Chapter 29
JINXED, AGAIN
“Is your name actually Doc?” Ottis asked one day a few weeks later. Then he rocked back on his heels, frowning. “I can’t believe I’ve never asked.”
Doc laughed, pulling Ottis onto his lap. “I’ve gone by Doc for so long that sometimes even I forget it’s not my actual name.”
“What’s your actual name, then?”
“... Percival,” Doc said, giving his mate a wry smile. “I don’t look like a Percival, do I?”
Ottis scrunched up his face. “I can’t picture you as a Percival, no. But it does sound like a knight’s name, which I guess you are. You know, you save people and everything.”
Doc huffed.
“How long have you been Doc, then?” Ottis asked curiously.
“A few centuries,” Doc admitted. “I became a doctor soon after I reached adulthood. Because I began practicing in a small village, everyone there knew me as The Doctor, and then Doc. It kind of stuck after a few years, and it continued to stick because I’ve been a doctor ever since.”
“Is that on your official paperwork at the hospital?”
“Ah, no. That’s still under my original name, although I had to fudge my species just in case.” That always made Doc feel a little guilty, but it was worth the peace of mind when the public didn’t know he was a dragon.
“So on paper you’re a shapeshifter?” Ottis asked.
“Yes, but a terrible one who can’t shift.” Doc laughed. “I can hear pretty well, so I’ve got that going for me.”
Ottis made a face. “Hospitals are awfully noisy.”
“Yeah, well. Can’t have everything, I guess.” Doc lay back on the tall grass, only to have Marcie pounce on his chest. She shook herself and sent dirt flying everywhere.
Ottis groaned. “Hon, at the rate you’ve been digging, there won’t be any grass left!”
“It’s fine,” Doc said, scritching Marcie behind the ears. She grinned her puppy smile and wriggled.
They were in the backyard, now with several new holes that had been filled with all kinds of shrubs—flowering bushes, shrubs, native grasses.
The wolfnip was especially popular with Ottis and Marcie; often, Doc came home from his hospital shift to find them lounging between the wolfnip plants, chewing on the leaves.
He reached over to rub Ottis’ belly now, marveling at how much bigger it had grown. Still no kick.
Undeterred, Doc pressed his face against Ottis’ belly and nuzzled him there. “Hey, lil one. I know you’ve been kicking your daddy a little. Are you playing Hide And Seek with me? Not gonna kick when I’m around?”
Ottis huffed. “You just have to be patient!”
“I’ve been patient,” Doc said, trying not to pout.
Ottis took one look at him and grinned. “You’re adorable when you’re pouting.”
“I’m not pouting.” Doc pressed his ear to Ottis’ belly, so he could hear more clearly the fast flutter of their pup’s heartbeat. “We should probably discuss where you want to birth our pup.”
“With my pack?”
“Yeah, that seems wise.”
“When would you like to walk the Circle with me?”
Ottis snorted. “Based on everything our friends have told us, before or after I birth the pup, but not during.”
Doc laughed. “No, we really don’t want to be caught with our pants down. Literally.”
“We didn’t just jinx ourselves, did we?”
“Gods, I hope not.” Doc adjusted his face against Ottis’ belly.
Then came a kick, a hard one. It pushed against Doc’s cheek, so forcefully that his heart leaped in surprise.
“Oof!” Ottis said.
“Sweetheart!” Doc breathed, his chest so full that he felt as though he might explode. “I felt that!”
“So did I.” Ottis grinned, brushing his fingers through Doc’s hair. “Maybe if you stay there for a while longer, you might get another.”
“I never thought being kicked in the face would be this exciting.” Doc squished his cheek against Ottis’ belly, only to get another nudge in his face. He couldn’t stop grinning. “Here, Marcie, come feel your sibling kick. You’re going to be a big sister soon.”
He scooped the pup up and pressed her paw against Ottis’ belly, only for there to be another kick.
Marcie pricked her ears, nosing curiously at Ottis.
“This is wonderful,” Doc said with too much feeling. Ottis grinned and scritched Marcie’s ears.
“No Circle-walking during the danger times,” Ottis said.
“Of course not,” Doc agreed.
Ottis went into labor when they walked the Circle.
Of course he did.
They had taken great pains to avoid this. Doc had blocked out the weeks in which Ottis was most likely to go into labor; he had arranged for the bonding to take place before that.
It had been such a calm day, too. Doc had arranged for Ottis’ pack to travel to his flight’s ancestral lair; they had all settled in nicely to the mansion facing the ocean. Ottis’ belly had swollen to the size of a watermelon by this point, and his feet had been aching for the past several weeks.
“Why do I need to pee again?” Ottis whined, leaning into Doc’s side.
“Sorry,” Doc said with a wince. “At least it’ll be over soon?”
Ottis glowered. “Don’t jinx it.”
