All that progress and yet here he was, being sent away to sit in a coffee shop for an unknown length of time because he didn’t have the necessary tolerance for something that was a very important part of his mate’s life.
I suck, Bo thought bitterly, trudging off down the road. He felt so incredibly sluggish lately, and that really didn’t help his mood. Plus, he’d continued to put on weight. The paramedics and EMTs at work who saw him every day were teasing him about his rounded middle, but he was even more active than usual so he didn’t understand why he was gaining weight.
And being sent to a coffee shop to drink a fat-filled latte and a nasty, dry, sugar-crusted scone was hardly going to help that.
Bo was even grumpier when he realized that Ryker had been right. Eating something gave his empty stomach something to work on, quieting its gurgling murmurs. The coffee was too hot to drink right away, so he let it cool while forcing down the remnants of the dry scone. Still struggling to swallow the last crumbs that stuck in his throat, Bo grabbed for the coffee and took a sip.
The sweet taste turned sour in his mouth, saliva flooding in and filling his cheeks. His stomach gave a heavy lurch, and he realized he was about to be sick.
One thrown-up scone later, Bo stumbled over to the bathroom sink to splash water on his face. He grimaced at the feel of his own greasy skin, the pudgy elasticity of his fattened face. What the hell was happening to him? Ryker promised that things would be easier from now on, but they actually just seemed to be getting even harder.
His stomach heaved again, and Bo hurried back to the toilet to go through the whole disgusting process all over again. When he stopped heaving, he tentatively rinsed out his mouth and washed his face again. Ryker’s bike purchase was going to have to wait for another day, it seemed. All at once, the omega just wanted to get home and lie down.
His feet dragged on the pavement as he walked back to the motorcycle dealership. The distance seemed three times what it was when he was heading out. Even though the day was as cloudy as ever, with a damp breeze sweeping down the streets, a light sheen of sweat rose on Bo’s skin and pretty soon he was huffing. The air in his own lungs sounded wrong, weak and watery.
Damn. Maybe I’m really sick.
One of the sales representatives standing just in front of the doors of the dealership looked up as Bo approached. “Hi!” she said cheerfully. “My name is... Oh, it’s you. You just left, didn’t you?”
He understood the words, but there was something about them that just didn’t click in his brain. The world swam slightly in front of his eyes, disoriented and shimmering like rare heat distortion rising up from a playground blacktop.
“You don’t look so good, hon.” The woman gently reached out to gesture Bo further inside the building. “You were with that big guy, right? Your boyfriend, I guess. Let’s go find him, shall we?”
While he was busy trying to figure out how to get his mouth to speak the words in his mind, to tell the kind lady that it wasn’t necessary for her to do that, a surge of awareness and worried heat in Bo’s chest signaled the approach of the alpha wolf.
“Bo!” Ryker called out, with his representative hurrying along behind him, clearly worried where his client was going. “Bo, are you okay?”
Bo swayed on his feet, relieved to feel strong hands wrapping around his body and holding him close. “I’m okay,” he murmured. “Just feel really tired. Got sick. Came back.”
“Damn,” Ryker swore, holding Bo closer. Now instead of being comforting, the heated press of the alpha’s body was starting to make him feel even worse. “You’re burning up, you stubborn little thing. Why didn’t you tell me when you started feeling bad? I wouldn’t have sent you off on your own.”
Bo let out a soft little whimper and tried to tug away from Ryker’s unbearable heat. “I’m fine.”
“You are not. Come on. Let’s go.” To Bo’s relief, Ryker let him go but then grabbed his hand as he turned to look back at the representatives. “Don’t lose those papers. I’m going to come back in a few days and I’ll be looking for you specifically.” The last part of what he said lowered down into the realm of a growl.
Bo took three steps at Ryker’s side, before his vision went hazy again. This time, he couldn’t shake himself out of it and the ground rushed up to meet him while darkness pressed in from above. The last thing he heard was the sound of his own face smacking against the tile floor, but fortunately he was beyond feeling it.
