Page 11 of His Unicorn Alpha (Shifters Sanctuary #3)
T he knock at my front door did not come as a surprise, though I was a little shocked that it took my brother more than an hour to show up.
My little house was only situated a couple of miles away from Eric’s cottage (the same cottage which housed the fertility clinic), and I knew that he wouldn’t be able to fight his curiosity after learning that Micah and I had bonded. We were the fourth known couple to do so, after all, and in a unique situation again.
Unlike Beck and Ollie, or Lena and Brandi, we had bonded outside of a mating heat. While Rex and Damon had also bonded out of choice, they had done so after the birth of their son.
And unlike those alphas, Micah —my alpha— had already known he was a shifter before he had knotted me.
Gods, but I wanted to experience that again. My omega practically purred at the notion of being locked together and filled by our mate.
But, even though I would happily spend hours in bed with Micah, we had to talk properly. To get to know each other as people, not just as compatible mates who had impulsively decided to agree with the hand fate had dealt us.
So, once we had acknowledged to our friends that, yes, we had bonded, and yes, Micah was an alpha, I had taken my mate by the hand and led him out of the Alpha’s home and to the clinic to retrieve my car. From there, I had driven us to my house, and we had sat and talked about everything and nothing.
It was a strange feeling, to be tied to the man for as long as he would live, but to not really know him. My omega felt as if we had known him forever, but I still wanted to know the basics. His favorite color (red), his favorite food (apple pie), his favorite human pastime (riding a pushbike or mountain bike surrounded by nature), and other odds and ends. I knew his birth date and age from our clinic’s records, but there were so many things still to learn.
He came from a pack in California, and it didn’t sound as though they were the same kind of people as Damon’s or Oliver’s packs. They sounded more like naturists or, as he called them, ‘hippies’. They treated all their pack members equally, and it sounded to me that they had a lot in common with the dragon clans of old. They even seemed to believe in the old magics and fate, or at least it sounded as though Micah’s mother did.
“It sounds as though she and I will have some very interesting conversations,” I told him as I pushed myself from the couch to answer the door.
He sighed behind me. “She can be a bit…intense…with the hippy stuff. And I know you’re an actual scientist…”
I opened the door, not bothering to greet Eric as I turned to tell my mate, “I am a five-hundred-year-old man who can turn into a dragon, darling. I believe in some degree of magic in addition to science. And it will be nice to see what —if anything— she knows of the old ways. We have lost a lot of knowledge over time.”
Eric cleared his throat, and I finally turned to face him, satisfied to see contrition and apology on his heart shaped face. I knew he had a right to be upset with me, however his reaction had still hurt.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
Nodding, I stepped back and gestured for him to enter.
After I had closed the door and led him into my little open-plan living space, I resumed my seat beside Micah on the two-seat couch and Eric sat tentatively on the matching gray armchair on the other side of the coffee table. I did not have a television, preferring to read or play computer games on my laptop. Micah and I had that in common as well, though we agreed it might be best to buy a television knowing we would soon have three babies and it might be nice to watch a movie while we held them or nursed them.
“Bran,” Eric started, then stopped and sighed. “We both know what you did was wrong. And, yes” —he held up his hand to stall the protest on the tip of my tongue— “I know you apologized, and I know why you did it. But…this is my life’s work. This is my baby. And it sucked that you disrespected that. It also hurt that you didn’t come and tell me when you found the fertilized eggs.” My heart squeezed and renewed guilt roiled at the betrayal and pain I could read on his face. “Did you really think I’d just make you get rid of them? That I wouldn’t have at least found a way to store them safely?”
I…hadn’t thought about that, actually.
I had just automatically assumed that Eric would want to study them before allowing them to become no longer viable. I had also assumed that Eric would then contact Micah to perform a barrage of tests. I was honestly surprised that he hadn’t demanded the right to perform such tests before Beckett left Micah and I alone, knowing that there was every possibility that we might act on the draw between us. I felt a little guilty for that, too, even though I honestly had never dreamed that Micah’s response to my confession would end on such a positive note.
