by Lisa Oliver
“What happened?” Seth looked for him immediately and Ra’s heart started beating again.
“You decided to get up close and personal with Cam’s carpet,” Ra said, swinging Seth into his arms and standing up. “I think I’ll get you home and maybe call your mom.”
“Don’t call her, she’ll just fuss,” Seth said, but his voice was weak.
Ra nodded at Cam. “Will Doc Farriday still be in his office?” He’d only met the shifter doctor once when he’d torn his shoulder working on a sculpture. The man seemed like he knew what he was doing.
“I don’t need a doctor. I just need to lie down. My stomach feels wobbly.”
“The Doc lives behind his office, just bang on the door and he’ll answer. He doesn’t care what time it is,” Cam said.
By now a crowd had gathered and Ra bit his lip to stop from roaring his displeasure. His tiger seemed hellbound and determined his mate needed protection; cursing himself for insisting they go out at all, Ra shouldered his way through the well-meaning people, Seth still safe in his arms.
The air outside was fresh and clean. Seth tried to get down. “I’ll be okay. I feel a lot better now. I just needed some air, that’s all.”
“And when the doctor says the same thing, you can say I told you so, but you’re seeing the doctor, so don’t argue about it. Shifters don’t faint.” Ra strode across the parking lot. Doc Farriday’s office was on the other side of the road and one block down from Cam’s place. There was no need to take the bike. Seth didn’t say anything but from the slightly sour note in his scent, Ra knew he was fuming.
Doc Farriday’s door was solid oak, which was a good thing, because, with his hands full of Seth, Ra resorted to kicking it until he heard a yell from the other side.
“What are you trying to do? Kick the thing off its hinges?” Doc Farriday looked slightly older than most shifters, which meant he was probably ancient. His long gray hair was in a mess around his head although the body he was flashing as he pulled on his robe was still worth looking at.
“Sorry, Doc, this is my mate, Seth. I don’t know if you’ve met him before but….”
“Oh yes, the tiger, rabbit mating everyone is gossiping about. Come in. What’ve you done to him?”
“He didn’t do anything,” Seth said hotly. “I fainted and now he’s being a worrywart.”
“Fainted; unusual for a shifter,” the doctor quirked an eyebrow. “Set him on the bed in there and then wait out here while I examine him.”
“I’m his mate, I have a right to be with him.” Ra didn’t want to let Seth out of his arms, let alone leave the room.
“Normally I’d agree, but I have to give him a full examination. I’m not battling your tiger while I do it.” Doc’s voice held a note of authority Ra couldn’t ignore. His feet as heavy as his heart, he carefully took Seth into the small examination room and set him on the bed. When he tried to let go, Seth clung to his neck.
“I’m sure it’s nothing, probably just something I ate,” Seth whispered. “Just take me home, please.”
But now Seth mentioned food, Ra remembered something else he’d been worried about. His mate was still far slimmer than he should be. His mate hadn’t been eating.
“It won’t take long,” he said soothingly. “I will be right outside and when we get home you can read me your latest story all tucked up warm and cozy in our bed.” He unlocked Seth’s arms from around his neck and left the room, the doctor closing the door firmly as soon as he’d cleared the doorframe.
Chapter Twelve
“There’s no need to worry about anything,” Doc Farriday said as he pulled on some thin latex gloves with a snap. “I know we’ve not met before, which suggests you’ve been typically healthy. As a rule, shifters don’t faint, so I want to know more about your diet, sleeping patterns and I’ll take a look at you. How long have you and Ra been mated?”
“Two weeks?” Seth had to think about it. He couldn’t remember a time when Ra hadn’t been a permanent fixture in his life, but they had only been together a short while. “I was being hunted by my herd for another two weeks before that. I was mostly eating in rabbit form. Maybe I just haven’t regained the weight I lost.”
“I’ll do the diagnosing, young man,” the doctor said, pulling a stethoscope out of a drawer. “Lie down on your back and lift your shirt up.”
Seth tugged his shirt out of his ridiculously tight pants and lay down on the hard surface. His stomach still felt like a mud-swamp was trying to take hold, and he rubbed it subconsciously trying to remember the last time he felt hungry.
