Page 164 of Broken Bonds
Yeah.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Welcome to the Family Circus
Mal
“You can’t carry me everywhere,” I tease Todd as he carries me into the kitchen.
He snorts. “And why the hell not?”
“Because it’d look weird walking through the grocery store like this. Besides, who’d push the cart?”
He nuzzles my nose with his before carefully setting me on my feet. “Let me have this, okay?” But he’s smiling, so I know I didn’t hurt his feelings. “No, I won’t carry you everywhere, but right now I want to spoil you rotten.”
“You cooking steaks for me will spoil me rotten, you know.” I’m absolutely starving. I’m hungrier now than I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I know part of it’s due to missing lunch—and the reason I missed lunch—and I don’t know if the rest of it is from being pregnant or not, but I hope this evens out quickly or I’ll be plowing my way through an entire cow all by myself every week.
After we finish dinner, Todd sends me to the bedroom to relax and won’t let me help with the dishes, but he says he also has some work phone calls to make.
I drop all my clothes on the floor and climb under the sheets, deeply inhaling his scent.
My mate.
My baby daddy.
I turn on the TV and pull one of his pillows into my arms and curl up around that. Next thing I know, I feel a stabbing pain in my stomach. When I roll onto my back, my abdomen is distended and it looks like there’s something inside me trying to…well, get out.
Pain rakes through me. I can see what looks like something poking from inside, sliding back and forth, and as my flesh bursts open, a small pair of antlers?—
“Mal, wake up!”
I sit up, my screams dying in my throat. The room’s dark. Todd sits up next to me and pulls me into his arms.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby. It was only a nightmare.”
Even as I cling to him with one arm, my other hand snakes between us, and I run it all over my stomach.
Nope, still flat.
And not, you know, sliced open.
I sob, relieved, and let him hold me as I get it out of my system.
His chin rubs the top of my head. “It’s okay, baby. Doc said nightmares are normal. Especially considering what we’re going through. She also warned me there might be some after-effects from what Shawn dosed you with.”
I look up into his face, finally realizing the room is dark except for a dim sliver of light visible through the bedroom doorway from somewhere down the hall.
“When did you talk to her?”
“I called her after dinner. I saw you were asleep and didn’t want to wake you up. I had a few more questions for her.”
“Like what?”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know she agrees I can’t just carry you around everywhere.”
I burst out laughing at his playful smirk. “No, seriously, what did you ask her?”
“The same thing I’m sure most first-time fathers ask. I wanted to make sure I didn’t mishear, or flat-out miss, anything she told us earlier. She also cautioned me you may show sooner than a regular human, or a female shifter. Omega fathers tend to have somewhat shorter terms, especially if the other father is a full shifter.”
