“I told the doctors there was a chance you might be pregnant because I worried about a possible miscarriage and your health if that happened. If you’d had one and began hemorrhaging, you might’ve bled out before they even realized where you were bleedingfrom.If they assumed you were alpha they might not have considered checking for that.”
“We don’t need to relitigate this,” Dash said. “I know you had my best interests at heart when you did it—let’s move on.”
Emerson hedged, his gaze going to his hands.
“What’swrong with me?”
Emerson lifted his gaze. “The pregnancy I worried ab?—”
“Thepossiblepregnancy,” Dash corrected.
“If you’d let me finish.” Emerson eyed him. “I’d be able to tell you itwasn’tpossible.”
Wasn’tpossible? “Are you telling me Ican’tget pregnant?”
Tears stung the backs of his eyes and at first, he imagined they were joy. He didn’twantto carry a child. But the man sitting across from him wanted a family—and if he was honest, there was a part of him that wanted one, too.One day.The idea of giving Emerson a son no longer made him cringe with disgust. Suddenly, the option being robbed from him made it a little harder to breathe.
Emerson searched his face, frowning. “No… I mean, it’snota hypothetical. You’re pregnant.”
Dash stared at Emerson, dumbstruck. Silence yawned between them, the rushing of his blood filling Dash’s ears.
“And you’ve known thishowlong?”
“Soon after you were taken into the ER,” Emerson murmured.
“And you kept it from me?”
“You’d just gone into cardiac arrest.”
Dash glared at him with a look that screamed ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’
“And I was tooweakto hear the news, hmm?”
“Yes,”Emerson snapped, his stare unwavering. “I knew this was the last news you’d want to hear and after what you went through, your heartwasin a weakened state. I feared another cardiac event, so I asked the staff to withhold the information to protect you.”
Anger swept into Dash. Along with denial. “This is exactly why I feared people learning I was part omega. They took your request because you were the alpha here—not me.”
Emerson winced, realizing Dash had a point. “They were worried about the shock of that news on your heart, too.”
Dash’s nostrils flared as he glared at Emerson.
Emerson held his breath, terrified Dash might kick him out again.
After almost a full minute of Dash silently seething, he finally spoke. The anger in his tone was clear. “Promise me that you won’teverkeep something this important—something about my ownfuckingbody—a secret from me ever again, Emerson.”
Emerson nodded. “I promise.”
Dash’s gaze was deadly. Emerson knew he had no more room for error there. If he crossed the line again, it might spell the end of them.
“I was only trying to protec?—”
Dash’s eyes widened with rage and Emerson shut up, quickly.
“It’smybody, Emerson. You don’t hide something that big from me. I don’t care if it kills me.”
Emerson frowned. “I do. I care if it kills you, Dash.”
Some of the anger leeched from Dash’s expression. He scrubbed both hands over his face and then dropped them in his lap with a sigh.
