7. My Pup Breathes Fire?!
MY PUP brEATHES FIRE?!
All of them froze.
Well, the adults did. Abbie gave a little wriggle and lunged for the fire.
Emre panicked and held her back, only for the fireball to gutter out and disappear.
“What the hell was that?” he yelped, staring at the unblemished table. Not even a scorch mark. “You saw that, right? I’m not hallucinating?”
When he looked up, Zenith’s eyes were wide.
“You—” Zenith squeaked, before clearing his throat. In a lower voice, “You have a fire-breathing baby?”
“Apparently! How did that even happen?!”
Zenith pulled up a chair and sat down slowly, his gaze flicking between Emre and Abbie. “The alpha you spent your heat with, to conceive Abbie. Do you remember what they were like?”
“Not really.” Emre scrunched up his face.
“I was in heat, at a bar looking to get laid. There were tons of people around, too many scents. Some people were smoking, so by the time I found an alpha who was interested, I couldn’t smell him.
The scents stuck to our clothes and followed us back to his place.
I remember—he didn’t have a knot. I was so disappointed.
We had sex twice and my heat went away.”
“Hmm,” Zenith said thoughtfully.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Emre continued.
“All I knew was that I wasn’t shaking out of my skin anymore.
I left without telling him and completely forgot about the whole thing, until I discovered I was pregnant.
That was a surprise.” He sighed. “Then I realized that I hadn’t even thought about using contraceptives during my heat. ”
Zenith glanced at Abbie. “Do you regret—?”
Emre shook his head firmly. “I would’ve said skipping a condom was stupid, except I’m glad I have her.”
Zenith nodded solemnly. “She seems entirely worth it.”
“She really is.” Emre grinned.
For a while, they watched as Abbie gnawed on Zenith’s shirtsleeve.
“Do you remember anything else about that alpha?” Zenith asked after some time. “Physical traits, something you can identify him with?”
Emre wracked his brain. “He was roughly your size, kinda huge, but lots of alphas are like that. He was... I guess he was warm to the touch. But I was also burning up, so I couldn’t tell exactly how hot he was.”
It was unnerving to think that the alpha he’d slept with had been capable of breathing fire everywhere.
“What’s wrong?” Zenith asked.
“I had no idea he could sneeze fireballs,” Emre said. “He was on top of me, and he could’ve burned me into a crisp.”
Zenith narrowed his eyes. “If he did, I would hunt him down and end him.”
That subvocal growl gave Emre all the shivers.
“Look, Emre.” Zenith reached over, placing his huge, warm hand on Emre’s forearm. “Maybe he had a reason to conceal his species, maybe he didn’t. But it seems to me that the alpha had no intention of hurting you.”
Emre went over his vague memories of that heat, carefully inspecting his interactions with that alpha. “I guess he didn’t. I didn’t feel threatened.”
“Good.” Zenith relaxed, the tension going out of his shoulders.
Maybe Emre shouldn’t worry about that first alpha?
He released Abbie onto the kitchen table, only for her to wander back to Zenith, nosing at his sleeve again. Then she bit into Zenith’s sleeve with her tiny wolf teeth.
Zenith’s eyebrows rose. “Abbie?”
She planted all four paws against the table, and tried to rip Zenith’s sleeve off his shirt.
“Abbie!” Emre squawked.
Zenith snorted. “It’s fine.”
Even when faint tendrils of smoke puffed out of Abbie’s nostrils.
“You’re not afraid of a fireball landing on you?” Emre blurted.
Zenith looked him in the eye. “I’m not afraid.”
“But what if you get burned?”
“I won’t be.”
There was a secret here, maybe tied to the sheer power that Emre felt radiating off the alpha.
Come to think of it, that power felt familiar. Had it been in that first alpha too?
“What if she sets everything on fire?” Emre said uneasily.
Zenith arranged his arm to keep Abbie from falling off the table. Then he trailed his other hand down Emre’s arm, tangling their fingers together. “Like I said, this entire apartment is fireproofed. Furniture, walls, objects. You’re safe here.”
The relief was overwhelming. “Except for my clothes.”
At that, Zenith smirked. “You could wear mine.”
Emre blushed. Clothes-sharing was a big thing with wolves, because carrying an alpha’s scent was tantamount to carrying their marking, even if it was only on your clothes and not your skin.
But if Zenith didn’t mind... Who was Emre to argue? “If, um, if you don’t mind lending them to me.”
“Of course I don’t mind. I have plenty of spares. Feel free to go through my closet for something you like.”
His offers kept getting more and more intimate.
“Sure,” Emre said slowly. “Even your underwear?”
He clapped his hand over his mouth and cursed himself, his face burning.
“Even my underwear,” Zenith murmured, his lips twitching into a grin. “Although you might need to modify them so they don’t fall off.”
