Page 43 of Broken Alpha

The answer to that question came in a small delivery package. Luke grinned from ear to ear as he brought it to me one evening, shaking me awake as I dozed on the couch. Much to my irritation, Luke’s bonding sickness disappeared just in time for me to experience morning sickness, which refused to stay confined to just the mornings, like I could vomit at any given time. As humiliating as it was, I had begun to carry a stack of disposable bags with me at all times. They were also stashed all over the house in case I couldn’t get to the bathroom in time, which has happened a few times. My embarrassment was immeasurable as Luke had to clean up the aftermath while I sobbed through my apologies. I also struggled to keep food down, yet strawberry milkshakes and lightly salted fries were cravings I couldn’t ignore. Oddly, it was one of the few things I could keep in my system.

“Open it,” he said excitedly, as if he were a child on Christmas.

I pushed myself up into a seated position and tore into the box, peering inside. I was confused.

“Hoodies?”

Luke, equally confused, peered into the box. He reached his hand into the box, digging under the hoodies before his smile returned, withdrawing his hand. Okay, so something was underthe hoodies. As he had, I slid my hand under the weighted fabrics and touched cold plastic, but it was squishy. Tilting my head, I pulled it from the box and looked at it. Tears sprang to my eyes as I ripped apart the vacuum-sealed bag, freeing the plush baby blanket from its packaging as it expanded. The background was a sea of ombré blues with otters all over the fabric. Some of the otters even had a little otter on their bellies. I laid the blanket across my lap, my hand petting the soft material, and I looked up at Luke, who had the biggest grin on his face.

“When did you buy this? Where did you buy it?”

“The night you returned home. You joked that I should order more hoodies, so I did, but while I was ordering, I saw the blanket.”

“But I didn’t even know if I was keeping the pup then. What if I had decided to get rid of it?”

Luke’s eyes softened, and he reached over and grabbed my hand. “Then I would’ve hidden it until you were ready for a pup. You are my future. I knew that even if you chose not to keep this pup, there may be more in the future, and we could have used it then. It’s why I told you to keep the two drawers empty, so that we could have some place to put baby stuff. I didn’t want to get any clothing in case the pup was too big or too small, or you didn’t want to keep it, but I thought a blanket would be okay.”

“It’s perfect. You know this is going in our nest, right?”

“How else will the pup get used to our scents?”

God, he was perfect.

The following two weeks passed in a whirlwind, with more morning sickness and doctor appointments. We needed to get an accurate time frame of when the baby will be born, as well as a birth plan going forward. Luke was a little weirded out by the fact that Dr. Easton would continue to be my provider throughout the pregnancy, but he assured Luke that he would not be in the delivery room, just the birthing specialists. My mother was constantly texting me tips she learned during her pregnancy with me while also checking in to make sure I was eating and doing okay.

Luke was permitted to return to teaching once his bonding sickness was over, but it was with the understanding that we would not have any contact while we were both on campus. This made getting to school awkward, and it was decided that he would drop me off less than a block away, and I could walk onto campus without him by my side. We also found that this stressed out my Omega, and the stress created horrid heartburn. To help alleviate this, I began wearing his hoodies to class, board of directors be damned.

Erik continued to pretend that I didn’t exist, and I treated him like a stranger. I did catch him glancing down at my midriff from time to time, but he didn’t say anything to me. James Forester continued to give me and Luke the stink eye despite being slightly smug about this being Luke’s final months, but he didn’t openly approach me again. Of course, I threatened him with a restraining order if he did, and that would go on his record.

We had a sonogram appointment with Dr. Easton the evening before my final exams, and I found myself bouncing in anticipation. I had already noticed a slight swell in my abdomen, which I couldn’t stop caressing each morning as I got dressed for the day. Luke wasn’t paying too close attention to me as it took him a bit to notice, but once he did, he loved to lay his head in my lap, facing my slight bulge.

“I can hear it,” he said softly, caressing it one evening as we lay in bed.

“You cannot!” I chuckled, running my hands through his hair.

“Can too! It’s a girl.”

“A girl, huh?”

“Uh-huh. And her name is Autumn.”

“Decided that all on your own without discussing it with me?”

“I didn’t decide anything, the pup told me.”

“Okay, pup whisperer, why ‘Autumn’?”

“Because her parents met in the fall, of course.”

I froze momentarily, my fingers still tangled in Luke’s hair as he rambled to my stomach. I hadn’t even started thinking about names yet, but it was clear that Luke had. Autumn felt like the perfect name if it was a girl, though I couldn’t help but laugh at the idea that a spring pup would be called Autumn.

However, the sonogram appointment confirmed that Luke might be a pup whisperer. A little girl is expected in mid-April, her strong heartbeat echoing loudly in the exam room. Luke couldn’t take his eyes off the monitor, and I saw them glisten with unshed tears for the first time. I squeezed his hand slightly until he looked down at me with a big smile.

“You have a daughter,” I grinned back.

“Wehave a daughter.”

Our happiness, however, was short-lived as I made my way down the block to wait for Luke to finish with the last of his exam students. I often waited for Luke at the small seating area beside the cafe on the corner, but today, a man dressed in a three-piece suit sat at the table, watching the road. His cold blue eyes zeroed in on me as I approached cautiously. He had a sharp jaw peppered with a tight, dark beard laced with gray, matching his close-cut hair. His suit was equally as dark, a dark, inky blue that looked tailored to his body. He wasn’t unattractive, but he certainly gave the air that he wasn’t to be approached withoutreason. The scent of his pheromones reached me, bitter like burnt diner coffee, and I stalled in my steps. He was an Alpha, but not a dominant.

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