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Chapter Eight

Boston

“Fucking pregnant,” I say for the millionth time over the last couple of months.

I have tried to wrap my head around it. I have tried to be okay with it.

“What about her being pregnant bothers you the most?”

Yep, my big bro decided that it’s mandatory for everyone who is a member of Olympia to see a therapist once a week. So here I am at my weekly session. I didn’t have anything to say the first few times, so we sat here in silence. But Jolie has her eighteen-week scan today, and I want to be there for her, I really do. Logically, I know she never asked for this either, but it feels like everyone has just accepted that this is how it’s going to be, and they’re all excited. Even my own damn parents held a Sunday dinner, and Mum had some baby outfits they all gushed over.

“I don’t fucking know what bothers me the most... maybe it’s that I wasn’t given a choice.”

“But from my understanding, none of you were given a choice,” he says. I want to smack in his smug-ass face. He can’t be older than his mid-twenties, so what the fuck does he know anyway?

“I’m not ready to be a father. I have never even had to look after myself.”

“Okay, but there are so many of you, and you have help. There has to be something else making you feel this way.”

“What if there is nothing else, and I’m just a selfish bastard? I just got her back, and now I have to share her with every one of those dickheads. Once the babies come, where do I fit? Will there even be time for me?”

“Do you think you could be jealous?”

“Jealous? Of what?”

“The babies, and the amount of time Jolie will have to spend with you. After all, you did just say you’re worried, and I can understand that. My daughter is almost one, and I was shit scared when the line on the test was positive. I felt like I hadn’t had time to grow up, then all of a sudden, I was going to be responsible for this little human. I had to be a decent person, the provider, the protector. What if I couldn’t be that man?”

“So, what did you do?”

“I winged it, pretended to have my shit together. But I will let you in on a little secret. When Izzy looked at me for the first time and grabbed my finger, I knew I would do whatever it took to be the best version of myself. I’m not perfect, but I will be whatever she needs me to be.”

“What if I can’t be a better man? What if I fail them like I did their mother? I should have known something was going on. I should have protected her.”

My head falls to my hands. I should have figured out long ago what her psycho father was planning and then protected her from it. We lost so many years together.

“Life is full of should haves, could haves, and would haves, but all that matters is what you do from today forward. Do you want to miss all these milestones and look back and regret it? We don’t get to grow the babies inside of us, so we don’t get that maternal instinct, but it will all be fine.”

I take a deep breath and look back up at him. Maybe he is right. I’m still living in the past, dwelling over what I did as a thirteen-year-old boy.

I’m not that boy anymore, and I need to be the man she deserves, a man my child deserves.

“Thanks for the talk. Maybe Brennan is right about all this feeling and talking crap.” I push up from my seat with one goal in mind. I need to find Jolie. She should be just about to finish class.

“Yeah, well, don’t tell him that. Big brothers can get a big head.”

I laugh with him; he isn’t wrong there.

I pull my phone from my pocket and open it, clicking on the pinned image of Jolie’s timetable. She insisted on starting school just like everyone else, so we made sure one of us is in each of her classes or she is with someone we trust—which is a limited number of people.

She is now in a self-defence class with Trace. He took on a few classes like the rest of Team Zeus, and no one trusted the babies’ safety in a class like that, so he willingly took the job. I didn’t think it would be possible for her to catch up to the rest of the girls, but she proved us all wrong. When she puts her mind to something, she never gives up.

I run across campus to the building where the first years train, and I can hear Blayne before I even enter the room.

“This is bullshit! We shouldn’t have to be stuck here doing this pansy-ass shit. We were trained harder than this in primary school.”

I walk in and see Trace standing at the front of the room in his trademark short shorts, shirtless, with Jolie watching him like she is about to pounce and eat him alive. I can’t lie—that turns me on. The way she will look at us like we’re the only man in the room.

Blayne throws her hands in the air and storms off. This class was originally designed as training for the pregnant girls. But it turned out there were so many of them scattered over the year levels, it just made sense to run one general class where they could do some basic training safely.

Jolie’s belly has become massive over the last few weeks. Sinclair is just as big as Jolie is, and I have heard her complain more than once about it being Colt’s fault. Apparently, he was almost 11 pounds as a baby, and Sinclair isn’t a big person. Summer laughs at something Jolie says, and Sinclair flips them both off.

They haven’t noticed me yet, so I stealthily make my way across the back of the room. They all have their backs to me, but Khale is leaning against the wall. The guy is obsessed—he never lets Summer out of his sight. He has serious trust issues, but if I’m honest, we have never given him a reason to trust us.

“Alright, class is over for the day. Go pee while you can.”

I roll my eyes as the girls giggle at him.

“Could he be any more nauseating?” Khale spits out.

“Probably. But, fuck, if your girl looked at you like that...” I motion towards Jolie standing in front of Trace, who has his hands on her bump. She is looking at him like he hung the stars and moon just for her, and damn, if that doesn’t hit me right in the heart.

