Page 8 of Bred By the Minotaur (DreamTogether Breeding Program #3)

Eight

Hank

When my phone rang and I saw the caller ID, I knew. It was DreamTogether, ringing to tell me that I’ve succeeded, and my surrogate is pregnant.

There’s no more need for me to come in again and see her.

I’m out of chances. Now I’ll never know who she is.

I’ll never meet her. I’ll never get to find out what she looks like, what kinds of foods she enjoys, how her face looks when she’s being pleasured.

I’ll never get to lick her small pussy with the prominent clitoris, the soft petals of it swollen and waiting for my cock.

I’ll never get to feel her around me again.

I stare down at the phone blankly as the person on the other end asks, “Are you there, Mr. Pittsfield?”

“I’m here,” I manage. “Thank you for letting me know.”

Then I hang up. Milo’s playing with Darla in the other room, building a little house of blocks around where she’s been sleeping on the floor, but when I look down I find him standing next to me.

“Dad?” he asks, tilting his head. “Who was it?”

I open my mouth to answer, then close it again. I haven’t rehearsed yet what to tell him because my mind has been too preoccupied with Phoebe.

“It was the baby factory,” I tell him, coming up with something on the fly.

“Baby factory?” His eyes grow huge. “What did they want?”

“They’re letting me know another baby is on the way to us.” I rub his head, scattering his shaggy hair. “A little brother or sister for you.”

“What?!” His mouth is round. “Another baby? For us?” He thinks through this for a long moment, then gives me a huge smile. “I can’t wait for them to meet Darla. And Grandma, too. Grandma will like that.”

I can’t help but smile. “I think she will, too.”

Milo skips back into the other room, making little beep boop sounds. “A sister or brother!” he crows so loudly that Darla gets to her feet and hurries out of the little fort he’s built with blocks. “Did you hear that, Darla? A baby!”

I’m so glad, monumentally glad, that he’s excited. This could have gone much worse.

When Mom stops by later, I give her the good news. But I can’t seem to summon much excitement for it, because of what it means.

She rubs my back. “I’m sorry she never tried to contact you.”

I shake my head, slipping into a chair at the dining room table. “No. It’s totally understandable why she wouldn’t. What if she has a boyfriend? What if she has other kids of her own? I don’t know anything about her. I shouldn’t have told her anything. I shouldn’t have?—”

“Coulda, shoulda, woulda,” Mom says. “You did what your heart wanted. And this time it didn’t work out, but following your heart is never a bad thing.”

I want to believe that’s true, but it will be a long time before my heart isn’t sore anymore.

Once Milo’s settled in with his grandmother, I head off to work. News has spread with my coworkers that I was trying again for another kid at DreamTogether, and they all slap my back when I tell them about the call today.

“The world’s most eligible single dad, blowing his entire wad on having another kid,” Ron says disapprovingly. “Surely it can’t be that hard for a guy like you to get a girl.”

There’s only one girl I want, and if I can’t have her... there’s no point, really. Milo brings me all the joy and love and satisfaction I need in life. And so will this new baby.

Eliza’s brought in donuts tonight, so we’re all sitting down to eat one when the alarm goes off.

As we’re programmed to do, we jump to our feet and head for the truck, Ron calling out orders.

He hops in the driver’s seat and I’m in the passenger, with the others in the back.

The door to the garage reels open, and with the sirens blaring wildly, we drive off into the night.

“Five forty East Fourth Street,” the dispatcher says, and Ron swings a quick right. Cars move aside for us as we blow past them.

“There,” I say, pointing at the smoke billowing up into the sky. Another right and then a left, and the house comes into view, flames consuming the entire south side. When we pull up out front, everyone jumps out.

An older woman is shrieking as my coworkers unwind the hose. “She’s inside! She’s inside! There’s a lady living there!”

Fuck. Without thinking twice, my training kicks in, and I head straight for the house, throwing my mask on as I run. This is where my size comes in handy.

I smash my shoulder into the door, splintering it. Then I rush inside, searching for a hallway that would lead to a bedroom. Likely she was in her room sleeping, so that’s the first place I look. The smoke clogs the hall, making it hard to see.

Then I hear someone yelling behind a closed door. She probably tried to get out, but the handle was too hot.

“Get back as far as you can!” I shout. Inhaling a big breath, I smash into the door just like I did the previous one, blowing it into pieces.

Inside is a bathroom, and the fire is licking the wall of the shower. In the corner by the toilet huddles a small, naked woman with short blonde hair, her eyes huge and her hand covering her mouth to keep out the smoke.

Without a second thought, I kneel and grab her, and she struggles for a moment before I say, “I’m saving you. Hold on tight.”

Then I turn around and run back the way I came, protecting her from the flames with my body. My uniform has fire retardant, and the safest place for her is in my arms.

When we burst out into the night, she’s coughing and gagging. I set her down on a lawn far from the flames, which my coworkers are already hosing down. The terrified neighbor kneels next to us.

“Phoebe?” she says to the blonde woman. “Are you all right?”

Phoebe ?

It can’t be.

“I’m...” The blonde coughs again. “I’m all right. I think.” She gazes up at me, opening her mouth to say something, when she registers my face.

“Hank?”

The world around us comes to a complete stop. It really is her.

And damn it all, even with her wet hair in shambles and ash covering her face, she’s gorgeous. With cropped blonde hair, a button nose, and pure blue eyes—surely she’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.

