2. Seymour

Chapter 2

Seymour

When I first met Kai, my beast had been pushing me to be near him. I didn't understand it. He never acted that way. But then I recognized him, and things started to fall into place. Or so I thought.

My beast was so excited that he had met a real-life celebrity. And less that it was a celebrity than the fact that I felt like I knew the omega. My dragon would of course feel the same way. I mean, I had faithfully watched that show every single time it aired, so it made sense. Right?

But then, when I went inside to grab my phone, everything began to make sense. My head cleared just enough to realize that none of that had anything to do with the reasons my dragon was so intense. Not even close.

My dragon was acting the way he was because this pregnant omega, Kai, was ours. And with that realization came an avalanche of thoughts as I tried to figure out if he understood who I was. I went over the conversation again and again and how he'd said, "Maybe three."

Was I the third? Could I be the third? I was the third, right?

A groan from the deck brought me back to where I should've been, where I needed to be, where I currently wasn't present—helping my mate. He was getting ready to give birth.

I ran out, unsure of how long I had been stuck in that frozen state of mind. It couldn't have been more than a minute, but he was in labor. A minute was too long for him to be faring this alone.

They always said that if you had multiple mates, emotions would work themselves out. I never understood that before. Not really. I assumed they meant there was enough love to go around or some other cliche. But seeing my new mate pregnant and about to have a baby, I finally got it.

There wasn't a lick of jealousy about him being with child, or his other mates, or how he came to carry the sweet babe. All that was there was a desire to help him, to make sure this delivery was the way he longed for it to be. My only fear was that I'd be unable to arrange that in a timely enough manner.

"I'm sorry, I... I got... I'm here now." I sat beside him. "I shouldn't have gone inside."

"No, it's fine. I was... I was taken aback that you knew who I was."

Personally, I'd have been more surprised if he told me he ran into anyone who didn't. He was on one of the most popular shows there was. Of course I knew who he was. Me, on the other hand, I was surprised I ran into him, the Kai, the one everyone loved, the one who broke my heart when he died.

Only he didn't die. It was television. Didn't make that past hurt any less real.

"Yeah, I was surprised it was you, too," I forced a chuckle, "but I've moved past that. And I hope that you can too."

He didn't need to think I was a celebrity chaser. Kai needed to see me as the man, the dragon, the mate that I could and would be. He didn't need a fanboy, even if that had been my gut reaction initially. He deserved better. He deserved everything.

Kai clenched his stomach, bending over again. I didn't know a lot about omegas and having babies, but I knew enough to notice that the contractions were pretty close together. And the closer they got, the sooner the baby was coming.

Being a dragon wasn't doing me any favors. Dragons were egg layers, making this completely new territory for me. Why didn't I pay better attention in health class? I could use that information right about now.

"Do you want to come ho… inside?"

Technically, I was house-sitting because this place was "the house that wouldn't sell," and my cousin needed somebody who could watch and take care of the place, but also be ready to move on a moment's notice if and when it ever did sell. It worked well for me, but it meant it wasn't my home. Not really.

I was 100% counting on the fact that my cousin wouldn't mind if I let a virtual stranger come in and have a baby. Not that I cared much if he did mind. If this was what my mate needed, this was going to be exactly what he got.

But in the end, it didn't matter if my cousin would or wouldn't give a rat's ass, because Kai shook his head in a polite decline of my offer.

"No, no. I don't want to make any decisions about anything baby related. Not until my mates get here. I need them before I make any decisions about the baby and where I'm going to... We need to call them, which should have been the first thing we did." He was talking a mile a minute, his urgency having me second-guess how close this baby truly was to making their arrival.

I wasn't usually this spacey-brained, but between his scent wrapping around me, the pregnancy, my dragon being a fool, and then recognizing him—I was all but useless. And that was the last thing Kai needed. He needed me to be strong, to be there for him, to help him get through this, help him until his mates were here. His mates. Our mates? My guess was we were going to find out soon enough.

I didn't know which mate answered the phone, but Kai was initially very forceful about where he was, like they would instinctively know the place. I could hear the fear in his mate's voice from the other side of the phone, my dragon being a nosy nellie. For once I was glad.

As soon as Kai said he was okay and repeated that he was at "the house," they said they were both on their way. They offered to stay on the phone with him the entire time, but he declined, saying, "No, it's fine. I have Seymour here."

It wasn't the same as "I have my mate here," but it might as well have been. Because in this moment, he was giving me his trust. Please let me be deserving of it.