And then there was the matter of the pregnancy itself. Jude and Kyle hadn’t been able to offer any explanation for how it could have happened unless the two of them really were True Mates, but nothing about his experiences with Titan thus farhad screamed “fated love.” Up until recently, his experiences had mostly been “why do I keep hooking up with this guy who makes me homicidal just by speaking?” That didn’t seem on par with what Al and Jude had shared about their relationship, and if he understood correctly, the chances of both Al and Titan finding their True Mates in the same place—or even at all—were astronomical. None of it added up.
But that didn’t change the fact that he was pregnant. The test might have been an iffy metric, but Ezra trusted Kyle, who had put one hand on him and been able to confirm with his telepathy what Ezra had hoped he wouldn’t.
There was at least one Titan Jr. hanging out in there.
More than one, probably.
A whole clutch of oopsies.
And while, yeah, Ezra was pretty okay with Jude’s kids, being an “uncle” and being a father were drastically different responsibilities, and it wasn’t like his own experience with fathers had been any kind of teaching tool. He couldn’t even remember his bio dad’s face, and while his late stepdad had been nice enough, they’d never had the kind of parent/child relationship that Ezra had had with his mother.
How was he supposed to be a dad when he didn’t even really know what that meant?
Way deep in his feelings, Ezra stopped pacing and flopped dramatically onto his bed, covering his face with his hands. He was nauseous, and he couldn’t pinpoint if it was from the stress, the pregnancy, or a funky combination of both.
Absurdly, he found that he kind of wanted to cry.
“I need,” he muttered to himself, “a hug.”
When there finally came a knock on his door, he wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but he did know there had been no hugs to be had. Heart heavy, he sat up and brushed the water out of his eyes, then trudged across the room like a man to the gallows to have a conversation he desperately did not want to have.
“Ezra?” Titan called from the other side of the door while Ezra was on his way. “Are you located in your unconsciousness quarters, as you stated you would be?”
“Yes,” Ezra replied, pulling the door open. “I?—”
The rest of his words died in his throat.
Titan—the maybe-not-an-asshole—stood there in a very nice button-down shirt and slacks, a chaotic, hand-picked bouquet of white yucca flowers in hand. They had been pulled up from their roots and were shedding chunks of crumbling dirt onto the floor around Titan’s feet.
Titan held the bouquet out to Ezra, who accepted it in stunned silence.
The bouquet was so unwieldy, he had to hold it with both hands.
“What the fuck?” he whispered in lieu of hello, knitting his eyebrows together. He looked from the flowers to Titan, who was beaming at him. “What is this?”
“It is a romantic gesture,” Titan explained happily. “Humans appreciate receiving flowers, despite the fact that removing them from their natural habitat results in their death. I killed these flowers for you to show you that I have care for you.”
“You… okay.” He glanced around and gingerly set the strange bouquet down on the top of his dresser, then brushed off the dirt on his hands onto his sweatpants. “Um… thanks?”
“You are welcome,” Titan said. He bounced on the balls of his feet for a moment, peering into Ezra’s room, then asked, “May I enter?”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” Ezra beckoned him into the room, closing the door behind him with a click. “Sorry.”
“No need for sorries. It is the first time you have invited me into your private space, and as such it is natural you might forget such things as remembering to invite me inside. I do not take it to be a sign of hostility.” Titan’s expression brightened.“Quite the contrary, in fact—I am honored to have been invited here. What is it I can do for you, Ambassador Ezra?”
Ezra’s stomach churned.
Oh, yeah.
The flowers and Titan’s strange behavior had thrown him off, but they hadn’t changed the fact that he’d called Titan here for a reason. “I need to…weneed to talk.”
Titan frowned. “Are you all right, Ezra? You appear distressed.”
“Yeah, well, that’s because Iamdistressed, man.”
“I do not wish for you to be distressed,” Titan said with a hum of displeasure. “You deserve to be content at all times. How may I assist in making you feel content again? I need your guidance.”
I need your guidance.The words were so earnest that they gave Ezra pause. Admitting the need for help was not something Titan did. He was constantly boasting how he knew the answer to everything, but here he was, standing before Ezra asking for help, and he was asking it because he wanted to know how to make him happy again.
