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CAM

THE APARTMENT WAS decorated for Christmas, filled with the spicy scent of the gingerbread cookies we'd baked the night before. They were set out on the counter, ready to be decorated for Karter's moms' party today.

Tinsel and lights sparkled on the tree in the living room. It was Ty's first year of having a real tree, and he loved it. Karter had taken him to a holiday store and let him pick out whatever ornaments he wanted. As a result, every inch of the tree was covered with an odd mix of colorful bulbs and balls, as well as random ones like rocket ships and hamburgers. It was perfect.

Ty danced at the edge of the kitchen in excitement as we pulled down the frostings and sprinkles from the cupboards. Karter glanced over at me, and though he didn't show it in his eyes at all, I could tell through our bond that he was a little nervous. It was definitely understandable.

We'd been waiting to announce the pregnancy, to be sure we were in the safe zone, but after two doctor appointments proclaiming me and the baby to be in glowing health, it was time. We planned on telling Farrah and Tracey today at the party, along with the fact that we were engaged, but it was important to us that Ty knew before anyone.

"Are you ready?" I asked, covering his fingers with mine once the counter was set up.

"I am," he confirmed. "My parents have been blowing up my phone with messages since I told them we had some news to tell them at the party later."

I winced, chuckling a little. "They probably think we're engaged, right?"

We technically were engaged, but that was definitely not the biggest news we had to share. Part of me worried they'd be a little put off that we hadn't been together long enough to reasonably be having a baby, but I hoped the fact that we'd successfully completed a mate bond would ease any of their would-be concerns.

"That seems to be the primary guess right now," he said. "They haven't predicted the right thing yet," he added, meaning they hadn't even considered that I'd be pregnant.

"Can we start now?" Ty asked impatiently.

"Actually, we have something we want to talk to you about," I said. "Let's sit down for a minute."

I would have knelt down to talk to him like I sometimes did during an important talk, but I was already struggling with my energy levels and increasingly cumbersome body. With Ty, I'd barely shown at all, even in the later weeks. I'd worn a loose hoodie around town and no one could tell a thing. But as the doctor had warned me would probably happen, my second pregnancy was proving to be way different.

My normally flat belly already had a slight bump, a subtle slope that Karter had already taken to kissing and running his fingers over, kind of possessively, when we were in bed together. When I'd whined about how my body was going to be ruined with stretch marks, he'd only scoffed and told me not to be ridiculous.

Obediently, though not without a bit of disappointed groaning, Ty marched over to the couch and plopped down.

Karter and I glanced at each other again, and I felt unsure of how to start. We'd kind of vaguely and roughly planned the conversation, but there wasn't exactly a script for me to follow.

"So, you know how in our old apartment, Mrs. Ramos next door was pregnant for a long time, and then she had a baby?"

"I remember," he said. "She got fat and had to be really careful on the steps."

I frowned. "She didn't get fat ," I corrected him. "Being pregnant isn't the same as being fat. And we don't comment on anyone's weight. It's rude."

"Well, it looks the same," he said. Karter cleared his throat, but I saw he was trying not to smirk at my offended tone.

"You know that's how all babies are made, right? Including you," Karter said.

"I know," Ty confirmed, nodding. "I wasn't trying to be mean. Santa and Mrs. Claus are fat," he added thoughtfully.

I sighed. "The thing is… I know I don't look like it yet, but I'm going to have a baby, too."

"You're having a baby?" He repeated, his eyes widening, before darting directly to Karter. "You made the new baby with Dad," he determined. "So it will be yours, too."

"That's true," Karter said, sinking down onto the couch next to Ty. "But actually, about that, there's something I want to ask you."

"Me?" He echoed, blinking in surprise.

"Yes. You know you'll be a big brother to the baby."

"I'll take really good care of it and be nice to it and everything, if that's what you wanted to ask," Ty said.

Karter smiled, but gently shook his head. "No, I had a feeling you would do that already. What I really want is for you, me, your dad, and the new baby to all be a family together. I really want to adopt you."

Ty stared at him for a few moments, unblinking, before turning to face me where I was standing at the end of the couch. "I don't know what adopt means," he hissed at me, with a bit of urgency.

"Oh," I realized. "Adopting someone means you want them as your kid," I explained.

His head whipped back to Karter, who was waiting patiently for his response. "You want to be my dad, too?" He asked, sounding so precious and awed that my eyes welled up with tears. Stupid pregnancy hormones.

"Yeah, buddy. I do. Do you think you'd like that?"

"Yeah!" He answered immediately, without even having to think about it. "And we can still play together and watch movies and everything?"

"Definitely," Karter said, chuckling. "None of that stuff will change."

"I can call you Dad?"

"I'd like it if you did," he said carefully. "But if you don't want to, or you want to take some time to think about it, you don't have to."

