by AM Halford
Nexus gaped as he looked between Roy and the doctor, his eyes settling on the pregnancy test every other pass. He so was not helping Roy at the moment.
Sighing, Roy took the box, stood, and carefully made his way to the bathroom. Thankfully he hadn’t gone earlier, so it was easy for him to follow the directions. With the sample applied to the stick, Roy set it on the counter and waited the allotted amount of time.
Halfway through the wait, Nexus came into the bathroom.
“So?” He shuffled his feet as he looked at the stick.
“Another minute,” Roy grumbled.
The timer went off, and Roy picked up the stick and the box. He read the instructions five times as he looked between it and the stupid stick with the plus sign. He was pregnant.
“Roy?” Nexus stepped closer.
Trying not to lose his shit, Roy met his husband’s eyes and gave a weak, crooked grin. “We’re pregnant.”
God! That was an alien thing to say!
Nexus’s smile could power an entire city it was so damn bright and joyous. He swooped Roy up and hugged him securely as he spun Roy around the bathroom. Nexus was laughing, and Roy was certain he saw a few tears.
“Congratulations you two,” Dr. O’Hare said, joining them.
When Nexus finally put Roy down, though he didn’t release him—instead, his hands were resting over Roy’s stomach—Roy glance at the doctor and frowned. “I don’t get it. I shouldn’t be getting sick so soon. Right?”
Dr. O’Hare smirked knowingly. “You’re going off the human pregnancy length of ten months. A shifter pregnancy takes an average of three months, hence why you’re already having morning sickness.”
Three months! He was going to experience a full pregnancy in just three months! Who the fuck decided that shit?
“We need to schedule your first prenatal exam, and ultrasound,” Dr. O’Hare instructed. “I’ll have my nurse call you today to set it all up. Until then, avoid foods that make you sick, and please take these.” He handed Roy a bottle of prenatal vitamins. “They’re made for human women, but work perfectly for shifters, too.”
“I’m human,” Roy pointed out.
“But the baby is a jaguar shifter,” Dr. O’Hare reminded him.
Right, how could he forget that?
“Thank you, doctor!” Nexus exclaimed and shook his hand. “Be right back, minha alma.” Nexus kissed Roy’s temple before showing the doctor out, leaving Roy alone in the bathroom again. Only this time he was left with a truckload worth to truly worry about.
* * * *
Nexus couldn’t stop smiling, even as he called Stylianos to inform him of the good news and request Calisto’s help. Nexus wasn’t a fool. He could see the panic in Roy’s eyes. His little mate was going to need all the help he could get.
“Hello, Nexus,” Stylianos answered with gruff irritation. “Why are you calling so early?”
“Roy is pregnant,” Nexus explained quickly. “I was wondering if Calisto could come over today, you know, to give him some encouragement. And advice.”
“Congratulations.” Stylianos’s tone brightened. “I’ll find my mate and tell him. I’m sure he’ll be delighted to come over.”
“Thank you.” Nexus grinned. He reentered the house and damn near dropped his phone when he found Roy in the kitchen. “You should be in bed!” he ordered, forgetting the king of his people was still on the phone.
“I need to eat,” Roy argued. “No matter how much the thought of food repulses me. Nutrition is highly important when pregnant, I know that much. Just, keep the coffee away from me. Just the smell of it is making me gag.” There was true depression in his mate’s voice as he looked longingly at the coffeemaker. “Who were you talking to?” Roy’s gaze moved to Nexus’s phone, still pressed to his ear.
“Stylianos, sorry.” Nexus shook himself for forgetting his manners.
“No problem. Calisto said he’ll be there around noon. Take care until then.” The dragon laughed before hanging up.
“You called Stylianos?” Roy frowned. “Why?”
“To ask him if Calisto could visit,” Nexus answered. “To help you with preparing.”
“We just found out today.” Roy sounded exasperated. “Not like the baby is coming tomorrow.”
“But, as the doctor said, shifter pregnancies are much shorter than a human’s.”
“So?”
