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Then, if you aren’t hurting in some way, why are you so upset?”

Why was I upset? I looked from him to the young, blonde nurse, to my alpha who had now stood and was part of the row of people staring down at me with curiosity. “Wouldn’t you be?” I bit out, anger riding below the grief. “Or don’t you have a heart? Don’t most people in my position get upset? I thought it was normal, but maybe I should just lie here and pretend I’m fine and be like the rest of—”

“Omega!” My alpha’s firm tone cut through my tirade. “What is the matter with you? Doctor, I’ve never seen him like this. Could it be an aftereffect of what happened to him? Usually, he’s polite and a joy to be around.”

Outraged, I tried to get up again, but the nurse pressed my shoulders back into the bed. “Sssh, Mr. Chase. Just take it easy and everything will be fine.”

I’d fallen down the rabbit hole for sure. The tears I’d stopped shedding when my alpha was soothing me came pouring out again. “Wh-what is wrong with all of you? Maybe you don’t care that my body killed my child, but I do.”

Three jaws dropped then understanding lit three sets of eyes. “Mr. Chase, no wonder you’re upset.” The doctor tapped on his tablet again then turned it to face me. “Your baby is perfectly fine, see? Here is the ultrasound we took a half hour ago.” He pointed to the screen. “That, right there, is the beating heart of

your child. I am so sorry we didn’t realize what you thought had happened.” “I didn’t— The baby is still in there?”

“In there and looking fine.”

Shep sat next to me on the bed and gathered me to him, carefully avoiding kinking my IV line. “Omega, I should have realized. You were dehydrated, and that was making you sicker than you’d been.”

“But I was drinking. I swear!”

“And likely vomiting it up before you could absorb it.” Dr. Rashid gave me a warm smile. “We’re going to keep you here overnight and make sure you’re past the danger and able to hold down enough food and drink to be safe. You can go home tomorrow, if all is well?” He gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder and left, followed by the nurse.

“Alone at last,” Shep quipped.

“I guess nobody is going to tie me up now.”

“Disappointed?” He was grinning, and so was I. Our baby was okay.

“No. I won’t say I’m opposed to a little bondage, but only with you.” I snuggled closer to him. “I really was trying to get past the sickness. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that my pack had so many problems with pregnancy. You probably hate me.”

“That’s right.” He was laughing though. “You are the silliest omega, and when I get you home, I think I might need to invest in some toys. I had no idea you were into kink.”

“Me either, but it could be fun.” I tipped my head back for his kiss, reveling in the knowledge that, at least for now, our little family was intact, and vowing to do a better job of hydrating. I’d ask Nurse Ratchett for some tips before they let me go home. No more scares if I could help it.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sheppard

From that point forward, I kept an even sharper eye on my mate. It scared the ever loving hell out of me he would lose our babe, but equally that he might be in some kind of danger.

I enlisted the pack healer, an older woman with a reputation for old-school knowledge, to come live at our house, so she could help him.

Turned out that my omega loved coconut water, which gave him some vitamins as well as kept him well-hydrated along with peppermint tea that seemed to quell the nausea. Three days with Shalynn, the healer, and the blush had returned to his face and he was eating like he hadn’t in…well, months.

So, when my eleven o’clock meeting was going overtime, I couldn’t help but notice Toklo’s knee bouncing and the fact that he’d looked at his watch over a dozen times in the last half hour.

My love and my babe were clearly hungry.

“James, I hate to cut this meeting short, but is it possible you could send the rest of the information in an email? My mate is hungry. I can feel it, and it’s making me hungry as well. Have to feed the growing babe.”

James, a usually quiet omega, was giving me a report on the crops, which had flourished in the past weeks. The workers were once again taking pride in our lands and our production, and it showed. They deserved a treat, and I intended to get my omega’s input on the subject.

As soon as he wasn’t hangry.

“Yes, of course. Thank you for your time, and congratulations to you both.” He bared his neck and left the room.

Toklo popped up from his chair, raring to go. I chuckled. His appetite had certainly improved, and I loved making sure he was fed.

“Sheppard, what are you looking at?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

“I…” I hesitated. Feelings still weren’t the easiest thing for me to express. “I wanted you to know that I’ve fallen in love with you.”

