Page 35 of Saving Nevin
I stood and opened the door, staring up at him with teary eyes. “I… Yes? No? I don’t know,” I uttered, my voice cracking. “I-I felt the baby kick.”
His brow furrowed. “But that should be a happy moment. Something to celebrate, right?”
My lower lip wobbled as more tears spilled free. “You don’t understand,” I whimpered. “I’ve wanted a baby for so long, and every time I failed to conceive there were always repercussions. I went through so much shit, so much fuckingabuseat their hands, and then to deal with the false pregnancies and to be around all the other Omegas carrying babies when my stupid body wouldn’t let me have one? It was torture, Kace! It was?—”
I gasped as the baby chose that moment to kick again. I quickly grabbed Kace’s hand and pressed it to the spot. “Feel?” I whispered, almost dizzy. His expression sharpened as he focused, pressing his fingers gently into my stomach, and when he was rewarded with another small nudge, his smile took my breath away. It extinguished my fears and lit up my entire world.
“Love truly is magic,” I said.
“It is.” Kace knelt and framed my belly with both of his big hands before kissing the space in between. My eyes swam with fresh tears as I tugged on his hair, needing him closer. He straightened and kissed me, and I crushed my lips to his on a soft whimper.
“I love you so much,” I whispered when we broke apart.
“I love you, too, Nevin. To the moon and back.” Kace’s hazel eyes glittered with truth, and my heart ached with how full it was.
Together, we went back out to be with the rest of the pack, who were still playing games, most of them oblivious to what had just happened. Most of them. Kace’s sisters were looking right at us. Tasha’s head was cocked to one side, and Quinn had her arms crossed over her chest. They exchanged a look, then started towards us.
“Okay, spill. What just happened,” Quinn all but demanded to know, but before Kace could open his mouth, I spoke instead.
“I felt the baby kick for the first time and it… It took me by surprise. I needed a moment,” I told her. “That’s all.” I rubbed my stomach, remembering the light touches of my little one’s feet, and smiled. They would only get stronger as time went on, but right now, it felt a bit like magic. “You wanna feel?”
Quinn’s eyes lit up. “Is it happening right now?”
“It’s pretty frequent,” I told her.
The next time it happened, I yipped and both sisters gathered around to feel the baby kick. It really, truly felt like I finally had a family. After, Xan brought me a big bowl of cherry crumble and I was on cloud nine.
This was real. This was mine, and I was never letting it go, Rex be damned.
24
KACE
As the weeks passed by,from the scorching heat of summer to the beginning of autumn, Nevin grew bigger and bigger, and I couldn’t have loved him more.
We were having a little boy. We’d been diligently going to doctor’s appointments and check-ups and taking Lamaze classes together—anything we could do to get Nevin ready to have this baby. I knew Nev was a little scared, but he was also excited, and so was I.
Sevren and Pike had jumped in, feet-first, to help me turn the spare room into a nursery whenever we had time, while Pike’s mate Phoenix kept Nevin company. Nevin fell head-over-heels in love with Phoenix’s little boy, Griffon, and seeing them together? Damn.
I couldn’t wait until our son was born and Nevin could pour his love and adoration into that pup. He was going to be such a good dad. I only hoped I could make them both proud.
Today, I was painting the room. Nevin had picked out a dusky shade of blue, and we’d agreed on white trim, though that would come after. I’d already laid down all the tarps so that I wouldn’t drip all over the floor.
I tended to be a little messy when it came to crafty things like this—the splattered hardwood in my laundry room told the tale. Pike had laughed at me for days, but we’d agreed that it looked pretty cool and decided to keep it. That room had character now.
I didn’t want the nursery to look messy, though, so tarps it was.
As I rolled the new blue paint over the white-washed walls, Nevin sat cross-legged just outside in the hallway. He’d wanted to help me paint, but I didn’t want him breathing in the fumes. I wasn’t sure if it was bad for the baby or not.
I didn’t have to do too much convincing, thankfully. He agreed that our son’s health was more important than helping with the nursery. I opened the windows just in case.
We chatted for awhile, before I asked the question that’d been on my mind all day. “So, have you thought of any names? We’re getting closer and closer to our due date, and we haven’t really talked about it. Not since we learned the baby’s gender, anyway.”
I turned to him, curious to what his reaction would be. Surely he had a list written down somewhere, or tucked away inside his mind. Ihad a few names I’d been entertaining for the past couple of weeks; I was simply waiting for the right time to bring it up in conversation.
What I didn’t expect was for sadness to shutter across Nevin’s beautiful face, or for him to loosely wrap his arms around himself, like he needed a hug that I wasn’t there to give him. His expression softening, he nodded slowly.
“When I was younger, I used to borrow baby name books from the local library all the time. I’ve wanted children since before I was old enough to know my place as an Omega, and I’d often daydream about little boys and girls with blond hair and blue eyes, just like me.”
