by Nora Phoenix
The only one that was somewhat close to them was for Urien and his daughter. At first, the plan had been to move them into the main house, but it had only taken two days to realize that was not working. The combination of a child in a house with a lot of men having sex was not workable, and so Urien had moved into an old groundkeeper’s cottage at the edge of Lidon’s property. They had all felt it was safe, since it was inaccessible without being noticed, with only one dirt road leading there. That cottage was close to Vic’s property line, but Lidon couldn’t imagine two people living there would be an issue.
Or was it the principle of the thing? He knew rumors were flying about what he was doing. Not so much the pack—as per his instructions no one had breathed a word about that—but neighbors had noticed traffic to his ranch had increased tenfold, if not more. He’d gone from living there by himself with Enar as the occasional visitor to having… He tried to count in his head and smiled when he honestly couldn’t do a tally of how many people were now permanently living on pack land. Hmm, he’d better have Palani make a list.
Speaking of Palani, he needed to bring someone to that meeting. If he had no idea what it was about, he was damn well coming with reinforcements. And in this case, Palani would not be the best candidate. If push came to shove, he needed another alpha by his side because people would look down on a beta and consider him less. Should he bring Enar?
He stopped in his tracks. Was it okay to consider Enar an alpha for purposes like this? Or was that disrespectful to him? He thought about it. Would Enar mind being brought along purely because his body looked like an alpha?
Yeah, he would, Lidon realized, and he was wrong for even contemplating it. Enar had clearly indicated he wanted to be seen and treated as a beta. Lidon had to respect that in all instances—not just when it fit his purposes. At some point, he’d have to talk to Enar and confess he still struggled with this. Apologize, more precisely.
Enar deserved better, even if he had no way of knowing what went on in Lidon’s head. Thoughts always manifested in actions, so who the fuck knew when Lidon had inadvertently hurt his best friend? He still had a lot of learning and growing to do here, contrary to Palani for whom it all seemed to come naturally.
And dammit, he wasn’t fair to Palani either by not bringing him. If he believed that Palani was the right man to be his beta—and he did with all his heart—then he should bring him to public meetings as well. The beta could damn well stand his ground, as he’d proven more than once, and he needed to know Lidon trusted him completely, not just inside the pack.
Lidon nodded, satisfied with the end result of his internal battle. Now, he’d better find Palani and make sure he could join him. And maybe the beta would be up for some other activities as well because Lidon was restless and broody, and he didn’t know why.
He found him outside by the pool, lounging on a bed in the shade with Vieno asleep on top of him. Palani’s face lit up when he spotted Lidon, and that alone made Lidon’s heart soften.
“Hi,” he whispered and bent over to kiss Palani. “How is he?”
He’d spotted the omega in the kitchen an hour or two ago, and he’d looked pale and tired.
“He’s so tired, but he couldn’t sleep. He asked me to fuck him, but even that didn’t help. I don’t know what he needs.”
Vieno stirred and opened his eyes, looking at Lidon. “Alpha,” he sighed. He pushed himself up and stretched out his arms toward Lidon, who bent over and picked him up with ease.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart? Aren’t you feeling well?”
Vieno shook his head, looking miserable. “I missed you,” he whispered.
Lidon frowned. What did he mean? They’d seen each other that morning, though Lidon had gotten up early to get a workout in, and as a result, they hadn’t had their morning sex. He’d been holding off on that lately anyway, figuring Vieno needed the sleep and maybe wasn’t in the mood, considering how tired and nauseous he was.
He lowered himself onto another reclining chair with Vieno on his lap. “Talk to me, sweetheart. What’s bothering you?”
Vieno’s blue eyes filled with tears, and Lidon’s heart rate sped up. Was something wrong with the baby? He looked over the omega’s head to Palani, who shrugged to indicate he didn’t know either.
Vieno’s bottom lip quivered as he finally spoke. “Do you still want me?”