His chin quivered a bit. “You love me?” I closed the distance between us. “I do.”

“Because of the babe,” he whispered, a twinge of disappointment laced his

tone.

“No, because you are you. You turned on the light in my life.” He cracked up and snorted. “You mean I turned you on.”

“No.” I grabbed him by the waist and gently pulled him flush with me. “I

mean, yes, but it’s more than that. You’ve changed my life in the best way possible. I am going to spend a lifetime thanking you, and it won’t be enough.”

He bit down on his bottom lip. “I love you, too, Sheppard. I think I have since the moment I saw you.”

I cleared my throat. “Hardly. I was a beast to you that day. I regret it every

second.”

He shrugged. “That beast was sexy as hell.”

“Hmm,” I rocked my hips into him. “I would be willing to bring him back out after lunch.”

“I…” he started, but his stomach growls interrupted. “Okay, eat first.”

After we got downstairs, I made the cooks get out of the way as the overwhelming need to feed my omega myself took over. I wanted him to eat food my hands had made, that my love had enriched somehow.

Gods, I was getting sappy.

I served him a healthy lunch of salad, salmon, and leftover roasted sweet potatoes. We’d brought in the salmon from Alaska after I found out how much he loved it.

Polar bears loving fish. Duh, alpha.

“Thank you,” he said, and in minutes had cleaned the plate and was rubbing his full belly.

I handed him a glass of iced coconut water, and he finished that off, too. “Anything else I can get you?” I asked, wondering if that was enough. It seemed to be a running theme in my mind, if my omega had enough to eat and drink.

“Yeah…I need dessert.”

Stupid me went to the freezer and offered him all-fruit popsicles and frozen yogurt and was about to list off more when his arms snaked around my waist, his palms settling on the front of my jeans. “I meant you.”

I chuckled loud and hard, but even as I took his hand, he reached in and grabbed a popsicle. “You’re going to eat that popsicle while I make love to you, aren’t you?” I asked while we climbed the stairs.

“No.”

“No?” I asked.

“I’ll be done before we get to the bedroom.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Toklo

I was finished with dessert number one before we landed on the mattress, leaving a trail of clothes from the hallway all the way to our bed. The big, comfortable bed Sheppard had bought when he noticed me tossing and turning one night and decided his old mattress wasn’t something his omega should have to deal with. He’d gotten up, gone online, and ordered the best one he could find. Asking for things wasn’t an issue, it was avoiding making him think I wanted things. I was used to a simple lifestyle back home. To me, this fine, big home was already the lap of luxury. And the previous bed had been perfectly comfortable. Although I had to admit the one my alpha lay on now, on his back, naked, with his cock jutting out and his arms outstretched, well, it was beyond

amazing.

Especially since…well, I already mentioned my alpha waiting there. A lot of omegas had a body image problem once they started to show, and I was beyond showing and into bulging, but I had more confidence than ever before. I’d not lost the baby, was growing him well, according to all the medical professionals, and my alpha and I were very happy with my changing shape.

I dropped to my knees in front of him rather than taking his hands and climbing aboard. I wanted to taste him first. Wrapping my fist around his cock, I brought it to my lips and smiled up at him.

“How are you going to get up off the floor, omega mine?” he asked with the grin that melted my bones every time.

I lapped the droplet of precum from the head and smacked my lips. “Mmm. I guess you’ll either have to help me, or join me here.” Then I closed my mouth over his head and whatever he might have replied trailed off into a groan. I knew my alpha well, and just what kind of licking and sucking would overwhelm any objections he might have. Not that he’d likely have any. I took great pride in my work.

I cupped his full sac with my free hand and gently squeezed. He was too big for me to engulf his whole cock, but I licked every hard, veined inch of him before taking in as much as possible. Even my best efforts as deep throating left enough for my fist to work with, but he never complained.

Unless those unintelligible sounds he made while weaving his fingers into my hair and holding my head stead so he could fuck my mouth were complaints, but I felt fairly sure they were not.

He tasted so good I never wanted to stop, but all too soon he lifted my head off him and reached down to grip me under the arms. “Get up here, omega mine.”

