Page 51 of Omega's Triplets

Chapter Thirteen

“This is ridiculous,” Maddy said as she huffed along beside Mark. “Are you going to make me go on a jog every single day now that I’m pregnant?”

“Of course not,” Mark said, with a grin that felt like it was lighting up his very core. “Only until the second trimester. Then we’ll do yoga instead.”

“You don’t know how to do yoga.”

“I’lllearn,” he said, and increased his pace a little. “Come on, a little cardio and fresh air are good for you.”

“I thought you didn’t even want me to go outside.” Maddy hated jogging, and Mark knew it. She slumped along stubbornly; the way Amy did when she was angry about a chore but had to do it anyway. Mark didn’t think Maddy was feeling the pressure of alpha commands yet, though. More likely, she recognized the good sense in what she was being asked to do. After all, she had been brought up with the understanding that exercise was important for healthy babies. Of course, she was following Mark’s lead now, even though she didn’t enjoy it.

She was sweating and panting by the time they got to the river, and he called a halt and handed her a bottle of water. She sat down on a fallen log to drink, and he took a moment to examine her body. She had dressed for the run in purple leggings and a white racerback tank top, and he could see every line and curve of her, every effect the pregnancy had had on her body so far.

There wasn’t much to see, really. They were only a month in, and her belly hadn’t yet begun to swell. Her breasts were bigger, although he really only noticed that when he took her to bed, and they overflowed in his hands. Maddy seemed to notice their increase in size much more than Mark did. She was always complaining about it.

Really, if he hadn’t known she was pregnant, he probably would never have guessed it by looking at her. The only real clue was a contented glow that she carried around with her all the time now. He remembered the prickly, half angry half fearful woman he’d brought home from the Death Fangs’ auction. On that score, she’d changed completely. She was peaceful now. Happy.

Even now, as she sat on her log, she rested a hand on her belly as if thinking of the babies she carried. Mark couldn’t help but smile. Within her was the next generation of his line. The new alpha of the Hell’s Wolves pack. He and his brothers had accomplished what they’d set out to do, and now the pack would flourish. If his parents were alive to see this, Mark knew they’d be proud.

He sat on the log beside Maddy, wrapped an arm around her, and pulled her close. She handed him back the water bottle and he took a long drink.

“This is where we were when you imprinted on me,” she said after a while.

“Craziest thing that ever happened to me,” he said.

She nodded. “Me too.”

“Really?” That was hard to believe. Maddy’s life had been far from ordinary.

She seemed to know what he was thinking. “I’ve been through plenty of wild things,” she admitted. “But feeling like I’d lost control of my body, like my rational thought wasn’t controlling my actions anymore? That was a new one. That was definitely the strangest experience of my life. So far, anyway.”

“Do you feel it all the time?” he asked. “The connection between us?”

“Yes. Like there’s a cord between us, something invisible that pulls me back if I move too far away from you. It’s hard for me when you’re out of the house.”

“It’s hard for me too,” he said quietly. “It’s like swimming against a current.”

“Even now, it feels like that,” she said. “Even just sitting here with you. As close as we are, it’s like—”

“It’s not enough,” he finished for her. “It’s never really enough.”

“You’d think I’d be frustrated, but I’m not.” She tipped her head up to look at him. “It’s delicious. I love it.”

“We don’t have to hold ourselves back, you know,” he said. “No one’s going to come out this way.”

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