Page 57 of Duke's Baby Deal
I nodded and leaned against Duke for comfort. He put an arm around me and held me, loaning me his strength like an alpha was supposed to do. And then we got up to leave, to face an uncertain future, but at least we were facing it together.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Well, I really sucked at being an omega. Not two weeks after my last doctor’s visit, I was back in the van, this time with Duke and two suitcases full of clothes and other personal things. Because I was being admitted to hospital.
The gap in my omega line had doubled in size and now the doctor was worried that I’d have the babies too early. At this point, they probably wouldn’t survive, but every week I could keep them inside improved their chances of living a lot. He said that if I could get to three weeks before my expected due date, that I wouldn’t need to worry so much, because they shouldn’t need much extra care even if they were born that early. And if I could manage another two weeks, then even if my omega line did give way, there were things he could do to keep them alive.
So I got to have my bed rest in the hospital, in a room where I could be locked away from the rest of the patients. Because, obviously, sixteen-week-pregnant me was going to run fast enough to hunt down humans and do whatever it was they were afraid I’d do. Probably lick them to death like a puppy, seeing as how I was omega. It made me mad, and I nursed that anger, because it was better than the guilt that was eating away at me. But even more, I was afraid.
I sat quietly in my hospital bed, listening to the pack histories, while Duke put my things away. He couldn’t stay with me, but he could be here most of the time. The Kentucky pack enclave wasn’t far outside the city, so he’d stay there at night, and come back as soon as curfew lifted in the morning.
Eventually, Duke closed the last drawer and came to perch on the edge of my bed. “How’s the mattress?”
I put the recorder aside and attempted a smile. “Not as nice as ours at home, but it’ll do.” I almost said that I hoped I wouldn’t be there long, but caught myself before the stupid words could happen. I wanted to be there for another ten weeks. Ten weeks meant our babies would be full term. They’d be healthy.
I wouldn’t have failed them.
Duke rubbed my thigh. “It’ll be okay. Maybe I should learn to knit, or sew. Since you’re the one bringing home the venison.”
The picture of Duke sitting in the chair in the corner with a pair of knitting needles making baby clothes made me laugh.
A nurse came through the door as our giggles were dying down. “Well, I’m glad you’re finding this so funny.” She frowned and I immediately got the feeling that she hated us. Made worse because neither of us knew how to respond, so we just stared at her in surprise while her mouth tightened and her expression grew darker and darker. She stomped closer and even I could smell the fear on her, behind the blood-rich smell of anger. “You’re supposed to be lying down flat.” She reached below the bed, never taking her eyes off either of us, and lifted a rail into place. The click it made sounded like a smaller version of the locks on the enclave gates closing, trapping me in the bed. At the same time, she did something so that the back of the bed lowered and I was left with nothing to look at but the ceiling. Oh, this was going to be a fun ten weeks if that was all I was allowed to do. At least I had a couple of pillows—maybe I could figure out a way to prop my head up so I could watch the television in the corner of the room.
She left without raising the rail on the other side. I thought she might have been afraid to go too close to Duke, who was doing his possessive looming thing again. She did give us an angry backwards glance as she turned away from us to scuttle out the door, as if she was afraid we’d suddenly come after her, fangs bared. As if she thought we weren’t a civilized people in our own right. Though, with the way the humans treated us, I was beginning to wonder if there was something to it. After all, shouldn’t there have been something that started it?
I could tell Duke wasn’t happy without even looking at him. And when I did, his face looked strained, and he looked ten years older than he actually was. “Keep your head down around her when I’m not here, okay?” he said to me, his eyes still fixed on the now closed door. “She smells like trouble.”
I nodded. It was coming home to me now that I wasn’t safe here, even in this place that I’d been told I’d be safe. My hands went automatically to the mound of my belly, as if they were enough to keep the babies secure from harm.
Duke put his hand over mine. “I don’t think anything bad will happen, as long as you’re careful with her. And they’re here to help babies, so they won’t do anything that would hurt them, Adelaide tells me.”
“Human babies,” I said. I wasn’t convinced that Adelaide’s assurances applied to shifter babies too.
I’d hoped that Duke would correct me, but instead he nodded. “Human babies. But babies are cute, and twins are even cuter, I’m told.” He grinned at me, and it was mostly free of any anxiety or nervousness. “So, between my mate being cute, and twins being cute, and babies being cute, I think we’ll be okay. If it gets really bad, I’ll talk to that lawyer friend of Garrick’s and send him after them. I bet his bite is worse than mine.”
I laughed dutifully and reached out to touch his cheek. “I’m sorry for all this.”
“Not your fault.” He turned his head so he could kiss my palm. “And soon we’ll be home with our pups, and you’ll be telling me everything’s all my fault.” He raised his eyebrows and grinned cheekily at me.
“And you say I’m the brat.” I rubbed my fingers over his cheek, wishing he could stay overnight with me, but the hospital wouldn’t allow it. But it was only mid-afternoon. We’d have until about nine before he had to leave to get back to the enclave before curfew started. “I might nap a little. Want to lie down with me.”
“I probably just sit here and keep an eye on you,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m ready to relax yet.”
Neither was I, but after everything that had happened the past few weeks, I was exhausted. So I patted Duke’s cheek and pulled the covers up to my chin and fell right to sleep.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Daytime in the hospital wasn’t that bad. I’d discovered that the hospital had internet that I could get on with the laptop and I’ll admit that I blew the first couple of days just randomly clicking links to see where they took me, reveling in the freedom of no data restrictions.
The day nurses were nice and, after they got over their shock that I was pregnant and male, they treated me like any other patient. I hadn’t realized that humans didn’t have omegas, which I found kind of a shock myself, but once one of the nurses—Kristy, who always wore burgundy or purple—explained it to me, I began to understand why I had so many nursing visitors. They seemed curious and friendly and I tried to answer as many questions as I could and, where I couldn’t, I’d poke Duke and make him answer them, even when the answers turned him bright red with embarrassment.
The nurses found that adorable and soon began to treat him like any other mate in the place, sending him on errands for me, and recommending places he could go to find me books, or food, and loaned us a deck of cards to keep us entertained. Once, Kristy sent him off to buy me flowers, because I was being such a good patient and deserved some. I don’t think she understood that we couldn’t afford them, but Duke somehow managed to kill two birds with one snap of teeth and came back with a single rose. Apparently, humans thought that was particularly romantic. I just raised my eyebrows at him and he winked, which made me laugh.
The nightime nurse, or Nurse Cranky as I dubbed her, was still a pain in my ass. Half the time, she didn’t actually do whatever it was she was supposed to do, because if I even moved the wrong way, she’d drop everything and leave. She actually started bringing a security guard with her after this one time when I was dozing and didn’t hear her come in. The first I knew she was there was when a rough hand grabbed my wrist and I jumped and swatted at her. So ever since, some guy in a blue uniform hung out in the door watching me in case I decided to eat her.
Naw. She was an old biddy. Even if I was in wolf form, she’d be too tough to chew.Phhht.
The doctor came to visit me a couple times a week. He seemed pleased with us, and complimented me on keeping to the letter of his instructions, as well as the spirit.