“So, we need to start preparing sooner. I don’t want you stressing during the later trimester.” Nexus approached his mate carefully, wrapping his arms around him and just holding Roy. “I might not be a lot of help, but I can make this go as smoothly as possible, if you’ll let me.”
Roy sighed, nodded, and rested his head against Nexus’s chest. “Then, can you go to the store and get me some tea? Both black and green?”
“Okay.” Nexus kissed Roy’s nose before sending a text to Iago, ordering him to get to the house and watch Roy like a fucking hawk! He was not to let his mate out of his sight, or let anyone near him until he got back.
He waited until Iago arrived before grabbing his car keys and going to the garage. He made his trip to the store quick, buying the exact brands Roy had asked for. Nexus didn’t want to spend a single second more than he had to away from his mate right now. Roy was too vulnerable pregnant. True, it was only the first week, well, days, into the pregnancy, but Nexus knew as soon as word got out trouble could start up again.
Halfway home from the grocery store, his phone rang. Using the Bluetooth in his car radio, he answered it. “What, Maria?”
“Just reminding you of your deadline today.” She sounded far too happy for Nexus’s liking.
“I’ve already told you, and our uncles, that no longer stands.” Nexus contained his irritation.
“I guess it doesn’t.” Maria huffed. “Well, no big deal. I’m sure today will be eventful either way.”
“Maria, I’m warning you, stop playing these games.”
“But they’re so much fun. Besides, you deserve anything I do to you.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Play ignorant, brother, while you still can.” With that she hung up, and Nexus was left even more confused about his sister and her motives than before.
Back home, he parked his car and entered his house to find Roy surrounded by Abigail, Nora, and Iago. The three appeared to be fussing over him, making him sit down, and refusing to let him do anything.
“I’m fine!” Roy argued as he tried to get into the kitchen. “Being pregnant doesn’t make me an invalid. I can do it myself.”
“A shifter pregnancy isn’t like a human pregnancy.” Abigail blocked his path. “You must take it easy, especially because you’re human.”
“And a man,” Nora tacked on. “Your body is experiencing a major change already. The less you do, and the more you concentrate on yourself and the baby, the easier it’ll be for you.”
Seemed he didn’t need to worry. His staff was doing a fine job of keeping Roy off his feet. Much to his small mate’s chagrin.
“I think he can make a cup of tea,” Nexus said, announcing his arrival. “Imperatrix Calisto will be by later today to help Roy understand what is going on. Until then, why don’t you ladies get to work? I need the furniture in the room next to ours removed, and the entire thing scrubbed from top to bottom.”
“Yes, Regulus.” The two bowed and hurried off upstairs to follow his instructions.
“Iago, give the ladies a hand with the furniture,” Nexus ordered.
“Of course, Regulus.”
“Thank you!” Roy sighed as he got up from the stool the women had forced him to sit on, kissed Nexus’s cheek, and took the bag of teas from him. “I swear if this is what people are acting like now, three months might be too long.”
Nexus laughed. “You’ll do great. Until then, how about we look at baby furniture?” He indicated Roy’s laptop.
“Okay.” Roy nodded as he turned the electric tea kettle on. He sta
rted up his computer, and the two sat down in the living room together, perusing different sites for the perfect nursery set.
They hadn’t even gotten close to narrowing the options down—who knew there were so many nursery set options out there—by the time a car pulled up and Stylianos and Calisto were walking up the front steps.
Nexus got the door and was met with two of the couple’s children rushing him. He smiled at the ragtag pair and then to their parents. Calisto was holding a basket, with an electric blanket wrapped around an egg. His stomach, which had been distended the last time they had seen each other, was now flat.
Chapter Thirteen
Roy wasn’t sure what was more shocking. The two kids playing with Nexus and Stylianos in the living room, that Nexus was actually really good with kids, or the fact that Calisto seemed to have laid an egg. The egg was winning the more he thought about it. Sure, he was pregnant, but no one said anything about egg laying as part of the whole deal.
“Just ask,” Calisto said and sipped at his tea.
Glancing from the egg to Calisto, Roy waved helplessly between the two. “I’m not sure where to start.”
