Page 7

Fresh anger burns through his chest, and if Nix looks inwards, he can see that his bond with Jamie is adding fuel to his own emotions.

He’s got both of their angers simmering there, and he’s learned that shutting the bond down never ends well.

It only makes Jamie more likely to be…anxious, angry, and unreasonable.

Maybe that applies to him, too.

Instead, he lets his burnt vanilla scent out, and it’s satisfying to see the way his alpha flinches.

Nix can’t back down about this, even if it makes him so anxious he breaks into a sweat.

Is it hot in here? Whew.

Nix yanks his bag off over his head and lets it fall to the floor so he can pull his coat off, too, handing it unceremoniously to Leo.

“That’s better.” He offers Leo his sweetest smile and most beguiling doe-eyes, which leave his beta’s mouth opening and closing like a fish, whatever he was going to say completely forgotten.

It’s exactly like Artem had suggested; if he focuses on his betas, then things will go much smoother.

“I’m here now, as demanded. Are we waiting on anyone else?” He stoops to pick up his bag… there are those blasted spots again and then…nothing.

When he comes to, he is being carried bridal-style through the ER in Jamie’s arms. Leo is oddly absent, so Nix takes a minute to ground himself with a nose to Jamie’s neck and a quiet rumble before squirming to be let down.

Grayson is trailing behind them, carrying Nix’s coat and bag…and boots.

Did they think he’d run ?

“I can walk, James. Give me my boots and put me down.”

“No. Be mad. Don’t care.” Jamie doesn’t sound angry, just worried, and for a moment, Nix really sees Jamie. He sees the furrow between his brows and the dark circles under his eyes. It melts some of his annoyance away.

“In here.” Finn offers a med-bay as far from their usual med-bay as possible, and Jamie doesn’t put him down so much as try to climb on with him in his arms.

“You’ll have to put him down.” There’s a low-pitched growl of denial, but Finn stands firm. “I can’t examine him with you in the way.”

“Nix…” Jamie says, but he’s interrupted by the pounding footsteps in the hall moving their way and—if Nix had to guess—he’d bet it’s Rowan.

“Later, okay?” Nix whispers. “I’m still mad, but…we’re adults, yeah? We talk shit out.”

Jamie looks like he’d like to hash it out now , but he eventually nods. “Yeah, okay.”

Rowan bursts through the door, hardly winded. The same can’t be said about the pissed-off administrator and the security guard chasing him down the hall.

“See?” Rowan says, pointing at them. “I told you they were down here.”

“Sir, you can’t run through the hospital willy-nilly, following your nose. There are other patients’ privacy to consider,” the administrator says, with a disapproving frown.

She turns to Finn and mutters, “Dr. Merritt, please control your mates,” as she and the guard depart the ER with much less chaos than they had arrived.

The guard looks disappointed that he won’t be tranquilizing anyone today.

In what is becoming an increasingly annoying occurrence, Grayson climbs onto the bed with Nix, sitting behind him and therefore preventing Rowan from doing the same.

Grayson’s navy suit pants are pulled to their limits over his lean thighs, and his basil-vanilla scent is fresh and sweet, almost perfume-y .

It’s intoxicating, and Nix feels himself getting wet in his jeans .

First Finn, then Jamie, and now Grayson—what is wrong with his brain that he can be so pissed off and still so horny?

“I have you now, Angel. Are you alright?” Grayson coos, and Nix can see a spiteful smirk on his gorgeous face out of the corner of his eye.

They do not need a throw-down here—or ever, really—so Nix gives him a pinch on one of his lovely, firm thighs.

Rowan smiles when Grayson squawks, as he takes up a spot behind Jamie so he can still stare at Nix but also take big huffs of his alpha’s scent.

“I am,” Nix says at the same time Jamie counters, “He’s not.”

He’s just about to give Jamie a piece of his mind when Leo arrives soon after with Luca on his arm, and Gideon trailing behind like a teenager who got called to the principal’s office.

Gideon smells of the outdoors, and his pink cheeks could be from the brisk breeze or embarrassment because he looks contrite, while Luca already looks—and smells—like relief.

It’s three more people added to the already anxious smells of his mates in the small space, and Nix can’t calm his anxiety over the cacophony of voices coming from all directions. He slides into sensory overload with a side order of annoyance.

“ Hey! ” he yells. He’s perversely satisfied to see them all jerk, and it is followed by blessed silence.

“Okay. Finn, let’s do whatever you want to do so I can go home and Gideon can cook me food for real. ”

Gideon has the grace to look caught out, and Luca snorts.

“I’m tired of eating whatever that has been lately.” Nix sticks his tongue out and is rewarded when Gideon points a finger at him with a raised eyebrow.

Nix hopes it means he’s in trouble . That low simmer in his belly blooms once more at the thought, and Grayson groans from his spot behind him.

“ Angel , you can’t smell like that with all of us packed in here like sardines.”

