I parted my lips to say things, ran one after another through my mind, and then stood up and reached down to lift him to his feet as well. “That’s it, omega. I’ve upset you and I have to make up for it. Go wash your face and meet me at the front door. We are going out.”
“But I don’t want—”
I turned him toward the bathroom. “Go. It’s lucky dinner didn’t work out because I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?” He wiped his face with the back of his hand. “Okay.”
While he was in the restroom and I was trying to sort out the mood shifts, I called the diner and ordered dinner to go. Hopefully, I had the solution to helping him feel better, at least this time. Would he feel this way again? No idea, but if he did, I was there for him. My mate was doing something so hard, I couldn’t even imagine what it must be costing his body. Three little beings using up all the vitamins and minerals and other nutrients in his body every day. He was eating like a horse, but his weight was not going up more than the healer wanted. It was just barely enough. Which was why I also ordered dessert.
Then, when my mate came out of the bathroom, I guided him to the SUV and helped him into the front passenger seat.
“Where are we going?” he asked, but I just kissed him and helped him with his seat belt. Getting it around a belly filled with three growing babies had required an extension recently. “Alpha!”
“Can’t tell you,” I chided before closing his door and going around to the driver’s side. “Because it’s a secret.”
“You’re mean.” But he was smiling.
“I probably am.” I grinned back. “But you love me.”
At the diner, I left him in the car while I went in for our food, put it in the back, then climbed back behind the wheel.
“The surprise is takeout?” he asked, calmer, but still sounding upset. “See what happens when you have cubs?”
“That’s not the surprise.” I kept an eye on the sun as we drove toward the hill where we’d first watched the sunset. “This is.” I parked facing away from the sun. Helping him around, I opened the hatch and pulled out the camp chairs I kept there. Opening them, I helped him to sit, ignoring his comments about being likely to break the chair then laid out our picnic on the tailgate. “This is.”
Just as I spoke, the sun flared on the horizon, flooding the sky with reds and oranges and yellows, a beautiful sunset that had him gasping. “Alpha, this is like our first date.”
“I thought about taking you back to the same restaurant, but I thought this might be nice.”
“It’s better than nice. It’s…it’s perfect.” And the tears this time were happy ones.
After we finished, we realized that with the back seats down, we had plenty of room in the SUV to make love. One more flat surface defiled. Would need detailing. Worth it.
Chapter Twenty
Edris
My poor mate was miserable. His body hurt. He was exhausted, got out of breath after only walking a few feet, had to pee every three seconds, and our little ones had taken to kicking each other lately, only making everything worse. He was all ready to be done with this pregnancy.
Tyrus offered to induce him early, but Zac immediately turned that down, saying that the longer they stayed in, the better for the babies it was, especially given they were triplets. And while I trusted my mate to know these things, I also trusted Tyrus. If he thought the babies would be safe to come now, they would be. But it was my mate’s body and his decision.
Today was my last day of work until paternity leave. I was loving my job, and part of me was sad to be on leave already. I originally wanted to make it until our babies were born so I could have more time with them when they arrived, but I was too worried about Zac lately and when my boss offered leaving at the end of the week, I took him up on it.
I stopped at the diner on the way home, grabbing some chicken noodle soup, my mate’s newest craving. Gone were the days of cinnamon rolls. In were the days of greasy noodle soup.
When his car was gone. I checked my phone. There were no messages or missed calls. I told myself he was probably getting something from the general store and I brought the soup inside. I expected to see a note, but there wasn’t one. Instead, I found his phone was sitting there on the table. Wherever he went, he’d been in a hurry.
My stomach dropped, my mind filling with all the possibilities and none of them good.
I called the birthing center, wondering if maybe there was an emergency he was needed for, the best of all my scenarios. It was Tyrus who answered.
“Oh, I was just about to call you. Your mate’s here. He forgot his phone, I guess.”
“Everything okay?”
“If by ‘everything okay,’ you mean, is he about to give birth to your triplets? Then, yeah, everything’s great.”
That was when I heard my mate cry through the phone. He was in so much pain, my bear pushed to get out. I ran out the door.
