Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

R ory woke up all naked and not hairy. Which, these days, on any given day, was a good thing. He was having a bit of trouble with not wolfing out whenever he got emotional.

And goddess, he was super emotional all the damn time. He was sure it was because everything was a little overwhelming now that his wolf senses were one hundred percent awakened.

He grinned at John as his friend met him in the kitchen of the big alpha house, where he was icing cookies with a batch of tween wolf kids. “Hey.”

“Hey. You got a little fuzzy ear there, man,” John told him.

“Oh.” He batted at it, glad that the kids hadn’t started teasing him.

“Hey, you’re not nearly as bad as I was.”

“No?” Rory remembered vaguely that John’d had a really hard time when he started shifting, so much so that he’d been locked away. “I just feel so damn emotional all the time.”

“Well, it can do that, the whole wolf thing.”

“Sure.” Rory shrugged, mixing up more pink icing. “I mean, I’ve read all about shifting rage and all that. But I’m never mad.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And I keep bursting into tears.”

John frowned at him, head tilting. “Is something wrong? I mean, are you sad?”

“No!” Rory chuckled, then looked at the mangled icing bag in his hand. “No. I’m happier than I’ve ever been. But all I can do is shift and cry and be really damn horny.”

“Oh. Uh…is it possible that you’re with child?”

“With what?”

“Preggers, man.” John grabbed a cookie, dunking it immediately in his cup of coffee.

God, that smelled like bitter death. “No. No, I don’t think so. No way.”

“No? I mean, you guys have been together long enough. Does he knot you?”

He glanced around, his cheeks on fire. “Well…yes…”

John glanced at the kids. “And do you get wet for him?”

“Um. Yes.”

“You’re probably pregnant. I’ll have the midwife come talk to you.”

“I—”

“It’s no shame. We all know how babies are made.”

His cheeks heated painfully. “I just never expected to have any. Like personally cook them.”

“Um, hello. I was a macho PI.” John snorted.

“Are you sure? Macho?” he teased.

“Well, I was damn manly.” John winked. “Beau was really the big alpha one.”

“Yes. Beau was a hoot. He gave Zeke a run for his money.” Could he be pregnant? Surely not.

“Well, like I said, I’ll send one of the midwives. It will make you feel better to know.” John snorted. “Hormones can make you feel like you’re nuts.”

“Yeah? I guess… I guess that would be okay. I won’t worry Fen, though.”

“Okay, cool?” John looked at his face, then set his coffee aside. “Sorry. I’ll just not have the rest of that.”

“Oh. No. No, sorry. I’m just…” Going to toss cookies if he wasn’t careful. “I need a glass of water.”

“You got it.” John brought him a cold glass of water two seconds later. “Bess? Can you sub in here? Let’s go outside and get you some air.”

“Oh, goddess…please. I’m sorry, I just…” He was going to hurl.

“It’s okay. You’re okay. Sip your water, it’s totally cool.” John led him outside and into the crisp autumn air.

Rory held his glass like it was a lifeline, as if when he let go of it the world would fall apart. It may well be the only thing holding him together.

“Listen, I know this has to be scary. I mean, I was in your shoes, and I didn’t even know werewolves existed, right? Much less omegas and alphas and men getting pregnant. I thought everybody was crazy. Women being able to get people pregnant? Hello there, I thought it was like some mass hallucination. And then of course, you know. I lived it twice.”

“Did you hate it?”

John shrugged for him. “I admit, I wasn’t the best pregnant person on earth. I love the kids. That part is cool. I wasn’t happy being pregnant. I wasn’t glowing, but everybody’s different. I would do it again to get my babies. They’re worth it. Nine months of bullshit, but it’s nothing when you hold them. Okay, it’s still something.” John rolled his eyes, so dramatic. “It, yeah, okay, it’s still something, but worth it. And regardless, there’s nothing to freak out about.”

“I think I’m going to freak out a little bit anyway.”

“Oh, I think you’re already freaking out a little bit. But what I’m saying is breathe. It’s gonna be okay.”

“Okay. Right. What if Fen doesn’t want babies? How am I even doing this?”

