Page 2 of A Baby for the Beast (Beastverse #3)

Hayley

Present Day

I am a walking PSA and after-school special of what not to be.

An omega, seven months pregnant, and having to wade through a crowd at some stupid fight to get to the locker room so I can, maybe, finally confront the useless piece of shit that was supposed to help me through my heat seven months ago.

He hit it for just long enough to get me pregnant and then left me to the absolute horror that is a heat, unaccompanied, for the next two days.

You can bet your ass I reported him on the Heat Help app, which I had downloaded the day before my heat, after realizing I'd waited too long to do something about it.

I should've gone to the heat clinic only a block from my house.

I told myself I'd visit it the next time I had my heat, but when I went online to schedule an appointment, they no longer had a beast available.

That should've been the first red flag of my inability to choose good men. What omega, in her right mind, only gets with beasts? Well, me apparently.

I'm sure there are plenty of others, but they probably aren't stupid enough to trust that the idiot who came to help them through their heat was sterilized like he said he was.

Every other beast I've been with has been because they were at least normal fucking human beings who didn't lie about birth control.

I won't lie. I thought about getting rid of the pregnancy when I found out I was going to have a baby.

I have a good enough job, even if it isn't the most prestigious, and a strong support system of friends.

But I always thought I wanted to do this with an alpha of my own, one who would claim me and want to raise a family with me.

Again, my red flags are showing because how was I ever going to be with an alpha who could have a family with me if I only ever got with beasts who, for the most part, are always sterilized?

Anyway, I had a long talk with my mom about my concerns about why I wanted to keep the baby and why I didn't, and I decided I wanted to do it.

I want a family, and if it's just me and this cute little girl in my belly, then so be it.

We're going to make it work as soon as I can get this knuckle fuck piece of shit to sign away all of his parental rights.

I doubt he wants anything to do with having a child, but I want it in writing that he's not going to take my daughter from me.

I get bumped into by some idiot who spills his beer on my top.

At least he looks regretful when he turns to tell me to watch myself, his eyes finding the swell of my belly and his cheeks turning pink as he apologizes.

I wave him off, more concerned with getting to the locker rooms than dealing with half-drunk idiots.

I didn't know the identity of the alpha who impregnated me besides the initial he used as his name on the Heat Help app and the fact that he said something about being a fighter.

It didn't take much digging to find out I let an absolute douchebag blow his load in me about four times before he vanished.

His whole life is on social media, like everything, including some icky things he said about me, thankfully, never mentioning my name.

Once I discovered who he was, I tracked down the next time he'd be close to the city. A two-hour car drive was further than I wanted, but it was the closest he would be until some title fight he's supposed to be in later this year, around when my daughter is going to be born.

I get too close to the ring, too close to fighting beasts for my own good.

My red flags are blowing in the wind because there's just something so fucking hot about a beast fighting another beast. The only thing that could make it hotter is if one of them found me afterward and had his wicked way with me.

This pregnancy has me too horny for my own good, especially surrounded by so many alphas, all hyped up with the energy of the fight happening.

None of them will proposition me, even if they smell my aroused hormones.

My toys have been getting a workout because alphas don't want anything to do with an omega carrying another alpha's young, at least none I can find.

I'll even settle for not a beast at this point, just to get a little knot action that can hopefully hold me over until I give birth.

A bell rings, signaling the end of the round, and I should keep moving, should find my way to the back of the room where I was told the locker rooms are because I need to corner this asshole before he goes up for his fight or leaves for the night.

Instead, I'm stuck ogling a shirtless, muscled back with a thin sheen of sweat across it.

It's all I can see of the beast because his back is to me, his trainer saying something to him on the other side.

He rolls his shoulders, and I trace a bead of sweat down the divot of his spine, wishing I was close enough to lick it off him.

He lifts his head to the side, revealing dark, cropped hair and a jawline I want to kiss.

That jaw clenches hard, nostrils flaring before he snaps his head in my direction.

Bright golden eyes, intent and focused solely on me. My eyes go wide. I must be perfuming so bad if he can scent me from the ring. Oh, and I'm probably fucking with his fight. I turn to scurry away, but am met with the low rumble of his growl.

If others around me thought I was taken before, they're going to believe it's to this beast with how he's staking a claim on me. From where he's at, I don't think he can see that I'm very clearly pregnant, and I don't want him finding out either.

Being the object of someone's desire, even if just for a second, is something I haven't felt in months.

So I shoot him a wink, knowing full well I could be fucking with his fight.

He blushes, and for some reason, out of all the outcomes I was expecting, that was not even close to anything I thought he'd do.

When he starts acting like he's about to duck between the ropes of the ring, his trainer blocks his way, even though he's ducking his head as the growl rumbles even harder.

Okay, I need to get out of here before I make a beast cause a scene.

I'm sure the crowd would love it, but that's not what I'm here for.

