20. Henri

My stomach muscles ached, and though I thought I had the flu, I wasn't sure. I was a fox. In theory I should've been pretty immune to human germs. But there was no denying I felt like I'd been hit by a truck a few times and then stomped on.

I thought back to the night before—typical of my new life, my job had been to look handsome on my mate's arm at some political social event with little teeny hot dogs wrapped in biscuits. At least that part was good. Usually they had finger foods that I wanted no part of but had to eat anyway.

But now, I felt like I had been drinking all the champagne. And had I been drinking all night I'd have considered this a consequence I deserved. Only thing was, I didn't have any. Not one drop. I'd been drinking water and nothing harder.

My stomach lurched, and I jumped out of bed and ran as fast as I could, barely making it to the toilet in time to empty my stomach. I felt immediately better, although my body still ached in places I hadn't realized I had. I brushed my teeth and took a shower, letting the hot water soothe me. As I stood there with a towel wrapped around myself, that was when I saw my face for the first time. It looked like I hadn't slept in eons.

When I stepped back into our bedroom, my mate was up and stretching his arms wide. He froze as his eyes reached my face. "Are you okay?"

"I am now. Last night just wore on me." Probably. Maybe. I wasn't sure. I might've just been sick.

"How about I just go grab some toast from the kitchen?" My mate pulled on a pair of sweats and grabbed a T-shirt.

I agreed, because no matter how I felt, I always wanted toast. It was my single favorite food, and if I had to pick only one thing to eat for the rest of my life, that's what it would be. My mate preferred his chocolate. A sweet tooth for my sweet alpha.

I didn't even pretend to get dressed, instead throwing on a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. Nothing about my outfit would've been father-in-law approved. Not even for hanging out at home. He said that a prince must alway be at the ready. Was I a prince? Nope. But that didn't matter to him. My mate was, and therefore, all rules of decorum were mine.

To be honest, I was getting used to his ways. He wasn't a dick, not like my original impression of him led me to believe. He was just focused, and his focus was on his position. And in a way I got it. He was King, and as a king he had responsibilities I was only beginning to get a hint of understanding of. I still wished he had a better relationship with my mate. The whole Majesty thing when they met for the first time each day was over the top, even for those duty bound.

Cole came back in with toast, some juice, coffee, and what smelled like leftovers—at least that was my guess. The three paper bags with to-go containers kept it hidden from sight.

"You look a bit better," he said.

I gave a very non-committal, "Uh-huh," because I still felt awful.

"I ran into Molly, and I told her what was going on. She gave me this to give you," he said and handed me the smallest of the bags.

When I opened it up, there were two pregnancy tests inside. I pulled them out and stared. The more I stared, the more it made sense. Lately I'd been falling asleep early when possible, I puked this morning, and I had a few weird questions from a couple of security people yesterday, asking if I was arguing with my beast. In isolation, they could be explained away, but all together like this, they seemed to be adding up to being pregnant, too.

"Does that mean I need to eat cold toast?" I asked, chasing away the thought. I didn't want to get too excited about having a baby if this was me being sick. Also, my stomach was starting to beg for food… the complete opposite of what it had wanted less than an hour earlier when it demanded all of the food gone.

"Of course not."

I reached for it, but the second I made a move, I found myself staring back at the test. There was no way I could wait. It was weird that I contemplated doing so for even a second. Not even the best toast in the world was going to stop me from taking this test.

I ran into the bathroom, took the test, and came out, joining my mate while the test did its thing. According to the box, reading it early or late pretty much guaranteed bad results. Three minutes didn't sound like a long time. It wasn't even enough time for Cole to have made my toast in the first place. But as we waited three minutes, as the box instructed, it felt like the longest three minutes ever.

The timer went off, and my mate grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "Either way, I love you." He brought our joined hands up and kissed mine before the two of us walked into the bathroom together.

I grabbed the test, unable to even pretend to play it cool.

"I want it to be pregnant," I confessed. "I'm scared. Are you scared?"

"I want it too. And you know what? It's going to be positive," he reassured me. "My beast agrees."

"And then we'll be dads."

"Yep." He kissed my temple. "That's how it works."

"And then what?"

"And then we'll figure it out… together," he said, holding me close. "Right now, let's just enjoy this moment. We're probably about to become new fathers."

Slowly I turned over the test, and sure enough, there were two pink lines. We were going to be dads.