Phoebe

I barely register it’s not just any minotaur standing in front of me, but Hank himself, before I’m consumed by another coughing fit. He pats my back, running his hand around in soothing circles.

“There are EMTs on the way,” he says, crouched on his furry haunches in the grass. More sirens wail in the distance.

“My house,” I whimper, taking in the sight of my home consumed in flames. I barely register that I’m completely naked, and the crying starts before I can stop it. “I can’t believe it. My house. M-my...” I can’t get the words out around my sobs as I curl up in the grass, trying to cover myself.

Two big arms wrap around me, pulling me in close to a warm chest.

“Yes, but you’re alive and safe,” Hank says. “That’s what matters. You have homeowner’s insurance?”

I nod as best I can, pressed tight against him.

“Then it’ll be fine.”

“B-but my photos, my computer, m-m-my life !” Everything I own is in that house. Everything I’ve ever treasured. My memories. My clothes. It’s all gone.

Hank holds me tighter. “I’m sorry.”

But this is my fault. I know it is. Those fucking candles.

I sob harder and Hank holds me, protecting my naked body from prying eyes until an ambulance pulls up. EMTs surround me, and Hank releases me as they haul me up onto a stretcher. I reach for him because he’s my safety right now, the only thing I have left.

He turns back to the fire, then to me again as the EMTs wheel the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, a blanket tossed over me.

“Hank!” I call out, because I don’t want him to leave me, not now. I don’t want to be alone.

He approaches the back of the ambulance.

“I’m her boyfriend,” he tells the EMT. Then he calls out over his shoulder to one of the other firefighters. “Ron, I have to go!”

“What?!” the big gargoyle calls back.

But Hank hops in anyway just before the ambulance doors close, and it drives off.

He takes a seat nearby while they put an oxygen mask over my face.

“Her vitals are okay,” says one of the emergency responders. “She needs oxygen, and then we’ll find out how much smoke she inhaled.”

Again I reach for Hank, for a familiar face, and he takes my hand in his as the howling ambulance drives.

“It’ll be okay,” he says, squeezing my fingers tight. “You’ll be all right.”

But it’s not me I’m worried about. It’s everything. It’s my whole life, gone up in a burst of smoke.

When we reach the hospital, I’m wheeled out again on the stretcher, dressed in a hospital gown, and brought into the emergency room. Hank stays close while doctors and nurses check my vitals again, keeping me on oxygen.

“No serious damage,” the doctor says with a sigh of relief. She turns to Hank. “You got her out?”

He nods quickly.

“Happy coincidence that her boyfriend is a firefighter.” She arches an eyebrow. “I’ll leave you two alone. She should be fine after a few hours on oxygen. Her heart isn’t working too hard and seems stable for now.”

Then we’re alone, the heart monitor beeping next to the hospital bed. Hank scoots his chair closer and takes my hand again, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles.

I shouldn’t be thinking about it at a time like this, but damn, he’s hot in his fireman outfit. It can barely hold in how big he is, and his thick, muscled body looks about to burst out of it.

“How did you know it was me?” Hank asks at last, still holding my hand. “You’ve never seen me.”

I turn my head, realizing I’m found out.

“I did look you up,” I say with a cringe. “I... I had to know.”

Soft fingers cup my chin, and I open my eyes as Hank turns me back to face him. His expression is serious, but there’s a startling gentleness in his face.

“I’m glad.” He doesn’t release me, his hand traveling up my cheek. “I’m so happy to finally see you.”

For just that moment, I can forget. For just that moment, I’m absorbed in him. His big muzzle ducks down, toward my mouth, and then he hovers there, so close it would be infinitely easy to press our lips together. And I’m about to kiss him when I remember where we are—and why we’re here.

Hank Pittsfield shouldn’t be here, too.

I pull away abruptly, fully retreating onto the bed. Hank jerks back, his eyes wide with surprise.

“Oh, fuck, I’m sorry,” he says, as the same realization crosses his face. “I’m so sorry, Phoebe. This isn’t the time or the place.”

But it’s not that. It’s how much I wanted it, how much I craved it, how much my heart was singing for it in the midst of all this chaos. It’s how badly I want to throw myself at him, for him to kiss me and hold me while I cry on him, that makes me put a good distance between us.

“It’s okay,” I tell him with more sureness in my voice than I feel. “You saved my life tonight.”

Hank bows his head. “Just doing my job.”

“Lucky for me you were the one on duty.” I offer him a small smile. “Shouldn’t you go back to work, though? You didn’t need to come all this way with me.”

His only reaction is his cute little cow ears pressing back against his head. “Yes, I did. I needed to know that you were all right.” Then his brow creases. “You told them about the calf, right?”

“Fuck,” I mutter. Surely inhaling all that smoke won’t be good for the baby. “Go get a nurse. It’s probably fine, since you got to me before it got too bad, but we should make sure.”

Hank quickly nods and hops up, running out the door with a clop! clop! of his hooves.

I fall back on the bed, ruing the day Hank came back to DreamTogether. Now he’s not just a photo on a screen, or a cock and a pair of hands—he’s a living, breathing minotaur, who just saved me from a burning building.

I squeeze my eyes closed. My house. My artwork. All those college photos saved on my computer. The letters we wrote our parents that got returned to us. So many things now gone forever.

All because of me.