I stay put where I am until the beast finally relents on trying to leave his fight.

He turns around just as the bell rings again.

When I'm certain he's too preoccupied with fighting to care about me running away, I make a quick beeline for the double doors at the back of the space, where I was told the locker rooms are.

Maybe if I'm lucky, I can get asshole beast extraordinaire to take the paperwork to drop parental rights and then find the hottie from the ring to see if he's interested in giving me his knot.

Hopefully, the pregnancy doesn't turn him off as soon as he sees it, though I'm not getting my hopes up.

So far, it's been a deal-breaker for everyone else.

Once I'm through the double doors and they click shut behind me, the volume of the crowd is gone, replaced with a dull version of the same sounds.

I take a deep breath, heading toward where I'm guessing the locker room might be.

I don't have to wonder for long because another set of double doors comes into view, 'Locker Room' titled above it in big block letters.

Before going inside, I grab my can of odor neutralizer from my bag and give myself a spray down.

My sense of smell has been all kinds of weird since I got pregnant, so I can't smell myself very well.

Based on how the beast fighting reacted, I was perfuming like crazy.

I don't want Kyle to think I'm perfuming for him. Ew. No, thank you.

When I'm sufficiently covered in odor neutralizer, I tentatively open the locker room door just enough to call inside.

"Hello! I need to speak with Kyle Ward!"

There isn't any sound from inside, so I wonder if I've found the wrong locker room. Maybe there are a couple so that opposing fighters don't have to be near one another? I don't know how it all works.

Before I turn to walk down the other side of the hall to see if there's an elusive second locker room, I hear a locker closing and footsteps padding closer to me across the tiled floor.

Kyle rounds a corner, looking just as deceptively handsome as he did when I invited him into my apartment to help me with my heat.

Shaggy golden hair, chiseled jaw, and sexy as sin body.

Why do alphas have to be so inherently hot?

I can tell by the look of confusion on his face that he has absolutely no idea who I am. Good, maybe it'll make this whole thing a hell of a lot easier.

"Can I help you?" he asks, his eyes a pretty shade of blue because he hasn't let his beast out. I'm not stupid enough to think he's any better than the beast that left me in my own agony.

"Yeah, you might not remember me, but you helped me through my last heat." I push the door open a little more, stepping inside. I don't think he'll hurt me. He might've done so by abandoning me, but I don't think he has it in him to harm me with his own hands.

I watch the mixture of confusion turn into abject horror at what he's done.

Yeah, even if I wanted him in this kid's life, he was never going to step up.

He shakes his head, already coming up with excuses or maybe telling himself I'm pulling a fast one on him.

I don't want to hear anything from him, so I pull the paperwork from my purse and hold it out to him.

"I want full rights. I'd like you to give up your rights, and I'd prefer if we got them signed as soon as possible," I tell him.

He eyes me warily, his beast still nowhere to be seen. Good, I'm not trying to have this conversation with someone who only thinks with his dick. "What's in it for you?"

"Besides my daughter?" I ask, not believing this is the man who impregnated me. He probably doesn't even remember my name. "Nothing. I just wanted to ensure you wouldn't try to make things difficult for me if you ever found out."

"Why the fuck would I have found out?" he asks, a cruel laugh in his words as he turns away from me, his hands on his hips. "I forgot about you as soon as I left your apartment. Why the fuck did you track me down? You also got my account banned on Heat Helper. Did you know that?"

Hey, would you look at that? Something positive, besides my daughter, came out of this. I smile, knowing that support took my statement seriously when I sent feedback.

"They told me they weren't allowed to tell me the results of their investigations, but I'm glad things worked out."

He growls. It's not as menacing a sound as the beast growling at me in the ring, but it's enough to call me to heel. I tilt my head down, lowering my eyes. I don't bear my neck for him, won't ever bear my neck for him.

"I sign the papers, and then what?" he asks once he approves of my submission.

"You'll have to get them notarized and mail them to the address on the envelope. I've already paid for all of that. There's a stupid meeting we have to go to together to confirm that you don't want the child, and that I understand I'm taking sole guardianship of her. But that's all."

He takes the papers from me, looking them over like he'll magically find a notary right this second. He heads back further into the locker room, disappearing around a corner. He doesn't say anything to me, so I stay put, waiting for him to return, listening to him opening his locker.

Just as he closes the locker, there's a small commotion outside the locker room.

And by that, I mean an alpha growling up a storm and that growl having a direct line to my abandoned pussy.

It's just my luck that Kyle rounds the corner just as the beast from the ring enters the locker room.

Something passes between the men without them having to say anything.

I wish my nose wasn't so useless right now because I'm sure I could be smelling whatever has them worked up, too, but I'm lost.

At least I am until Kyle smirks and says, "First, you want my title. Now you want my sloppy seconds?"

God, he's such a douchebag.