"How long have you known?"
"A few hours." He lifts his head enough to look at me sideways. "I took two tests at the pharmacy. Both positive."
The instinct is so loud it's almost audible, every Alpha impulse screaming to pull him against my chest. I reach for him instead of asking, my hand closing around his arm.
His whole body goes rigid under my grip and his scent spikes sour.
I let go of him immediately. My hand returns to my knee. The rejection burns through the bond and I swallow it without flinching.
Three seconds pass before Mattaniah unfolds from his knees, shifts across the bench, and climbs into my lap.
He folds himself against my chest with his face in my neck and his fists knotted in my jacket. My arms close around him before my brain catches up to what's happening.
His scent fills my lungs. My body recognizes what the new scent means before the thought fully forms. The possessiveness hits so hard my teeth clench.
"I'm going to take care of this." The words come out rough against the top of his head. "I'll handle the doctor, the appointments, the vitamins. Everything. You don't have to worry about—"
"Stop." He pulls back far enough to look at my face. His eyes are still wet but the look in them is the one that means I've overstepped. "There are more people in this relationship than just you. This baby will have three fathers, not one. You don't get to make all the choices."
"I'm trying to—"
"I know what you're trying to do." His hand presses flat against my chest, over the mark Amos left on me. "Right now all of the choices are mine. This is my body. You can take care of me without taking over."
The correction lands and I let it sit. The difference between protection and possession is a line I have to keep choosing.
"Okay." I swallow. "Tell me what you need."
"I need you to not become a different person when this baby comes, and I need you to ask me what I want instead of deciding for me." His voice cracks. "I need the proving to keep going."
"The proving doesn't stop."
"You keep saying that."
"Because you keep needing to hear it." My arms tighten around him on the bench, holding without pulling. "We're not going anywhere, Mattaniah, not me and not Amos. You're stuck with us."
His head drops back against my shoulder. Through the bond, the jagged signal has shifted into something unsteady but no longer sinking.
"Take me home." He says it against my collar, his voice barely there. "I need to tell Amos."
"Then let's go tell him." I brush a tear track off his cheek with my thumb. "He may have his suspicions after this morning, but he needs to hear it from you."
Mattaniah pulls back enough to look at my face. "Suspicions?"
"Amos has been quiet since you left in a way that tells me he's calculated something he isn't saying." I shift him off my lap and pull him to his feet. His legs wobble and I keep my grip on his arm until he's stable. "Whether he's run the probability or not, he doesn't know for sure until you tell him."
Mattaniah processes that for a moment, his expression flickering between angry and grateful. His scent flickers between the two, sour edge softening back into the warm vanilla before settling somewhere in the middle.
"He's going to have a spreadsheet ready by the time we get home." His voice is steadier now, the sarcasm surfacing through the exhaustion.
"He's going to have three spreadsheets and a prenatal vitamin comparison chart." I snort at Mattaniah’s effort to keep a straight face but he’s softening, slightly. "I'll bet you twenty dollars."
"I don't have twenty dollars." He wipes his face with the heel of his hand, smearing the last of the tears across his cheekbone. "I'm an unemployed pregnant Omega with two Alpha mates and no job."
"You're the forensic analyst who uncovered a two-point-four-million-dollar fraud." I keep his hand in mine as we start walking. "Even if you didn’t have your current job, you’d have a job by Monday."
The walk back to the apartment takes six minutes. Mattaniah's hand stays in mine, his grip tight, his stride uneven from sitting on a cold bench for hours. We're two blocks from the building when he speaks without looking at me.
"The heir clause." The words land flat between us. "The baby triggers it. You and Amos get controlling interest the moment a legitimate heir is born."
