Chapter Twenty-Three

The next morning, I woke up feeling like I was born to puke. The feeling didn't go away; it got worse and worse until I found myself running to the bathroom, barely making it in time. The adrenaline and protectiveness that had come out of me when I killed had felt right at the moment. There was no stopping me.

As reality set in, it ate at me. It was the right thing to do. But now, the guilt overwhelmed me to the point of being sick.

I cleaned the best I could, brushed my teeth, and took a shower. When I came back into our bedroom, I found a hoodie lying on the bed next to a pair of my pajama pants with a note on top.

I thought today you might want to wear my hoodie. I wore it a couple of times already, and it scents like me.

Best fucking mate ever. I grabbed the hoodie so fast if you blinked, you would miss it and pulled it over my head, inhaling his scent and hugging it close.

Tyrus walked in a few seconds later. "I want to talk to you about something, okay?"

I nodded. Talking about last night wasn't on my list of favorite things, but it wasn't something we could avoid either.

"You're gonna think that maybe I'm imagining things or seeing something that's not there. But I want you to hear me out, okay?"

"Okay." He was starting to make me nervous.

"I think you are pregnant."

And that was the very last thing I thought he'd say.

"I can't be pregnant, Tyrus." Or could I? "We just got mated."

"There's no time limit on how long you have to be mated before you are pregnant. You know that, right?" He chuckled.

"Yeah, but I don't show any of the signs either." I shoved my hands in the hoodie pocket.

He rolled his eyes. "You were just in the bathroom, hurling."

"Yeah, but that was from guilt, not pregnancy."

"If you say so. Ready for breakfast?"

"Not yet. Why don't you go take your shower. I'm going to catch a few more minutes of sleep."

Those few minutes turned into an hour, and it only ended then because my mate showed up with a tray of food.

"I thought maybe you might want to eat here today."

"Maybe, but I also want to see the kids." I couldn't help but wonder if everybody thinking he was his brother might be part of the reason why he offered to bring me here. It would make sense, but I trusted him to tell me if that was the case.

Last night, it seemed like them recognizing him was a good thing, like it meant a piece of his brother lived on. But today was a new day and, at least for me, a lot looked very different.

"Is this edible?" I looked down at the eggs—they were just a little shelly.

"Maybe? A few of the older kids made breakfast for everyone. They've taken to helping in the kitchen, I guess. They asked. Pop-Tart couldn't turn them down." That very much sounded like Pop-Tart.

"I see." I pushed the eggs around. As much as I wanted to like them, it wasn't going to happen.

"Want to sneak out to the diner and have waffles?" Tyrus took the tray from me.

"Suddenly, waffles sound like the most amazing food in the world, and I can't wait to dive in." They really did sound delicious and as we drove there, I got more and more ideas on how I wanted to enjoy them, everything from with butter only to à la mode. My imagination was going wild and my belly was in agreement on all of its ideas.

The diner wasn't very far. We probably could've walked. This was good though. I liked being trapped in a small space with his scent swirling around me.

When we got there, it was in between the normal morning rush and the later crowd brunch crew. We were able to get a seat with no wait, which was perfect because my stomach was ready…now. After not being able to decide which dish to get, I ordered not one but three different waffles.

My mate just looked at me with a knowing smile.

"Maybe you were right," I admitted.

Was it too soon to test though? Probably. I wasn't all up on the science. Either way, I refused to get excited before I knew for sure. But I was already getting excited.

On the way out, I held his hand and used it to point across the street. "Want to go in there more than anything?"

"Heck yeah!"

We crossed over to the pharmacy in more of a jog than a walk. I grabbed every single test that said it was early detection. I didn't want to take the time to read all the boxes and make an informed decision. I wanted to take those tests stat.

"It still might be too soon," I said.

"Understood." He kissed my cheek. "And if it is, we'll retest in a few days."

Tyrus was so sure I was pregnant. And, goddess help me, I wanted him to be right.

When we got back to the warehouse, I ran to the bathroom and took all the tests. I wasn't going to do the one-at-a-time thing. It was all-or-nothing time, and I chose all.

"This is a good thing," he said, wrapping his arms around me. "Even if it's negative, it's just showing us this is what we want."

I hadn't thought about it that way. He was right.

"Thank you for saying that, alpha. I'm nervous, not because I don't want this. I do, more than anything. I was nervous because what if I'm not pregnant? And what if both of us got our hopes up for nothing? But you're right. It just means that we both know this is what we want in our future."

The timer went off, and we walked into the bathroom to see the tests all lined up on the back of the toilet. Looking up at us were two blue lines, two pink lines, one flashing pregnant, and one plus sign.

"That looks pretty conclusive to me," he said. "We're going to have a baby."

"Yes, alpha. We're gonna have a baby." And I couldn't be any happier.