18. Leonardo
Leonardo
“Have you thought about baby names yet?” Abel asked.
“No. I know we should, but I honestly haven’t thought about anything, really.
” I placed my hand on my stomach, which definitely had a bump now.
I was about halfway through my pregnancy, and although I wasn’t showing unless I was naked, I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be able to carry the baby to term.
The sharp pains I was experiencing, along with the feeling of being completely bloated, had me worried.
But I didn’t dare mention it to Sandro because he’d been through so much already.
He’d nearly died, and his brother had been killed.
His birth family wanted nothing to do with him, and if his own beloved couldn’t even carry his children, what good was I to him?
“Your aura has turned blue.”
I blinked several times before it registered what Mazzi had just said to me. “I don’t know what that means. Why is my aura blue?” I knew what an aura was. We all had one. But was it bad that mine was blue?
“It means that you’re sad, upset, or possibly worried,” Mazzi said. “Is everything all right between you and Sandro?”
I couldn’t help but smile at the mention of my mate. “We’re doing good,” I told him. I looked over at the baby that Abel was holding and suddenly felt a longing that I hadn’t expected. “He’s such a good baby,” I said without thinking.
Abel’s smile grew. “He is. They both are, and I know I’m incredibly lucky that they’re not little terrors like they could be. But they’re amazing little ones, and I wouldn’t change a thing about either of them.”
I felt another sharp pain and winced. I quickly covered it with a forced smile, but apparently, Mazzi had been staring at me intently because he noticed.
“What’s wrong?” Mazzi asked. “Are you having pains? You winced and reached for your stomach again.”
I winced. He had definitely seen. I glanced around, looking for one of our mates, and was thankful I couldn’t see any of them nearby.
I was under no illusion that they weren’t far and couldn’t get to us in an instant if needed, but I really didn’t want to worry Sandro.
I desperately wanted to give him the family he deserved.
“I feel…things,” I whispered.
“What kind of things?” Abel whispered back.
“Pains. They’re sharp but gone as fast as they hit.
And there’s like…gas or something that just won’t go away.
It’s like this intense need to fart, but that absolutely won’t happen, no matter what I do to help that along.
” I’d tried. Many times, I’d sat on the toilet in hopes that I’d be able to pass things, but whatever it was, it just continued to bubble along in my stomach.
I tried changing what I was eating. Still the same things.
Mazzi gave me a sweet smile. “It’s all right,” he told me. “Nothing is wrong with you or the baby.”
“Nope,” Abel added. “My pains were intense at times, and I was sure I was losing the babies.”
“That right there. I’m terrified that’s what is happening, and I really want to give Sandro a baby. He deserves a family more than anything.”
Mazzi reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “Those are growing pains,” he said.
“Huh?”
“Growing pains. Your body is stretching and growing. It has to in order to make room for the baby. It’s perfectly normal, and you shouldn’t worry about it. If you were to be losing the baby, the pain wouldn’t go away. And that fullness? Do you feel something like bubbles?”
I nodded.
“Oh, I had that too,” Abel added. “I think we all do.”
Mazzi smiled over at Abel. “That’s the first movement from the baby.”
I gasped. “It is?”
Mazzi’s hand squeezed mine again. “It is. Perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. In fact, you should be happy about it. You’re feeling your baby move.”
Somehow, I’d never even considered that what I’d been feeling was the baby. I smiled now, and when I felt that gas bubble move again, I realized that it was the baby and was no longer worried about the sensation.
“I feel dumb now,” I said.
“Why?” Abel asked. “I thought I was dying the first time I felt that sudden sharp pain. How did that happen? I was an omega, and I was pregnant. I shouldn’t be having pains.
Not until I was in labor. Of course, then my brain immediately went to I was dying.
Which makes total sense.” Abel rolled his eyes.
“Now, that was a dumb moment. There’s a book. Did you read it?”
“What book?” I asked. “I would love to read anything I could about being pregnant, but I’ve honestly just been trying to stay out of everyone’s way here. I know I’m the reason for the added security, and I feel terrible about that.”
“How so?” Mazzi asked.
