Page 24 of His Orc Warrior (Human Omegas for Monster Alphas #1)

Lucas

I picked up Oliver and put him in the baby-carrier wrap, snuggling him in close. I thought he might stay awake long enough for us to walk over to his grandparents’ house, but he had other ideas in mind and was mostly asleep before I got him into the carrier. And I was glad for it.

Oliver wasn’t one to want to miss anything. And that meant sometimes, he tried to push through his tiredness. When he did that, it never ended well.

Giving in was better for all of us. He got the sleep he needed and we got a happy baby.

He was currently going through a growth spurt, and right now, he was either eating, sleeping, or crying. Those were his three modes.

“Are you ready?” I stepped into the kitchen to find my mate there, grabbing a glass of water.

“Do you think it’s kind of weird my parents invited us over today?”

I hadn’t exactly thought it was weird, but it did seem a bit odd. We went over there quite often. That wasn’t unusual, but the way they asked multiple times to make sure we’d be there? That did have me wondering if they might be up to something. Especially it being in the middle of the week. The more I thought about it, the stronger my suspicion was that they were up to something.

And sure enough—the second my mate and I walked through the front door, I saw that they were, in fact, very much up to something. Sitting in their living room were my parents. I loved that they were friends, but it was still weird seeing them here, especially on a workday.

“It’s great to see you.”

I hugged each of them.

More than once, I had thought it was go time with the baby—only to find out that it wasn’t. And each time, I called my in-laws. None of those times did I call my parents. It wasn’t because I didn’t love them, but more because I had been pregnant with an orkling and they had no frame of reference when it came to whether or not something I was experiencing was normal.

At first, I worried they might be upset about being left out.

And I wouldn’t exactly call it being left out. It was just—I wasn’t bothering them as much as I did my in-laws because of their close proximity and their understanding of the situation.

I needed to be better about that, when it came to not-pregnancy-related questions, though. I did lean too heavily on my orc in-laws mostly because of where they lived in relation to where I lived.

“We invited your parents over for lunch,” my mate’s mother said, smiling.

“And a game.” My father was really enthusiastic for someone who usually didn’t bother with any kind of games.

I froze. “A game?”

Please don’t let it be Go Fish. Although, maybe I should want all games to be Go Fish. It was how I found my mate, after all.

“Yeah, they’re having a boxing tournament here today. They’re gonna go watch it live.”

“Boxing? Like—get-in-the-ring boxing?” How had I not known this was a thing.

“Yeah, orcs are huge into boxing. Some of the biggest names in the sprot are green a good chunk of their lives,” my father-in-law explained. “You can come with us.”

“I think I’ll stick here.” I didn’t mind boxing, but staying with my mother-in-law while she baked sounded a thousand times quieter, and I needed that today.

She smiled, patting my arm. “Sounds like the best idea, darling. I’m making scones.”

She served us lunch, and—by some miracle—Oliver didn’t wake up until I had eaten my last bite.

Thankfully he woke up happy because there were four sets of grandparents’ hands reaching out for him.

“How about you go to Grandpa.” I handed him to my father. “I know you two don’t get as much time with him.”

“About that.” My father-in-law, smiled bright. “That’s the other reason we invited your parents over—they are looking at a house that’s for sale. One of the orcs from your generation decided to follow his rock and roll dreams and is selling.”

“And you would move here?”

My parents nodded.

“And the village is okay with that?”

My orc family nodded.

“So all of Oliver’s family could be close by all the time?”

My mate gave my thigh a squeeze.

“I-I think I need hugs from everyone.” I wiped a tear that escaped my eyes from my cheek. “I don’t know why I’m so emotional.”

“I do.” Thrain kissed my cheek.

“I knew it.” My mother-in-law was up and hugging me instantly. “You smelled so much sweeter.”

“I’m pregnant?”

“You are.” Thrain took his mom’s place, his arms now the ones around me. “We’re going to be dads again, your family is going to live here, and Oliver is going to be a big brother.”

“Life really doesn’t get much better than that, does it?” And now my tears were freely flowing.

“It really doesn’t, omega mine. It really doesn’t.”