“Little Red.I didn’t scare you, did I?”
“No, but something is clearly up.Can someone tell me what’s happening?”
Dom pulled back, his fingers ghosting over my face.“Ell’s on his way.We’re waiting for Ell.You don’t have to worry though.It’s nothing bad.”
“You’re telling me not to worry?Sure, that’s not going to make me worry at all.”
“It’s really okay, Marcus,” Linc said.“Let’s have some cake while we wait.It’s not going to be that long.”
Something was really, really up.It said more about me than them that I was afraid they were going to tell me to leave, to go back home.It said even more about me that I let myself be led to the table without even trying to dig my heels in and make them tell me what in the fuck was up because I was afraid that was what they were going to say.
Dom had made my tea way too weak, but I hadn’t even mentioned it.Ell came into the house about a half hour later wearing scrubs and a hospital badge.He walked right up to the dining table.At least he looked calm, just like he always did.Sans the scrubs, of course.
“Hi.Thanks for texting, Dom,” Ell said.
“Sure thing.”Dom beamed at me and ran his hand over my back.He’d put on his clothes while making my weak-as-fuck tea.
Linc stood.“You need to change and…check him, please.”
I turned to look at Linc.“Check me?Were you lying about the cancer after all?”
Ell started undressing but made big eyes at Linc.“You haven’t told him yet?”
Linc started pacing, back and forth like those hanging metal balls people who want to impress you keep on their desks.
Dom shrugged.“We thought we’d wait for you.”He stroked me again.“Marcus is a bit freaked out, but he trusts us.Don’t you, