I wasn’t sure I could live with that.
After we’d seen him and Abel off, and Abel had given me my fifty millionth lecture on being safe in human territory, Duke and I took the pups out into the back yard to play again. I wouldn’t say it to Duke, but it turned out that last night had scared me, and I’d been really nervous heading back out into human territory. In fact, I was beginning to rethink this whole education thing after all. Maybe Mom and Dad were right, and my place was in the home, having pups and cooking. It put a damper on the day, and it only took a half hour of outdoor fun with the pups before Duke called me out on it.
“They aren’t all like that. We primed the trap by going there. Do not let this get in the way of your plans.”
I decided to play it cool. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I bounced a ball to Jedrick, one of the ones Cas had bought. He grabbed for it, missed completely, then fell over. I laughed and helped him sit up again, then held out used-to-be-stuffed-but-no-longer-was bunny for Isolde to grab and chew and tear at. I was having trouble figuring out what Jedrick was, but there was no doubt that Isolde was going to be an alpha. Duke’s influence coming out, I supposed.
“Do you think I can’t tell by now when you’re scared? I’ll admit, there isn’t much that scares you, but to me, it’s obvious that last night was a bigger thing for you than you’ve admitted.”
I sighed. “Maybe. Yes. I don’t know. If it’s always like this, I don’t want to do this. I can’t just think about myself.” I gave him a sidelong glance, then turned back to Isolde, who was fussing now and pulling at her clothes. I picked her up and began to feel around to see if there was something poking her or rubbing against her skin. “What’s wrong, sweetie?” I couldn’t find anything, so I started pulling her t-shirt off over her head. “I mean, it was awkward enough in the hospital. But this…” I shook my head, and stripped Isolde’s little flowered pants off her, so she was crawling around in her diaper alone. “I don’t want them hurt. Or you. If that had been you last night—” I crawled next to him and leaned into him so he could put an arm around me. “I think I would have done something we all would have regretted.”
“It’s okay. There are places that are safer than that. I won’t let you go out with the pups alone.”
“I should be able to go out with the pups alone, though. That’s the problem. I’m omega, they’re babies. We aren’t a threat.”
“They don’t see it like that.”
I sighed and watched Isolde pick at her diaper, trying to get it off. “What is wrong with her?” I leaned forward and picked her up so I could lay her down in front of me and check her diaper. “I just changed you, you can’t be completely filthy already.” I pulled the diaper off and set it aside, then started to check her over for any marks or anything. She squirmed and yelled at me, batting at my hands as I moved her around so I could see all of her.
Then, she bit me.
With her fangs. Like, real fangs. Wolf fangs. Quickly, I flipped her over on her belly and grabbed Duke’s hand. “I think she’s trying for her first shift,” I whispered. We watched anxiously, Duke absently tossing the ball in Jedrick’s direction, reaching out to pull him closer if he tried to crawl away.
She grunted and squirmed. Her fingers shortened, and her ears got longer. Scattered bits of fur appeared, along her spine and over her shoulders, only to disappear as if her body was sucking them back in.
And then, it was over. She was still human looking, and she’d apparently given up on changing her form in favor of watching a butterfly flutter past.
Duke and I watched her in silence, then he said, “Well, that was underwhelming.”
I laughed and hugged him. “She’ll get there eventually.” I got to my feet. “I’ll make supper. I got some ground beef at the store this afternoon. Bax’s meatballs sound good to you?”
“Sounds fantastic.” He grabbed my hand before I could disappear into the house and pulled me down for a quick kiss. “I’m thinking it might be good if the pups had an early night. And if we did too.” The way he said it, I didn’t think we’d be getting any extra sleep on our ‘early night’.
“Make sure you eat all your supper,” I told him, with as serious an expression as I could manage. “You’ll need your energy.”