Shoulders slumping, I shook my head as I let it hang. “I wasn’t thinking,” I admitted. “I suppose, on some level, I did assume that you would use the embryos for research and then discard them when they were no longer viable.”
“I might have liked to keep one for research purposes,” he answered calmly and honestly, but the thought of giving up even one of my babies made my stomach churn with unease. “But,” he continued, as if he could read my mind. He’d known me for nearly three hundred years, so I assumed he knew me better than most. “They were — are — the only hope for our species right now. I do get that, too. I was just pissed that you didn’t tell me. That you’ve kept me out of the loop for almost three months.” He leaned forward and looked me in the eye, his tone turning soft and compassionate. “I would have liked to have been a part of everything, Bee. Including helping you implant them, if that was what you really wanted.”
My throat constricted as tears threatened to blur my vision. “You would have gone against your own ethics?”
With the corner of his lips quirking upward, he nodded. “I could have done some mental gymnastics. Justified it as necessary research.” He cringed and glanced to my side towards Micah. “Sorry. For what it’s worth, I would have had Beck call you, too. If only to get your verbal consent.”
“I would have given it,” Micah told him without hesitation. “And, no, that’s not the bond talking, sugar.” He leaned into me and nuzzled my face with his own. “Even if I didn’t want to acknowledge the pull back here, just the idea that consenting might help save your species —to save dragons— there wouldn’t have been any reason to say no.”
His words were supposed to be reassuring, but they just added to my guilt. I had been so afraid of all the possibilities which might prevent me from having my babies that I had willfully chosen to do the wrong thing.
“Whoa, sugar ,” Micah crooned, likely feeling the overwhelming emotion spilling over from the bond between us, “it’s okay. It is. I promise.”
Bile rose up the back of my throat and I groaned, then leapt from the couch and raced down the small hallway to the ensuite bathroom attached to the primary bedroom. I landed on my knees in front of the toilet with bruising force, but couldn’t care too much about it as the contents of my stomach forced their way back out of me.
I heaved and tried not to fight it, knowing that doing so only made it worse.
Tears trickled down my cheeks, namely from the assault against my sinuses as I retched, but also from the guilt which still plagued me.
Micah was a good man —a sweet, kind man— and I had done nothing to deserve his kindness or understanding.
I jumped when his long fingers stroked through my sweaty hair before he rubbed calming circles over my back. He didn’t speak for a while, just lent me his soothing presence as I rode the wave of nausea to the bitter end.
When I finished, he passed me a glass of water and a damp washcloth. I rinsed and spat, then wiped my face with the cloth as he flushed the toilet for me.
“Is it always that bad?” he asked softly as I brushed my teeth.
I spat again, then looked into the sink, unable to face my own reflection. “Yes,” I answered simply, then added, “however, it has been decreasing in frequency.”
“You’re just past the first trimester, so that checks out,” Eric’s voice interrupted from the doorway. “Plus, with multiples, the hormonal fluctuations can be stronger. I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t go away entirely.”
I nodded, already aware of the fact. But this was probably all new to Micah.
“I don’t expect you to deal with all of this,” I told my mate, even while my omega whined at me. For an enormous, scary, flying reptile, my omega felt very much like a desperately needy puppy. “This was my choice and you—”
“We’re not going around in circles on this,” he cut me off, the firmness of his tone doing wonders for my hormones, despite sounding very odd given his usually relaxed demeanor. “I didn’t bond with you just to take a backseat for the baby stuff. I know I wasn’t there when my little swimmers did their thing. And I wasn’t there when you did your thing with them, but you gave me the facts before I signed up for the mating bond and I’m accepting everything that comes with it. Are we clear on that?”
My omega was ready to go belly up for him then and there. With my brother present, that just felt awkward and weird. So, I merely nodded and ignored the renewed slickness developing inside me.
“Crystal clear,” I replied.
“Does that mean you’re moving to Shifters Sanctuary?” Eric asked him without any tact. “Joining our pack?”
I didn’t have time to tell my brother that he was out of line because Micah was already nodding. “Yes. I don’t think I could move back to New York now. Not with this bond.” He rubbed at his chest, where I knew he could feel the link between us. I felt the same inside me, too.