John shook his head. “Man, I don’t know. I… We just don’t know. I mean, maybe this is the universe’s way of making sure that guys get mates. Maybe it’s magic. Maybe it’s genetics. All I know is it is what it is.”

“Yeah.” And he didn’t hate it. He didn’t hate being a wolf. It was kind of cool actually, and he adored Fen. It was just all very new and moving very, very fast.

And what did that mean for his brothers? If he knew one thing, it was that they all had the same mom and dad. His folks had been in love. Like super-duper, for real in love. So they all had the same genetics.

Did that mean his brothers were going to end up finding mates and getting preggers? That thought was hilarious. Dean? Pregnant?

Or maybe Dean was more an alpha, and that was why he was holding the whole family together.

Fuck. It boggled the mind.

Keegan walked over to them, having a radar for his mate. “Hey. You two okay?”

“Rory got a little overheated in the kitchen, is all.” John lifted his face for a kiss. He got it, too, a lingering press of mouths that was not gross or overly hot, but it still made him a little guilty watching it.

Love? Are you well?

He smiled at Fen’s voice. He tried to avoid peeking in on Fen at work. Distracting him could cause injuries. I’m fine. Just hot.

Hot . He felt Fen’s concern deepened. It’s chilly out there. I’m coming to see you. Just let me put my tools away.

Oh, I’m all right, I just… He just had to go see a midwife to see if he was pregnant, and then, if he was pregnant, tell Fen that he was pregnant because he didn’t even begin to know how to do that. “Hey, you, I’m having a baby, and I hope that you’re cool with that. I don’t know why you wouldn’t be cool with that, but what if you’re not cool with that?”

I’ll be right there.

“Rory, man, are you all right?” Keegan asked.

“I’m fine. Fen’s on his way. I—I guess he wanted to see me.” And now he was going to have to figure out what the hell to do.

Lying to Fen was hard, even if it was just a lie of omission.

John gave him a warm, amused little look, and Rory considered just biting him. “You’re getting whiskery again, buddy. Hold it together.”

“Oh, damn it.”

This was the last thing he needed right now, to just wolf out when he really needed to talk to his mate.

“All right, listen to me. Deep breaths, man. In and out. You’ve got this.” The alpha’s voice was soothing and helped, surprisingly, to keep him stable and unfuzzy.

Defuzzy.

The great antifuzzy.

Whatever.

The important part was that he didn’t wolf out and was heading toward calm, at least until Fen came up at him. At a dead run.

“Mate, mate, are you well?”

He nodded and shook his head, nodded again.

Keegan chuckled. “Well, that was clear.”

Fen gave Keegan a look, but he grabbed his hands. “What can I do?”

“Why don’t you guys walk over to see Missus Lonia?” John suggested.

Keegan’s eyebrows flew up, but Fen had no idea who that was, so he blinked. “Is she a healer?”

“Of sorts,” Rory murmured, glaring at John.

He just chuckled. “She can help, yes.”

“Well, then, come on, love,” Fen told him, tugging his hands.

He rolled his eyes at John but took Fen’s left hand in his right and led him off across the village.

“So, um…” How to explain this? “This healer person lady that we’re going to go see. Um. She’s kind of a specialist.”

Fen tilted his head. “Well, she’s a healer.”

“Of sorts.”

“John said that. What’s going on?” Fen paid way too close attention.

Oh, goddess help him, he was going to puke. “She’s a midwife, okay? Like a midwife.”

“Midwife.” Fen stopped.

Stared at him.

And just kept staring at him.

“Okay. Did you not want to do this? We don’t have to do this. You could just not do this. I’m sure that there’s a way not to do this. We can just go home and close the door and go to bed for the winter. Do wolves hibernate? I wouldn’t mind hibernating.”

Fen just kept staring. Okay, that was creepy.

Like seriously one hundred percent all the way fucking creepy. “Look, if you don’t want to have a baby… I mean, I don’t even know if I’m pregnant, but—and I didn’t even, I didn’t know that that was a thing for me. I’m—I didn’t know, and I have enough to deal with without you being mad. You’re not allowed to be mad at me.” He was going to throw this glass of water right at Fen and hit his mate right in his staring face, possibly break his nose.

