Page 142 of Labor of Love

“Mmhmm.” I cleaned him up, listening to the soft purr coming from his chest. It made me happy seeing him so content. It felt like something had finally settled in me, like I could finally relax. I tossed the washcloth in the laundry basket once I’d cleaned us both up and crawled into the nest next to Liam.

The moment I settled, Liam scooted up against me, curling into my side, already half-asleep. Everything was perfect.

Liam

I probably should have felt more annoyed about moving again. It was less than a month since I settled into the little apartment above the shop. I couldn’t feel annoyed, though. I had spent barely a week living in the apartment after that first night we spent together before deciding I couldn’t handle living apart from Henry. I had called him on that last night at almost two in the morning, unable to sleep more than half an hour without waking up. Some deep, instinctual part of me was likely wondering why the fuck my mate wasn’t in bed with me. I was too needy to feel embarrassed about calling him so late.

He was awake, too. He drove over right away, used the key I gave him, and crawled into the nest with me.

I slept soundly after that.

“Do you want this in the room across the hall or next door to our room?” Henry asked me, holding a small box containing the few baby things I had already purchased. I hadn’t done any of the lifting while moving my things. He’d even been hesitant to let me pack up the few things I had unpacked during my stay in the apartment. He was definitely an overprotective alpha, but I wasn’t going to complain.

“Across the hall would be best," I told him. I was sitting at the edge of his king-sized bed, where I was folding my clothes to put in the closet. I needed to get the nest set up, too. That would probably wait until I’d slept a few nights here. It was still an unfamiliar place.

Henry’s house—our house now—was nice, a small three-bedroom in a nice neighborhood near the school. The outside was painted a shade of blue that almost matched the flower shop. This realization had made me burst out laughing the first time I saw his house. It had taken me a while to catch my breath enough to explain to him why I was laughing. It wasn’t that funny.

My store was finally open. I almost cried when I turned the sign over to "Open" for the first time. I blamed pregnancy hormones, though I was sure that wasn’t all it was. I was so happy. Things were going much better than I thought they would when I first moved out here.

Henry pulled me from my thoughts. He wrapped an arm around me from behind. His hand rested on the small swell of my lower abdomen. Soon, we would feel the baby kicking. I found myself even more excited for those little moments, now that I had someone to share them with.

A part of me still found it hard to believe that Henry was so… relaxed about me already being pregnant. He had even known already and had chosen to give me the space to tell him whenever I was ready. It felt silly now that I’d been so worried.

Henry kissed the back of my neck. “Where’s your head at?” he asked.

“Just thinking.”

“You need a nap?” His hands finding their way inside my shirt told me that a nap wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. I hummed in response, leaning my head back against his shoulder and looking up at him. He hadn’t shaved since the morning before, and I reached up to run my hands over the scruff on his cheeks.

“A nap sounds great if your definition of a nap is the same as mine.”

His answering smile told me that it was.

“Let me lock up the house and we can take a nap before we decide on dinner.” He kissed me then, one hand tangling in my hair. I melted against him, feeling for the first time that I was home.

Henry

I’d been continuously getting kicked out of our nest and told to sleep on the couch, only to be dragged right back to the bedroom an hour later. That was the least of my concerns, though. Liam had barely eaten anything in two days. He would eat if I made him food and watched him, but even then, he wasn’t eating a lot. I peeked into our room with my phone to my ear, where Liam was on the bed, wearing nothing but one of my shirts. Pilesof pillows and blankets were lining the sides of the bed. The large space in the center where we slept, and well, didn’t sleep, was once large, now barely big enough for us both to lay. Liam had gone out to purchase a ridiculous amount of blankets and pillows last week. I couldn’t argue, despite the fact that I didn’t think we really had the room for everything.

It looked like he was trying to build the walls to the nest high enough to touch the ceiling. I was going to have to do something about that. I made a mental note to buy a canopy or something later on. But first…

The hold music stopped, and I was greeted by a friendly, soothing voice. “Is this Mr. Daniels?” Doctor McMillian greeted me. She was the only OBGYN in Oakland.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is there something wrong with Liam?”

“Uhm, I don’t really know.” I was embarrassed about how little I knew about omega pregnancies, despite my hours spent online trying to find information. “Liam’s been acting differently the last few days. He’s having trouble eating, and he’s been setting up nests everywhere in the house.” And I mean everywhere. I found a small pile of bedding in our pantry. I wasn’t sure when he planned to use a pantry nest, but again, I said nothing about it.

The doctors easy laugh made me relax some. “That’s all normal as he gets closer to his due date. I’ll take a look at everything when he comes in a couple of days. There’s nothing to worry about at the moment.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Of course I was just being silly.

I couldn’t help it, though. Liam and the baby he was carrying were the most important people in my life. I didn’t care if the pup wasn’tbiologicallymine. That didn’t matter to me. I was a little surprised at how little that mattered to me. But the pup was still mine.

It was still dark outside when Liam woke me up with a not so gentle shake. “Henry.” I wasn’t sure why he was whispering if he was trying to wake me up. We had no neighbors close enough to wake up. “We need to go, now.”

“Sleeping.” I didn’t even register why he would be waking me up.

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