His face lit up and he laughed. “Get cooking then, while I wrangle the wild things.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
One afternoon, during the weekend before school was supposed to start, in a quiet time after moving in the other two shifters that were staying in the house, there was a knock at the front door. Duke and I were sitting on the floor in the living room, watching the twins while Jedrick pulled himself up on the edge of the couch and took unsteady steps toward us, and Isolde rolled around on the floor, completely naked except for the patches of fur that grew and receded on her body.
We looked at each other—we weren’t expecting a visitor. After all, it wasn’t like our neighbors were dropping by on a daily basis with casseroles and cookies. As one person, we both got to our feet, but I let Duke take the lead, hanging back in case he needed backup.
Duke got to the door and peered tensely out through the glass for a moment. Then he made a surprised noise and swung the door open. “Laine! What are you doing here?”
It was the lawyer who’d taken Jason’s case, back when he was newly mated to Mac—and wasn’t that a scandal at the time—and his pack was trying to use the human system of laws to take him back. I’d seen this human around since, but not from close up, since my parents always hurried me away from the ‘nasty human’. I didn’t think he was nasty, but I had a healthy respect for how smart he was, and how much his behavior resembled that of an alpha shifter.
Laine smiled. “I was out of town when you arrived, but isn’t it traditional to bring housewarming presents?” He held up a bottle of wine. “I have cake too. Let me in and we can eat while we talk.”
“Talk?” Duke asked as he stepped out of the way.
Laine nodded to me in greeting as he entered. “I had a message from Garrick, including pictures of some extremely colorful bruising on Cas’s face.” He looked all too pleased about it, which made me nervous, though I didn’t think that oddly predatory sense I got off him was directed at us. Laine continued, “Yes, I think we need to take a short trip down to that grocery store. And, if you’ll agree to it, I think we might want to get a friend of mine involved as well.”
I led them into the living room. “We can eat here, but you’ll have to watch out for the babies.” I looked around—Jedrick was on his hands and knees, looking under the couch for something, but Isolde was nowhere to be seen. “Where is she?”
A low whine came from behind the couch.
Duke started to laugh. “I think she’s stuck.”
“Some Da you are,” I grumbled. “Here, take your son while I pull the couch out.” I handed an unwilling Jedrick to him and yanked on the couch until the whining stopped. When I looked behind, a small, brownish gray pup with one bent ear peered up at me, and promptly peed on the floor. I sighed. “At least it isn’t carpet.” As soon as she finished, I scooped her up and went to the bathroom to wash her paws and get a towel to clean up the mess.
I came back a few minutes later with a freshly washed fuzzball and a damp towel to clean up the mess behind the couch. The men were on the floor with Jedrick, so I set Isolde on the floor beside them. “Watch she doesn’t get into anything while I clean up the mess?”
While I mopped and wiped the floor behind the couch, I overheard the men talking. The second half of a conversation they obviously had already started while I was gone with Isolde.
“We can start big, but if we have a history of small cases, it makes it easier to win the big one,” Laine was saying.
I paused in my work and listened harder.
“He can’t afford to be distracted. This is going to be difficult enough.”
“He won’t have to do a thing. Just fill me in on his side of
the story, come for one day to testify.”
“I don’t like it.”
I popped up from behind the couch. “Don’t like what?” The floor was as clean as it was going to get anyway, so I pushed the couch back in place and sat on it.
“He wants to sue the grocery store. And invite the reporter to write a story about it,” Duke said in a repressive tone.
Laine shook his head. “I want to do what Abel and I spoke about—work toward equality for shifters. An end to the walls.”
“I’m in,” I said. I didn’t eve have to think about it. “What do I need to do?”
“Bram, no!” Duke turned to me, visibly annoyed. “You have school and babies.”
