that. And I’m fine.
Really. I didn’t love the man at all. He sold me to be raped and beaten worse than he ever did.
Over and over. I’ve talked to some of the other omegas who have been rescued.
Some just don’t seem like they’re ever going to recover.
They were at one of the big compounds in South America.
I was lucky.” I snorted. “If you can call it that.”
“I love you,” Marcello said as he kissed my hair again. “I never want you to experience anything but love and happiness. I will try my best to provide both for you.”
I leaned a little to the side and looked up at my mate.
“You’re doing a good job.” Marcello smiled down at me.
“I appreciate what you did,” I told him.
“I still don’t want to know. It’s enough to know that he was found and that you were willing, let alone did what you did.
” I turned back around and leaned into my mate again.
“I won’t miss him. I don’t miss any of my family, and maybe that makes me a bad person. ”
“No. It makes you a strong one.” Marcello kissed me again. “You know and recognize that they are not good people. There is nothing wrong with not missing people like that.”
“I don’t know that I’d call myself strong. I’ve been running and hiding from situations that make me uncomfortable for some time now.”
“I will help you feel more comfortable around the coven and the others in it. That is, in part, my fault for keeping you hidden away.”
I closed my eyes and let the sun warm my face while Marcello’s scent and arms wrapped around me.
The sound of the water spraying and trickling in the fountain, combined with being in my mate’s arms again, was soothing.
I felt a baby kick and grabbed Marcello’s hand to take it down and place it on my stomach.
The baby obliged and kicked again, and then again.
“Does that hurt you?”
“Not usually. They are out of room, though, and would like to be able to stretch, I think.”
“Are you ready to be a daddy?”
I smiled. “Yes. I’m terrified at the same time because there are two, and I have no clue if they’re going to be in sync or on opposite schedules or what, but I’m excited.
I’ve always wanted to be a daddy. I finally get to be in a few weeks, and I can’t wait.
” I was going to miss my sleep though. Babies didn’t sleep, and when they did, it wasn’t for long.
“I never thought I would find you,” Marcello said quietly.
“And then there you were, coming out of the council’s store.
But I wasn’t allowed to have you. I spent a long time mad, and then I accepted that I was going to spend my life alone.
Then you were suddenly in my room, and I thought I had gone mad. ”
I giggled. “Nope. Now, maybe Master Vincent has. I don’t know. I mean, he had me kidnapped from the council, basically.”
“Eh, it was a local town that has tourists. It was fair game.”
I laughed at that. “Very well.” I looked up at Marcello again.
“I’m glad he did. Don’t tell him, because I don’t want him to know I appreciate that he had me kidnapped for you.
At least not yet. He intimidates me, and I’m trying, but it’s going to take some time.
I mean, he could have me offed at any point. And that’s terrifying.”
Marcello moved and glared down at me. “He would never do such a thing. He knows you are incredibly important to me. Besides, he’s the one who had you brought here. He risked a lot to do so.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I get that. And I guess that means I should let him know I appreciate it.”
“That is completely up to you. He is pleased that you make me happy. That you have calmed me in ways that I haven’t been before.”
I grinned. “That’s what omegas do,” I said. I closed my eyes again and relaxed.
“I never wish for you to be touched by the ugliness of my world,” Marcello said after a moment of silence.
“I know,” I replied. “But I already am. I’m here, and it is here with us.”
Marcello’s arms tightened briefly, and I felt his face in my hair. “I need you and the babies to be safe and protected. Just know that whatever I may do, it is to ensure that.”
“I do,” I whispered. Like any alpha or sire, he was protective. That was to be expected.
“Come on. Let’s go in. I can feel you getting more and more relaxed. Why not go inside and relax in bed?”
I sat up, and after Marcello stood, he lifted me without any issue. Relaxing in bed with my mate sounded perfect.