“Maybe a safety pin would work.”
Zenith released Emre’s hand, leaving his fingers cold. He pulled out his phone and began typing into it. “Safety pins could pop open. Double-sided sticky tape will work better.”
“Do you have some?”
“I’ll acquire it. Don’t worry.” Zenith grinned and typed into his phone again, pausing now and then like he was chatting with someone. Then he set it down and gave Abbie his fingers, only for her to bat at them with her paws.
He was so calm about all of this. It didn’t make sense. Zenith had gone to so much trouble to fireproof his apartment, and even the building around it. Was he afraid that the building would burn down, even if he didn’t?
What would happen when Emre and Abbie went back to their apartment?
“You said you tried to fireproof the other apartments from the hallway,” Emre said uncertainly. “How much of mine is safe from Abbie?”
“Some. Probably not your bed.” Zenith looked apologetic, then thoughtful. “You could stay with me for a couple of nights, if you want. I’ll arrange for your place to be spelled, but it might take some time.”
“I can’t pay you back,” Emre said miserably. “I’m broke.”
Zenith waved him off. “Don’t worry about that.
I’ll pay for it.” Then he blinked and really looked at Emre.
“Actually, if you need to go to the doctor, or the hospital, or if Abbie needs any medical help, come to me, okay? Don’t worry about how much it costs.
I’ll make sure you get the treatment you need. ”
“But... That’s so much!”
“And I don’t have an omega to spend my money on,” Zenith pointed out patiently. “Let me help you.”
He did say he was saving up for an omega, but since there wasn’t one in his life yet... Emre was going to be a little selfish, and put his pups first.
“Okay,” he said. “Thank you.”
Zenith smiled. “I’ll keep all of you safe.”
It was such a relief to hear, that Emre went boneless. “Thank you. And thanks for the offer to stay over. We don’t have anywhere to go.”
“Plenty of space for all of you here.”
“With the single bedroom and the living room?” Emre looked around doubtfully. “Between Buttwheel and Abbie, I think we’d distract you so much, you wouldn’t be able to work.”
Zenith shrugged. “We’ll see. If it gets bad, I can take a couple days off. I haven’t done that ever since I got here.”
“Oh. A day off sounds good.”
“See? It’ll work out,” Zenith said with another smile. “Try not to worry about it.”
Emre sat back, feeling lost. For a long time now, he had survived with only himself to depend on.
Then Abbie had come along, and everything was a bit of a struggle—especially when he’d made the wrong move and gone home with Ronald.
After Emre had escaped with his pup, he’d been a lot warier around alphas.
Then he’d ended up in Cartfalls, pregnant again, and some kind strangers had given him enough money to rent his apartment.
With the discovery of Abbie’s second species, everything felt shaky once more. What if she wrecked the apartment somehow? Hell, what if the unborn pup had a second species too?
Zenith’s gaze was patient and kind. “Want a hug?”
Emre sagged. “Yes.”
Zenith stood and scooped Abbie off the kitchen table. With his other hand, he grabbed her blanket off the couch. “Hey, Buttwheel. I have a job for you. Watch Abbie for now, yeah?”
He lined the bottom of Buttwheel’s cargo basket with the blanket and set Abbie in there with some toys. Then he came back to Emre, helped him to his feet, and pulled him into a warm, sideways hug.
Up close, Zenith was all warmth and strength. He wrapped himself around Emre; Emre shuddered and melted into him, burying his face in Zenith’s chest. Zenith felt like a safe harbor, like Emre could shelter in his arms forever and not leave.
“You’re doing great,” Zenith murmured, rubbing Emre’s back. “If I discovered something like that about my kid, I would be freaking out.”
“Who says I’m not?” Emre said weakly.
“I guess you are. But you’re pretty amazing at holding yourself together.”
“No one else is going to,” Emre said.
Something sad flickered through Zenith’s face. He pulled Emre even closer, as though he was trying to fold himself around Emre.
“I want to help,” Zenith said fervently. “You can lean on me, all right? No one says you have to be strong all the time.”
“But you are,” Emre said.
Zenith shrugged, giving a wry smile. “I’m not. No one is. We are all human, and that means sometimes things affect us, and we have moments of weakness. Or moments of strong emotion. Not that strong emotions mean someone is weak.”
“What was your moment of weakness?” Emre blurted. Then he cringed. “Wait, forget I asked. That’s intensely personal.”
For a heartbeat, Zenith looked thoughtful. Then he smiled. “I’ll tell you that some other time.”
Emre whined. “Why?”
“To encourage you to stick around for longer.” Zenith grinned.
That handsome smile weakened Emre’s knees and made his heart skip.
There was no way Zenith missed Emre’s uneven pulse; the alpha’s smile grew.