Chapter 10

I hadn't expected it to be so easy to accommodate having another person in my space. I'd lived alone for so long and the building was so small. I was pleasantly surprised with Beckett—it felt almost seamless.

He'd brought a considerable amount of his things from Steelwick on our initial drive. Not that he had many to begin with. I knew he had some personal effects still there, which we'd probably pick up sometime in the future. For now we were content. Somehow, we just fit together easily enough.

He had taken up half of the closet, half of the bed, and my entire heart. And with every day that passed, it was more and more evident that this was going to be our home. I wasn't sure what that meant for his job, but the couple of times I brought it up he didn't seem too worried about it. He said it would work out the way it was meant to work out.

The thing I hadn't expected to be a challenge was having him so close to me throughout the day while I worked in the yard with the other omegas. He was either on the deck working on his laptop, helping Gideon, or sometimes just in the house, but I knew he was there. Just a wall away from me, fifty feet at the most, and it was distracting because I wanted to be where my mate was.

I wanted his skin on mine, his lips on mine—or other places. I walked around all day in a half-hard, half-aroused state. It was far from professional. But what could I do? It wasn't like I could tell him to go to another town so I could focus on my classes and come back when I was done.

"Does it ever get easier?" I squirmed, attempting to give my cock some relief, the wind having just brought his scent to me, teasing me, torturing me.

Jasper and I were sitting in the yard putting together the next month's schedule for therapy. The day was far too nice to be trapped indoors. The sun shined down on us, and the breeze was light enough that we could work without having our papers blowing everywhere. We rarely worked inside if we could help it. Our animals were most comfortable closer to nature.

Jasper raised a brow. "Having your mate so close all day every day?"

"Yes. How did you know?" Probably because he could scent it on me. It wasn't subtle.

Jasper laughed. "I remember what it was like to be newly mated. Or just this morning… fine, every day. You do get used to the constant pull toward them, but it's never completely gone. I personally hope it never goes away," he said with a smile. "I love that connection."

"I do too, but it's distracting when I have a to-do list a mile long." Which made things take longer and delayed my ability to get naked with him.

"Well, you learn to work around it, or sneak little moments into your day. Go and find your mate for lunch or whenever your break is. Make sure you coordinate so you can see each other throughout the day, even if it is just for a moment. Eventually your animals will settle and you'll feel more comfortable."

Everything Jasper said made sense. It didn't, however, make the light breeze carrying his scent that just tickled my nose any easier to ignore.

"That's a good idea," I said. I hadn't considered that I could just go and see him, talk to him, give him a hug. Even if that felt totally ridiculous. "I just feel like I should be able to manage being away from my mate for the extent of a workday."

"Why?" Jasper asked. "It's not like you're a firefighter and leaving a fire to go get some snuggle time. Part of what we do includes modeling to the omegas who are staying with us what a healthy life looks like."

I thought about it for a moment. He had a solid point, and now that I focused on it, I remembered seeing Morgan with Gideon or their children, or Kian with Cooper on multiple occasions. For that matter, the mated pairs were rarely far apart. Like they were one cohesive unit.

Suddenly I didn't feel so bad about wanting to be near Beckett all the time. It was natural. That was just how fated mates were. Nothing good would come from fighting nature. Taking the strength the connection between us gave me and using it—that should be my focal point, not ignoring it.

We got back to the task at hand. There was a lot coming up in the next month, and we long ago discovered that arranging it ahead of time made all the difference. We were flexible, of course, but having the basic structure in place had worked well for us.

Once Jasper and I had a schedule mostly finalized, we emailed it off to the others in the pride for their approval. If they saw a mistake or if they wanted to do something special during a time we had something scheduled, they let us know and we figured it out. That didn't happen often, but knowing early on helped a lot.

Jasper and I put away the remainder of the yoga equipment in the storage shed and then went to find our mates. We'd gotten done in record time, and I was glad for it. I needed a Beckett kiss… or five.

Before I could get to our cabin, Jonas called out to me from where he stood outside the clinic. "Thomas! Mortimer wants to see you."

Mortimer was the pride healer, and he wasn't one to pester. If he called me there was a reason. Most likely he had information about one of the omegas who had recently come into our care. If that was the case, I could hardly ignore his summons, even if I did want to see my mate right then. I changed course and headed to the clinic.