Chapter 14
Before he even opened his eyes, Bo knew where he was. The sharp scents of bleach and medicine were too thick in the still air for it to be anywhere else.
He groaned. “Why am I in the hospital?”
A soft gasp sounded from across the room and a wave of worried anxiety smacked into him a moment before Ryker did. The alpha leapt up into his bed, holding his face in his large hands and smothering every place he could reach with a liberal dose of kisses. “Bo! You’re awake! I was starting to think that you wouldn’t ever wake up!”
Bo squinted at the alpha, patting him on the back with a hand that felt oddly sore. Glancing at it, he realized there was an IV needle stuck into his vein and taped down. I guess that makes sense for why my hand hurts. “I’m glad you have such faith in me,” the omega said wryly. In all honesty, he was baffled. This was a hospital, though. This was a place where answers were found. He figured he would know what was going on shortly.
“I always have faith in you,” Ryker grunted. “But I don’t have faith in these bastard doctors. Running all sorts of tests while you just sit there passed out and looking like you’re dead...”
The alpha’s voice cracked. Bo winced in sympathy and ran his hand up through the other’s hair. “It’s okay,” he said, trying to force some cheer into his voice. “I’m okay. Except for the fact that my face really hurts.”
Ryker whispered into his ear, “That wouldn’t happen if you didn’t fall on it.”
Bo laughed soundlessly. His mouth was dry and he swallowed uselessly while looking around the room. It was an emergency room, but a small one. They must have shifted him out of the better rooms once they figured out that he wasn’t in any immediate, life-threatening danger.
Just then, the door to the room opened and a doctor walked in. Bo recognized him and thanked his lucky stars. It was Dr. Goldman, one of the doctors who was aware of the existence of shapeshifters.
“Hi, Doctor,” Bo said.
The doctor glanced at him while picking up his chart from where it lay nearby. He didn’t look at it, however. It was just a prop to give him something to do with his hands. “Good afternoon, Bo,” he said. “Might I say I was surprised to discover that you were a patient here? Usually, you’re so careful. And you owe me one. Dr. Feldspar got here before I did to start running tests on you. The poor man was very confused.”
Bo winced. “What happened?”
Dr. Goldman came over and listened to his heartbeat for a moment before responding. “You really owe me on this. I convinced him he had screwed up the whole proceedings and that I would need to do it all over again. He didn’t, of course, but now I had to do it to keep up the appearance. And I’m glad I did, because one result looked very odd to me. However, it’s unchanged this time around so it must be true.”
“Get to the point,” Ryker growled from Bo’s side. The doctor looked extremely unbothered by his aggression, which Bo thought was particularly funny.
“It was a result that came about as a urine sample we took from you by way of catheter.”
Great. I have diabetes or something.
“Bo, you’re pregnant.”
The omega swung his head around, mouth dropping open. There were no thoughts in his mind, no room for a single one. All he could manage was, “What?” while Ryker stared at him as if he’d grown a new head. Which, technically, he had. A new head, limbs, and body—all inside his stomach.
“I’m sure your people must know of this phenomenon,” Dr. Goldman carried on. “I
t’s fascinating, really. Your ability to shapeshift must have allowed for a temporary womb to form to incubate the child. It leads right to your rectum.”
Ryker let out a panicked, high-pitch laugh. “Bo is going to shit out a baby?”
“No,” Dr. Goldman said. His eyes flashed mischievously. “He’s going to shit out your baby. But these are interesting results. You two haven’t known each other for very long. About two months?”
“Right,” Bo agreed.
“According to this, you’re four months along. Do shifter children always grow so quickly?”
Bo nodded. He was still baffled beyond understanding anything right now but at least this was something he had knowledge of. “Shifters tend to take either longer or shorter depending on what animal they are.”
“Hmm. That explains it, then. Well, I’m afraid I don’t know of any shifter obstetricians. Find one for me and I’ll write you a referral. And you’d best do it soon, before you actually give birth. Until then, I have some pamphlets to give you regarding nutrition and care. You fainted because you weren’t taking adequate care of yourself, Bo. A child that grows twice as fast as normal needs its parent to take twice as much care of himself.”