The question was so unexpected that Lidon laughed, which made Vieno’s tears flow even faster. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you, but why would you even ask that? You know I do. I love you.”
Vieno pushed back and scrambled off Lidon’s lap, leaving the alpha baffled as to what he’d said wrong.
Vieno’s eyes spewed fire as he spoke, his fists on his hips. “I wasn’t asking if you love me. I was asking if you still want me.”
“But—” Lidon tried to say.
“You haven’t touched me in three days. Not since I told you I’m pregnant.”
As soon as the temper had filled Vieno, it left him again, and his big, sad eyes cut like daggers to Lidon’s heart. He was exaggerating, right? It hadn’t been three days, had it? He tried to count back to the last time.
Oh, fuck. Vieno was right. It had been three days. The last time had been before his omega had gotten nauseous. What an idiot he’d been that he hadn’t even noticed he’d neglected him, even though he’d done it with the best of intentions.
Then it struck him.
“You need me,” he said, his voice filled with wonder. “I mean that literally. You need me, Vieno, like I need you. I’ve been moody and restless today, and I didn’t know why, but this is it. I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
Vieno had buried himself in Lidon’s arms before he was even done talking.
“I thought you were tired and feeling sick and needed a break,” Lidon whispered in his hair, breathing him in. His body ached with need. How had he missed this the last days? “I never meant to make you feel like I didn’t want you.”
“I thought you’d lost interest because I’m—”
Lidon didn’t allow him to finish that sentence but took his mouth until Vieno was squirming on his lap.
“You’ll only grow more beautiful every day.” Lidon’s hand came to rest on Vieno’s belly. “I’ll never not want you, my omega.”
He tilted Vieno’s chin up with his other hand. “Do you believe me?”
Vieno nodded. “Can we stop talking now?”
“With pleasure.”
Lidon skipped all foreplay, his need to be inside him too big. He simply dragged down Vieno’s shorts, his underwear already stained with slick, then freed his own cock. The long moan Vieno let out as Lidon sank inside him was the best sound ever.
“Alpha,” Vieno whispered. “My alpha.”
He fucked him until the omega came all over him, and he himself let go, then again until his second release. Vieno promptly fell asleep again, and Lidon stayed inside him, his cock hard enough to keep that position, even as his mate slept. He draped a towel over Vieno in case someone walked by the pool. Someone other than Palani, who had watched them with love in his eyes.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Palani asked, keeping his voice low.
Lidon explained to him about the meeting with the neighbors. “I want you to be there because I have no idea what this is about.”
“Sure,” Palani said.
They talked about plans until Vieno woke up from his nap two hours later. All that time, Lidon had stayed inside him.
“You look better,” he told Vieno when he finally slipped out, and Vieno got up to stretch. “Your cheeks have more color.”
“I feel better,” Vieno said.
“I think you were right,” Palani said. “He needs you.”
Lidon nodded. “You come to me, sweetheart, okay? Anytime when you feel like you need me, I’m here. You’re my priority, and I’m sorry for neglecting you. I swear I didn’t mean to.”
“I know,” Vieno said,
then kissed Lidon with a sweet smile. “I should have said something sooner.”
“I need a shower,” Lidon said. “And then we need to go,” he told Palani.
Half an hour later, they were seated in his neighbor Vic’s kitchen. Lidon politely accepted the homemade lemonade Vic’s wife, Trudy, had made. It was the perfect balance between sweet and sour.
“That’s delicious, Mrs. Mullican,” Palani said. The beta sure knew how to make people like him, Lidon thought with a smile.
“You must be wondering why Vic and I wanted to talk to you,” Gunther, his other neighbor, started.
“It had me puzzled, yes,” Lidon said.
Vic and Gunther shared a look that made Lidon sit up straight. “Vic and I were both approached last month by a company that wants to buy our properties.”
Lidon’s stomach sank. With everything that had happened, this couldn’t be good news. Still, he waited to speak because Gunther clearly wasn’t finished yet.