Finn nods, and there’s a sheen of perspiration on his forehead. “Please. I am still living down the destruction of the other med-bay.”

It’s Finn’s desperation that helps Nix reel his horny scent back in until everyone notably relaxes.

“I’m going to do an exam, and then I’ll get the ultrasound tech to come in. Are you okay with that, Nix?”

Ultrasound? Is he going to get to see his baby?

“Hell yes!”

He makes eye contact with Rowan, who’s looking rather green, and when Nix scans the room, only Luca and Finn look excited.

“Why do you all look like you’re the ones who are going to chuck your cookies now?”

There are nothing but vague, low denials, but it’s Jamie who speaks the loudest. “Nix, we’re all just—it’s big, ya know? Like there’s a whole person in there, and I just want you to be alright, too.”

In the end, Finn can’t move around the med bay with everyone inside, so they rock-paper-scissors it with much grumbling and promises that they can come back for the ultrasound. In the end, only Luca gets to stay.

“Suckers!” Luca whispers after everyone heads out to the waiting room. “They all have tells. Jay is so used to throwing scissors that he forgets that when he really wants to win he needs to change it up.”

He continues for another five minutes, regaling Nix with everyone’s tells—even Finn’s.

He gets off track when Finn asks Nix to swing his legs up so he can do some measurements of Nix’s abdomen.

“Hey, why are you allowed to treat Nix here when you’re his mate? Aren’t there rules?”

“A lot, actually—but seeing as I’m considered the foremost expert on Omegan Andrology and Paternal Health, there’s an exception in place. Not that I’m an expert, truly. So much still to learn. So, tell me, Nix: how long have you been throwing up?”

It’s the first in a long list of questions Nix hadn’t realized were hormone-related—like sleep, food issues, and an increase in sex drive.

That last one has Luca’s full attention, and just smelling his mocha scent shift to sweet chocolate has Nix’s dick hard in his pants.

“No. I’m serious, Luca, I will send you out. The tech will be here…” Finn groans.

“Now?” a soft voice says from the doorway. “ I can come back, though…”

“No!” Finn says. “Please come in, Sandrine. You don’t mind if we all watch? It’s our first pack baby and—”

“Not at all.” She sets her portable machine up with a professional smile. “Hello, Mr. Rena. When was the last time you had something to drink?”

Turns out Nix needs to finish a bottle of water before Sandrine can see anything, and then it takes another ten minutes to get everyone situated around the monitor.

She’s friendly, making small talk and answering questions with a quick sense of humor.

“Wow, I’ve never done this with such a large audience before. This must be how rockstars feel,” she says as she squeezes gel onto Nix’s bare stomach.

It’s cold, he’s got to pee, and his excitement at seeing his baby makes it even harder to keep still. The pack has pushed Rowan to the front of the group, so Nix can hold his hand.

It’s warm and firm, and when he catches his mate’s eye, it seems to settle his anxiety even further. Nix can feel all of his bonds warm and bright in his chest—even the tiny little gold ones darting in and out.

His baby is excited, too.

Sandrine uses her wand and presses it all over, coming back to certain spots on his belly.

“Hmm , ” she says, repeating the patterns. “Do you want to hear them?”

“She means the heartbeat,” Finn clarifies.

“Please,” Grayson whispers.

The quiet alpha’s eyes are glued to the screen, his smooth fingers under the edge of Nix’s pant leg, setting his soulbond alight and calming his racing heart.

Sandrine turns the volume up, and there it is: a rapid ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum. It doesn’t sound like any rhythmic heart rate Nix has ever heard. “It’s so fast!”

“That’s perfectly normal,” she says, moving her wand over to the other side of his belly, and Nix can hear it again, just as loud .

“Um, did the baby move over there?” Nix doesn’t know much about babies, though he knows this one is the size of an apple right now.

“Uh—” She freezes and looks at Finn, whose eyes have gone wide. “Dr. Merritt?”

“What?” Rowan asks. “Is there something wrong with it?”

“That’s just it, Rowan. It’s them , not an it at all.”

“Look. I get that it’s a she, or a he, or whatever they decide is right for them. I just want them to be alright…and happy. I get how gender works. But this is not the time for a discussion on their pronouns, dammit.”

It hits Nix just before Jamie blurts it out.

“Twins,” Jamie whispers. “Oh, shit.”

Rowan looks at Sandrine and then at Nix, before falling into a stunned heap on the floor.

It’s a testament to her professionalism that she doesn’t even blink, despite the fact that Were twins must be incredibly rare.

“Congratulations, Mr. Rena. They’re fraternal. Look, two separate amniotic sacs. Baby A is slightly bigger, here.” She presses along the first section low on his belly. “And Baby B is over here. I’ll just print the 3D images and then get out of your hair.”

She hands the photos to Nix, and it’s the first time it seems real. There are two tiny little almost-people inside him, with tiny fingers and tiny noses—and two glittering gold bonds flitting around the others under Nix’s heart.

He’s going to be a Dad, for real.

Holy shit.