“But…you dislike small-town life,” I argued softly. “And then there’s your work. There aren’t many calls for makeup and hair artistry here.”
Micah shrugged, and his pretty long hair swayed with his movement. “So maybe I need to travel interstate occasionally. This will still be my home base.” His expression became uncertain. “Unless you don’t want me here.”
I couldn’t call what we shared ‘love’. Not after barely knowing him for a day. But I still felt affection for him: a draw from our fated connection which I couldn’t quite explain, but which felt right regardless of its inexplicability. “I most certainly want you here,” I confessed, feeling vulnerable despite knowing that he had just told me exactly what my omega wanted to hear. What I wanted to hear. “I want to get to know you as my mate. As the father of my children. But I only want this if you truly do, too. If you can be happy with a life here.”
“My bet— alpha ,” he corrected himself with a bewildered sounding chuckle. “Man, that feels weird to say. Anyway, my alpha has felt settled here since I arrived. I wasn’t happy in New York. Especially not after coming here for the wedding at Christmas.”
I frowned. “We never met. It is strange that you felt the pull of the bond even without any sort of encounter to spark it.”
“Can we move back to the living room so I can ask questions about all of that?” Eric prodded, reminding me of his presence. I had gotten so wrapped up in my discussion with Micah that I had forgotten we had an audience.
A suddenly gleeful, invested, and hyper-curious audience.
“Should you maybe eat or drink something with electrolytes in it or something?” Micah fussed at me as we followed my brother back down the short hallway. “All that throwing up might make you dehydrated, right?”
“Oh, I like this one,” Eric declared, pushing me to sit before he headed into the kitchen on the other side of the cozy combined living and dining space. “Good thinking, Micah. Looks like the alpha urge to protect and nurture is already kicking in. Or is that just your usual personality?”
Eric opened my refrigerator and barked a laugh, likely at the multiple bottles of ginger beer I had accumulated. Sure enough, he pulled a half-empty bottle of the amber colored liquid from a shelf and twisted the lid, releasing a hiss of effervescence. He found me a glass and filled it, then returned the bottle to the refrigerator before bringing the glass to me. I sipped at it and immediately felt the remaining turmoil in my belly begin to fade.
Micah seemed to be considering Eric’s question, and he shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I’m any more nurturing or protective of people than most. But when I care about people, yeah…I can be, I guess.”
Eric hummed and tugged his phone from his pocket. I knew he was opening his notes app, ready to ask us plenty of invasive questions.
He looked up at us expectantly, fingers poised over his keypad. “So, first thing’s first; the pull between you. You say you felt it before you met?”
Micah nodded while I shook my head. “I didn’t feel it until we saw each other across the parking lot the other day. Before that…no. I didn’t feel any need to seek him out.”
“But you, uh, you said yourself that you couldn’t wait to get those embryos implanted, right?” Micah suggested cautiously. “What if that satisfied the instinct for you? Because I started feeling it after I was here for Beck and Ollie’s wedding. Not in the same way Beck and Ollie talk about being desperate to find each other again, but after I left, it was like…like this itch under my skin. Like I had to turn around and come back, but I didn’t know why.”
“I can see the logic in that argument, actually,” Eric straightened in his seat, his eyes taking on their usual gleam when it came to his research. He turned to me, “And it would also explain why you didn’t stop to think a bit more rationally before you acted. Some part of you was being driven to be bred by your alpha in whatever way was available to you.”
I was not going to argue with him. It might have been selfish of me, but if it meant that he would feel less hurt by justifying my actions in such a way, who was I to tell him it was unlikely? Besides, I could also see the logic and, looking back, I could acknowledge that my irrational behavior was out of character. I had felt as though I needed to act urgently. While I wasn’t certain it could be all attributed to the pull towards my mate, it was possibly a contributing factor.
I nodded. “It is possible, yes. I was not thinking clearly once I realized they were my ovum. My eggs.”
I felt Micah’s amusement travel over our bond before he snickered out loud. “Dragon eggs,” he said, by way of explanation.