“I’ll need those pants undone too, young man,” Doc Farriday said. “You don’t have to remove them, but I need to feel your stomach and abdomen.”
The end of the stethoscope was cool on Seth’s chest, warming as Farriday moved it around a few times. Considering Seth thought his lungs and heart were under his ribs he did wonder why the doctor checked his stomach as well.
“Hmm, it’s very noisy in there. Let’s have a feel around, shall we?” Putting his stethoscope in his robe pocket, Farriday pressed gently in different places from his ribcage to the top of his groin. Seth winced when he hit a particularly tender spot just above his pubic bone and the doctor looked at him sharply.
Grabbing what looked like a small funnel, the doctor put the wide end over the sore spot and then listened from the other end.
“Hmmm, unexpected,” he said as he straightened. “You can cover up now.”
Seth hastily zipped his pants and pulled his shirt down although he didn’t tuck it in. His pants didn’t have much room as it was.
The doctor proceeded to ask him a slew of questions; some of them easy to answer. Yes, he did sleep well and had slept a lot since Ra saved him. No, he didn’t do anything strenuous, Ra spent the past two weeks encouraging him with his writing and he’d spent most of his day in front of the laptop – another present from his mate.
“I understand you’re adopted,” Doc Farriday said bluntly. “Do you know anything about your biological parents at all?”
Seth bit his lip. Ra told him Mrs. Hooper wanted to talk to him about the night he’d been found but Seth didn’t want to upset the parents who raised him and avoided her calls. “No,” he said. “I was only a baby when my parents took me in.”
“And your rabbit form? You don’t have any problems shifting?”
Seth shook his head. “My rabbit isn’t natural to the US. I’m a lop-eared and very small.”
“Ah, a European rabbit,” the doctor said. “That could explain it.” He reached over and picked up a disposable beaker from a stack of them on a nearby shelf. Handing it to Seth, he said, “Pee in that.”
Seth took the cup and looked at it and then around the room. “Here?”
“If you like, it’s not as though you have something I’ve never seen before, but if you’re shy then you can pop in there. Wash your hands and bring it out when you’re done.”
I don’t care if you do think I’m being silly, I’m not peeing in front of you. Seth climbed off the bed, wobbled but managed to keep his balance and made his way behind the curtain the doctor indicated. He hoped Ra wasn’t angry at having to wait too long.
How much does he need? It was quite a big cup and Seth wasn’t sure he could fill it. As it was, he barely managed a dribble, maybe a fifth of the cup. If he wants more he’s just going to have to wait. Seth wished he’d had a drink at Cam’s although, without knowing what the doctor was testing for, perhaps it was better he hadn’t drunk any alcohol.
Washing his hands as instructed, Seth gingerly took the cup out and looked around for somewhere to put it. “I’ll take that, you just sit on the bed. This won’t take a moment.” Taking the cup, the doctor went over to a bench and pulled what looked like swab sticks from another drawer. Seth perched on the edge of the bed, his head swinging from watching what the doctor was doing and gazing longingly at the door. Hopefully, Ra was still waiting for him. It felt like they’d been apart fo
r ages and Seth’s anxiety grew.
“All right, just as I suspected,” The doctor turned to him with a small smile. “I will need blood tests to confirm a couple of things and work out why this has happened. But the urine tests came back positive. Congratulations, you’re pregnant.”
Seth’s head hit the bed with a clang as he fainted for the second time that evening.
*****
The room Seth was in must have been soundproofed because no matter how hard Ra strained his ears, he couldn’t hear a fucking thing. He paced angrily as seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into the quarter hour. “How long does it take to give a tiny rabbit an examination for fuck's sake,” he muttered as his long legs ate up the small room. Every fourth turn he wanted to bang on the door and demand to be in there, but with his tiger so close to the surface, he knew he couldn’t. If he saw the doctor touching his sweet mate, the man would be supper.
