The furrow in Jeremy’s brow deepened at my words but he nodded. “With that out of the way, Roger came to us this morning because he was concerned about you and asked me to see if you would talk to me. Is that okay?”
Well, given how deeply personal the conversation already was, I couldn’t really see a reason to refuse, so I nodded again and settled back into my seat to get the conversation out of the way.
Chapter Seventeen
Roger
There was a text message from Jeremy on my phone telling me he’d spoken with Ari and asking me to return to ODI the following day to continue our conversation. Or actually later the day I received it, since it was nearly four in the morning when I returned from my run and climbed into my truck to return home. There was a note on the kitchen counter that said that Ari had left dinner for me in the refrigerator when I hadn’t returned before he went to bed. So, while I’d been out allowing my beast to commune with nature, I’d missed the communications that could have put my anxiety about the situation to rest.
I was hungry after the many, many miles I’d trekked, but the desire for food was overridden by the deep seeded need to see my mate, to know that he was well, to hear the faint heartbeats of the tiny life he carried and know that my future was still intact. A quick glance through the open bedroom door assured me that Ari was in my bed and the first layer of anxiety began to dissipate.
Stripping down, I tossed my dirty clothes toward the hamper and rushed through a quick shower to remove the sweat and grime that remained after I’d returned to human form and joined him in bed. When I crawled between the sheets, Ari murmured softly and curled into my chest without waking, snuggling close in the way that made me desperate to protect him. I wrapped my arms around him and tugged him even closer and then closing my eyes, I slept.
When I woke later that morning, the sun was streaming in through the open curtains and flooding the room. I yawned and then winced as the light assaulted my tired eyes, jolting the rest of the way awake when I realized I was alone in the bed. Ari was gone.
Throwing back the covers, I stumbled to the kitchen without bothering to cover my nakedness. I found a pot of coffee on the counter and another note, this one telling me that Ari had gone out for a few hours and hadn’t wanted to wake me. I poured a cup of coffee and ate the leftovers from the night before cold, scowling at having missed him after not having seen him at all the previous day. Deciding to get my own errands out of the way so we could spend time together when Ari got back -and assuming that Jeremy didn’t have bad news given that Ari had been in my bed the night before- I added my dishes to the dishwasher and pulled on some clothes to return to ODI.
~*~
“He said what?” I was staring. I knew I was, but I was so aghast at what I was hearing that I didn’t seem to have any control over my expression.
Jeremy was back behind his desk and Kade and I occupied the same chairs we had the day before as I shook my head, unable to believe what I was hearing. Jeremy was returning my gaze, holding my eyes as my brain floundered. “That doesn’t make sense.”
Especially since the one thing that I’d expected to be a problem apparently wasn’t, or so Jeremy said when he explained that Ari had accepted the news that he was carrying a werewolf pup with little more than a shrug of his shoulders.
“The first thing that Connery said when I told him that I wanted to talk about your relationship was that he knew you didn’t want him there and he was already looking for a place to go,” Jeremy repeated with a sigh.
“You told him that wasn’t true, though, right?” I growled. “You know that isn't true!”
“Actually, I don’t know anything at all, Roger,” Jeremy disputed calmly. “You spirited Connery away from here with little explanation and there hasn’t been any information provided telling us what plans, if any, the two of you had.”
I opened my mouth to argue as Jeremy held up a finger. “I did ask why he thought that,” Jeremy said firmly. “Do you want to know before you tell me why he shouldn’t think it?”
I blew out a breath. “Yes.” When Kade raised a brow, I stifled an annoyed huff. “Yes, please, Jeremy.”
“I think you already know that sex has a very negative connotation for him, yes?” Jeremy asked, marking off something on the paper before him.
I nodded.
“Well, even worse is the association with an unintended pregnancy,” Jeremy explained. “The women in the clan were expected to be celibate unless married and any woman, whether she was a member of the clan or not, who got pregnant out of wedlock was seen as a harlot who was plotting to trap men into marriage or, worse, to scam them for money through child support and so on.”
I shook my head. “That’s crazy.”
“Of course, it is,” Jeremy agreed. “But it’s also what he was taught. And now he finds himself in the position of the person with the unplanned pregnancy who is being kept -his words, not mine- by a man who didn’t intend to get him pregnant.”
“But I told him I would support them both,” I argued. “I told him I wanted to be part of our child’s life.”
“You apparently also told him in no uncertain terms that you didn’t want to marry him,” Jeremy pointed out. “Immediately after finding out about the baby, in fact. And in the society he was raised in, that made him a gold-digging whore.”
Oh, fuck. I dropped my face into my hands and groaned. “I’ve asked him to tell me what was wrong a dozen times in the last week. Why didn’t he tell me that was bothering him? And why did it only become an issue after he found out that he wasn’t an Omega?”
Jeremy sighed, his cheeks pinking. “I can answer that but it’s a little awkward.”
I waved my hand for him to continue and he cleared his throat.
“You know that he thought some of his previous sexual behavior had resulted from being intoxicated?”
“I do, but he was only drinking Shirley Temples,” I rushed to explain. “I would not give alcohol to a pregnant person.”