My eyes widened. “You don’t know?”
Mazzi looked over at Abel, who was looking anywhere but at us.
“Abel obviously knows.”
Abel sighed. “Yeah, but only because I did super-naughty things for Marcello, and he let it slip about your grandfather.”
I snorted, then laughed. I never would have picked Abel to be Marcello’s beloved. I really liked Abel and thought he was the sweetest. And Marcello was…honestly, he was a bit intense most of the time.
“We don’t need to know what you and Marcello get up to in the bedroom. But I want to know why I’m left in the dark about everything. Seriously. What’s going on? What did I miss? What about your grandfather?”
I moved so I could stretch my legs out in front of me and then leaned back onto my arms. “Apparently, my dad was his only son, and they are Cosa Nostra from Sicily. I knew Dad was from Sicily, but he never talked about his family other than to say he was human and we were dead to them because they were human and all that.” I shrugged with one arm and then put it back behind me to balance myself again.
Mazzi’s eyes widened a bit. “You’re telling me that your family is the same as this family, but now we have to have more security because of it? Does your grandfather have bad blood against Master Vincent or something?”
“Not that I’m aware of, no. But my grandfather apparently had my parents killed, and now he wants me, I’m told, not to kill me but to have me take over the family.
” I rolled my eyes at that. I seriously had nothing against families.
Obviously. But I was absolutely the last person who should be running a mafia family.
I was…no. It was not me at all. I wasn’t intimidating.
Sandro was a doctor, and as such, he had a caring nature, but even he would be better at being the head of a mafia family than I would.
“Why would he think you would want anything to do with him if he killed your parents?” Abel asked. “Marcello killed my dad, and I’m not even upset about it.”
I blinked at Abel in surprise. “What?”
“Oh yeah. He’s the one that sold me to sex traffickers.
But even before then, he and my brothers had always abused me.
I was treated like a servant in the house and just overall wasn’t treated like a family member should be.
” Abel kissed Frankie’s head and then carefully placed him on the blanket beside him.
Little Luci was inside with her other daddy, but only because Master Vincent had been snuggling with her, and nobody was going to take the principessa away from him, I’d learned.
“That’s such a messed-up thing,” I told Abel.
I mean, my family was apparently shitty too.
Even my parents on some level. What were they planning on doing?
Just avoiding the fact that Dad’s family was “in the business” all along and hoping that they wouldn’t find any of us?
That didn’t exactly work out. Now they were gone, and I had realized I had conflicted feelings about that.
“Eh.” He shrugged. “There are a lot of horrible families out there. More than I think most of us ever realized. I knew from a fairly young age that my family was pretty messed up. I’m the only omega, and that was shameful, apparently. Then he realized he could sell me and did.”
I shook my head at all of that. “It’s not a competition, and I know it’s not, but your family is way worse than mine. My parents were trying to protect me, and I understand that. I just wish I knew the full story, and unfortunately, I never will.”
“I lost my family when I chose Naldo, as if I would ever deny my fated One,” Mazzi said.
I looked at him sadly. I’d heard about what happened with his family.
“They’ve tried to reach out since, especially since I’ve had Tulio, but I really don’t want anything to do with them.
They showed me who they truly are, and I want nothing to do with that. ”
I sighed again. “Why is it that we’re all destined to have shitty families, it seems,” I said, not really expecting either of them to answer.
“Yeah, maybe,” Abel answered. “But now we have amazing mates, and they more than make up for it.”
I smiled at the fox shifter.
“Can you guys watch Frankie for me for a few? I want to shift and go for a run. I’ll only be like five minutes, and then I’ll be happy to shift back.”
“I will,” I said. “I need practice, and with Mazzi here who already has experience, it should be fine,” I said, hopeful.
Mazzi laughed. “You are going to be fine with your baby. Are you going to find out what you’re having?”
I shook my head. I didn’t care. I just wanted the baby. I looked over at Abel, ready to say something to him, but where he once was, there was now a pile of clothing that was moving. A fluffy white head suddenly popped out of the bottom of his shirt, and I smiled.