“But I want you to come in my mouth.” I struggled a little, but in typical alpha fashion, he overcame me easily, without any discussion, and lifted me to hover over his hips, adjusting the angle to allow my slick to draw him into my body. “Oh my gods!” He filled me completely, just as he had the first time.

“Okay, this is good, too.”

“Just good?” He rocked his hips, seating himself even deeper, then lay back on the pillows, watching me. “Show me how you make it better.”

“I didn’t mean…”

“Show me, omega.” When he gave orders in bed, it was all I could do not to come on the spot. And never disobeyed. Lifting on my knees, I balanced carefully and lowered myself again. My center of gravity was off, but we did this often enough, I could manage not to fall off the bed. And he felt amazing inside me. With each lift and drop, I savored the slide of his ridged cock against my insides, and whether he controlled the movements or we did, it never missed that magical spot inside me.

“You’re so hard, Toklo,” he told me. “I wonder if you could come without me even touching you.”

“I-I can’t even see it anymore,” I groaned, speeding up and shifting my legs to avoid the charley horse incident of a few days before. “It might as well not be there.”

“Oh I don’t know about that.” He reached toward me, his hand disappearing beneath the beach ball of my belly. “Mmm, no, it’s there.” His fist closed around it, and I gasped. “Yes, definitely there.”

Despite the inability to see it, I could feel his thumb brush over the head, gathering the precum and using it to lube his slide over my shaft. I’d always had more precum than the average bear. “Oh, alpha.”

I kept moving, his cock filling me inside, hand stroking me outside, a breeze from the open window washing over the sweat trickling down my sides as I climbed the cliff and finally, as my alpha gave one more tight squeeze and a little twist, my cum shot out, its heat coating the underside of my belly. His surged into me, and in a perfect storm of pleasure, I fell over onto him, into his arms, and we lay there sticky and happy until my stomach growled and we headed for the shower.

Missing meals was not on my agenda these days.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sheppard

“Are you sure this time?” I asked. Usually my mate wasn’t finicky, but for some reason, over the paint color of the nursery of all things, he’d changed his mind repeatedly. There were at least three coats on the walls when he decided on peach, and I had to use a stern tone with him in the hardware store until he promised he was sure.

Pale Flamingo Sunset…of all things.

“Yes.” He stood back and assessed the room.

Contrary to my hardware store tone and the fake refusal to ever go back to that place, I needed his acceptance of the nursery. It was, after all, the place where my mate would feed and care for our babe, with my help, of course. Still, with my alpha duties, he would spend the most time here. I had to get it right.

“Really?” I asked, fist on my hip, scanning it for myself. The betas had done an excellent job.

“Yes. It’s perfection. Thank you. I know I’ve been a pain in the ass lately.” “I wouldn’t call it a pain…” I gave up on talking and captured his lips. He

swayed into me, chuckling as his belly got in the way.

“Okay, let’s grab the deviled eggs and get down there. I bet the whole pack has eaten most of the food by now.”

Toklo chuckled. “Don’t underestimate them, Sheppard. They’ve changed a lot over the past months.”

He was right. Completely and totally right. Our pack had changed for the better since he had come into our lives, no doubt about it. Though he took no credit for the evolution of our pack from a lazy one to a productive one, everyone knew he was the reason.

“Okay. Want me to carry you?” My omega’s ankles became swollen in the afternoon, and usually, after my advice, he spent the late afternoon and all night with them propped up. Shalynn gave him some tea every night that helped with it, but she told us that once the babe was birthed, all fluid retention would vanish.

“No, it’s okay today. But you have to carry the deviled eggs, or they will be gone by the time we walk over to the gathering area.”

The omega knew how to eat, and I had no question that our babe would emerge healthy and strong.

The picnic went off without a hitch. Everyone showed up, and each stopped to say something to my omega, even the ones who’d tried to wrangle him into going to a bar after I’d forbidden it.

The sun set over the pack lands, but I wasn’t ready to go inside yet, and I had a feeling my mate wasn’t either.

“Wanna go for a run?” I asked, seeing him look over the horizon.