Trace helps Jolie sit and takes off her shoes. I ditch Khale and make my way to her side.

“Boston,” she says, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to see you. Are you okay? Did he make you overdo it?”

“Don’t start with your stupidity. I didn’t make her overdo anything,” Trace throws back at me.

“My feet are just a bit sore.”

I look down at her as she rotates her feet. Pushing Trace to the side, I sit in front of her and take one of her feet in my hands and massage it. She moans, the sound making my dick stand to attention. Those noises she makes send me insane.

“Um, Trace?”

We all look up, and Betty is standing beside us, wringing her hands over her baby bump. She has been attending her classes but is behind because of the assignment her team has been on recently. I don’t think Jolie has forgiven her, but she has made sure Betty is safe here.

“Can I, um, ask you some questions?”

Trace nods and looks at Jolie, who also nods.

“I’ll see you at home tonight. Take it easy.” He leans over and places a kiss on her lips before jumping up and talking to Betty.

“Oh my god,” Jolie says, her hands moving to her stomach, and she sneezes.

“What? Is everything okay?” I ask. My heart beats wildly.

She chuckles, but within a second it morphs into a whine. “I can’t sneeze.”

“Why not?”

“Because I pee a little when I do.”

I look at her and then down to her crotch and back to her face. “Like, you piss your pants?”

“Yes, like I piss my pants.” She grimaces and I start to laugh. “Don’t laugh at me, asshole. I need help to get up so I can pee, shower, and change my clothes.”

I stand and offer her my hand, which she takes, and I pull her to her feet. “Thanks, I have to get ready quickly. I have my ultrasound soon.”

“Is anyone going with you?”

She shakes her head. “They all went two weeks ago, so I didn’t want to make them come to this one.”

“Can I go?” I ask her as we walk towards the girls’ changing room.

“Sure, if you want to. I didn’t offer because you have been weird about the babies.”

We walk into the change room, and a couple of girls give me the side-eye, but they both leave, and we’re alone.

Taking Jolie’s hand, I pull her into my body. “I’m sorry about that—I was an idiot. I don’t want to be the guy who misses everything and regrets it. I will make an effort to be more involved.”

“Well, I would love you to be there. We can even go over some baby names.”

My face drops. I hadn’t even thought about names. How can we be responsible for picking a name to suit a little human? Jolie laughs at my expression.

“I have been asking everyone to pick a few names, and we can compare lists. I’m even meeting up with Melinda soon.”

“Have you been talking to her much?” I ask as she lets go of my hand and undresses.

“Yeah, we text every day. Chester thinks it’s worth a shot to give her the same medicine I took to get my memory back.”

“Have you asked her how she feels about it?”

Fully naked, she turns to me, and I take in her belly and how it’s now rounded. I take a step towards her, and I’m not sure why, but I drop to my knees and place my hands on her stomach.

“Not yet, just in case her phone is monitored. To be honest, I still don’t trust Ziyon. He hasn’t even reached out to me. While I understand he is pissed about Olympia now being mine, you’d think he would still want to get to know me.”

“I don’t trust him either. He has to be up to something.” Rubbing my hands gently over her belly, I whisper, “Hey, babies... it’s Daddy.”

“Holy shit! Did you feel that?” she asks.

I look up at her and shake my head. “Feel what?”

“One of them kicked. I felt it. Everyone else has started to feel their babies move except me. The doctor wasn’t worried, but I felt a little left out.”

“Do you think it will happen again?” Applying a small amount of pressure, I lean my face closer to her stomach.

“I don’t know. Say something again.”

“Hey, babies. Daddy gets to see you today.”

We both wait, but nothing happens. I feel almost deflated.

“It’s okay. The book that Kai bought says babies don’t start hearing things besides my heartbeat until around twenty-seven weeks.”

I stand back up and try to smile. She can see the fakeness but doesn’t say anything. That’s what I love about her the most—she knows what we need. She was made for us, and it comes so naturally to her.

Once she is dressed and ready, we both head out and back towards the student parking. I hold her hand in mine as we walk.

“Did you know Brennan and I have been talking about turning that space over there into dorm buildings?” She points towards the grassy area she is referring to with her free hand.

“I hope you don’t expect us to live in them,” I say. “No offence, but being stuck in small, shoebox-sized rooms with other people isn’t my idea of fun. It does make sense, though. The grounds here have acres and acres of free land.”

“Of course not, you idiot. We already have a house. We were running the numbers, and the amount of money that goes into housing our students in mansions is unbelievable. We also want to expand the high school and have dorms for them as well. It just makes sense. Olympia owns so much land that we plan to have everything accessible. The main building at Olympia Corp will have the labs, then the next stage there will be housing, nurses, and even caretakers. Not all the girls and their teams want to keep their babies—they didn’t ask for this. We have even been talking about using surrogates going forward.”

“Look at you, jumping right into your role. You will make a good boss bitch, especially with Brennan by your side.”

“I’m so telling him you said that,” she jokes.

