Chapter Fourteen
Zac
We had a lull in births at the center over the last week and, while it gave me more downtime, it also created enough for me to face something that had been bugging me for a couple of weeks.
I wasn’t feeling well.
At first, I thought it might be mating sickness.
It was rare, but it happened. Mates were introduced and completed the mating rites, but for one reason or another, they were separated after that.
It only happened with fated mates; I knew that much.
It caused lethargy, loss of appetite, and deep, all-compassing depression. Made sense.
I picked through the internet for what I could find, but what was happening to me wasn’t like the mating sickness.
This was something else altogether, and it wasn’t until that morning when a new omega came in. He had no partner. The alpha that got him pregnant was a one-night stand, and now he was alone. No way to contact him.
When the omega explained his symptoms, my knees went weak.
How ridiculous that I hadn’t thought of this before.
The nausea. The lightheadedness. The exhaustion, more than usual. The aversion to certain foods including eggs, which were one of my favorite breakfasts. But also, my new love of honey. I had a homemade cream-and-honey latte, and it was about the only thing I could tolerate before work.
The timing made sense as well. Edris and I met almost three months ago. We mated the second night together.
Getting a pregnancy test was easy. We kept them stocked at the clinic, so there was no going to the pharmacy and drudging up fresh and shiny small-town gossip.
I wished my alpha was with me. On the way home, I let myself cry. Cry for him. Cry for his absence.
It would be better to go home and talk to him about all of this. To let him hold me while we waited for the test to tell us our future.
But I was alone.
Not the way the fairy tale was supposed to go.
Making dinner, I stared at the test. I didn’t have the energy to make anything other than oven-baked chicken tenders and some microwave steamed vegetables, but there was fiber and protein so I called it a small win.
Time to bite the bullet.
I went into the bathroom and took a shower, complete procrastination on my part, and then peed on the stick. I laughed while telling myself the instructions in the mirror the same way I did to our patients.
Now to wait.
A noise from the front of the house startled me. I rushed to see what was happening. The yelp that left my mouth made Edris laugh. He opened his arms for me and I jumped into them, wrapping my legs around his torso.
“You’re here!” I said, kissing him all over his face and then his lips.
“I’m here, omega. Damn, I do like the way you welcome me home.”
He put me on the kitchen counter and then captured my lips like we hadn’t seen each other for years. It felt like years. Every second without him in my life dragged on.
“I missed you,” I whimpered, reaching for the hem of his shirt.
“Missed you more.”
My phone let out a shrill from the other room and I froze in place. “What’s the alarm for?” He was unbothered by the sound, already trying to undo his pants.
“Wait. Stop. We need to talk.”
I hopped off the counter and ran to turn the alarm off. It was screaming at me to face my future. To face my alpha with the truth.
“What’s going on?” Edris came into the bedroom and kicked his shoes off, placing them neatly under his side of the bed.
“I’ve been feeling kind of weird the past few weeks.”
“How so?”
I shrugged. “Nausea. Tired all the time. Some foods make me want to gag.” I hated to keep him in suspense, especially over something so important.
“Are you sick? I don’t…what does that have to do with a timer?”
“Edris, I think I’m pregnant. That’s what the timer was. Only a few seconds before you came in, I took a test. The timer…it’s for the test.” Now, I was overexplaining. Great.
He stalked across the bedroom and kissed my forehead. “You might have my cub in you?”
I laughed. What an alpha thing to say. “Or my pup. Or our baby.”
My alpha didn’t crack a smile. His eyes ticked to the bathroom and then back to me. “Should we check the test?”
“We should. But I’m so nervous. Come with me?”
“I’d go with you anywhere, omega.”
We took a few steps into the bathroom and I picked up the test and looked at it. Two lines.
“What does two lines mean?” Edris asked. I could hear our hearts beating hard. This was a life-changing moment. And we were here, together, to share it.
“It means we’re having a baby.”
I was off my feet again as Edris tugged me off the ground. His joyous laughter filled my home. “I can’t believe it. We’re going to be parents.” Putting my arms around his shoulders, I pulled him tight and kissed him hard.
“I’m…I think we need to celebrate.”
He nodded. “I agree. Ice cream? At Cindy’s Sweets?”
Cindy was a town local who had an ice cream parlor that also boasted desserts and candy by the pound. She always joked that her fathers should’ve named her Candy instead of Cindy.
“That sounds great, actually. Are you hungry for dinner? I have some leftovers.”
The alpha shook his head. “My bear wants some of their honeycomb blondies and then, there’s something else I’m even more hungry for.”
“What is it?”
“You, omega. Tonight, we’re going to celebrate, just you and me, in this bed.”
That sounded like the best plan ever.