Doc held up his hands. “I promise I’m not.”
He helped Ottis to the bathroom, passing Ottis’ brothers on the way. All of them watched Ottis warily, as though he might pop any second. A few of the alpha wolves even had their arms outstretched, in case Ottis fell and needed catching.
The mansion was more crowded than it had ever been.
Growing up, Doc and his siblings had occupied a few of the mansion’s several rooms; his parents had hosted balls and built enough rooms to accommodate their many guests.
But they hadn’t had many guests in a while—until now.
It was such a special occasion that Doc’s brothers had returned, all of them peering down at Ottis.
“Tell you what,” Phalen said. “The good thing about having pee at your disposal is that you can now pee in a circle around Doc, anytime you want. Keeps people from stealing him.”
Cadmus scoffed. “Why use pee as a defense mechanism, when you can squirt it on your enemies? Attack with it!”
Doc winced. “Go away, you guys. You’re embarrassing me.”
Ottis squeezed his hand. “They’re making good points, though.”
“Sweetheart,” Doc sighed. “You’re not supposed to side with my brothers.”
“Your brothers are good people,” Ottis pointed out. “I wouldn’t call them geckos.”
They exchanged a look, and snickered. Despite Doc’s warnings on the day Sevrian destroyed his hedge, Bruiser had not managed to stop himself from antagonizing Uriel.
Uriel had called him a gecko five times.
Hijinks had even printed out several gecko pictures, and given them to Uriel for ammunition.
Everyone knew about their rivalry now, even Doc’s brothers who lived overseas.
“I should move back and watch that drama with my own two eyes,” Iver said.
Qais scoffed. “I’m one step ahead of you. I’ve already bought a place in Cartfalls. This is gonna be good. Front row, popcorn-worthy.”
Remington elbowed him. “Two ahead. I’ve just established a business in Cartfalls and gotten in on their group chat. Sooo much drama.”
Doc sighed. “I can’t believe you guys are moving back because of this.”
“Gecko,” his brothers chorused.
“Who doesn’t love gossip?” Cadmus added. “We exist to stir the pot and fan the flames.”
Doc shook his head. He was about to speak when one of the wolves squawked.
“You’re pregnant?!”
Ottis’ omega dad, Joe, looked embarrassed. “Yes? We’re really not sure how it happened. Ashton and I—”
“Nooo,” Ottis cried. “We don’t want to hear how your condom broke. Please. It’s going to scar me for life.”
Joe shot him a wry look. “You were the result of a broken condom.”
Ottis clutched his head and whined.
Doc laughed, tugging Ottis against himself. “C’mon, now that everyone’s here, we should start the ceremony. Before anything else gets jinxed.”
“Oh gods, you’re right,” Ottis blurted. “We don’t need any more weird crap happening. You’re gonna save the day.” Then he met Doc’s eyes. “I love you.”
Immediately after, both of them froze.
Over the past few months, neither of them had said those exact words to each other.
Doc had been waiting for the perfect moment, and he suspected that Ottis was too.
It wasn’t something urgent; the sentiment had been obvious from the way Ottis looked at Doc, the way Ottis relaxed in his presence and trusted him in his everyday life.
“Yeah?” Doc murmured, his heart skipping anyway.
Ottis hid his face in one hand. “I was going to be so much smoother than that.”
A laugh bubbled out of Doc. He turned Ottis so they were facing each other. Then he brushed his thumb over Ottis’ cheek and tipped his head up, leaning in to kiss him softly. “I love you too.”
Ottis lit up, his pulse loud in Doc’s ears. “I love how you’re so selfless and giving. How great you are with Marcie. How you accept me as I am.”
“You accept me too,” Doc admitted. “You make me smile every day, without even meaning to. You remind me that there are different ways of looking at things, both silly and serious. You also remind me of all the love we still have left to give.”
There was more, so much more that Doc loved about him, like the way Ottis fit perfectly in his arms, the way Ottis looked when he woke up in the mornings, sleep-rumpled with pillow creases on his cheek.
He loved the way Ottis laughed, the way he wrinkled his nose when he found okra in the kitchen, the way he wriggled with Marcie amongst the wolfnip shrubs.
“Mine,” Doc murmured, kissing him again.
Ottis laughed softly against his lips.
“Hey, weren’t you supposed to do this at the Circle?” Remington asked. “Or is this—fuck, is this your actual love confession?”
“Shhh!” said everyone else.
“I’m asking the important questions,” Rem hissed over his shoulder.
Doc gave Ottis an affectionate nuzzle, before straightening up. “That was our actual love confession.”
Rem gaped at them, horrified. “You agreed to bond for life before you exchanged your ‘I love you’s?!”
“We’ve exchanged bonding marks,” Ottis said. He turned his arm to show Remington the gold lines.
Rem gaped.