Chapter 12 Percy
TWELVE
PERCY
The diesel fumes were making me feel sick.
I'd been breathing in engine exhaust since my first day at the station, but recently, my stomach heaved whenever someone started the rig. I’d taken to standing near the bay door and breathing in the fresh air.
“Are you coming down with something?” Briggs was beside me as I pressed a hand to my mouth during the morning equipment check.
“Nah, it’s just something I ate.” I’d used that excuse three times this week, so it was pushing the limits of what they’d believe.
But food and I were now having marital problems. Coffee, which I’d adored since I was in my teens, tasted like swamp water.
My dragon shot back how would I know, as I’d never drunk it.
Toast was fine, but only if it was lightly toasted and still calling itself bread.
And the smell of Tom’s chili that he made weekly had me running for the bathroom.
My dragon was no help. He'd been calm recently, and that was out of character. He did loud, opinionated, dramatic, and sometimes hysterical. But now, this being inside me wasn’t letting anything bother him, and not once did he criticize my clothes.
I had to find out what was going on, so I prodded him when the nausea was getting me down.
He just shrugged as to why he wasn’t bugging me, and I let it go.
The ladder climb had been days ago, and since then I’d been throwing up and fallen asleep on the sofa at the station during a movie. That was something, and I cried at a dog food commercial.
Hallie pretended she hadn't noticed, but I had to explain.
“I’ve got allergies.”
“To a golden retriever eating kibble?”
I had to think quickly. “Ummm, yeah, to kibble. It's a thing.” It was a ridiculous answer.
The next day, I woke up before my alarm and lay in bed while my brain pieced together my symptoms. There was nausea and exhaustion, as well as every smell within ten miles that had me gagging. And my dragon was quiet, which was so unlike him.
Oh gods. I sat up fast, and as blood rushed from my head, I gripped the edge of the mattress. My dragon was paying attention and kind of humming, if a dragon could do that. But the sound reminded me of a lullaby.
“No.”
My dragon didn't confirm or deny it. He was probably enjoying my reactions. I dragged on sweats and drove to a pharmacy two towns over because I couldn’t buy a test in Trenton. Hallie’s uncle was the cashier.
I bought two tests and a candy bar because I was panicking and sugar helped. The cashier gave me a look, and I grabbed another candy bar, trying to appear as if this was an everyday occurrence. There was nothing to see, just an omega buying two pregnancy tests and two candy bars at 8 a.m.
I sat in the truck and ate one bar and tried to think logically.
Larkin and I had sex, so pregnancy was possible.
But we'd mated less than two weeks ago, and while I understood biology, I hadn't considered it would happen this fast. Maybe I should have paid attention in sex education classes in high school, because inserting Part A into Part B could result in pregnancy.
You knew.
Of course, because even though the baby is tiny right now, I’ve had to create space for them.
Are you nesting?
He shrugged. I don’t know what you call it.
I took both tests, even though my beast had confirmed I was pregnant. I set them on the bathroom counter and paced for three minutes. They were both positive. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, I pressed my hands over my face. Joy, fear, and disbelief mingled.
You’re carrying a hatchling inside you.
A hatchling? I sobbed because that was my baby. Our baby, mine and Larkin’s. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes to prevent any more tears spilling out.
“The timing is a disaster,” I choked out.
Larkin and I had been mated for such a short time, and we were hiding our relationship. The cup final was coming up, and I was a firefighter who couldn't fight fires while I was pregnant. Ahhh.
My dragon didn't give a damn about fires and a competition. His role was to protect the life that was growing inside me.
“Okay.” I wiped my eyes and caught sight of myself in the mirror. Yikes, I was pale, with red eyes and a pregnancy test in each hand. “I have to tell Larkin.”
Not bothering with a text or a call, I headed to his place. This news wasn’t something you gave from a distance.
Larkin's truck was outside his place, so he was home. I left the engine idling as I wondered how my mate, a man who liked order and routine, would react to me dumping his news on his lap.
Larkin opened the door in a t-shirt and jeans with a cup of coffee in one hand. His face lit up before he frowned.
“Percy, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”
“Can I come in?”
He stepped aside, and I walked past him into the apartment that smelled of coffee and him. I didn’t sit, this was a stand-up moment, but I did dig the car keys into my palm.
“I'm pregnant.” There was no easing into it or dragging it out by saying how much I loved him.
Larkin's coffee cup paused halfway to his mouth. His dragon was in his gaze, and he must have roared because Larkin’s body shook. Unless he was horrified. That was a possibility.
He was very still, not frozen but what he did when he was thinking. I'd witnessed it at the trailhead when we'd negotiated the rules and at the restaurant. Larkin examined an issue from all sides.
But I had two positive pregnancy tests in my jacket pocket and a dragon who was in nanny mode, and the silence was unbearable.
“Please say something.” I was the guy who joked and deflected and who filled silences with noise. But this wasn't a joke, it was my life and the baby’s. And I was waiting for the man I loved to catch up.
Larkin put his coffee cup down and pulled me to him. He wrapped his arms around me, and I rested my head on his chest and inhaled his scent. This was a good sign, though he hadn’t said anything yet.
“Pregnant,” he whispered into my hair.
“About a couple of weeks, give or take a stir-fry.”
He laughed, and we swayed together. I kept thinking of how his coffee was getting cold. When he pulled away, he cupped my face and peppered kisses over my cheeks before placing both hands on my belly.
“We can't hide our relationship any longer,” I whispered. "Not with me being pregnant.”
“I know.” He lifted my shirt and placed his hands on my bare skin. I wished we could stay like that and not have to face reality.
“And I can't compete in the last competition event.” That was the part I'd been dreading almost as much as telling him. I was Station 9's best competitor and pulling out would raise questions I wasn't ready to answer. But answering them was better than putting the baby at risk.
“We'll tell them the truth after the finale like we planned.”
“Larkin.” It was bad enough we’d been sneaking around, but telling a fib just didn’t sit right, and it didn’t sound like my mate. Besides, we might not make it that long. “I threw up at the station twice this week and cried at a dog food commercial. Briggs and Hallie are already suspicious.”
He grinned. “Dog food?”
“It was a very cute dog, all soft, warm, and cuddly, and I howled when he wolfed down the kibble.”
My mate kissed me again, but he was so careful, as if I’d become fragile.
“My dragon’s nanny-ing the baby.
The egg, my beast corrected me.
I know how dragon biology works, thank you.
“You don’t need to treat me as if I’m going to break.”
“We'll figure it out.”
The panic, which had bubbled up when my beast confirmed the pregnancy, evaporated. And least for now. We were going to be parents, in the middle of a competition while hiding our relationship from two crews who were going to lose their minds when they found out.
But we’d get through it as long as the man holding me didn't let go.