“They made me a good offer,” the elderly man said. “Too good. I didn’t trust it, so I talked to Vic and discovered they’d offered him a similar deal. It had us wondering why a company that neither of us had ever heard of would be interested in our land.”
Lidon wondered the same, and one look at Palani confirmed he was paying attention as well.
“My first thought was that they wanted to develop something. A resort, maybe,” Vic said. “But that doesn’t make sense, since there’s nothing special about this area. It’s home for us, but it doesn’t have anything that would draw people. So I thought some more, and then Gunther and I talked.”
Gunther nodded. “You may not know this, Lidon, but I was friends with your grandpa. Well, I was more than that. I was third-in-command in his pack,” the elderly alpha said, pride ringing through his voice.
“I didn’t know that,” Lidon said.
“It was a shock to all of us when he passed. He was so young, and it was so unexpected. The pack fell apart after that, with no one willing to lead, not after your father…”
The man’s voice trailed off, and Lidon gave him an encouraging smile. “I know my father wasn’t supportive of the old traditions.”
“Right,” Gunther said. “But you are. You owe us nothing, but we feel the energy has changed. Your ranch, it feels alive, brimming with energy.”
“You feel that?” Palani asked.
“Yes, beta.” When Palani’s mouth dropped open slightly, Gunther smiled. “You are his beta, aren’t you?”
“He is,” Lidon said with pride. “And he’s doing a damn fine job.”
“It’s true, then,” Vic said, a look of wonder on his face. “You’re building a pack.”
“Yes,” Lidon said. “With me as alpha.”
Gunther grinned. “I expected nothing else. You are your grandfather’s heir, son. He’d be so proud to see you today.” His face sobered, and he leaned forward. “I don’t know what’s going on, Lidon, but I do know this. Those men who wanted to buy our land, they’re not your friends. They have a reason to buy the land that surrounds yours, and it’s not a good one.”
“I’ve made enemies,” Lidon admitted.
“I imagine you have,” Vic said. “But we have your back. We were loyal to your grandfather, and we’re still loyal to the Hayes pack.”
Lidon’s heart filled with pride for his grandfather, pride for his pack, for what he was building here. To know that these men had known his grandfather and still supported his legacy, that was mind-blowing. “You won’t sell, then?” he asked.
“Oh, we’ll sell all right,” Gunther said. “To you.”
“To me?” Lidon asked, baffled.
“Troubled times are coming,” Gunther said, and his voice rang with an authority that made Lidon believe every word. “Vic and me, we’re too old for this. We have to get out of the way so your generation can rise up and fight for what is right. But we won’t let you do it without backup. Our land, it was Hayes land before your great-grandfather donated it to our grandfathers as a reward for serving well in his pack. We’ve been grateful for being able to raise our families here, but neither of our kids wants to move back here. As you know, my wife passed away two years ago, and Trudy and Vic want to move to be closer to their grandchildren. It’s time for us to let go of the land, Lidon, and return it to its rightful owner.”
“You’ll have to allow me to pay you for it,” Lidon said. “I can’t accept this as a gift. Combined, you’re talking about giving me more than fifty acres of land. That’s too much.”
“It was a gift to our families, many years ago, and it would be wrong to accept money for it now,” Vic said with a certainty that made it clear he would not change his mind.
“I don’t know what else to say but thank you,” Lidon said, rising to his feet. “You do me a great honor with this.”
The two men rose as well and shared a look that spoke of years of deep friendship. “No, alpha,” Gunther said, bowing his head for Lidon and stunning him with that formal title, “the honor is ours.”
Vieno woke up that morning feeling sick as usual. He’d sort of gotten used to it, this queasy feeling in his stomach as soon as he opened his eyes. He’d hoped that it would get better after the first few days, but sadly, that hadn’t been the case. It had, however, cemented his conviction that he was pregnant. Duh. Not that he’d had any doubt, but Enar’s reluctance to test him officially had him a little worried.