I felt fondness for him even as I groaned. “Please tell me you are not under the impression that my kind lay eggs.”
“Well, I’m not now . But I was obsessed with the mythology of dragons as a kid.” His cheeks flushed pink. “I was actually kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to see you or Eric shift when I visited.”
Concentrating on sending him back my continued feelings of fondness and some reassurance, I told him, “I will gladly shift for you, Micah. And I would very much like to meet your horse, too. In my human form as well as in dragon form.”
The pride and excitement which radiated back at me was adorable.
Eric cleared his throat and eyed us both. “This is fascinating,” he told us. “You’re practically strangers, but you’re already so comfortable with one another. How does the bond feel?”
“Good,” Micah answered. “It feels…right. Like it was a piece of myself I didn’t know was missing.” He scrunched his nose. “Which should be weird. Like you said, we were strangers a few hours ago. And now…”
“Now we are deeply connected,” I finished for him. Then I looked back at my brother. “It feels right, however we are still both autonomous. We will have to work towards maintaining an amicable relationship.”
“Just amicable?” Micah asked teasingly, and I snorted.
“That was my chosen euphemism, yes.”
“So you don’t feel like being fated —or extremely compatible— mates has forced an instant attraction or affection between you?” Eric’s question was direct, and while it caused my omega to bristle, I understood that he was asking for scientific reasons, not to offend.
Micah, on the other hand, growled under his breath. “Brandt is the embodiment of my type,” he responded defensively. “I would have found him hot with or without this connection between us. As for affection? I already cared about him before I met him because he’s Beck’s friend. After our… talk ” —he shot me a wink which went straight to my cock— “I’ll admit I started feeling something deeper…but, I don’t think much of that can be attributed to the bond. I don’t get emotionally attached often, but when I do, it happens fast. And, like he said, it will take time to get to know each other. Real affection — love — will take time.”
Squeezing his hand, I nodded. “I could not have phrased it better myself.”
“Fascinating.” Eric tapped away at his phone screen. “It does seem as though these matches occur between people with compatible personalities and ideologies. The bizarre thing is that you are the first alpha/omega pairing of mixed species. It sometimes happens with betas, as well you both know, but until now we were operating under the assumption that alphas only mated and bonded with omegas of their own species.”
“Are you working towards a question, little brother, or do you simply enjoy the sound of your own voice?” I asked playfully, not realizing until I did so that, only hours earlier, I had been afraid that I had lost the privilege to joke with him at all.
As he rolled his eyes, I felt a renewed wave of guilt and regret. Micah’s hand releasing mine to rub circles on my back was the only sign telling me that he’d felt my surge of emotions.
“I’m just saying that this completely shakes up all of my — our — theories,” Eric responded. “And, with Micah already knowing he was a shifter, it opens up a whole new world of potential matches. I would love to know why Micah is the first beta to manifest as an alpha. Why, if it has been possible all along, has it not happened until now? Or is Micah an anomaly?”
“I am not sure how we would even begin to research any of that,” I said, adding, “however, I agree that it would be good to have the answers.”
Eric tilted his head and smiled at my mate. “Is there anything distinguishing you from the other betas of your pack? Any physical or even mystical differences?”
I could feel Micah’s unease, but he shook his head as he answered Eric smoothly. “None that I’m aware of.”
I had to agree that, scientifically speaking, the size of his dick was not likely the kind of difference Eric was asking about.
My brother hummed, as if anticipating such a response. “Did you have any birth marks before you bonded with Brandt?”
Micah shook his head again. “No.”
Eric smirked. “You’ll probably find you have one now. A misshapen circle. Like a waxing or waning moon.”
Micah groaned, leaning his head back to complain to the ceiling, “Why is it always moons?”
I snorted. “The mystical symbolism dates back to very early times. Shifters believed in the magic of the moon — it controlled the tides, the coming and going of the sun, the seasons etcetera, etcetera. Now, of course, we understand the science behind all of those things, but combined with our birthmarks and abilities, moons were and remain synonymous with magic, even for humans.”
He nodded, then sighed. “Well, we dressed kinda’ fast earlier, so I can’t confirm the birthmark theory.”