Bo sighed and nodded, leaning against Ryker. “I just have one question, though.”
“And that is?”
“You said the baby’s way out is...my ass?”
“Correct.”
“What about sex?”
Dr. Goldman stared for a moment before throwing his head back and letting out a genuine laugh, the sort of which Bo had never heard him give before. “I suggest you ask that of someone who knows better than I do, although I would refrain from doing that particular activity until you’re certain it’s safe.”
Somehow, they managed to eventually get back home. They took a taxi. Neither of them really felt up to walking. Nor did they talk, both of them lost in their private thoughts. Bo assumed Ryker must be thinking of his impending fatherhood, but he couldn’t even think about that for himself yet. He was an omega. His body was literally made for this. It was only natural, even if hearing it did seem a bit weird. However, all he could think about was the fact that his indecision about the future had suddenly been decided for him. He couldn’t work like this, pregnant in an ambulance, involved in situations that were often dangerous. And after he had the baby, he wouldn’t be able to go back to work for a long time.
So now that’s been decided for me.
He hadn’t really been paying attention to where they were going, so he was somewhat surprised when the taxi pulled up in front of his apartment building. “What are we doing here?”
Ryker glanced at him, surprise on his face. “Aren’t you supposed to be the one with the maternal instincts? Wolf shifters leave the pack to prepare for birth, don’t they?”
Bo frowned a little. “I guess that’s right. Oh!” As he was distracted with talking, Ryker scooped him up from beneath and started carrying him up to his apartment. Rather than protest, he lay his head on the alpha’s shoulder and let himself be taken care of.
Once they were inside, Ryker took Bo to the bed and undressed him. “We’ll burn those clothes,” the big wolf grunted. “They reek of hospital.”
Bo smiled and cuddled up against his alpha, but Ryker wasn’t done with him just yet. “Let me tell you something,” he growled softly. “I had no idea what was in my future before I met you. No damn idea. But now... Now I know that you are my future and I don’t want to spend another day without you. Quit your job, Bo. Have my children. Live with my pack. Be mine, eternally.”
Bo nodded, pressing his face to Ryker’s neck. “I will,” he whispered. “I don’t want anything else. I love you.”
“And I love you too,” Ryker whispered into his ear, breath hot and stirring the short hairs there. “But just a question...why did you ask the doctor about sex?”
Blushing in answer, Bo reached down between the alpha’s legs and took hold of his member. It was already half-hard, immediately beginning to twitch and harden further in his grasp as he moved his grip gently up and down. Ryker pulled in a deep, shaking breath. “We don’t have to do this now if you don’t want to.”
“I want to,” Bo said honestly. He felt hazy, but not in the frightening sick way from before. He understood all that had been happening to him—the sluggishness, the moodiness—it was all just part of the pregnancy and what the hormones were doing to his body. He had been filling out because of this. And now, just like a sudden storm that came and went on the seas, his sickness was gone and he felt undeniably horny. His palms tingled where Ryker’s burning shaft lay against his palm.
Tightening his hand slightly to increase the pressure, making Ryker groan and toss his head from pleasure, Bo kept stroking steadily up and down. The alpha moved his hips with the motion, pumping his cock against his omega’s hand.
Then, Bo sat up and shifted around so that he could lean over and pull Ryker’s cock into his mouth. The tip tasted salty and sweet all at once and he sucked eagerly, wanting more. Ryker groaned and thrust in his mouth now, the motion barely restrained. The alpha was trembling almost uncontrollably, his breath coming in gasps.
Holding the base of Ryker’s shaft, Bo pulled the other’s cock deeper into his mouth so that it hit against the back of his throat. His eyes shut with pure delight and he let out a soft help and sucked even harder when an idle finger found its way to his tender opening and pressed against it. Ryker didn’t enter him, but just kept rubbing his rough finger in hard circles around the sensitive pucker.
Bo wiggled his ass, whimpering more now and sucking on Ryker’s cock harder. He wanted it. He needed it. He had to have it, to take as much of it as he could.
