Page 13 of A Home for Tyler (Omegas of Animals #14)

Tyler

Life at animals was such a dream. This wasn’t a pack, not in any true sense. That didn’t matter. There was this feeling of home and connection between all of the other residents and staff members that embodied pack life—at least good pack life, not the political garbage our skulk had turned into.

Every night, I fell asleep in my mate’s arms, and every morning he was the first person I saw. And in the middle? We worked in the same space, his scent never far from me, his hugs only a walk away.

Our apartment was beautiful, nothing like what you’d expect if someone mentioned staff housing at a nightclub.

It was shockingly quiet. Muffled by the rock of the mountain, we couldn’t hear a single thing from the business side of the property.

Not the music, the cars outside, the lines of chattering, laughing people waiting to come in.

We were at Animals, but not. And nothing could beat the location.

It didn’t matter that I didn’t have a car, because all I had to do was walk through a couple of corridors and boom, there I was.

At work. At a restaurant or where I could pick up ingredients to make a meal for my mate in our little home.

And the land it was built on—the acreage became my fox’s playground. Even in my skulk, I’d never felt as safe taking my fur as I did here. Running with my bear had become one of my favorite pastimes, but shifting with my coworkers and their families wasn’t far behind.

But, as wonderful as everything was, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Dimitri had turned down the offer to be his birth den’s beta too soon.

Well, he hadn’t yet, but he was leaning in that direction.

He was doing great at his job here. That wasn’t up for debate.

I couldn’t say he was thriving in his position, though.

Quality and performance? Of course. Work satisfaction? I didn’t think so.

He loved the people and was amazing at what he did, but deep inside I got a nagging feeling that it wasn’t giving him what he needed professionally.

I understood his immediate no when offered the job.

He wanted to protect me. He didn’t say it in so many words, but he was concerned about me being marked as rogue.

He didn’t need to say the words. His eyes flickered to my shoulder the second the offer came in, and every subsequent time we discussed it.

Nothing about the alpha suggested he was going to be a jerk about it. I doubted that his den mates would either. Even so, it was understandable that he would protect me because, in his shoes, I would do the same exact thing, which was why I was going to have a talk with him.

“We should at least check out the den and see if maybe it might it was a good choice for us.” I practiced my words as I put the last of the dishes I was drying away before wandering to the kitchen of Animals.

We had our own full kitchen in the apartment, of course.

But I was on a mission. Rumor had it, scones were being made today, and, for some reason, scones sounded like the most perfect food in the world, which was good because I hadn’t really been hungry the past couple of days.

Or, if I was hungry, I’d take a couple bites and my stomach would be like, nah pass .

My fox didn’t even hunt us down a snack.

At first he’d been so into what the desert could provide.

I smelled the scones before I even pushed through the door. The kitchen was empty, with one notable exception, Karma. Karma was holding a plate of scones in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other.

“Scones are my weakness,” I said

“Yeah, apparently they’re my weakness, given I already have two in my belly and am taking these with me.” She wasn’t fooling me; those were for her mate. She spoiled him as much as he spoiled her. They were ridiculously adorable.

“And there’s choices…or all of the above.” She indicated the platters of scones spread out on one of the stainless steel tables. Yes, platters.

I approached and checked out the baked goods.

There were maple ones, cranberry ones, and ones that I suspected might be savory, either that or mint.

They had little flecks of green in them.

I didn’t care which, because I was all about the maple.

I snatched one, taking a big bite and making yummy sounds around it, not even caring my boss could hear.

It was so good and exactly what my stomach wanted.

“You spoil us, Karma.”

“I do, that is true, but this wasn’t me. This was the baking masterpiece of Goldie. She made each of her mates favorites’.”

Goldie was one of the bartenders, and she had three bears of her own because, of course, she did.

“She likes to use our kitchen because she can bake them all at once instead of spending all day in theirs. And as a reward, we get scones.” Karma snatched another for her plate.

“It’s an excellent reward.” I took another bite.

Karma stepped closer. “Have you told Dimetri yet?”

I looked up at her, unsure what she meant. “About the scones? He’s the one who told me.”

“Not about the scones…about the baby.”

“The what?”

She looked at my stomach. “Oh, you haven’t told yourself yet. Well, when you do, let him know too.” She took a bite of her third scone, winked and walked over to one of the chefs.

Pregnant?

Could I really be pregnant?

Wouldn’t I know?

Wouldn’t there be signs?

I grabbed a scone for my mate and went in search of him. He was easy to find, his scent strong and nearby. Thrusting the confection at him probably wasn’t the best way to begin the conversation, but there I was doing exactly that. As he took his first bite, I ripped the bandage off.

“Karma thinks I’m pregnant.”

He dropped the scone, his face beaming, “You’re pregnant.” He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight as he twirled around.

“I said, Karma, thinks.” Which wasn’t the same as me being pregnant.

Dimitri kissed the top of my head and set me gently on the ground. “If she thinks you are, it means you are. But, if you don’t believe her, let’s go find out for sure.”

He took my hand and led me out of Animals with a quick, “We have things to do,” over his shoulder at Karma who was standing near the door like a spectator. He had us in the car and to the pharmacy in record time, insisting I take the test right there in the drugstore bathroom.

Karma being Karma, she was right, the line turning from one to two before I even set the test down to wait the full three minutes. I snapped a picture of it, sent it to my mate, and tossed the stick in the trash. I ran out to discover him right by the doorway, teary eyed.

“You okay?” I thought he was happy about this. Maybe I misread him.

“I’m better than. This is wonderful.”

I sagged into his arms.

“Aren’t you okay?” he whispered close to my ear.

“So very much.” He kissed me, kissed me deep enough that we had a couple people coughing for us to get our room. Oops.

It wasn’t till we got back to the car that I blurted out what I’d needed to say even before I found out about our baby. “We should go see if your den is a good match for us.”

I said it like one word, and Dimitri turned the car off and pivoted to face me.

“Say again? Slowly, this time, so I can digest it all.” He settled his hand on my knee.

“I don’t know if we should or shouldn’t be in your den, or if our life should be in Animals or even someplace else altogether, but I do know that part of you will always second guess your decision if you don’t at least check it out.

” I ran out of air at the end of the long sentence and grabbed his hand.

“My life is with you.”

“Exactly, and that means it’s with me no matter the location. If we’re here, it’s me. If we’re in the city, it’s with me. If we’re at Animals. It’s with me, if we decide to take our animal forms and live in a cave, guess what? It’s with me.”

He didn’t say anything for a half a minute and when he did, I only loved him more. “But what if you being marked as rogue is an issue?”

“Then we don’t go or, if we are already there, we leave. It’s easy as that. But don’t we owe it to each other to at least look.”

The palm of his other hand settled on my cheek. “If we do this, we both have to agree. In the end, don’t say yes, because you think it’s what I want.”

“I’ll agree to that condition under two conditions. The first is that you don’t say no because you think it’s what I want you to say. And two, you kiss me now. Do we have an agreement?”

He answered with his lips on mine.