Twenty-four minutes and thirty-two seconds later according to the alarm clock blinking merrily from a small coffee table, the door opened and Doctor Farriday was there. Over the doctor’s head, Ra could see Seth lying on the bed. He didn’t seem to be moving and Ra growled as he tried to push past the doctor and found his way blocked by someone stronger than he looked.
“What’s wrong with him? He was awake when I brought him in here.”
“He’s had a bit of a shock,” the doctor said calmly. “He’ll be all right in a minute, but I thought he’d prefer to see your face when he woke up.”
“What’s wrong with him, is he going to die? Shifters don’t get sick. What did you do to him?” Ra pushed harder against the doctor and this time Farriday let him past. He dashed into the room and pulled Seth into his arms. He liked to think it was his scent that had Seth’s pale eyes fluttering open in an equally pale face.
“You’d better sit down,” the doctor said at the same time as Seth whispered, “the doctor thinks I’m pregnant.”
Ra’s knees wobbled and he sank on the edge of the bed, still clutching Seth against his chest. “Pregnant…but you…you’re…male shifters can’t get pregnant.”
“Pure male furry shifters can’t, you’re right. But there are many male magical beings and hybrids that can,” Doctor Farriday said patiently, sitting on a small stool by the bed. “The Fae, demons, vampires on occasion, although that’s rare too. Mermen and dragons are other males that can get pregnant. Lizards, snakes and some birds can too. It actually happens more often than you think.”
“But I’m a rabbit.” Seth nuzzled into Ra’s chest making him feel marginally better, but Ra was still in shock. Maybe Cam put something in the beer or one of those rabbits in the bar?
“I don’t think you’re a pure rabbit shifter.” The doctor leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “That may have been why you were abandoned as a child. I have never heard of any dwarf lop-eareds born naturally in this country although I know some humans breed them. But they aren’t shifters. I can only assume your mother was a tourist who ended up pregnant. I will need to take some blood to work out what type of mix you are, but given your looks and build I’d say you have a touch of fae in you. Regardless, you are definitely pregnant.”
“How many, how long, what sort of, shit, you need to keep your feet up,” Ra yelled as Seth tried to move out of his arms. No wonder his tiger was in protection overdrive. His tiny mate was going to have a baby!
“I’m not an invalid,” Seth said crossly. “Your knee was jabbing me in my kidney.”
“Oh shoots, sorry,” Ra removed his offending limb. He addressed the doctor with what he hoped was his most confident look. “So, complete bed rest, right? Lots of nourishing food, will he get cravings?” Then he felt the warmth leave his face. “How are they, it, them, the baby, how is he or she going to come out?”
“Pregnancy is perfectly normal,” the doctor laughed. “Food, yes. Plenty of it and a balanced diet seeing as this baby is a mix-breed too. No alcohol, drugs, painkillers, over the counter medications or anything like that unless I prescribe them.”
Seth didn’t have any of those things anyway. Did he suspect when we went to Cam’s? Ra dismissed the thought immediately. Seth was just as shocked as he was.
“As for bed rest, that’s a definite no,” Doctor Farriday continued. “You are a little too thin, Seth and I’d like to see you eat more. But you will also need light exercise every day. Things may change as the pregnancy progresses, but for now, you are perfectly fit and healthy so just go about your business as you would normally.”
“Normally, right.” Seth seemed to accept the doctor’s orders but Ra was horrified.
“But what if he faints again, or tries to lift something too heavy and does some damage inside?”
“You don’t let me lift anything heavier than a hamburger now,” Seth pointed out. “How long will this pregnancy last, do you know Doc?”
“That, I can’t tell you, Seth,” the doctor said rubbing a hand through his hair which was still messy. “I’m going to have to see you once a week initially. A rabbit pregnancy is short, usually around 31 days. Tigers in the wild gestate for around 100 days. Without knowing what your genetics are mixed with I would hazard a guess at around sixty days, but at this stage, it’s just a guess.”
Days! They were talking days? Not weeks or months or even years, because Ra knew he needed at least a year to come to terms with the shocking news. He was going to be a father in days?
“Ra, Ra, sweetheart, are you okay?” Seth tapped him lightly on the cheek.