Suddenly, the cock in his mouth went even more rigid than before and a spurt of burning heat filled his mouth. He swallowed it eagerly and kept sucking and sucking until Ryker eventually stopped shaking and slumped back onto the bed, limp and finished.
Bo gently pulled away and then went to kiss Ryker with the taste of the alpha on his lips.
“Thank you,” Ryker purred.
Bo giggled and nodded, starting to lie down next to his alpha. After a moment, he felt a hand wrap around his own dick and start to move, but he reached down and gently pushed it away. The desperate, horny need had been diminished somewhat by what he’d done already.
“You don’t want any?” Ryker said, surprised. “Omegas normally...” He caught himself and then moved his hand away from Bo’s dick to his thigh, gently stroking it. “But you’re not just any other omega, are you?”
“Right,” Bo said, smiling wide. He cuddled deep against the other’s side, once again delighting in how well they simply fit together without any space left between them at all. “I love you, Ryker.”
“I love you too, Bo.”
Tangled up in each other, the two wolves lay curled on the bed in the dim apartment bedroom. Their souls were completely connected. They didn’t need to speak to share their thoughts, to wonder quietly at the future together. Already, Bo was making plans for the baby. He wondered if it would be a boy or a little girl, and thought perhaps he already had a name picked out if it was going to be a girl. Beside him, he could feel Ryker doing the same.
He’ll be a good dad, Bo thought happily. It was the last thing he thought before falling asleep.
Chapter 15
Hard nails dug into his chest. Bo was grabbing at him and shaking him with the strength only found in mothers. “Get this thing out!” he screeched.
Ryker winced and resisted the urge to cover his ears. He was having to resist a lot of urges, not the least of which were crying and storming out of the room. He’d had no idea what pregnancy could do to a person’s emotions, although he thought he might have been starting to understand towards the end of it. But this? Bo’s mood swings were nothing compared to the deep, pulsing anger of labor.
“We’re working on it,” Ryker said, trying to sound soothing. “Just relax, okay? Relax, Bo.”
>
Those small, hard hands raked against his chest again. “You wouldn’t be telling me to calm down,” Bo snarled, “if you were trying to push out a hippopotamus!”
“It’s an eight-pound baby,” Ryker threw back. “People all over the world do this all the time. And I guarantee most of them aren’t attacking their husband when they do it!”
His chest was scraped raw and bloody, the front of his shirt ruined. However, it really didn’t hurt very much. Already, the scratches were healing.
The past two months had been beyond chaotic, as Bo quit his job and news of his pregnancy spread between the packs. Visitors were always coming and going, bearing food and presents. Half of the time, Ryker didn’t even have any idea what these things were for. And Bo wouldn’t explain to him. His questions were met with hysterical laughter, typically.
Only three weeks ago, they were married on the grand front lawn of Bo’s family home. It was a simple affair, but by no means small because both of their packs were in attendance.
And now they were here, sequestered away in Bo’s apartment. The shifter pregnancy specialist they found had used all sorts of fancy terms for what was going on with the omega, but the short of it all was that Bo was becoming extremely territorial and needed a place to “nest” to have the baby. He would stay in his nest for a month or two after the birth before rejoining the pack.
How that explained the fact that Bo ripped the bed and covers to pieces in the past couple days, Ryker didn’t know. It seemed to be a natural thing that the doctor encouraged, so he figured he didn’t need to understand as long as it was normal.
Watching Bo strain and writhe on the bed, Ryker couldn’t help but feel guilty for the fact that he was blocking their connection. He really didn’t want to feel even a fraction of what Bo was; it was also best for his mate, he reasoned, to have less to distract him.
As Bo opened his mouth to let out another angry shriek, his stomach rippling with contractions, the doctor emerged from the bathroom with a prepared shot. “Okay, Bo,” she said cheerfully. “You’re doing great. In fact, I’d say you’re ready to have this baby! So if you’ll leave, Ryker, I’ll give Bo this shot and we’ll get to it!”
Wild Ride: An M/M Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 15