4. Meadow
Chapter 4
Meadow
May, Seattle
T he best place to buy chocolate wasn’t on campus.
It was a shame, because students deserved good chocolate. If I had a craving for anything outside of the bare essentials, then I had to traipse twenty minutes away to the big brand grocery store. Thankfully, it was open twenty-four hours to accommodate people who went goblin shopping like I did.
My body had decided it hated me. There was no other reason for me to be making the trek to get yet another weird food combo I needed at one in the morning.
Was it exactly safe to be walking off campus in the middle of a busy city so late at night? No. But if I didn’t get some high-quality chocolate and salty potato chips—specifically crinkle cut—so I could slather it all in strawberry syrup, I was going to lose my mind. I could have ordered the food, but it seemed almost wasteful for two items, and I would need more than chips and sauce to get me through the next few days. Besides, most of the time, my brain didn’t know what it wanted until I saw it, and that didn’t really work well with ordering.
My cravings had been out of control lately. There had been a bug going around campus, and I had caught it in a bad way—head stuck in the toilet every day for the last four weeks. All of the dining hall food had been impossible to keep down, and if cravings were the only thing that actually stayed in my stomach, I was going to indulge them to hell and back.
All my friends had gotten over the bug in a few days, but it was lingering for me. I chalked up the weird cravings to the severe lack of nutrients from being sick constantly, like how I’d eaten a bucket of ice chips when I’d had low iron as a kid.
Bright fluorescent lights hummed as I wandered through the aisles, taking in the sheer number of sugary treats on offer. Without thinking about it, I grabbed everything that looked good, and in no time, my basket was full of gummy worms, Pixy Stix, chocolate—three different kinds—and a variety of potato chips. I briefly entertained the produce section, but my stomach turned just looking at the healthier options.
I quietly thanked every god I could think of that the treats were nowhere near the seafood department, because I could not handle that right now. No one wanted to clean up after me next to the lobster tank.
Reaching for the spicy Doritos, I winced. The movement pushed my breasts against my bra. They had been unusually sore as well, so I had started avoiding bras whenever possible, but didn’t want to deal with weirdos staring at my nips, so I’d suffered putting one on for this venture.
Snacks in hand, I headed toward the checkouts, making a detour through the bath and body section to restock my favorite lotion.
A blue box caught my eye as I passed. Stopping, I took a second to look at it.
Pregnancy tests.
I had been sick for a while.
I was craving odd foods—though that could be because I was a weirdo.
And my boobs hurt.
Was it possible?
No.
Absolutely not.
I shook myself lightly before stalking forward.
The last thing I needed was a pregnancy test. What I needed was Funyuns.
I returned to the chip aisle, trying to ignore the nagging voice in the back of my head.
Hendrix was the only one I’d been with in ages. The rock star who had a plethora of women at his beck and call.
The rock star I had bonded.
It had been a few years since my omega health classes, but I remembered that newly bonded omegas tended to stick to their alphas’ sides like glue. Maybe that was why I’d been feeling so terrible?
Hendrix had spent the last few weeks gallivanting around Asia, and I was doing relatively okay.
I may have checked the tour stops once or twice in moments of needy, sex-deprived desperation before giving myself a mental slap.
He was the last thing I needed, no matter how delicious he smelled or how many orgasms he’d given me. Being tied to an alpha like that would be a nightmare. A homebody omega wouldn’t suit his lifestyle at all. If he ever bonded with someone, it would need to be an omega who craved adventure, loved to travel and party.
That most certainly wasn’t me.
I wasn’t going to pursue him, and even if I did, I wasn’t going to change my entire personality to suit his career. Hendrix wouldn’t want me for more than a night. That random beta in the bed had already proven that. I growled, picking up a bag of M it was pretty self-explanatory. Pee on the test. Test tells you if you’re pregnant.
I had grabbed a digital test, so the answer would be clear. After washing my hands, I laid it on the counter, took a deep breath, and ran a hand through my hair.
I couldn’t be a mother. There was no way; I was just being overdramatic. Soon, I would be laughing at my momentary panic leading me to buy a pregnancy test.
While I waited, I kept myself busy, leaving the bathroom and putting my treats away. Clover would know something was wrong if she saw ice cream melting on the counter. My hands shook as I slotted everything into the fridge and freezer, so I tore into the Doritos to soothe myself. Nothing like the taste of artificial cheese and spices to calm down a panic.
Our freezer was packed to the brim with desserts—that was what happened when two omegas roomed together. We had a penchant for sweets and weren’t shy about it.
Crouching down, I started rearranging the bottom drawer to make space for my ice cream and tried not to think about the beautiful blond alpha who might or might not have ruined my life. I guess it was more Schr?dinger’s life ruining, until I saw the test results. Taking out several boxes of Clover’s frozen macarons and moving them around, I contemplated stealing a few to make room. She’d eaten my frozen churros last week, so it was only fair. All was fair in love and desserts in this dorm.
“Meadow Marie Reed! Are you pregnant?!” a familiar voice called from the doorway. My stomach plummeted, and I whipped the chip bag onto the counter so I didn’t spill it. Clover stood in the bathroom doorway, wearing her pink pajamas covered in cartoon puppies, with her hair piled into a messy bun on the top of her head, and holding the pregnancy test in her hand. “Hey! Are you pilfering my macarons again?”
I hadn’t thought about her getting up in the middle of the night—Clover usually slept like the dead. She could sleep through earthquakes, for god’s sake!
“Am I?” I asked breathlessly, my voice wavering. “I haven’t looked at the test yet.”
Clover’s eyes widened as she looked between me crouching in front of the freezer and the test in her hand.
“Meadow, if you just peed on this—which, judging by the smell, you most certainly have—then you are, in fact, very much pregnant.”
Fuck.