“Yeah, babe, I’m fine,” Ra said distractedly, his mind racing a mind a minute. “The birth, Doc. I presume this will be a medical thing, not a natural birth? Seth doesn’t have the equipment for that.”
“It’s a very simple operation,” Doc Farriday said. “You can be in the room the whole time to hold his hand.”
Yeah, unless I’ve emigrated. Then Ra mentally slapped himself for being so mean. Seth was the one who was going to go through this. He was the one getting fat ankles and a swollen belly. Not that Ra knew a lot about pregnancy but he planned on ordering books on the subject as soon as they got home.
“There’s one other thing,” Doc Farriday said firmly. “You cannot shift, Seth. Not at all, for any reason. I could hear a heartbeat in your abdomen. If you shift now you will lose the baby. So, Ra, that means you have to make sure he’s safe from anything that might frighten his rabbit enough to shift. Is that clear?”
What if the thing that frightens him is me? Ra nodded and after watching the doctor take blood from Seth’s arm, he wrapped his mate in his arms and wandered back out into the night air. He desperately needed time to think and to do that, it meant leaving Seth alone for a while. He’d be safe enough at the clubhouse. His tiger was not amused with him but sometimes Ra’s human side needed to take control. I can work on polishing my sculpture he thought as he watched his mate climb on his bike. Fuck, I’m going to need another vehicle too. For some reason, a vision of him and a mini him or Seth curled up on his chest as he barreled down a highway at a hundred miles an hour on his bike didn’t make him smile.
Chapter Thirteen
Seth was furious although he tried to keep his emotions in check as he hurried through the clubhouse. It’d been three days since the doctor had broken his astonishing news, and Ra had barely spoken six words to him in all that time. After tucking him into bed that night, Ra said he had to do some work in his workshop and when Seth asked if he wanted some company, Ra rather shortly said he’d be polishing and the noise and fumes would be damaging for the baby. He said he’d be an hour. He lied.
Three fucking days, well if he thinks I’m going to stick around here and be ignored he’s got another thing coming. Seth was going out. His dad dropped his car off that morning when Seth said he needed to get to work. He was going to the doctors, who claimed he had some news for him and then he was going to the library to look up the real estate advertisements. He wasn’t going to stay with a mate who didn’t want
him or the baby.
“Hey, Seth, where’s your keeper? Did he fart in bed or something?” Liam waved from the kitchen. That was another thing that annoyed the crap out of Seth. Ra hadn’t told anyone. None of his friends knew he was pregnant and Seth didn’t feel comfortable enough to share the information on his own. Which meant he had to tell little white lies to people he cared about.
“He’s got to get that commission piece finished. Said he’d be busy all day,” Seth repeated the lie he’d been told three days before as he kept moving towards the door. He felt bad lying to the friendly lion, but shifter noses were something best avoided at the moment. He was barely civil to his dad when he brought the car around.
“If you’re heading to town, can you bring back some honey? Brutus had a fit this morning when I used the last of it on my toast.”
Seth waved to let Liam know he got the message and hurried out to his car. He could see the large doors of Ra’s workshop were half open and his feet automatically moved in that direction. But he forced them to turn to his car instead. It was an older model Toyota, painted a bright yellow with a number of rust spots, but he’d saved and paid for it with his own money. Looks like I’d better get used to doing a lot of things on my own, Seth thought as he turned the key and peeled out of the driveway. The doctors, a house, maybe Mrs. Hooper will know of one. With any luck, there’s something empty in town and I can be out of here by tomorrow. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but with Ra’s absence, he didn’t feel as if he had any other choice.
*****
Ra cursed and threw yet another piece of metal across the workshop, barely missing his finished work. He’d been trying to focus, trying to start something new but everything he put together was a mess. Just like my mind, he thought as he went over to retrieve it. He knew he needed to talk to Seth and that Seth, with his calm ways and sweet manner, would make everything all right with the world again. But he was avoiding his mate for reasons he wasn’t sure of. If he wasn’t in the workshop ruining pieces of metal, he was running in his tiger form. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate or slept.