Page 65 of Bitter Heat
“What reasons?”
“Pater, just leave me in peace to pack the bag. I’ll take the car and be back by tomorrow morning.”
Kerry left his pater scowling on the stairs and, once in his room, took a moment to compose himself. He removed Kiwi from the cage, kissing his beak and muttering softly to him. “I’ve neglected you lately, little one, what with that big, human baby in the house demanding all our attention.” He frowned, thinking that it wouldn’t be much longer now before the one in his womb would be demanding attention that had formerly gone to Kiwi.
Kerry had grown so large now. There was a definite waddle to his walk, and he found it confusing that Janus seemed to enjoy his body even though he was currently stuffed full with another alpha’s son. Janus never shied away from his swollen stomach or leaking nipples during their love—
Kerry’s mind lurched. He’d come so close to naming their activities something he shouldn’t. Stroking a soothing hand over Kiwi’s feathers, he deposited him back in the cage, cringing at the chirrup of protest. “I’ll fly you tomorrow, sweet boy.”
Then he gathered his things, shoving them into a worn leather bag that he’d taken with him when he’d first left Hud’s Basin for the city. He had nicer bags that had been gifted to him over the years—first by Wilbet and then by his parents—but Kerry preferred this one. It was sturdy and a reminder of home. It had once belonged to his biological pater, a gift from his father, and it had survived longer than anything else they’d shared, aside from Kerry.
As he came down the stairs, his heart sank. There were voices in the kitchen, and though they were hushed and the kitchen door closed, Kerry recognized one of them as Janus’s tenor.
He tiptoed down the hallway toward the front door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Kerry froze and turned slowly. He’d never heard that kind of firmness in Janus’s voice—almost anger, but maybe fear, too. “I’ve been summoned. I have to go.”
“I’ll go with you,” Janus said.
Kerry rolled his eyes and dropped his bag. Dust motes rose, and he made a note that he needed to sweep the entryway again already. “No, you won’t.”
“Your pater thinks it best if I do.”
“Then he’s a fool,” Kerry called out, aiming his voice over Janus’s shoulder into the kitchen where he knew his pater was hiding and listening. “A fool without all the information.” Kerry crossed his arms over his chest.
“I won’t let them take you to the city.”
Kerry flung his arms wide. “They aren’t going to take me to the city. They just want to exert their control a little and make me do a dance for them. Show them my stomach, let them listen to his heartbeat, have the doctor check my womb. The usual.”
Janus bristled. “A doctor checked your womb…”
“Don’t.”
“I’ve checked it nightly.”
“With your cock?” Kerry asked and then laughed. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Janus, you can’t do this to me right now. I have to go. They’re waiting. And you can’t come.”
“Give me one wolf-god blessed reason why I can’t!”
“Because they think you’re a beta! With experience in delivering babies from omegas with my deformity! Because I told them lies about you to get them to agree to let me stay in Hud’s Basin! Because one scent of you will prove me a liar and then theywillmake me go back with them.”
Janus blinked at him in confusion. “Why would you—”
“They needed to think I would be in just as good hands, if not better, here in Hud’s Basin than back in the city. And hell, maybe they wanted to believe it because lord knows I’m a thorny reminder of difficult times for them. They both want me and don’t want me.” Kerry rubbed his stomach again. “Theywantthe child. A fresh start. They could take me or leave me aside from the fact that I’m the only baby-maker they’re going to get their claws into, and they want more from me than this one alone.”
Janus stared at him, wide-eyed. “So, you lied to them about me being an alpha?”
“Do you think they’d want me serviced by an alpha? That they’d share my pater’s desire for me to find pleasure during my pregnancy and risk me falling in love and causing them more scandal and problems? They probably saw my isolation in Hud’s Basin as a way to keep me away from eligible alphas with an itch to fuck an easy, slutty, pregnant hole.”
Janus flinched. “Don’t talk about yourself like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.”
“And who are you to tell me what to do?”