Also, why did he still have a glass of water?

Fen tilted his head. “No wonder you can’t keep your wolf put together.”

“What? What did you just say to me?”

“I just meant?—”

“That wasn’t very nice.” He was trying really hard to learn how to do this. He had never done this before. No one had even told him that he was supposed to know how to do this. And now this person who had probably gotten him pregnant—well, Fen had definitely got him pregnant, assuming he was pregnant, which he might not even be pregnant, but it was totally Fen’s fault, along with this whole werewolf thing. He was pretty sure that was Fen’s fault too. “That really wasn’t very nice.”

“Rory.” Fen grabbed him, turning him to face him. “That’s not what I meant! I just said the first thing that popped into my head. I only mean that not only did you just start to shift, now you have all these hormones.”

“But you don’t look happy.” He wanted to shake Fen. Hard.

“Well, you look like you want to run.” Fen’s smile lit up the whole day. “You’re pregnant!”

“Maybe? John sure thinks so.”

“Love. I—Wow.” Fen howled, grabbing him and swinging him around, which made everyone stare at them.

Well, that was better than not happy, he guessed.

It’s okay then?

Oh, mate. More than. This is a miracle. We have a home. I contribute to the pack. There’s going to be a baby now. This is a miracle. More than I ever dared pray for.

I sure hope so.

With his luck, it was just some sort of weird psychic hiccup or something; he didn’t know. If he was honest, he didn’t know a lot about anything right now except that he wanted to just puke a lot and cry all the time.

They got to the healers’ building, and there was the midwife, standing there, smiling at him. “Thought you’d be coming by soon, dear one.”

“How did you know? What could I possibly have done? I swear I haven’t done anything weird or pregnant.”

“Be at ease, Rory. It’s my job to know. I promise you, it’s all right. It’s normal to be worried. You have your alpha here. He’ll protect you, care for you. All of us will care for you as you have cared for us for so long.”

He began to sob at her words, the mixture of worry and fear and joy so intertwined inside of him he couldn’t separate the strands.

Fen held him, vocalizing gently, the sounds soothing him down to his core. “All will be well, mate. All will be well.”

He wasn’t sure that all was going to be well. “What am I gonna tell my family?”

“That they’re going to be uncles, of course.”

“It can’t just be that easy.”

“Of course it can,” she said. “You’re a wolf. This is natural. Let yourself relax. You have to use a lot of energy to grow a whole baby.”

“But my brothers?—”

“Will be happy for us. Liam and Dean are coming up next week,” Fen said. “We’ll start by telling them.”

Rory sniffed, feeling so…hormonal. Dammit, he’d always been just a guy. And now he was a pregnant omega wolf!

“My pregnant omega wolf,” Fen said tenderly, petting his back. “I do love you so.”

“Aw, babe, I love you too. I’m just so wigged.”

“There is no need for you to be. We’ll work through all this together. I will take the rest of the day off, and we can just spend it quietly with each other.”

“Do you need to, like, have me pee on a stick or something?”

Fen’s eyebrows damn near hit his hairline, and Lonia just chuckled. “No, dear. We can smell it.”

“Does it stink? Do I stink?” He stared at his mate in a panic. “Fen, do I stink?”

“You do not stink,” Fen assured him.

Lonia shook her head. “It’s my gift, silly wolf. Take him home and get him some rest, possibly a cookie.”

Rory wanted to scream and stomp his feet and say he didn’t want a cookie, except that he did want a cookie and he did want to go home, and so it seemed silly to throw a fit about something that he just wanted to do right now.

In fact, doing it right now seemed like a great fucking plan.

Fen beamed. “Yes ma’am, I would be happy to. We have cookies.”

“I’ll have someone drop dinner off. We could just leave it outside the door and that way you don’t have to cook.” He opened his mouth to argue, and she stared him down. “We don’t mind. You would do it for us.”

He would. “I do.” He had.

“Go home, be with your mate. All will be well. You have my word, all is well.”

He didn’t know about that, but he did know Fen had his arm and was slowly but surely leading them home, the constant soft rejoicing ringing in his head.

My mate is having our baby.