Page 42 of Duke's Baby Deal
Which reminded me. I chugged the last of the water I was supposed to drink before arriving, and squirmed a little as my bladder let me know it was getting near full capacity.
We passed a sign with a huge picture of chicken nuggets on it, and suddenly I was starving for them. Would Duke let me get chicken nuggets too? I could probably talk him into it. With that in mind, and my stomach starting to send out empty notices, I turned to ask Duke and surprised him watching me with a look in his eye I didn’t quite recognize. It stopped me, and some warm feeling began to grow underneath my heart, spreading out to the rest of my body. Not desire—Justin had screwed me, both literally and figuratively, in that direction. But something that really brought it home how lucky I was that we’d found each other.
His cheeks went pink, just a hint, and he looked away, toward Abel. “Adelaide says the best parking lot is the one to the west.”
“Right.” Abel turned a corner, more careful in his driving than I’d ever seen him. We pulled into a wide flat space, covered in the same stuff that the roads were made of. Abel accepted a ticket from a man in a booth at the entrance, and not long after, I was stretching the kinks out of my back while Abel locked up the van.
Duke pulled a paper out of his pocket. “Through these doors, down the hallway to the second corridor on the left, take the elevator up to the third floor, and he’s down the hallway on the left.” He put an arm gingerly around my shoulders. I leaned into him, borrowing from his strength. Now that we were here, I was nervous. I didn’t want twins.
No, I was afraid of twins.
This was not how I’d seen my life going.
Duke squeezed me and I smiled up at him with real gratitude. His lips curled up to match mine, then he looked up at Abel, who was watching us with a meditative expression. “We don’t want to be late,” Duke said, and we began walking across the parking lot. People paid us no attention at all, until they noticed our tabs. Then, it was even odds whether they’d stare in curiosity, or whether they’d step away and walk around us, their eyes wide. I had to suppress a snort and some inappropriate comments, though it was sohard. Duke must have guessed, because he hugged me again, just lightly, and when I looked up he winked at me. That did make me snort, and then everything seemed better.
At least until we got to where we were going.
The place was full of human women, some of them with huge baby bellies, some who didn’t look pregnant at all, and some at various stages of in between like me. There were a few empty chairs in the middle of the room, not conveniently close to anything, but I desperately wanted to sit down. Not because I was tired, but because, while we were standing, we were the focus of every gaze in the room.
I really needed to pee.
“Adelaide said we had to tell the nurse you were here,” Duke murmured as he handed me into a chair. “I’ll be right back.” He was ignoring the stares better than I was, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me, as if I could hide my condition from sight.
A few minutes later, Duke came back, his jaw tight and his expression frustrated. “She says you need to go check in.”
“Oh.” I got to my feet and followed him back toward a window in the wall.
The woman behind the window got up and opened the door next to her desk. “Come in and sit down.” She smiled at me, though it was a bit strained, and I could tell she wished Duke would leave, which made me want to keep him there even more.
I sat in the chair and stared at her, suddenly uncertain. I’d never met a human before, just seen the government inspectors from a distance. Oh, and that nerdy-cute lawyer friend of Garrick’s that kept coming around. The woman here didn’t seem any more certain about me.
Duke cleared his throat, and she jumped, her eyes going wide and the color draining out of her cheeks.
“I have the credit card and insurance information,” Duke said in a quiet voice. I could tell he was trying not to frighten her.
That gave me an idea. “Sit down, you lout,” I scolded him lightly, and pushed his startled ass toward the other chair before turning back to her as if I were exchanging gossip with another shifter. “He looms, doesn’t he? Can’t help it, as tall as he is. I like ‘em tall though.” I winked at her.
She looked more startled than reassured, and it occurred to me that she’d probably never seen a shifter before either. I laid my hands on my belly and tried to look inoffensive.
She cleared her throat, and her eyes went to my hands and the bulge beneath them. “And you’re here for…” Her voice trailed off.
“He’s omega,” Duke put in, leaning into the conversation and scaring the nurse again.
I sighed dramatically and gave him a look. “Duke, dear, you’re looming again.” But I reached out for his hand as well, because I was scared too, though not of Duke, obviously. I think he smelled it on me, because he took my hand and squeezed reassuringly, then sat back and did his best to look smaller. I turned back to the nurse. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do here.” Appeal to her protective instincts. It always worked with the alphas.
She twitched, and seemed to collect herself. “I just need to get some information from you, and do a quick exam.”
“Sure,” I said. “What do you want to know?” I smiled my most winning smile at her.
We went through a series of questions: name, address, age—that one made her eyebrows rise and she did a really poor job of hiding what she thought of Duke at that point. Why? It wasn’t like omegas weren’t mated even younger than me. It was just Mercy Hills that made them wait until eighteen. I’d have to ask someone—there was something I was missing here. I answered the questions about my medical history easily enough, but when it came to my family, I was stumped. Duke stepped in to save the day, listing off problems I’d never heard about back three generations. I stared at him in amazement and he raised his eyebrows at me and smiled. His smile changed his face entirely and, without the anxious glower he’d been wearing since we got here, he was my old handsome Duke again. I laughed and, impulsively, leaned in to kiss him. A wash of anger ran over me, because it was still nothing more than the pleasure of contact. Damn Justin and his fucking ego. I was going to smash him if I ever saw him again.
When I settled back in my chair, the nurse looked more at ease, and we chatted away as she took my blood pressure and I tried to explain omegas to her without embarrassing either of us. It filled the time, and by the end of it, she’d not exactly warmed, but I thought she saw me more as a patient, and less as a monster. Because that was definitely what her first reaction had been.
It was kind of fun to be able to do something the alphas couldn’t do. Maybe omegas weren’t so useless after all.
A twinge of shame pinged through me. It wasn’t fair to think that of Duke. He’d made sure I got to go to school, and he was working as much as he could to get the credits to make it possible.
We went back to our seats in the waiting room. I was feeling a little cocky, but that quickly disappeared when I noticed one mother pulling her toddler back, as if she thought I would eat him. Like I’d ever do anything to a pup. I kind of wanted to growl at her, just to give her something to really be afraid of.
