13. Adan
THIRTEEN
ADAN
“I’m going to be fired!” my mate whisper-hissed with a dash of sobbing into the phone.
“No!” He’d been in the position less than three months, and I’d heard nothing but glowing reports. Shit, was there a review-after-ninety-days clause in his contract? He was nearing that deadline, and if the boss wasn’t pleased with his work, he might lose his job.
But that didn’t mesh with what Braylon had been saying. He had been working long hours, and we often ate dinner at our respective desks, our phones propped up on our computers. Many of those nights I could have gone home, but the house was empty, so I stayed at work, getting a start on projects and pissing off my colleagues because I was so far ahead of them.
They had lives and families, and while I had a mate, we didn’t see much of one another. But I got it. Starting a new job, you had to impress your boss and not just do the minimum but do more than expected, while keeping a smile on your face.
As Braylon had been living in a temporary sublet, and I had a house—with a mortgage—he moved in with me one Sunday morning. After borrowing a friend’s pickup, we were officially roomies.
“The boss has scheduled a meeting with me at nine tomorrow.” Braylon sniffed and pushed away the food he’d ordered.
“Come home.” I was thinking furiously, wondering if me and my wolf could scare Braylon’s boss into keeping my mate on at the company. But Excellency would be on my ass if I did. Some shifter at the office would hear or scent me, and I’d have to haul my butt to Excellency’s fancy home or maybe the park where he walked most mornings and I’d be “fired” from the pack.
“But I should finish this report.”
If he was being let go in the morning, he could forget about that damned paperwork, but pointing that out seemed kinda cruel.
“You’re distraught and you can’t do a good job in that frame of mind. Sleep and tomorrow you’ll see a way to finishing it.
Or not. If he loses his job he can maybe get pregnant. My wolf wanted a little wolf running around the house. But I didn’t need to point out that any child of ours might be human. There was anecdotal evidence that in shifter/human unions, most of the offspring were shifter, but there was no guarantee.
We both wanted kids, but our relationship was so new, we were enjoying what little time we had just the two of us.
I picked Braylon up, telling him to leave his car at the office and I’d take him to work tomorrow. He was in no state to be behind the wheel. When he got in the car, he was pale and a little shaky, and he fell asleep during the drive home.
My mate was too exhausted for a shower or to brush his teeth, so he rinsed with mouthwash and collapsed into bed partly clothed.
In the morning, I considered having him call in sick because he crawled out of bed at the last moment and stood under the shower swaying. Dropping him off at 8:50 I waited until he made it through the revolving door and drove off. A smile crept over my lips because those doors confused both of us. We were meant to find one another.
I was in the elevator with eight others when my phone buzzed. Before I could say hello, my mate asked if I could talk. I got off at my floor and went into the stairwell.
“Guess what?” He didn’t sound upset, but maybe he wanted to be fired and he was ecstatic.
“Tell me!”
“My boss is a shifter.”
“Okay.” Braylon couldn’t yet identify shifters by their scent. His company could be majority shifters for all he knew. There were shifter scents wafting about in the street outside, but that was the same for most places.
“And he told me something.”
“Go on.” He was stretching this out when I’d expected him to yell, “I still have a job,” or “I’ve been fired.”
“He asked me questions about my health which I thought was inappropriate, and I was ready to contact HR.”
I let out my wolf’s growl and was about to race over there and shift. Excellency and his rules be damned if all the humans witnessed my fur.
“He asked if I was mated because he scented a wolf.”
Now I really wanted to tear the guy apart. Braylon was my mate and his boss needed to keep his claws away from him.
“Whoa, I’m coming to get you.”
“No,” he screeched, and I held the phone away from my head. My wolf complained about the ringing in his ear.
“He suggested I might be pregnant if I was newly mated because, you know…”
You know what? My wolf mustn’t have heard the pregnant part and was curious about the unfinished bit.
“What if I am?” he gushed. “It would explain my lack of appetite and my exhaustion.”
“That would be amazing.” I was squeeing at maybe becoming a dad.
But my wolf was demanding an answer to “You know what.”
When an alpha and omega are newly mated, they have a lot of sex .
Oh, that . He always hunkered down and slept during sexy times and said he wished they had noise-cancelling headphones for shifter wolves.
“He’s impressed with my work, especially as I’m so tired, and has given me the day off. I have a job I love, and I might have a little one inside me.”
Racing into my boss’s office, I explained my husband might be pregnant, and she told me to go home as I’d been working long hours.
“Home?” I asked my mate as he slumped into the front seat.
“Shouldn’t we get a test or something? Or does your wolf have to sniff me?”
I pulled over, my hands on the wheel trembling. Shifters’ beasts were able to suss out a pregnancy, so how come mine hadn’t?
My wolf harrumphed and reminded me Braylon had affected my scenting ability when we met. But I hadn’t noticed a deficiency since then.
I have to be in my fur.
“You are so smart,” I told my mate as I pulled into traffic.
“That’s old news.” He giggled and rested his hands on his belly. “I mated you, right?”
I stopped at a red light and leaned over and kissed him.
“It’s a shame we can’t be in the woods where I first saw you naked. That would be cool to find out I was pregnant in that place.”
If he wanted that, I could drive to the airport and catch the first flight to Springfield. But when I suggested it, he put a hand on my arm.
“I’m tired, so our woods are fine.”
Not that we owned them, but we’d been there when we could snatch an hour of free time. Braylon admitted he would never be outdoorsy, but he was content to spread a blanket on the grass and wait while my beast hunted.
“Maybe if I am pregnant, and we introduce the little one to Aunt Ellie and Uncle Saul, we can take the baby to that place where you got naked. It’s special.”
Trains were also special and missed planes, a housewarming gift that Braylon’s aunt opened and placed a pic of us inside. Even the snarky guy on the train who I suspected warned Excellency about us. But that no longer mattered.
I parked the car, and we walked into the forest. Most people were at work or school, so I hoped we weren’t going to be disturbed. Taking Braylon’s hand, we traipsed off the trail, and when we were hidden in the trees, I stripped down.
My beast took his fur and approached my mate. He sniffed his belly and circled him. He was biding his time, and I begged him to tell me. But he was enjoying the moment.
Take your skin , he ordered.
I did and pulled on my clothes, wanting to be dressed when he made the announcement.
“Well?” I said out loud.
He is, you are .
“You are,” I yelled. My mate and I held hands and leaped up and down.
“We have to tell Aunt Ellie and Uncle Saul.” He took the phone from his pocket.
“Wait. On the phone or in person?” Today was Friday, so we could catch a flight and return Sunday.
“Really? Or a train trip like the first time?”
I convinced him a plane was quicker, as we had two and a half days, and I drove to the airport.
“I can’t wait to see their faces, and we can show the baby our clearing.”
“But no mention of bare butts and swinging dicks.”
As we waited to board the flight, one of the staff at the gate said, “I remember you. The toothpaste guy. Did you get where you wanted to go?”
“I did and more.”