9. Abbie’s Surprise
ABBIE’S SURPRISE
The next morning, Emre woke up to what felt like a contraction.
Then he realized he was in a warm, comfy bed.
And he wasn’t alone.
In fact, someone was wrapped around him, large and warm like a furnace.
He panicked, sucking in a sharp breath. Smoky musk filled his lungs. Along with the scent of sex—sweat, musk, cum. That scent was overpowering, because...
Because he was with Zenith, and last night, Zenith had come to him, and impaled Emre on his big, sinful cock.
“Oh, Mother Moon,” Emre whimpered, his hole fluttering—around something.
Was Zenith still inside him? Had he been there all night, after his knot went down? Emre’s face burned.
That’s so hot. Was he really cuddling with me this whole time?
“Mmm?” Zenith mumbled, snuggling closer. He settled his leg more firmly over Emre’s hip, his cock pushing deeper.
Emre moaned, pleasure singing through his body.
Behind him, Zenith froze. He withdrew his nose from Emre’s hair. “Emre?”
“Did I wake you up?” Emre blurted.
“I... Yes.” Zenith tightened his arm around Emre, before releasing him. “Sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“No!” Emre grabbed Zenith’s hand in case the alpha decided to pull away. Then he blushed and cleared his throat, trying to act like he was completely calm. “I’m very comfortable and, um, I don’t need you to pull away. Or out.”
“Out...?” Zenith paused and leaned back, as though he was taking stock of his body. “Oh. Oh.”
The next thing Emre knew, Zenith was purring, pressing closer and sliding his cock fully inside. Emre moaned.
“Thanks for keeping me warm and snug inside you,” Zenith whispered in his ear.
Emre blushed. “Uh, it was my pleasure?”
Zenith laughed.
“That was horrible.” Emre groaned, pulling the sheets over his head.
“In any case, I had a very good night,” Zenith said, nuzzling Emre’s hair. He froze though, setting careful fingers on Emre’s hip. “Did I... Was I too rough on you?”
He pulled out completely, sitting up.
Emre whined. “I’m fine! Come back!”
“Let me make sure.” Zenith drew the sheets off Emre, exposing his entire body. Then he inhaled quickly.
When Emre looked down, he found Zenith staring at his hip—four finger-shaped bruises sat neatly in a row. His heart skipped.
Zenith caught that stutter, looking up with a frown. “I should’ve been more careful—”
“No, no!” Emre flapped his hands. “It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt.”
“Are you sure?” Zenith carefully prodded one bruise.
How did you tell an almost-stranger that you liked his finger bruises because they felt like a claim? That seemed too soon.
“They don’t hurt.” Emre jabbed his finger into one bruise. It ached slightly, but that wasn’t ‘hurt’.
“Fine,” Zenith said, watching him closely. He trailed his palm over Emre’s thigh and up his belly, rubbing it all over. “No pain here?”
Emre shook his head. “Pup’s fine. I felt a push or two earlier.”
Zenith relaxed, watching Emre’s belly for a while. He broke into a tiny smile. “Yeah, the pup’s heartbeat is fine. I was counting on and off all day yesterday to get a baseline.”
No one had done that for Emre’s pups before.
But Zenith began to frown again. “That isn’t creepy, is it? I just... I want to be aware in case of an emergency.”
Emre’s heart swelled. “No, go ahead and listen. There hasn’t been an alpha who cared that much before.”
Zenith scowled. “There should be. It sounds like you’ve only met assholes who don’t know how to take care of an omega.”
How was he even real? Emre gaped, then shook himself so he could get his thoughts together. “This is way beyond ‘taking care of an omega’, Zenith. You care about my pups—even the unborn one. The... The only other alpha who would do that, was my papa.”
Zenith puffed out his chest indignantly. “Just one alpha? What about the rest of your pack?”
Emre shrugged. “My pack wasn’t great, even if we were extended family.”
Impossibly, Zenith stiffened even further. His eyes flashed; they seemed to flicker red for a second. “Well, I’m going to care.”
He cupped Emre’s belly and nudged it slightly.
When there wasn’t any movement, Zenith pressed his lips to Emre’s belly and spoke, his voice rumbling through Emre’s body.
“Hey, pup. Just making sure you’re doing okay in there.
We’ll keep an ear on you, yeah? Your dad says you might be coming out soon. See you then. Be good.”
Zenith was sticking around for the birth?
The pup answered by pushing back. Emre stared. Fuck. Zenith really was something else.
Zenith lit up. “The pup heard me?”
“Sure did.” Emre grinned.
“Now, your turn,” the alpha said, petting Emre’s ass.
“My turn?”
“Up, on all fours. Let me check that you’re okay.”
His cheeks prickling with heat, Emre clumsily rolled onto his hands and knees. Zenith settled behind him and helped, keeping Emre steady as he shuffled his legs open.
“What kind of exam is this?” Emre squeaked.
“I bruised you on the outside,” Zenith muttered. “I want to make sure nothing inside is hurt.”
He cupped Emre’s cheeks and spread them, examining Emre’s hole.
“Your pucker looks fine. Stretched out, but that’s to be expected after how long you’ve been wrapped around me.
” Zenith grabbed his phone and slid two fingers into Emre, scissoring them to open up his hole.
Then he shone his phone’s flashlight inside.
Emre buried his face in a pillow. “Oh gods.”