“Yes, I did give birth to an egg,” Calisto started. “The C-section was preformed right after your wedding actually. Didn’t realize I was that close to delivery or we would’ve held off on giving our bests to you both. Anyways, for dragon shifters, and other egg-laying shifters, the process is a tad different than the mammalian type. We carry our babies for the first three weeks inside us, and during the fourth week give birth to an egg. Incubation of the egg takes place over the next twelve weeks, with the baby hatching in about sixteen weeks total.”
“Baby?” Roy blinked. “A baby is going to hatch from the egg?” He looked at the, admittedly, beautiful jewel-like egg sitting on his counter in a basket. The battery-operated electric blanket was no doubt providing the warmth the egg required.
“Well, not exactly.” Calisto frowned. “Shifters are born in their animal forms, and later shift into their human baby form about a month after birth, or hatching.”
Gaping, Roy looked down to his stomach. The knowledge that a kitten was growing inside him had just popped up, and he couldn’t help but picture a feline anamorphic version of himself, fat and lazy lying on the ground amongst a wad of old sheets and towels. It was not an appealing image.
“Unfortunately, because of this trait we don’t know what the baby’s sex is until after a month old,” Calisto said with a trace of irritation as he reached over and stroked the egg. He reached into the blanket and pulled out a control switch, lowering the temperature. “It makes planning a baby shower exceedingly difficult. Then again, it’s nice to have the challenge of finding sex-neutral gifts.”
Roy’s hand rested on his stomach. The tea was settling nicely, which was a godsend. Honestly he didn’t know what he was going to do if he couldn’t have some form of caffeine in the mornings. “Why can’t we tell the sex?”
“Ever try to sex a newborn kitten, or puppy?”
Roy shook his head.
“It’s not easy. It can be done, but the genitalia aren’t completely formed at birth, making sexing a newborn difficult in shifters. The best a doctor can do is a guess. Though, they can do a blood test now.”
That made sense. All this talk of kittens and sexing animal babies had Roy thinking of something else. “Cats have multiple kittens.” Roy forced the words out. “Does that mean I’m having a litter?”
Calisto laughed heartily. “No. Thankfully the human gene takes over there. Twins can occur, just like with a human pregnancy, but the average is just one child.”
“Oh, thank god.” Roy slumped forward, his head resting on the counter. “I don’t think I can handle four or five children at once.”
“Jaguars usually have about two to four cubs,” Calisto provided, not so helpfully. “But yes, you don’t need to worry about that. What you do need to start thinking about is a nursery, a list of possible names, both boys and girls, and I’d highly suggest seeing your family now and coming up with some kind of excuse as to why you can’t see them over the next couple of months.”
“Why can’t I see my family?” Roy demanded.
“Do you want to explain to them your sudden weight gain, then loss, and the new baby?” Calisto pointed out.
Okay, that was a valid point.
“After delivery, call them and tell them you’ve decided to adopt,” Calisto advised. “That way, a month after the baby is here, you can introduce the cub to its grandparents.”
“Grandmother, and great-grandparents,” Roy corrected. “My father was never in the picture.”
Calisto smiled gently. “Okay. I know this is hard, but this is the easiest way I’ve discovered to help maintain the peace during these delicate times. Humans don’t accept the unknown very well.”
“Oh, I get that clearly.” Roy set his hand back on his stomach. “I’m still having a hard time coming to grips with all this.”
“And it’ll take time,” Calisto assured him. “But once you hold your firstborn in your arms, nothing seems to matter anymore.”
“Thinking of firsts…” Roy looked to his husband and the two children wrestling with him. They were about five and seven years of age. “I thought you said this one was your fourth? Where’s the first? Also, you called the egg a girl at my wedding. How do you know it’s a girl if you can’t find out until after birth?”
“Right, that small detail.” Calisto ran his hand along the egg again. Roy wasn’t sure if it was an unconscious habit, or something he did knowingly. “Our eldest, Nicolau, is an adult and off exploring the world. He is almost eighty years old now.”