“And I can’t do this too?” Fine time to turn all alpha on me, mate of mine. “So I can go to school in human territory, but that’s as much as I should do? You don’t think me coming here to take a professional degree isn’t a strike for shifter equality?” I reached out and pulled Jedrick into my lap. He squirmed, more interested in his quest to walk like a human before his sister than he was in being a teddy pup for his bearer. Reluctantly, I let him slide down to the floor and creep-walk away from me. “We have to take our opportunities where we can.” I didn’t want to fight with Duke—something inside me twisted sickeningly at the thought. But that night had scared me and made me angry, and the more I thought about bringing our babies up in a world where that was okay, the less scared and the more angry I became. “I want to be sure our babies are safe. Which means consequences for humans that even make me think that they might not be.”
“Bram—”
“Duke.” I wasn’t going to have an argument with him in public, so I turned to the lawyer. “Can we have a moment?”
He nodded and stood up. “You two talk it out. I’m going to go open this bottle and cut this cake. I assume I can hunt around in your kitchen for supplies?”
“Of course,” I told him, and waited silently while he left the room. Then I turned to Duke. “I know you mean well, but I think I can afford a day or two as long as it isn’t right around exam time.”
“And what if someone gets aggressive with you? If I’m there, I’ll have the babies. If I’m not, you’ll be there by yourself.”
“With Laine, and a whole building full of cops and lawyers.”
“And you’re sure you can trust them?”
He had me there. I tried another tack. “What if we ask if Bax or Jason or Holland can come over to look after the pups that day?” Duke still looked mutinous, so I moved over to sit on his knee. “I know it’s not entirely safe, but I’d rather something happened to me, than something happen to them in twenty years.” I nodded toward the pups, squabbling over the bunny on the floor in front of us. “It’s not logical, but Bax said not everything to do with parenting is. And I want a safer world for them. Which, I suppose, means taking some of that danger on myself, so it’s not there when they’re my age.”
His jaw worked, a sign that he was truly upset and trying not to be. I kissed him gently and added, “If you really want to forbid it, you can. I won’t go against you. But I never knew how much I would worry about them until I had them.”
Duke sighed and buried his face in my neck, his arms finally moving around me. “All right. I’m not happy about this. But I see your logic. Just promise me that if the risk goes up even a little bit, you’ll drop it, okay?” He pulled me tight against him, until I had to beg for space to breathe. I had to pay a fine in kisses for the privilege, but I didn’t mind those kinds of payments.
We called Laine back in and I let Duke lay out our agreement while I guarded the slices of cake and the glasses of wine from curious puppy fingers and noses. Laine wore an expression I pegged as mildly pleasant, and I suspected he wasn’t happy with the arrangement.
I was right.
Once Duke finished, Laine turned to me. “Is this your decision too?”
Of course. “I’m not your ordinary omega,” I told him. “But I’m also not going to force my mate to worry about me for no reason.” I ate a mouthful of cake. “Oh, this is good. What kind is it?”
“Skor,” he said absently, and watched me closely while I took another bite. “All right,” he said suddenly. “I don’t think you’ll need to worry about violence, not out in the open. I’m glad you have these walls. You might want to think about keeping the gate closed during the day as well, and clearing anything flammable away from the walls. I know it’s brick, but not all of it is.”
Duke opened his mouth to protest, but I held up a finger. “We have an agreement. And I’m still trying to get rid of the baby paunch. I need the exercise.” I nodded and pointed at his cake. “Eat. It really is delicious.”
He sighed and picked up his fork. “Bossy omega.”
“Damn straight,” I murmured, quiet enough I hoped the pups couldn’t make it out. And when I looked up at the lawyer, I saw the light of comprehension in his eyes, and more than a little amusement. Good. I felt like a sorcerer from one of the old tales. Do my omega bidding. I stifled a snort of laughter, and shook my head at the two men when they gave me curious looks. “Watch your plate,” I told Laine. “You’re got a stalker.” We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about school and our plans for the future. And guarding our plates from the pups.