It was one thing to be examined by a doctor, but to have his... neighbor? His one-night stand? His maybe-alpha? To have Zenith looking so closely at one of the most intimate parts of his body, shining a bright light on it...
Emre shuddered, his hole clenching.
Zenith rumbled and kept Emre stretched open on his fingers. “Looks good on the inside. How are you feeling in here?”
“I feel... open.” Emre blushed. “Like I got a workout. But nothing hurts.”
“Good.” Zenith tilted his phone’s flashlight at different angles, like he was inspecting every inch of Emre’s inner walls. Finally, he pulled out his fingers and wiped them on the forgotten bath towel.
“Are you going to do that again?” Emre blurted. “After the birth.”
Then he cringed. His post-birth body wasn’t going to be in great shape. Certainly not something Zenith would find attractive.
But Zenith almost looked... shy. “You’d let me?”
Emre frowned. “You’d want to?”
“Yes. Of course. If you need someone to perform a visual exam, I’d volunteer. Not that I have any medical experience,” Zenith added sheepishly.
Emre shrugged. “I didn’t have anyone at all after Abbie, so anything more than that is already a step up.”
Zenith scowled again. “I will help. Just tell me what to do.”
“Thanks,” Emre said, his heart fluttering.
“Let me make you breakfast.” Zenith set down his phone and left the bedroom to wash his hands.
Abbie was making little hungry whimpers, so Emre shuffled off the bed and waddled over to the kitchen.
What he saw made him freeze completely.
Scattered on the floor around Buttwheel, were tiny, charred pieces of something. A glance into the shopping cart’s basket added to his horror—Abbie’s blanket was blackened in some spots, and entirely missing in large chunks. Some of the other toys had been burned to a crisp.
“Abbie!” Emre yelped, hurrying over.
The pup was on her back, kicking her paws. She didn’t seem to be in any kind of distress. When Emre drew closer, she turned to look at him, her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” Zenith asked behind Emre. “Oh.”
Carefully, Emre scooped Abbie into his arms, turning her over to check for burns. Every strand of fur looked intact. Abbie yipped and twitched her nose, leaning eagerly toward his chest.
“Her toys and blanket aren’t fireproof,” Emre said, still in shock. “But she’s completely unharmed?”
When there was no nipple forthcoming, Abbie began to strain against Emre’s hands, wriggling in an attempt to get closer.
Emre sighed, raising her to eye level. “Sure, go ahead and make a mess, and expect to be fed anyway.”
Zenith laughed. “She’s adorable.”
“She is, until you realize she’s chewed through your last clean pair of underwear.” Emre brought Abbie closer to his face, dropping a kiss on her wet little nose. “Are you going to shift back? Your little wolf teeth don’t play well with my chest.”
Abbie barked and wagged her tail.
Zenith frowned. “Can she eat something else?”
“Raw meat or eggs. She’s more advanced as a wolf pup than a human baby. In her human shape, I can feed her from my chest, but she’s not shifting back. Guess I’m shifting then.”
Zenith perked up, eyes bright. “I would love to see that.”
Emre hesitated, feeling self-conscious again. Wolf shifters were common; no alpha had watched him like Zenith was, all warm and interested.
He carefully got to his knees and set Abbie on the kitchen floor. Then he reached for the part of him that longed to howl and run through a lush forest.
His limbs grew shorter; his face lengthened into a snout. Everything became sharper—his sense of sight, hearing, and smell. In his belly, the unborn baby shifted along with him, twitching and testing its new boundaries.
Zenith drew a slow breath, crouching. His gaze roved over Emre’s body; was he looking at Emre’s gray wolf shape, or the bald patches of his scars?
Ducking his head, Emre lay on the floor and let Abbie latch onto a nipple.
After a moment of quiet, Zenith murmured, “May I pet you?”
“Sure,” Emre said.
He held his breath, watching from the corner of his eye as Zenith sat on the floor next to them.
The alpha reached over and carded his fingers through Emre’s fur, starting from the back of his ears, down his neck, and along his flank.
His touch passed over some bald patches—those were numb, but Zenith didn’t seem to mind them at all.
“Beautiful,” Zenith said.
“Really?”
“Yes.” Zenith frowned. “You don’t think so?”
“I’m covered in scars.”
Zenith narrowed his eyes. “Yes, but the scars are just a part of you, not all of you.”
“They’re from a time when I was weak.”
“But you pulled through. You’re over that, and you’ve showed everyone how strong you are.”
Emre sighed. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to survive stupid crap to become stronger. All I want is a simple, happy life. Is that too much to ask?”
Zenith’s smile was wry. “I would give that to you if I could, sweetheart. It’s a different story in books. Characters suffer through trials and tribulations, and their happy ending is sweeter because of it.”
Emre made a face. “I’m not a book character! I don’t want to have to prove myself.”
“Even if you get a happy ending?”
Emre rolled his eyes. “Is there really a happy ending for us? Life happens. There’s always some kind of crap around the corner.”
“In a romance novel, a happy ending means you get a lifelong companion to share your joys and burdens with. That makes everything better, for the rest of your life.”
Actually, that sounded really good.
Maybe Emre could want that, even if he told no one else.
Are you volunteering? he wanted to ask Zenith. Promising someone the rest of your life was... crazy. Especially when they hardly knew each other.
Before either of them could speak, Emre’s belly clenched in a very familiar way.