Eric shrugged, then sat back and waved vaguely over my mate’s body. “Strip now, then.”
I growled, then blinked at the possessive heat which had risen up the back of my neck and through my throat. My brother stared back at me in equal surprise.
“Scales, sugar,” Micah’s fingertips stroked over my forehead and down the side of my jaw. “Fuck, these are sexy.”
I squirmed, feeling slick threatening to dampen my underwear at the touch to my scales, and to the low, sexy words my mate spoke.
“Fascinating,” Eric repeated again. “The last time I saw that kind of possessiveness was when Ollie was newly bonded and pregnant. Oh, no, wait — it was after Lena and Brandi bonded. But I don’t recall Damon ever being like that.” He bent over his phone again, thumbs flying over the keyboard. “Hmm, the early days in the bond, coupled with pregnancy hormones, must make omegas extra territorial.”
“Or, perhaps you have just made some particularly insensitive requests with us all and you did not get the opportunity to do so with Damon.”
Eric looked up, rolled his eyes at me, then bent to look at his screen again. “They’re not insensitive. I’m a doctor. A scientist. I’m asking these things for research purposes only. I have zero interest in your alpha, Bran.” He glanced at Micah and grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, you’re not my type, either,” he scoffed right back. “But I’m still not taking my clothes off for you. Brandt can go looking for a birthmark later.”
“Mmm,” I practically purred, my omega enjoying the suggestion very much, “I look forward to it.”
Eric scrunched his nose for a moment, then narrowed his gaze, swinging it from me, to Micah, then back again. “You’re not in heat,” he began slowly. “You can’t be, because not only are you pregnant, you’re in your second trimester.” He held up his index finger before I could crack the same joke about his lack of a question. “So,” he continued, “I can only assume the lust pouring off you both in waves has something to do with continuing to build the bond. To…feed it and reassure it, if you will.”
“Or, being in my second trimester, this is purely hormonal.”
“On your part, sure,” Eric shrugged, “but that doesn’t explain him.” He gestured at Micah, who blushed adorably.
“Can’t that be chalked up to the standard honeymoon phase of any new relationship? Sex is always exciting and new with a new partner. Even most humans can’t keep their hands off each other when they first begin dating.”
Eric huffed. “Well, you do have a point there.” He brought his phone back up again. “I’m making a note to ask the others. Damon and Rex in particular. They didn’t bond until after Cam was born, so if they report the same feelings—”
“It is still possible that it is a honeymoon phase thing.” I repeated.
My brother tilted his head in acquiescence, but still argued, “And it’s possible that it’s exacerbated by the bonding.”
“That would mean you’re both right,” Micah said smoothly. He had such an easy-going attitude. It was calming, instantly soothing my growing irritation with my stubborn brother.
“You’re a smart little pacifist, aren’t you?” Eric asked with amusement.
Micah shrugged, not bothered by my brother’s jibe. And, in that moment, it struck me that this was Eric’s way of testing my bondmate. His, for all intents and purposes, brother-in-law.
I was going to strangle him.
“Well,” I slapped my palms on my thighs and pushed to my feet, eyes locked on Eric’s blue pair, “I believe that is enough interrogation for today.”
“But…” he protested, and I shook my head.
“Eric, I am newly mated and hormonal, and I wish for some time alone with my alpha.”
After a long moment where I was concerned that I would need to eject him from my home via force, he got to his feet and nodded. “Fine. But tomorrow, you and I are talking properly.” His expression softened. “And I’ll give you a proper checkup, too. Bring your notes and records. I know you have them.”
Rolling my eyes, I nodded. After he left, I turned to Micah. “You would think he was the eldest, the way he speaks to me.”
“It’s cute,” he mused as he pulled me in for a hug, which instantly seemed to relax something inside me. “I’m an only child. I always wanted siblings, but my parents had enough trouble getting pregnant with me, so…it’s just me.”
“Well, I believe your brothers-in-law will make you wish I was an only child, too,” I joked, and he laughed.
“Nah, they’re alright. But,” his hands slid down my back to cup my ass and squeeze, “I’m glad we’re alone now.”