"Oh, there you are," Mortimer said. He stood behind the desk just inside the front door. There was a small waiting area with a few chairs. I'd never seen anyone in the chairs.

"Jonas said you needed to see me?" It came out as more of a question than the statement it was meant to be.

He held out a small box. "This is for you."

I took it from him. My eyes widened when I saw what the box was for. It was a pregnancy test. I wouldn't say that the idea of having cubs hadn't crossed my mind. It had… a lot. But so far I had zero symptoms, and really, we'd only been together a really short time.

"We haven't… Well, I mean, we have, but we… I don't know if I need this yet." But how I wished that we did.

"You do. Trust me." There was a sparkle in his eye.

I shouldn't have been surprised by Mortimer's actions. He'd done this to other omegas, and as far as I knew, he'd been 100% correct about each one of them. There were so many feelings rushing through me, and I wasn't sure how to process them all.

Excitement and unease warred inside of me.

I would be thrilled to be carrying Beckett's child. We hadn't yet talked about when we wanted to begin that part of our story, but we both agreed that we wanted to be parents eventually. Eventually and now were two very different things.

We'd met and mated within hours. It felt right, and I wouldn't change it for anything. But objectively speaking it was fast. And then, to keep the momentum going, the next day we'd moved to my territory. It was the right move for us, despite the speed.

And now the possibility of us having a child together was less in the distant future and more right in front of us. It would be so on brand for us, but that didn't mean it was one change too many. What if that was too much too soon for Beckett? What if it was too much too soon for me?

"Now?"

He nodded, and I carried the test into the bathroom. I didn't want to wait until I arrived home. I needed answers now, and having a healer by my side seemed prudent.

The test was easy to take. The waiting for the results? That was rough. Within minutes, which felt like decades, I had the results. Staring up at me were two lines. I was pregnant. Beckett and I were going to be parents and not in some hypothetical future, but soon. Very soon.

I was still in shock when I walked out of the bathroom.

Beckett's scent hit me as I opened the bathroom door. Was he hurt? Had Mortimer called him? I'd find out soon enough. I looked up to see him standing in the front door.

"There you are." My mate crossed the room toward me as if he couldn't stand another minute of us being a part. Which… fair. That was how I felt pretty much all of the time we were separated even by a few feet.

He looked as if he had been working with Gideon. There was sawdust on his jeans and t-shirt, sweat on his brow. He was sexiness personified.

My feet were frozen to the floor. The test, still in my hands. Everything was about to change. Everything.

Beckett looked at me quizzically. "Are you all right?"

I held the test out to him. He took it, stared at it, looked to Mortimer who nodded, and then stared some more.

His eyes widened as realization hit. "It's positive?"

I nodded. "It's positive."

"And just to be sure we are on the same page, this is a pregnancy test. You're having our baby?"

"It's a pregnancy test. I thought it was time he took one." Mortimer stood up. "I'll be just in the next room if you need me."

Mortimer hadn't even left the room when Beckett swept me into his arms and twirled me around. "Mate! We're having a baby."

"Yes, my love. We're having a baby." I hugged him tightly.

"I didn't think it was possible to be this happy."

The unease that had begun at seeing the positive result left my body and the only thing left was the joy and excitement I felt at growing my family with Beckett. "Me too."

Beckett kissed me, his lips pressing soundly against mine. He hugged me tight. "I've always wanted children. I know we didn't talk about the logistics of it, but our little one seems to be coming at the same pace as everything else in our relationship has. We are on brand, that's for sure."

"That we are, mate. That we are."

He kissed me again, and this time we were interrupted by Mortimer.

"I hate to break up such a happy moment, but we really should get you set up with prenatal vitamins and plan your next visit before Jonas drags me to town for some errands."

I hadn't even thought about needing vitamins. What else was I completely clueless about? I was growing an entire being inside of me. They were counting on me to do everything right and something as simple as vitamins weren't even on my radar.

"Maybe you should sit down." Mortimer pointed to one of the chairs.

"No. I'm fine. I was just thinking about how over my head this is. I hadn't even considered vitamins, and that's the bare minimum." At least I thought it was.

"Good thing you have me. Let's get you both all set up with everything you need and what you need to know."

I grabbed my mate's hand, and we followed Mortimer into the exam room.

"You've got this, omega mine. You're going to be an amazing father."

"As are you, alpha mine." I couldn't have picked out a better one.