"No way!" Ty scoffed. "I don't need any time to think about it. Two dads is better than one, definitely." He paused, looking hesitant. "Can I hug you?"

"Of course," Karter said, before Ty launched into him.

Unable to stop myself, I made my way over to the couch and sat next to them, rubbing a hand down Ty's back.

"But you know, some stuff is going to have to change," I told him.

Glancing up at me from Karter's embrace, he pursed his little lips. "We have to move, right? So the baby can have a room."

"That's right," I said, eyebrows raising. Sometimes I wondered how I'd made a smart kid.

"But our new house is going to be way, way cooler than this one," Karter promised him.

"Really?" Ty asked, doubt and suspicion ringing through loud and clear in his squeaky little voice. "How's that?"

"Well, the new house is going to be pretty big," Karter started.

"As big as Mrs. Farrah and Mrs. Tracey's house?" He asked, eyes wide. I started to say no, absolutely not, but Karter jumped ahead of me.

"Absolutely," he said. "We're going to have a lot of rooms, and a really big yard. We could even have a pond put in, so you could feed ducks at home."

"A pond at home!?" Ty cried out, mouth dropping open. "You said people can't have ponds, only at the park!" He accused me, frowning.

"Only certain kinds of people can have ponds," I retorted dryly, giving Karter a bland look. He shrugged a shoulder, unrepentant of the sin of his vast and obscene wealth.

"And we're not that certain kind of people?" Ty asked, looking a little sad.

"You are now," Karter said, giving him a smug little grin.

"Awesome!" Ty cheered, raising his arms up. "House pond! Duckies at home!"

It was clear I would be outvoted if I tried to veto the mansion or the pond, so I only sighed, resting my hand on my lower tummy. This kid didn't know how easy they would have it.

The rest of the day, until we pulled up to Karter's parents' house, was easy breezy, and full of laughs and hugs and happy discussions. Ty was over the moon about gaining Karter as a dad, and wasn't shy about showing his elation about it. He'd already asked me a lot of questions about how I was feeling, and if the baby had a name yet, or if we knew if it was a boy or girl.

"Remember, you can't say anything about the baby yet, until me and your dad say it's time," Karter reminded him as we unloaded from the car.

Ty made a show of zipping across his mouth, miming a lock at the corner and tossing away the key. He was good at keeping his mouth shut when needed, so I wasn't worried.

We would have a more private celebration with just Tracey and Farrah on Christmas day, but this party was for all friends and acquaintances. The giant tree in their family room was decorated with extreme precision and coordination, not like our haphazard disaster, and the walls were hung with stockings and little signs and decor promoting the holiday season.

"So what's this big news you have to tell us?" Tracey wondered, accosting us the second we were in the door.

"Later, Mom," Karter told her. She gave him a wry smile, but blinked innocently.

"Fine, fine."

Ty insisted on carrying the platter of cookies himself, marching it to the kitchen while Karter and I followed closely behind.

Tracey chattered happily to us as we made our way through the scattered crowd of party attendees. I recognized many of them from Halloween, returning their friendly smiles and waves as I passed. Whether it was because they didn't know enough about me to feel superior, or because Karter's family didn't surround themselves with total snobs, I wasn't sure. But it was a relief either way.

"They're not budging yet," Tracey informed her wife very matter-of-factly, as we wandered into the kitchen. Farrah looked less concerned and more patient about the whole situation.

"I'm making mimosas," she told us cheerfully, waving a bottle of orange juice in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. She'd become more comfortable around me over time, probably because she was starting to figure out I wasn't some gold digger that just wanted in on Karter's cushy lifestyle. "You want it strong or extra strong?"

Praying I wouldn't blush or stutter or anything else that would ultimately reveal the real reason I didn't want one, I shook my head. "None for me, thanks."

"I'll take one," Karter said quickly, hopefully turning her attention to him, instead of my refusal.

"Wow!" Ty cried, from a different room. "Look at all these presents! And most of them have my name on them!"

Tracey laughed at my side, before rushing out to intercept his curiosity before it got the better of him. "Those are for Christmas day! No peeking!"

Unable to hide my smile, I threaded my arm through Karter's, snuggling into his side. Everything was so warm and cheery and lovely. When I reached into my pocket to glance at the time in my phone, I found it empty.

"Ah, damn it," I sighed. "I left my phone in the car."

"I'll get it for you," he offered immediately, setting his drink down.

"No, I don't mind," I said. "I'm not exactly an invalid yet," I added softly, after subtly glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention to us.

"And when you are, I'll carry you everywhere you need to go. You won't need to take a single step on your own," he promised me. I scoffed, shaking my head at his ridiculous statement.

"You'll throw your back out."

"I'm not quite at that advanced age yet," he retorted dryly, but his eyes were sparkling with humor and affection.

