“I love you, Ethan Heart,” she says.
“I love you too. So do those two big dumbasses. Everything with the baby is going to be fine. We’re going to be fine.”
“Bram seems so upset,” she says as she adds the keychain to her house keys.
“Bram isn’t good at change or not knowing shit. Especially when you’ve been sitting at home with him the last month. If anything, he’s more upset that you didn’t tell him and that Max bonded with you without knowing this information. You can’t blame him for being shocked or a little upset.”
“I know. But my stupid hormones don’t seem to get the memo.”
“It’s been a month. It’s not like you withheld until you’re delivering him.”
“Him, huh?” she asks.
“I think it’s your misfortune to be surrounded by difficult men your entire life.”
She laughs and leans against me.
“I was just really horny after seeing Bram and Max kiss. It wasn’t my initial plan to get everyone riled up. I wanted to come home and talk about the baby, but well, that clearly isn’t what happened.”
“I can’t really complain. This whole celibacy thing has not been my favorite.”
She rolls her eyes at me.
Max walks over and holds out his hand. “They’re taking you back now,” he says, and she takes his hand.
Bram is still being standoffish, so I hold back and let Max and Sloane walk ahead of us.
“You’ve got to pull it together,” I whisper to Bram.
“She’s been keeping a massive fucking secret for a month. A secret that might not even matter considering we didn’t know and Max fucking bonded with her. She put her health at risk, all because she thought what? That we wouldn’t handle it well?”
“I mean, you aren’t handling it well.”
“Of course I’m not. I’m fucking scared,” he says plainly.
I grab his hand and interlace my fingers with his. “We’re all scared, but you signed up to be pack Alpha, which means right now I need you to pull it together. The stress isn’t good for Sloane or the baby, and right now she’s consumed with guilt.”
Bram sighs and scrubs his hand down his face. “No wonder she asked me to spank her.”
I tilt my head.
“We can come back to that later. But she found out when she didn’t know if you were alive or dead. She said she didn’t want to upset the balance between you and Max, but I honestly think she is having a harder time with the accident than she’s letting on. She needs you. We all need you.”
He takes a deep breath and nods as we catch up our pace to Sloane and Max and enter the exam room.
Sloane takes the bed, Bram stands next to her, and Max and I take our seats as the doctor comes into the room.
She’s flicking through a tablet and greets us with a smile. “I’m Dr. Mann. I’ll be your provider today, so what seems to be going on?”
Sloane goes to open her mouth, but Bram speaks instead.
“She’s pregnant, and he bonded with her not knowing about that, and we need to check on her and the baby,” he says.
Dr. Mann glances at Bram, pushing her wide frames up her nose, making a humming noise.
“Do you know how far along you are?” she asks Sloane.
“No,” Bram asks.