But today, today was the day they would all get confirmation. Today, he would pee on a stick, and he would get the official diagnosis from Enar.
Wait, diagnosis sounded wrong. That sounded like he had a terminal illness, which obviously wasn’t the case. He was just pregnant.
He was pregnant.
It registered with him all over again, causing the by now well-known combination of giddiness and terror at the thought of carrying Lidon’s child. His hands slid to his belly in a protective gesture, even as his stomach protested against him moving. After today, the countdown to his due date would officially start.
Two months from now, a test would be able to determine whether he was carrying a boy or a girl, and alpha, beta, or omega. He wasn’t taking it. Enar had explained the risks of such a test to him, and even though they were relatively small, Vieno was not taking any chances. Besides, he already knew what his baby was. He didn’t need a test for that.
The door opened softly, and Enar stuck his head around the corner, opening it wider and coming in when he saw Vieno was awake. “Good morning, little one. How are you feeling today?”
“Pretty much the same as yesterday morning and the morning before,” Vieno answered.
Enar had wanted him to test if eating nothing after dinner would help with the nausea in the morning. So after the delicious casserole Sven had cooked for them the previous night, Vieno hadn’t eaten anything. It didn’t feel like it had really helped though, which was sad because he’d had to refuse a serving of Sven’s almond cookies, which were absolutely…
Sweat broke out all over his face, and his body shook at the thought of food. Oh god. He pushed himself into a sitting position, blindly searching for the bowl that had to be somewhere close to him. Just when he couldn’t hold it anymore, it was pushed under his head, and he threw up.
Enar held him, as he always did, as Vieno fought to get past that first horrible half hour in the morning, where his stomach revolted at the slightest smell or even the thought of food. With endless patience, Enar kept emptying the bowl and wiping his forehead with a cold, wet cloth.
“You’re a saint,” Vieno said weakly, sagging against his mate. “Why do they always pass this shitty job on to you? You should file a complaint.”
Enar kissed his head, and maybe that was even sweeter than cleaning up his vomit, Vieno thought. How the man could be this tender and sweet to him after watching him puke was beyond him.
“I do it with love, and you know it. I actually volunteered. Palani offered to take over for me this morning, and
that made Lidon feel like he should offer too.”
They both shared a look, and Vieno giggled. They discovered quickly that big, badass alpha Lidon was a big wuss when it came to puke. He was what was known as a sympathy puker, Enar had explained, mercifully waiting with that little tidbit until Vieno wasn’t queasy. There were people who were extra bothered by the smell of vomit, and apparently Lidon was one of them, to the point where he would throw up at even the slightest smell. The fact that he’d offered to take care of Vieno anyway said a lot about the amount of love he had for him, Vieno thought warmly.
“Do you think you’re ready to get up?” Enar asked.
Vieno nodded carefully. Enar gently pulled him into a sitting position, holding him until Vieno stopped leaning against him and sat up by himself. The queasiness in his stomach wasn’t gone entirely, but he didn’t feel like he was going to throw up anymore, so he’d take it.
“Let’s do this,” he said.
Enar helped him get off the bed, then walked him into the bathroom, where Vieno quickly brushed his teeth, Enar waiting patiently.
When Vieno was done, Enar handed him a package. “Do I need to explain to you how this works?”
Vieno grinned. “It’s a matter of peeing on the stick, right? Not sure what more explaining there is to do.”
“That’s pretty much it, yeah. Do you want me to get Lidon and Palani? Do you want them to be here when we get the results?”
Vieno considered it. It seemed natural and logical to want all his mates there, and yet he hesitated. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because of the somewhat shy way Enar asked it? It was as if he already knew the answer, as if he expected to be pushed aside once again.
And he wasn’t entirely wrong, as Lidon and Palani often did come first. Sometimes out of necessity, sometimes out of instinct, but the reality was that Enar often came last. He usually didn’t seem to mind, yet something didn’t sit right with Vieno in this instance.