“You better not. I will deny it.”

We reach my car, and I unlock the doors, opening the passenger side door for her. She makes a joke about driving, but now that I’m back, it’s not happening. I let her have her fun driving my car around like she stole it, which, technically, she did. I still have to punish her for that, but I can’t think of anything she wouldn’t enjoy.

By the time we get to Olympia’s main building, Jolie is already complaining that she needs to pee again. We take the lift up to the maternity wing, a place we didn’t even know existed until Brennan did an inventory of every part of Olympia. This part of the building was spared from the onslaught of damage caused by us.

Jolie walks over to the reception desk, where a woman no older than us greets her with a smile. “Jolie, it’s so nice to see you again. You can head right in. Lilly is waiting for you.”

“Thanks.”

The big double doors open, and Brennan walks out alongside another woman not much older than us, though probably closer to Brennan’s age. She smiles and laughs at something Brennan says, causing Jolie to growl and grumble.

I intertwine our fingers and whisper in her ear, “Don’t get jealous, you know my big bro only has a boner for you. He is just a people person.”

“I know,” she bites out, keeping her voice low. “Doesn’t mean she got the memo. I liked her, so I would hate to have to fire her now.”

I chuckle. “Don’t bother firing her. She will learn really fast that he has zero interest in her.”

“Fine,” she huffs.

Brennan looks up, and his eyes sparkle as soon as he spots Jolie. That is why I wasn’t worried. It’s always been Jolie and always will be—for all of us. Whatever the woman was saying to Brennan goes unnoticed as he moves towards us. Or rather, towards her, and Jolie lets my hand go to push up on her tiptoes and place a kiss to his lips.

“What are you doing here?” she asks him.

“Just making sure everything is running fine since Mum has a few investors coming past tomorrow. They’re very interested in the early stages of what we do...”

I move back to let Jolie and Brennan finish talking, then stroll up beside the woman in the white lab coat. Her name tag reads “Lilly,” and she is watching them intently, but goes stiff when she notices how close I am.

“A word of advice,” I say quietly. “If you upset my girl, I won’t be the person you need to worry about. Jolie has a few boyfriends who are loose cannons, and they would have zero issues ending you. You were at the meeting, and you understand how our group works. So, get your lady boner for my brother under control before Jolie fires you or you get yourself killed.”

I turn to look at her and her eyes are watering. “I’m sorry, I... I don’t like him like that. It’s just everything here is so unbelievable, and Brennan knows so much. I just want to learn.”

Jolie moves closer to us once Brennan leaves.

“He isn’t coming?” I ask.

She shakes her head and quirks a brow at me, then looks towards the sonographer and back to me again. I shrug and play dumb, but she knows I said something. Instead of pushing, she takes my hand, and we follow Lilly into the back room. Jolie lays down on the table and pulls her shirt up, while Lilly goes to work talking Jolie through what she will be focusing on today: checking to make sure all the major organs are fine. I take a seat beside Jolie, and she links our fingers again.

“Okay, we are going to do baby B first. Are you wanting to confirm the genders? I know you said you’re having a boy and a girl, but it can’t hurt to double check.”

“That would be nice, thank you.”

I don’t say anything, just sit and watch in awe.

I have spent the entire pregnancy in my own head, and I haven’t enjoyed the moment. She goes on and on about things I don’t understand, but I plan to read that stupid book Kai gave us tonight and get up to date.

“Baby B is a girl,” Lilly confirms. “And she looks strong and healthy. Do you plan on finding out which baby is yours?”

I presume she is talking to me, which is bold of her. “No, they are both mine.” What’s it to this bitch anyway? She is prying, and I don’t like it.

Jolie squeezes my hand hard at my tone. “Sorry about him—he has zero manners. We don’t plan to find out because the children will have abilities, and we should be able to figure it out that way.”

“It’s okay, I have started to get used to him. And how exciting! I’m so sorry if before you thought I was flirting with Brennan, but as you can tell, I’m a little excitable about all of this. Brennan knows so much, and he will actually talk to me about it. Your other guys, not so much.”

“I appreciate your honesty, but he is mine, and I’m glad it’s just platonic. I would cut a bitch if they touched what’s mine.”

I snort at Jolie’s attempt to be nice.

She lets go of my hand and tries to slap me. “What? It’s amusing how much you’re just like us when it comes to protecting what’s yours.”

“Shhh, I want to see our son.”

I watch again as we go through the same stuff with the next baby, measuring his head and stomach and his little legs. She manages to get some photos of his little feet and hands.

“Zadom,” I whisper to myself. I don’t know where it came from.

“What did you say?” Jolie turns to face me, eyes wide.

“Zadom.”

Her smile lights up her face. “Zadom Knight. I think we just named our son.”

“Are you serious? The others might hate it.”

“You leave the others to me. I have ways to entice them.”

I shake my head at her. They would never tell her no, and if they tried, she would totally hand them their asses. I sit back with a smug look on my face. I picked his name, and no one can take that away from me.