“I do. You okay with being seen with a polar bear?” He grinned at me— silly polar bear.

“Have I ever seemed not to be?” I chuckled and skated my hand over his thigh. Most of the others had gone, but he playfully slapped my hand away. “Yes. I am anxious to run with you, tonight, actually.”

“Okay. Then strip, my love.”

He stood up, and, while our eyes were locked, we took off our clothes, but our stares didn’t last long. I couldn’t help it. The person who owned my heart was right in front of me, our babe in his stomach, and the sun seemed to kiss every inch of him, giving me a plan for later.

“What?” He looked down, stroking his belly in circles. “You are gorgeous, mate,” I expressed honestly. “Thank you. Ready?”

Instead of answering, I simply shifted in front of him, knowing he would take longer. A pregnant omega’s body had things to figure out in terms of shifting the babe without causing him any harm. It was survival of the fittest at its best.

We ran together until the moon sailed halfway across the sky—until we were exhausted from head to toe.

We lay on the ground naked next to each other between some trees. “Sheppard, I love this babe, but I think that’s the last time I shift until it’s born. That was a lot, even for me.”

I rolled over and stroked his cheek. “Of course. I shouldn’t have asked.” “No, you should’ve. It was our last run as a mated pair without children. I

loved every second of it, but now I just want to get home and soak in our tub.” I smiled and winked at him. “I can make that happen.”

“I know you can.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Toklo

Nine months passed quickly but not so quickly at the same time, and before I knew it, I was two weeks past my due date. My great body-forward image had gone the way of the ability to go more than five minutes without peeing, and now I felt more like a walrus sprawled on an ice flow than a sexy omega lounging in bed.

I rubbed my belly and considered just staying here although it was already nine o’clock and Sheppard had gone down to his office nearly three hours before. Until recently, I’d have gone with him, sat at the desk he’d had moved in there for me, and we’d both have worked a little before breakfast. Or gone out to walk the lands a bit for both exercise and to see what was up.

Once that would have not been pretty, but now it seemed everything flourished, so it was amazing. Then we’d have had breakfast together in the dining room with the pack and returned to meetings or whatever work lay in our day planner. As Sheppard had promised, I’d taken on duties that fell naturally to the alpha’s omega. Like making sure the omegas and children were all cared for and happy. I reviewed the menus for the week and ordered supplies for the kitchen. I was also in charge of arrangements for the pack’s annual festival, which would be coming soon. When we were first planning, I’d pictured myself there, celebrating with our child in my arms, but I’d begun to think the baby planned to stay inside me forever.

Sheppard would be coming in soon with some breakfast to share with me here in our room, as had become our habit. I still made it down for lunch and dinner, usually, but my appetite wasn’t what it had been even a few weeks ago. I felt sluggish and bloated and reasonably miserable.

With a put-upon sigh, I rolled my walrus body to the right, reaching for the cup with built-in straw that held the water I’d soon be peeing right out again anyway. It hardly seemed worth the effort, but the ghost of that early dehydration episode was always there to haunt me.

I closed my hand around the handle and drew the cup toward me when the first pain hit. With the force of a hurricane. “Owww,” I howled, dropping the cup and spilling water all over the bed and myself.

The door slammed open, and Sheppard raced in, holding our breakfast tray. One look at me, and he let it fall to the floor. “Omega, what’s wrong?” He was at my side, then, patting me all over and looking for the cause of my yelling. “Did you hurt yourself?” He reeled back. “I think your water must have broken. You’re all wet.”

The first sharp pain abated, leaving me gasping. But I still found air to laugh at the expression on his face. “I spilled water. The regular kind from my cup.”

He tilted his head then lifted the drink from the bed. “It still feels pretty full to me.”

Oh…. “Yeah. I guess you’re right, then. Maybe this baby has finally decided to…oh Gods!” Again, another hurricane racing through my body, my belly clenching and becoming rock hard. When it ended, I lay back, covered in sweat from head to toe, and lying in the puddle of my own internal waters. “We need to clean up this room,” I told him, trying to smile. “There’s breakfast all over the floor, too.”

“Mmm. Yeah, we’ll get someone to do that, but that’s not our priority right now.” He grabbed a phone from his pocket. “I’ll let the hospital know we’re on the way.”

