“Does that mean if you got pregnant during the heat flare we’ll be parents this year?” Leo asked. “I wouldn’t fault you if you wanted to wait, but I’m absolutely not telling you to do that.”
Nathan let out a laugh. “We can’t even bet on who the father is. Leo hogged all the knotting.”
Leo’s pride flooded the bond. “I won’t apologize for being jazzed our first kid would be mine. I mean, obviously I’d love a kid by any of you, but I’m definitely going to be a bit smug.”
“Yeah, I feel that.” I burrowed deeper into his arms. Maybe I had sidestepped getting pregnant in the heat flare, but if I hadn’t, I liked knowing they would all be happy about it. Icouldn’t get rid ofallof my anxiety about the future, but it was hard to work up too much of a fuss with Leo in the bond.
“Are you planning on coming to the office with me today?” Alve asked. “It’s fine if you would prefer to rest.”
“Can she go somewhere without Leo?” Nathan asked.
“Probably not for long.” Jude tucked my hair behind my ear. “It’ll take the bond a while to settle. You might have to be an arena girl for a while.”
“I assumed Leo would be taking omega leave,” confessed Alve. “Is that not the case?”
“I can’t skip time at Night of Knights with Chico and his pack off work,” Leo explained. “I’m not sure how the shows will go if I can’t leave Madison’s side, but I can come to the office in the morning.”
Alve mused, his brow furrowed. “If there’s a place at the arena for us to work, I could temporarily relocate. We can arrange things so that if Madison wants to continue working while the bond settles, we can ensure she’s never away from Leo for long.”
“You can use the office,” Leo told me. “I’m pretty sure we have another desk in storage somewhere.”
“I’ll let you guys figure out the logistics.” I dragged Alve closer so I was completely sandwiched between him and Leo. “I don’t want to leave the omegas high and dry with unfinished suites.”
“Everyone give me your schedules for the week.” Nathan passed his phone to Jude, then over to Alve. I got to watch Leo fill in his shifts, glancing over everyone’s intersecting hours. When Nathan got the phone back, he looked it over. “Okay, I’m going to put this all into a proper calendar and share it with everyone so no one is wondering where anyone is. If we’re giving this whole family thing a proper go, we’d better get organizedsooner rather than later. There’s probably an app that would work better, but this’ll be fine in the meantime.”
He didn’t know it, but I cherished that Nathan wanted to keep everyone in the loop. Half the time, I’d find out Tyler was going on a business trip while he was packing for it. A family calendar had been out of the question—he said it felt intrusive—so I’d often have to drop things last minute to pivot around schedule changes. When the ping of the calendar invite hit my phone, it came with a sense of relief I couldn’t quite put into words.
“Maddie”—Nathan turned to me—“can you add anything we should be aware of? Even if it’s a tentative plan, like when you think you’ll be up to working on the OHI stuff, and whatnot. Oh, everyone put in events—birthdays, family stuff, holidays. We’ll probably have some crossover, but we can figure out how to accommodate everything even if that means having five Christmases.”
I groaned playfully. “I think I might perish if I have to go to five family events in a row.”
Secretly, I loved the concept. I’d had nothing but a perfunctory once-a-year holiday at a restaurant with Tyler’s family for the last decade. The idea of family gathering together, spending time for the sake of it, sharing homemade meals, and falling asleep with a house full of people was something I had never dared hope for.
Even a pack without all of their accompanying family was more than I’d ever had. While I technically had a family growing up, it felt nothing like this, offered no safety, no real acceptance. These men wanting me at all felt like a miracle. I was grateful to have them now, but it would’ve been nice if fate had intervened a little earlier.
We slowly got ready for the day and I filled in a few things I could think of on the calendar. While I sipped a smoothie onLeo’s lap, I took a look at the life awaiting me if this all didn’t fall apart. Everything was color-coded, which made it much easier to tell what belonged to whom with the dozens of birthdays and anniversaries sprinkled throughout family members.
“Ava and Charlotte are both going to have their hands full soon,” I pointed out. “I’d love to help when the time comes. Is anyone up for some baby practice?”
“I’d been planning on an extended sleepover with Lucy when Ava goes into labor,” Nathan replied. “Assuming everyone else is cool with that, otherwise I can keep my apartment for that.”
“I’d love a Lucy sleepover.”
Nathan had been so cute with her the day we met, and I wasn’t going to turn up my nose at another opportunity to see him be that precious.
“Why do I feel like I should buy a house now?” Alve said with an indulgent smile. “Maybe we should start our own hotel or bed-and-breakfast.”
The pack certainly had enough family to fill the rooms.
“I wouldn’t say no to that.” Jude smiled, laying his hand on Alve’s shoulder.
I kissed Jude and Nathan before they departed for their respective jobs, then Alve, Leo, and I went over to the arena to see what we could set up. Alve drove so I could sit squished next to Leo in the backseat. If we were touching, my worries were quiet. His mulberry and lavender scent was a constant in my nose, a grounding force that soothed my instincts.
The arena was relatively quiet when we arrived, only a couple of staff there to feed and water the horses. Jax was one of them.
He greeted us warmly. “Welcome back. Another lesson today?”
“Not today,” Leo replied. “We’re also going to have to hire more staff.”
