Chapter Twenty-Two
Bram
Since leaving San Diego, we’d accomplished a great deal. First, we’d visited Seth’s family and their herd and now, we’d done the same for Indy’s. What we hadn’t done was visit mine, and so far, none of us had brought it up. Until tonight.
The three of us lay in Indy’s bed, naked, sweaty, and sated.
This was the time when one of us, usually me lately, thanks to pregnancy exhaustion, fell asleep mid conversation.
But not tonight. I was either turning the corner, or being away from the city was doing well by me because I had energy to spare. We all seemed to.
“Should we visit your pack next?” Indy asked. “We can go see your father.”
I shook my head. “No.”
It was a hard no. Did I want to see my father again? Absolutely. But I wanted to wait until things were straightened out there.
Based on the last time I talked to him, Nolan was still pissed, which meant our alpha was still pissed.
And honestly, I didn’t want to deal with any of that, especially not now that it wasn’t just me to consider.
There were my mates, who were more than capable of looking out for themselves, but there was also our baby, who was not.
The added stress of the visit wouldn’t be good for them.
Plus, I had a feeling that showing up pregnant less than two months after being asked to mate someone else for the well-being of the pack was going to be met by a lot of disdain from the pack as well, and I’d be lying if I said I thought the issue was private.
There were no secrets in a pack. Not ones like ours, anyway.
“Do you want to think about it?” Seth brushed some hair from my brow. “We’d go with you, of course.”
“No, I really don’t want or need to think.
” It came out snippier than I’d meant. “I mean, one day, but not yet. We’ll let things simmer over there for a while, kind of let all their chips fall as they may.
As much as I don’t like pack politics, I’m aware of it enough to know it wouldn’t be a great time for us to show up. ”
We still hadn’t told my father about the baby.
I was going to, as soon as we figured out where we were going to stay and build our family.
I wanted to have the whole plan laid out so that when my father tried to push me in another direction, I had something solid to fall back on.
If I was wishy-washy in any way, he would just get pushier. That was how he was.
“Where do you want to stay? Because the truth is, Seth and I will have an easier time adjusting than you will.”
He was right. Being a wolf in a unicorn shimmer or herd was a fairly big leap.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter which one. You both accept me, they all accept me, and every change takes adjustment. I don’t see either one being better or worse for me. You two need to decide because, no matter which way you go, I’ll be me. For you, it’s not quite that simple.”
Being alpha was a huge deal, and I didn’t want to get in the way of this decision.
There was not enough money or power in this world to convince me that being alpha was a good job.
Maybe that was because I was an omega, or maybe it was because of who I was, but I didn’t understand my father’s ambition.
With my mates, it was less ambition and more birthright.
They didn’t seem to think of it as being as distasteful, as I thought of it for myself, which was good, since one of them was going to own the role soon. It was best, I let them figure this out. “What about you two? Where do you want to be?”
“Here in bed with you two,” Seth said.
“You know what I mean.”
“I wasn’t that unicorn who grew up dreaming of being an alpha. It was always just the expectation. That doesn’t mean I won’t, if that’s what you two decide, but I’d be quite content not to.”
I knew from conversations we’d had that Seth really felt his father not being around growing up, and he didn’t want that for our child.
I didn’t want that either. But knowing Seth, even if he were to be alpha, he wouldn’t let that happen.
Sure, the job was intense and required a lot of time, but you made time for what mattered.
And for Seth, what mattered was Indy, the baby, and I.
“Besides, Indy has the best bed.”
“You can’t make a decision like this based on how good my bed is. You know we have trucks. We can bring it somewhere else.”
“I know, but that would require getting out of it.”
“It really is a good bed,” I teased.
“You two are ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous, sure, but real talk, Indy. What do you think about staying here?” Seth reached over me and cupped our mate’s cheek. “Because if you don’t want this either, the three of us can go somewhere else. We don’t have to stay here. We can go back to San Diego, or we could move somewhere else.”
“I want to stay here,” Indy said after quite a long pause. “I think I want to take my herd up on their offer.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” I said with certainty. “And now that we’ve made a decision, we should probably celebrate.”
“And how would you recommend we do that, our sexy omega?” Seth’s hand was already reaching for my cock, and Indy’s fingers were tracing a path down my chest.
“Oh my gods, you two are always so horny.” And I freaking loved it.
“But I was thinking… I am kind of tired, being pregnant and all. Maybe I could watch my two mates enjoying each other.” I wasn’t that tired, but any excuse to watch a good show.
It wasn’t as if I ever left there orgasmless.
In fact, I often got two out of the deal. Talk about winning.
“What do you think, Seth? You think we could do that?”
“Now that he mentioned it, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do.”