“Eighty!” Roy stood there shocked. That meant Calisto’s firstborn was just a few years younger than Nexus.
Calisto nodded. “We kind of took a break after him. As you know, you can’t do anything to impede the conception of the first child, hence why we had him so quickly. As for these three”—Calisto smiled at the egg and then over to the younger children—“Stylianos and I just decided it was time to continue our family.”
“Okay.” Despite his words Roy was still reeling from the whole eighty-year-old kid bombshell. How old was Calisto then? Yes, Nexus had informed him of the whole long life bit, but this was all a tad much to take in. So, he opted for a distraction. “And how do you know it’s a girl this time?”
“Oh, I don’t.” Calisto grinned. “I’m just hoping it is. After three boys, I’m ready for a girl. Hence why I’m keeping the temperature a little lower on the egg.”
“Huh?” Roy blinked.
“It’s a stupid idea I got while watching Nat Geo.” Calisto once again checked the temperature on the egg, turning the heat back up. “Crocodiles control the sex of their young by regulating the temperature of the nest. A higher temperature means male young, while a cooler temperature means females. I’m hoping to dictate the sex of my child.”
Roy wasn’t sure if that was the most selfish, horrifying thing ever, or kind of normal. Every parent wanted at least one type of child. Some wanted boys while others wanted girls. It was just natural. Actually physically hoping to manipulate the sex of your kid though? That was a bit much.
“So, what else do you want to know?” Calisto picked up the younger of the two children as he came bouncing over to them. “I’ll answer any of your questions.”
“The C-section.” Roy hesitated. He looked to the kid in Calisto’s arms and couldn’t help but notice how much father and child looked alike. How the adoption bit worked when it was obvious they were parent and child was beyond Roy. “How fast do you recover?”
“Thanks to our connections with our mates, very fast.” Calisto sighed happily. “I mean, look at me. I was cut open two days ago, and I’m already up and about. You’ll also find your body bounces back physically rather quickly. I still have a small pouch left, but it’ll be gone by the end of next week. Fun perks to this new life. Plus, Cupid throws in a healing bonus with his magica
l mojo for after birth.”
That was nice to know. It did make Roy feel a bit guilty though. Men being pregnant was so beyond the normal scope of things that he figured they’d suffer a bit more for it. After all, women spent months or years working off just one pregnancy, and they were allowed to just bounce back? Didn’t seem fair.
“I’m hungry!” the small child squawked.
Roy laughed. “I’ll fix us up some lunch.”
* * * *
Nexus managed to finally detangle the children, with one of them running to Calisto and the other crawling up into Stylianos’s lap. He’d always loved kids, and the thought of having one of his own made it so he couldn’t stop smiling. Yes, he knew this had to be hard on Roy, but Nexus couldn’t help but be happy.
“Yay, food!” the boy that had gone over to Calisto rejoiced, drawing Nexus’s attention. Roy ruffled the small child’s hair before going to the fridge and pulling out stuff for sandwiches. Nexus’s stomach grumbled right on cue.
He stood, brushed off invisible dust, and joined Calisto at the counter. “Making enough for me, too?”
His mate gave him a deliciously haughty smirk. “Do I look like a fifties housewife to you?”
“In that apron,” Nexus joked. Roy had tied a plain black apron over his clothes.
“Keep it up, kitty cat, and I’ll serve you something all right,” Roy teased him with a butter knife in mock threat.
“Kitty cat?” Calisto chucked, and quickly covered his mouth in an attempt to stifle the laughter.
“An accurate, yet nonthreatening view of the jaguar Regulus.” Stylianos grinned as he joined them, the other son perched on his shoulders. Thank god for vaulted ceilings! If not, the poor child’s neck would be bent at an unnatural ninety-degree angle.
“I’m guessing everyone is hungry?” Roy cocked an eyebrow at them.
“Here.” Calisto set the boy in his lap down, and moved around the counter to help Roy. “Seeing as the antiques over there are too old-fashioned to help.”
“Says the guy who literally grew up in the time of ‘women belong in the kitchen.’” Stylianos gaped at him.