CHAPTER SIXTY
School was great. No, school was fantastic! Thanks to Cas’s tour, I never got lost trying to find my classes. It was a standard first year program, so not that interesting, but Duke kept me from slacking off, so my marks were all good. The only disappointment was that the grocery store backed down as soon as Laine and I went in to talk to them. I was kind of looking forward to setting the precedent, as Laine called it. They did cough up a bunch of money, enough to pay for tuition this year for me, and for Cas to put away against whatever he might need in the future. So, all’s well that ends well?
After some uncomfortable glances and a few weeks where any seat I took in class ended up with a wide empty halo around it, my classmates began to relax around me and by the time November came around, I’d made a few human friends. Not friends like I would spend time with them out of class, but they’d chat with me before class and ask about the pups. It was okay. Better than I’d feared, not as good as I’d hoped. But I was still new here. I’d keep working at them, and eventually they’d forget that I had another form I could take. That, or they’d decide they just didn’t care.
I was sitting in my Anatomy and Physiology class in mid-November, listening to a lecture about the circulatory system, when I realized I was coming into heat. Normally, this and Pre-Calculus were the only ones I wasn’t bored to tears in, but today I just couldn’t keep my brain focused on what we were learning about. Instead, everything seemed to lead my thoughts back to Duke. Funny how long it took me to figure it out, but once I did, it seemed obvious. After all, it wasn’t like I was nursing the pups, so it was bound to happen. Strange—I’d been waiting so impatiently for it to happen, I hadn’t noticed it.
And… it was Friday.
Class finally ended and I packed up my stuff and took off for home. All I had was History of Film and my English Writing course—not missing anything important there.
Duke was in the back yard when I walked in the door, putting the finishing touches on a set of shelves for Laine while the pups crawled around on the grass beside him. The shelves were gorgeous, but not as gorgeous as my mate.
“Can we ask Sylva to watch the pups for a while?”
He sat back, brushing away the curls of wood where he’d been carving the edges. “Why, what’s up?”
I grinned at him. “I am.” I dropped my books to the side and pushed him over onto his back so I could straddle him. “Hope you didn’t have plans for the weekend.”
Duke drew in a breath to say something, who knew what, but he got a good whiff of my scent and his pupils dilated, the words dying before they could be spoken. He curled his upper lip and sniffed again, drawing the air up into that spot on the roof
of his mouth. “Fuck, you smell good.”
A shiver ran over my body at those words, and I lay myself on top of him. “Come on. Let’s go have some adult time.” I raised my voice. “Sylva?”
Her reply drifted faintly down from her window. “What?”
“Can you watch the pups?”
“For how long?”
“A day?”
“A day?” Her head popped out of her window and she stared down at us. “Can’t you take them with you wherever you’re going?”
“We’re going to bed! I swear, I’ll do your share of the chores for a week after,” I yelled up at her.
She stared at us a moment with a frown, then her expression cleared as she realized what was going on. “Ohhhh! Yeah, sure I’ll watch them.” She grinned. “I’d hate to interrupt you guys making them a new brother or sister.”
Duke twitched at that and I laughed. She wasn’t wrong. I wanted to carry Duke’s baby, and—in my mind—it felt like a way to become completely his. Truly wiping Justin out of my life.
Sylva’s face disappeared and only moments later, she came out the back door. “You guys go have fun. I’ll feed them and give them their baths and put them to bed. Don’t you worry.”
“Thank you!” I leaped to my feet and dragged Duke up to his. His skin felt wonderful against my palm and I couldn’t wait to feel the rest of him against all of me. I kissed the babies quickly, tickling them before I gave them to Sylva, then ran for the house with Duke.
I slammed the door behind us and attacked Duke’s shirt. Damn, but he was sexy, and in my current state, I could hardly undo the buttons for my hands shaking with need.
Duke, for some reason, didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic, despite the heavy bulge in the front of his jeans. I paused with my hands flat against his chest. “Is something wrong?”
He looked down and took my hands. His breathing was heavy, like he’d been running, and his fingers rubbed restlessly over mine. “I think we should use condoms.”
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 27