Chapter 27
Malin
Cassius flicked warm water at me. The ends of his blond hair were wet and clumped.
“Little wolf, are you starting a fight?”
“No. I’m starting playtime.”
We sat in my hot tub, the jets on high, the water steaming. All around us, snow melted in the yard like white frosting left in the sun too long. The sky stretched over us in taffy blue. Spring was just around the corner and Cassius was due for another heat.
We’d spent the past six months in what people might call the honeymoon stage. We did everything together and never argued or fought. I was committed to not having the sort of relationship my parents had had, where Dad was never around much and Father kept me close under his dragon wing.
I took Cassius to all my favorite places. We would get hotel rooms and play tourist in different towns. We went to casinos and gambled like fiends. We went to the mountains, the deserts, the beaches.
It was winter so everything was decorated in fancy crystals of frost. But we dressed warmly and hiked a lot.
We kissed beneath a dozen sunsets, half a dozen full moons and several snowstorms. We celebrated Winter Solstice by decorating the entire house.
My porch was filled every day with packages from so much shopping online.
I still hadn’t contacted Dad. He knew nothing about it. And he didn’t try to reach me to ask. I wondered if he was curious. I remembered the invitation to Remington’s birthday party I’d completely ignored.
I looked up at the touch of Cassius’s hand on my shoulder. The water swirled around us.
“Are you feeling some sort of longing?” he asked.
We were that close. The mate bond had us experiencing each other’s emotions as if they were our own.
“I was thinking about my dad.”
His hand tightened on my shoulder. “Tell me.”
“If not for him, I wouldn’t have all this.” I waved my hand through the chilly air. “I wouldn’t have you.”
“I get it.”
The muscles around my eyes hardened. “I didn’t do anything to deserve all this.”
Cassius laughed, which shocked me. I was being serious. “You didn’t do anything? Is that what you’re saying?”
“It’s true what people say. I’m a spoiled, pampered, privileged—”
“Hey, stop.” Cassius had learned to get firm with me when I sank back into my darkness. “Do you think I’m some puppet of your father’s? We haven’t even met. I have my own mind. If you didn’t do anything, how did I get here? How am I now your bondmate?”
“Everything I do is for selfish reasons.”
“I disagree. You rented me for that first night and never touched me. How was that selfish? You were saving me when I couldn’t save myself.
I needed you. I’m the selfish one who went along with it even though I was scared you might do something.
At least you’d shown me some attention that was more than just sexual. ”
A wave of hot water broke over my chest as Cassius swam toward me. He put his legs around my waist and grabbed my shoulders, his naked ass in my lap.
I held onto him, looking past him at the snow spotted landscape.
“I’m so in love with you,” I whispered into his ear.
“Prove it.”
When I lifted him up, his legs stayed wrapped around my waist. Water fell in sheets off our bodies. The coolness of the air felt good.
Holding him up by his ass as he clung to me, I stepped out of the hot tub and walked inside, kicking the door shut. He said nothing as I took him upstairs and laid him on the bed, my sweet omega offering.
Afterward, as we lay side by side catching our breaths, Cassius said, “Do you want to go see him?”
“Who?”
“Your dad.”
My first thought was no. Never. I bit my tongue.
Cassius added, “I mean not right away. But maybe some time?”
I stared up blindly at the ceiling. My voice came out rough. “Maybe some time.”
That time came sooner than expected. Cassius had had his second heat right when the wildflowers began to bloom. It was warm enough to swim now. When we weren’t fucking, Cassius loved to spend time in the pool to cool his fevers.
We enjoyed the second heat as much if not more than the first. My fingers and cock kept his cramps away.
I liked to tell myself that Cassius had endured painful heats since the age of fourteen because his body had been waiting for me, wanting me long before his mind and time caught up to him.
That was such pumped-up alpha thinking. But I also told myself I had been waiting for him, too.
My body. My mind. I’d gotten completely lost along the way but then he’d found me.
I don’t think he realized his angry cry at his wrangler that day we met had called me like a siren song. We’d been lucky to find each other.
A few days after his second heat, Cassius lost his appetite. I took him to the omega doctor my doctor recommended. We held hands as he was examined and blood was taken.
When the doctor returned to the exam room, he was all smiles.
“Is he all right?” I asked.
“He’s completely healthy. He’s just pregnant. With an egg.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “It’s your egg, I believe?”
I gripped Cassius’s hands tighter. “Ours,” I replied.
Cassius shook his head. “No. That’s not right. They said I was probably sterile.”
“Who said?” the doctor asked.
“Everyone.”
“Everyone?”
I answered for him. “Everyone at Brimstone.”
The doctor rolled his eyes. “Ah. Because he didn’t quicken for them? With all the drugs and stress and pressure they give those boys over there, I’m surprised any of them conceive. Those places should be shut down. How long were you there, son?”
Cassius looked up, eyelids slightly red. “A year.”
“That’s nothing. It takes some omegas several years to feel comfortable enough to conceive. Our bodies reflect our minds.” His smile broadened. “You two must be doing something right.”
In the car as we drove home, Cassius sat quiet and stunned beside me. Through our bond, I felt only his pleasure, but his mind still needed to come to terms with being pregnant.
I, on the other hand, was surprisingly accepting. I never thought about kids. I never thought I’d be settled down enough to consider it.
Now, all I could think about was planning for it, nesting, buying all the baby things and making up one of the guest rooms into a nursery. I’d help Cassius make a true nest for our little egg. All the dark from my past lit up with the idea of a child in our lives.
On the heels of my thrill came the thought of Dad. Again.
My mind froze. He would be a grandpa. Kirion, a step-grandpa. Remington would be an uncle. I gulped hard, my eyes blurring. I blinked and slowed down the car, then pulled off the side of the road underneath a canopy of trees.
“Why are we stopping?” Cassius asked.
“I’ve never met my half-brother.”
Cassius frowned. “Remington?”
“Yes.”
“I know that. Did you start thinking about him because we’re going to have a kid? Are you having second thoughts?”
“Never.” I turned in the seat. “I love the idea of you pregnant with our child. I want this. But it’s more than that.”
“Tell me.”
“He will have grandparents and if I keep him from them, is that fair?”
“To you?” Cassius asked.
“To him.” I reached out and pressed my hand to Cassius’s still flat stomach.
Cassius smiled. “I’m so happy you want him. I felt it up here.” He tapped his head. “But I needed to hear you say it.”
“Of course I want our baby. So much.”
Cassius bounced a little in the leather seat. “Does this mean we’re going on a road trip?”
“If Tane says we can come.”
“He’ll say yes. Of course he will. He said yes to eight million.” Cassius kept bouncing.
“This is so much more.”