"I'll be right back," I promised, scurrying out of the hustle and bustle of the party, to the snowy outside.

Taking in a deep breath of the brisk air, I pulled my coat tighter around me. As I made my way around the house, a sharp voice startled me, freezing me in my tracks.

"Look, I already told you I'm done with all this. Just let it go, okay? You're psychotic." It was Lucas Caldwell's voice.

"Me?" A woman's voice shrilly answered him. "You're going to let that ditzy little ragamuffin beat you?"

Lucas let out a single bark of laughter. "Beat me? I don't have control over who Karter Morrison gets his rocks off to. And you're the one who was obsessed with getting us to date. I told you I tried, and he isn't into me. I mean obviously I'm not his type. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out."

My eyes widened to the size of saucers as I realized the ditzy little ragamuffin in question was, in fact, me. Flattening myself against the wall of the house, I prayed they wouldn't keep walking around and notice me there.

"Alphas don't have a type," she scoffed. "They'll bond with anyone that looks good and does what they say. You didn't try hard enough."

"You're nuts," he said dismissively. "And by the way, in case you didn't notice, I'm not like you. I don't need to trick some rich alpha into knocking me up and supporting me. I have a career."

"How dare you speak to me that way!" The woman's voice was supremely offended. "You wouldn't have that career if not for your father and I putting you through school and paying for your modeling classes and everything else."

He sighed, and I could tell he wanted to be done. My head was spinning with confusion as I tried to decode the conversation by combining it with the information I already had.

He wasn't all that upset over Karter turning him down, which fit with his reaction to me at the Halloween party. It might have bruised his ego at the time, but his logic and reason surrounding the fact that he just wasn't Karter's type seemed to have put it all into perspective for him.

"If you think that I'm going to carry out some crazy ass villain scheme over an alpha who's already hung up on someone else because you put me through school, as my parent, you're insane. I can't believe you reported his kid to some abuse line or whatever."

"I was doing what I had to do to get Karter to realize that he belongs with someone from our world, not some slutty little teen dad."

Her words were all too familiar, nearly identically echoing the ones from that recent article about me online. She was definitely the one who'd called it in, not Lucas.

"Yeah, well, evicting a bunch of random people from their homes probably wasn't the play there, Cruella," he scoffed. "You just pushed them closer together, anyway."

"You're so ungrateful," she snapped. "If you want to give up, then fine. Maybe you want to be like him, and get with some low rent alpha you'll end up having to pay for, for the rest of your life."

"How about I just fuck who I want, and you stay out of my business?" He suggested. "And for the record, if he does end up making a big deal out of the whole abuse report and eviction thing, I am not taking the fall for you. I will sing like a canary."

"Oh, be serious." Her tone was ripe with disdain. "I'm sure he knows better. I doubt he wants some drawn out legal battle over nothing."

Bristling with anger, I could barely bite down on the urge to emerge from my hiding spot and give her a piece of my mind. Having my parenting skills and the safety of my child questioned and investigated wasn't nothing. And booting us, along with all our neighbors, from our home wasn't nothing either.

But from Lucas' exasperated tone, and her frustrated one, I got the feeling that the nightmare was over. As much of a self-absorbed dick as he was, at least Lucas wasn't relishing in my misery as I'd once thought.

"Well, you better hope he doesn't," he mused, in an annoying kind of sing-song voice. "Then again, it would probably be great publicity for me. I just can't believe my mother would do something so awful," he added in a watery voice, full of crocodile tears. "I can't imagine putting anyone through something so cruel. I just hope everyone respects my privacy right now, while I'm processing all this."

"Consider yourself lucky that you look the way you do," she told him flatly. "You could never make it as an actor."

She suddenly sailed past me, thankfully not glancing in the direction where I was flattened against a wall, partially obscured by a leafy hedge.

"See you in there, Mommy Dearest," he called after her.

My mother hadn't been perfect, but she'd loved me and wanted the best for me. Even when I'd make mistakes, she hadn't judged me or forced me to do anything I hadn't wanted to do. She'd supported me no matter what. I couldn't imagine growing up with a mom that could say anything like the things I'd just heard come from her mouth.

I'd gotten lucky with her not seeing me, but my luck ran out when a few moments later, Lucas made his way forward. Even though I held my breath and didn't move, his face whipped toward me, locking onto me before he had fully passed by.

"Are you allowed out here without adult supervision?" He wondered mockingly.

"I'm 22, in case you didn't know," I said, frowning.

"You were seven when Karter and I graduated high school, in case you didn't know."

Part of me wanted to ask why he hated me so much, but the previous conversation had made it kind of clear he didn't really care that much about me or even Karter, really. He was just a rude bully. And even if he didn't really have feelings for Karter, I had to imagine it stung that someone like me had bagged a guy that had turned down someone like him.

