Page 111 of Bully for Sale

Ezer woke upto a mouth so dry he couldn’t swallow. He tried to sit up, but he was unable to manage with the size of his belly. He was confused by that at first, but then he felt the movement inside.

Right.

He was pregnant.

He peeled his eyes open and took in the gray light of the morning seeping through the window near the hospital bed. Ned was in a chair next to him, one arm crossed over this chest, and his chin propped on the heel of his other hand.

The kicking in Ezer’s belly drew his attention again.

He placed his palms on the taut skin.

Images flashed through his mind. The bus. An omega asking where he was going. His father’s house. George with a whiskey bottle. Pete’s worried eyes.

What’d happened?

Struggling, he managed to prop himself up more, find the controller to move the bed and, in doing so, woke Ned.

“Ezer!” he sat straight, his dark eyes wide and his hair a mess. “You’re awake again.”

Ezer didn’t remember being awake the first time, but he nodded. “Water,” he managed to cough out, and Ned hopped to action. Within seconds his throat and mouth were soothed by cold sweetness pooling in his belly. The twins kicked again.

“What happened?”

“You went to your father’s house,” Ned said, his brows furrowed. “The babies are hurting you, Ezer. They’re growing too big, too fast, and your organs are struggling to accommodate them.”

Ezer’s brain clicked. A vague memory of someone saying the babies should be taken. He grabbed his stomach again, pierced by a sudden fear that he’d imagined the bulge and the movement. But, yes, there was a foot pushing up, and someone inside had the hiccups.

“I don’t think you can birth them safely,” Ned went on. “The best we can hope for is that they’ll grow well in the next week, get stronger, and then we take them out via cesarian, here in the hospital.”

Ezer frowned. “But what about the nest? I want to go home.”

Ned’s brows lifted. “Is the nest your home?”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I thought maybe you’d gone to your father’s in part because you weren’t comfortable in the nest anymore. That you were seeking your real ‘home’ to have the babies there.”

Ezer scoffed. “My father’s house as my home? No.” He rubbed his forehead. “But what was I doing there? Why did I leave the nest?”

“Pete said you wanted to help your brothers.”

“He’s trying to sell them off. I won’t let him do it. He can’t.”

“He’s not going to. Between you, Pete, Heath, and the potential rumors, he’s put those goals aside for now. I can’t say for how long, but Pete isn’t the pushover George thought he was. He’s not pleased to see him use chemical and other coercion on his omega sons.”

Ezer let these words soothe him, though he wasn’t sure how long his father would allow his sons and his new omega to defy him. But if it saved Yissan and Flo from an immediate contract, then he was relieved. So were the babies, apparently, because one seemed to be patting him from the inside. Such an odd feeling.

“Ezer?”

“Yes?”

“We have to talk.”

Ezer almost laughed. “Talk or fight?”

“Talk.” Ned put his hands up. “I want to do what’s right from now on. It’s important to me.”

Ezer tilted his head. “Go on.”