Chapter 19

Chapter

Nineteen

J ake sat in his truck, stunned, not sure what to do next.

He and Samuel had spent a few blissful days wrapped together, napping, watching Grant run in the sun, and just wallowing in their joy.

Today, he'd had to do some guardian work, and now that he was on his own outside of the house, he was freaking out a little.

Not because he wasn't thrilled. He was. Goddess, he was…wow. He was so excited.

No, he felt a little scared.

His sister had found her mate. Fallen in love. Had a baby. And look what had happened.

Who would take care of their babies?

Who would love Grant? Whoever the new baby was?

He gripped the steering wheel, trying not to think too loud. He didn't want Samuel to hear him and think he was either nuts or having second thoughts.

Bea landed on the ground outside his truck, wings making a wild thump, her black scales glittering in the sunlight.

He jumped half a mile, almost hitting his damn head on the rearview mirror. "Holy shit, Bea! Scare the crap out of me, why don't you?"

Bea chuffed softly. Hey, stranger. You bring something to eat?

"Yeah, yeah. Here." He got out of the truck and opened the cooler in the bed.

What's wrong? Bea shifted, and he dug out a blanket for her to wrap herself up in.

"Just freaking myself out," he told her. "Thinking too hard."

"About?" She grabbed a sandwich and perched on the tailgate.

"Well, I have a mate now. What if something happens?" What if a rock fell on him?

"Don't do stupid shit like acrobatic flying in a storm."

"Hey." That was a little too soon to be funny, but it was still true. "I just—Samuel is pregnant," he blurted.

She blinked at him, her eyes glowing for half a second. "No shit. Well, then, I understand why you're worried."

"You do?" Now he was concerned that there was something to be worried about.

"Sure. Once kids enter the equation, it becomes a whole other problem, and you were already dealing with Grant, which was fine because it was just you and him. But now you have Samuel and potentially another baby, or more than one, to deal with, and that makes the whole world turn on a dime."

"Yeah. It never occurred to me before that something might happen to me when I got Grant. I guess because his moms were dead, I always just assumed that I would be there for him no matter what. But then Samuel told me he was pregnant, and I wigged out. I just—I'm so worried that something's gonna happen."

"Have you talked to Samuel about it?" Bea pulled the sandwich out of the baggie, and she also grabbed a drink.

"No, no, we've had some wonderful days off together, and I was really feeling the love. We were in the glow. I didn't want to harsh that. In fact, I would do anything not to bring Samuel down." He was feeling so gross physically still, the morning sickness just really riding him, and he was also incredibly joyful about the baby. Jake wasn't about to drop a bomb on Samuel about how worried he was.

"Okay, so you don't wanna lay that on him." Bea waved her sandwich in the air. "But he's your mate. That means he's your life partner. That means you need to share things with him. If you told him how worried you were, I bet he would help allay your fears."

"No. What if he didn't? What if it just made him wig out? He's kind of emotional. I think it's hormones."

"My gods, just don't say that to him."

"Oh no. I already learned that when he burst into tears because I told him that he just needed to breathe during a bout of nausea."

"Yeah, I know." Bea gave him a look of total commiseration. "That's not a good idea. Never ever comment on anything that they do physically or emotionally when they're pregnant. Just smile and nod or make concerned faces and noises. Hmmmmm."

"Right. I can do that." Jake grinned because Bea was so matter-of-fact. He loved that about her. It was so easy to just talk to her because she didn't try to get all those social cues right or make him feel better in a touchy-feely way. She just told it like it was.

"Anyway, you've got this, Jake. You took on Grant, and you've been a great dad to him. He's a happy, well-adjusted little boy, and when you and Samuel have a baby, you're going to do exactly the same thing. You're going to be there for him because you're a stand-up guy, and if something happens to you, because none of us are immortal despite the fact that we're a little sturdier than humans, you have an entire community of people that would help your kids." She stared at him right in the eye as she munched her sandwich.

"You're right. I do." They said it took a village to raise a kid and now he was seeing what they meant. "So what do I do now?"

"You mean for the moment? You take a deep breath. You tell yourself that it's all gonna be okay and then you work your damn hardest to make sure it is. Then you make a contingency plan. Once you have that in place, I can guarantee you that it will feel better." She winked.

"Yeah? Did you do that?"

"Absolutely. My mate is a good wife, but she's the obsessive planner, and she wasn't happy until we had every step laid out in writing so that we could give it to the people who needed to have it."

"Who did you give it to?" he asked.

"Logan. Then of course Jason, but now that Jason is retiring, I guess we'll give it to whoever takes his place."

"Right. Do we…do we have any ideas of who that's going to be? Is Logan going to…"

She shook her head. "He doesn't want to. He has his business, and he's very hands-on still."

"So, what do we do about that?" Jake had no idea. Jason might be the only one who had been a guardian the last time someone changed over.

"Jason says his replacement will come, man. We have to believe in him."

"I guess so." He was a little doubtful, but that seemed to be his job in this wing. Doubting Thomas. Or Jake, as the case may be.

"Do you want the job?" Bea tilted her head. "I mean, I think you could do it."

"What?" His voice rose on the question. "Goddess no. What about you?"

"Nope. I have a baby, and I want another one. I don't have time to corral us. That's no fun!"

"That's it. We need someone who likes to push us around. I would say Lars, but he's more the dinner-party type."

"I—Yeah, Lars doesn't seem the type."

"Did you know that in Samuel's wing, they have omega guardians?"

"No shit?" Something about Bea's grin told him he was missing something. Maybe Samuel was right about Lars.

"Yeah. I like the idea—Samuel can be fierce where Grant is concerned. He came here, all on his own." It had been amazing.

"Omegas will fight the earth for children, man." Bea clapped him on his back. "I'm so glad for you."

"Yeah? I am too. Another blessing. Another baby."

"Yes. It makes me so happy to see the wing flourish." She beamed at him, and the smile would have been creepy, if he hadn't known her.

A lot of people found Bea really intimidating, but he adored her. She just had no social skills.

In fact, she was a big, scary, evil, perfect friend.

"It does me too, lady. So how much more do we have to do today?" He finally grabbed some food, his body reminding him of basic needs.

"Everything is glorious. We can just fly."

"Well, I do have to come back to the truck."

"So practical. It's not storming. Fly with me, Jake."

He finished off his sandwich in two bites. "Let's go."

She dropped the blanket and shifted, her ebony scales like mirrors.

Jake hooted happily and followed suit, leaping into the sky as soon as he had wings.

Flying was always better than worrying about shit he had no control over.