“There may not be time.” The voice came from the doorway. “How close are your pains, alpha’s omega?” The healer, so ancient nobody knew how old she was, shuffled across the floor, making a slight shift to the left to avoid a puddle of OJ.

“I don’t know. Owww…” Another one, and I was too lost in it to say anything more.

“A couple of minutes, healer,” Sheppard said. “We need to go.”

“You need to go get clean bedding for your omega, and find my assistant.

Please. Your babe is on the way.”

I rode the crest of this one, scared to death. They weren’t supposed to come this close, were they? I hadn’t even had any of those false labor pains they talked about. Nothing until this. “Something must be wrong! It hurts so bad.” And so many babies in my former pack did not make it out alive. I’d begun to let my guard down, to think it would be all right… I reached out for my alpha but he was gone, and only the healer remained. She sat beside the bed in a chair someone must have drawn up while I had my eyes squeezed closed.

“Of course, it hurts, child.” She patted my hand with her gnarled fingers. “But that doesn’t mean anything’s wrong, just that the little one is in a hurry to get here and meet you.”

I had the strength to roll my eyes. “Then why didn’t the baby come two weeks ago?”

“Tsk. Don’t ask me to read your baby’s mind. They come when they’re ready, and I believe this one is. Now, here is your alpha and my helper. Get this about-to-be daddy out of bed and walking a little while my helper changes the sheets. You’re gonna be glad I made you put that rubber sheet underneath the regular ones!”

“It was hot!” I retorted, but let Sheppard help me to my feet and, in between pains, into a dry nightshirt. He walked me around and supported me when I was doubled over and crying with the agony of it. But finally, after I begged and she checked, the healer let me lie down on the bed and announced it was baby time.

By then, I was soaked to the skin again with sweat and nearly out of my mind, but I retained enough of it to obey when she told me to push, and that was how, in less than two hours, our two-week-late baby was born into his alpha daddy’s arms.

He held him up to me, his eyes filled with tears. “Our son is here.”

I held my arms out, but when he went to hand me the baby, I drew them both close to me. My family, and I didn’t want an inch between us. Finally, the healer managed to get us to give her our son to clean up and check over, but she pronounced him perfect and the next alpha of the pack.

And I cried some more, happy and exhausted, and in love with both of my guys.

Epilogue

Sheppard

“Holt or Ren can handle it for me,” I said to Toklo but in a cooing voice since I was holding our son Emile. The babe was gorgeous, and everyone in the pack fawned over him.

“But I need a nap, Shep. That kid’s drinking me dry, and he’s going through a growth spurt. I mean, up every two hours? No one told me that was going to happen.”

So, we hadn’t read all the baby books we should’ve, but there were enough parents in the pack to help out when we had questions.

“Okay, let me get him down and you can have a nap. I suppose it’s time for me to get back to my regular duties.”

Toklo sighed as I kissed him on his forehead after putting our son down in his crib. “Speaking of other duties. Your son is eight weeks old today. It’s past time for you and I to resume our regular duties.”

I knew that tone.

“I was actually thinking about a little trip. Not far, but I have a surprise for you.”

His face changed. His brow drew down. “Like the Emile kind of surprise you gave me?” The question made me crack up.

“No, more like something I built for you.”

“What is it?” He got up from the rocking chair. I escorted him to our bedroom.

“Here.” I pulled out my phone and flicked through the pictures of the little cabin I had built for us, for our alone time when we needed it. It was built on the land we’d bought from the government.

“Is it ours?” He asked, enthralled just like I hoped he’d be.

“It is. There are going to be times when I am busy with being alpha and will need. a break with my mate. I built this for that purpose to reconnect with you. I don’t ever want to stretch us so thin that I can’t get you back. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

A tear came from his eye, and I pushed it away with the pad of my thumb. “You keep talking like that, and I’m going to let you put another babe in me.”

“We’re going to the cabin this weekend,” I growled out, pulling him flush with me.

“I love you, Sheppard. I’m glad I showed up at that gate all those months ago.”

I chuckled. “Best thing that ever happened to me.”