"You realize I heard that whole conversation, right?"

He shrugged, raising his palms up to show he didn't care. "I don't have anything to hide. Do whatever you want. It'll be her fault if she gets in trouble. But," he continued. "She wasn't kidding about the drawn out legal battle thing. She'll fight you tooth and nail, even though she knows she was in the wrong."

I exhaled deeply, my hands fisting into nervous knots at my sides. I didn't want a long, drawn out legal battle. I didn't want any kind of battle. I just wanted to nest with my alpha and my son, and block out all the awful people in the world like Marlena and Lucas Caldwell.

"Can you just be a decent human being and tell me one thing?" I asked. Maybe I was expecting too much of him. But I couldn't let it go until I was sure I wouldn't have to worry about my family being harassed. "Is she done screwing with me? Can we really let things go?"

He stared at me for so long that I wasn't sure if he was really going to answer me. His features were so sharp and perfect. I wondered if my life would have been any easier if I'd had those kinds of genetics, and ultimately decided it wasn't worth it.

"She's obsessed with the idea of pimping me out to an alpha from a rich, successful family," he said. His tone at the statement gave me a twinge of sympathy. Part of me hoped he would imprint on someone that could help tone down some of his bitterness. "But I told her I won't cooperate with the Karter thing anymore, so she'll move on to the next one. Particularly because keeping your hand on your stomach like that is pretty much a dead giveaway that you're in a delicate condition ," he said condescendingly, making air quotes with his fingers for the last two words in his statements. I blushed, letting my hand drop. I hadn't even realized I'd been doing it.

"Okay," I said. It was incredibly annoying that this asshole knew about my pregnancy before Karter's parents, but it looked like he didn't enjoy having the knowledge as much as I didn't enjoy him having it. "If you don't think she's going to do anything else, then I'll let it go."

"I already said I don't care. Go blather to your boyfriend about it."

His words were harsh, but I couldn't forget the fact that he hadn't been forced to answer me at all. Whether he admitted it or not, he'd deliberately appeased my concerns so I could move on. I wondered if maybe his cruel attitude was a way to protect himself from people who wanted to use him for his looks and wealth, kind of like how Karter was to anyone who wasn't me or Ty.

"Well… Thanks." I didn't know what else to say.

"Cameron?" Karter's voice rang out from behind me, and I turned to see him walking up behind us. "I was worried you'd fallen on the ice out here. What's taking so long?" His eyes narrowed as he turned the corner to see Lucas face-to-face with me. "What's going on?" He demanded, gaze darting between the two of us. "Did he do something to you?" His question was directed at me.

"No," I said quickly, putting my hand on his arm. He was more protective and more reactive to perceived slights against me these days. "We were just talking. Everything's fine," I promised him.

"Yeah," Lucas agreed, though his tone was irritatingly mocking. "We were just talking. Don't have a cow, Daddy," he added as he glided past us toward the entrance to the house, giving Karter a smug expression.

"You told him?" He asked me incredulously.

"No," I said, frowning. "He guessed or something. It doesn't matter," I added quickly. "He's not the one who made the report about Ty, or who bought my old apartment."

Karter's eyebrows furrowed together as he processed my words. "Are you sure? How do you know? If he didn't do it, then who-"

I laid my hand on his chest, shaking my head. "It doesn't matter right now. I'll explain everything when we get home." I didn't want to ruin the party for him, or cause a scene to ruin it for everyone else. "But I think everything's going to be okay now. We don't need to worry about anything else happening."

He tilted his head curiously at me, but I could tell he accepted my answer. My instincts told me we were safe, and that we could move on from this whole mess and start building our lives together.

In that moment, it felt as though everything from my past that had been chaining me down and holding me back evaporated into the air like steam on a hot day. Whatever either of us had been, or whatever had happened to us just wasn't important anymore. I wasn't an orphaned teen dad who'd had to wait tables just to barely make ends meet anymore. I was Karter Morrison's mate. We had one beautiful, amazing kid together, and pretty soon we'd have two. To start, anyway.

I pulled his face down to mine for a long, deep kiss. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. We both forgot where we were, lost in the feeling of each other, until I heard a disgusted noise from behind us. I whipped around to see Ty making a melodramatic expression of repulsion.

"Can you guys puh- leeze hurry up!? Mrs. Farrah says we can't open the cookies until you come back!"

I giggled, biting my lip. "Sorry, baby. We'll be right in."

He sighed the sigh of a child who valued cookies far more than kissing, before marching off.

"We better go back inside before he starts an anti-kissing crusade," Karter remarked, grinning.

"Sounds like it," I said. Part of me, a big part, wanted to stay out for just a few more minutes, wallowing in Karter's love and affection. But I threaded my fingers through his and let him lead me back in. It was only fair.

After all, we had the rest of our lives for that.