Caito narrows his eyes on Kate, but she glares right back in challenge. “If Scar’s getting an ultrasound, I’m not missing it. That’s my god baby in there.” The way she says that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, so I push aside my usually prickly nature and let it slide. The idea of the one omega that welcomed me with open arms after I first moved here to start my new life being my baby’s god mom is suddenly very appealing to me.
I unfold myself from Lark, albeit a bit reluctantly, as the nurse comes over with the machine. He steps away, pushing Apollo back so she has room to get it set up. Nerves amp up again as soon as she turns to offer me a smile. “If you’ll lay back for me and pull up your shirt and roll down your leggings.”
All four alphas crowd on the opposite side of the bed, and the nurse adjusts the screen so it’s angled towards all of us. Kate reluctantly opts to stand beside Apollo at the end of the bed. I do as the nurse requested and lean back into the mound of pillows.
“Alright, this gel is going to be a little cold. I apologize in advance for that.” Anticipation roils through me, but thankfully I don’t feel like I need to puke as she squirts some clear gel on my bare stomach. I jerk because she wasn’t kidding about it being cold, but then she’s pressing a wand attached to a cord on the machine against my gel slicked skin, and the screen lights up.
The entire room goes silent, everyone’s attention stuck on that little screen. The nurse moves the wand around a bit, working to get where she needs to be. “Ah. There.” She smiles without looking at me and points up at the screen, the wand in her hand pausing. “This here is your little bean.”
I squint, and then she taps her finger against the darker splotch on the screen. I gasp when I see it jerk, and someone—I think Apollo—curses under his breath. I reach out blindly for a hand, and I feel Caito slide his into mine and give it a squeeze. I can feel some of his phantom emotions down the partial bondbetween us, but I’m too enraptured by the tiny bean jumping on the screen to look into them.
“You see that tiny flicker at the center? That’s the heartbeat.” She points to the little blip on the screen, then she starts to tap some buttons with her free hand. Suddenly, a sound echoes out into the stillness of the room. A rapid thrumming thump that makes me think of what a humming bird’s wings must sound like. “Measuring about six weeks three days with a bpm of 174.”
“Bpm?” Wren asks the question for me, and the nurse smiles as she moves the wand around again and presses some buttons.
“The heart. Beats per minute. If you believe in old wives tales, the closer to 170-180 bpm, the more likely it is to be a girl.”
“Holy fuck.” Apollo breathes, staring at the screen in utter awe. Lark makes a noise beside him like he’s in agreement.
“A baby… we’re having a baby…” I still can’t believe it, even though I can see the little bean jerking around on the screen. I can’t feel anything yet, but I am already getting excited for when I can feel it.
The possibilities are endless. With my alphas at my side, there isn’t anything we can’t overcome. Together. As a family.
Pack.
38
Apollo
“It’s been a long day, but we should really tell Wren about our little buddy we left back in the bay.” I lean over from my spot on the couch to murmur to Caito. He’s scrolling on his phone a cushion down from me, Lark is in the kitchen prepping a late dinner that we can feed Scarlett after she takes her nap, and Wren is in his office dealing with an issue that arose atRavenwhen we’d been at the hospital earlier.
“I think we should renovate the nest so we can attach the nursery to it.” He flips his phone around to show me a blueprint example of a room design, and I give him an incredulous look.
“We can’t just forget about the guy we left half beaten to death, strapped to a chair in one of Wren’s new boat houses.”
Caito gives me a droll look before he pockets his phone. “He’ll be fine for a bit. Wren is busy putting out a fire atRaven, and we have a baby to plan for.”
I shake my head and scrub a hand down my face. “She’s only six weeks. We have plenty of time to make plans for the baby. I’m more concerned with the information we pulled from the beta.”
“What information? What beta?” Lark’s sudden voice cutting through the den makes me startle like I’ve just been caught with my hand in a cookie jar, and Caito rolls his eyes.
“Let’s take this to our pack lead’s office.” He rises to his feet, and Lark tips his head to the side, studying me, but I just shakemy head and follow after him. I can feel Lark behind us, but I don’t look back.
My shoulders are tense now that the adrenaline of the discovery that we’re going to be dads has faded. I’m reminded of what Caito and I had been up to when Wren had called us about Scarlett, and the things we’d learned while having a chat with the little friend we have down in Wren’s boat house on the bay at the East end of the Valley.
I hate having secrets.
Caito doesn’t even bother to knock on Wren’s closed office door before he practically kicks it open, sweeping into the room without waiting for an invitation. I grimace when I step through to see Wren glowering at Caito, and then he turns the full force of it on me and Lark.
“I’m a little busy, Caito. I’d like to get this sorted while Scarlett is napping so I can devote all my attention to her.” Our pack lead snaps, but he doesn’t rise from his chair. He has his lap top open, but he closes it as soon as Caito gives him a look.
“Well, remember how Apollo and I were in the middle of something when you called about Scarlett? I think now is the best time to inform you that we caught someone hired by Erossi to watch Scarlett and report back to him. We have him detained down in the fancy new boat house you bought last month.” A muscle in Wren’s jaw clenches, and I hear Lark sigh heavily before he moves to plop himself down in one of the chairs off to the side of our pack lead’s desk.
“Explain.” Wren growls, scrubbing a hand down his face and leaning back in his chair to cross his arms over his chest.
“It’s like Caito said. We found him outside of Scarlett’s apartment before you called, acting suspicious. We took him to have a chat, and it didn’t take long for him to break. He… told us some things.”
Wren narrows his eyes, but it’s Lark that cuts in with a demand. “What things? Why is Erossi having her watched instead of coming for her?”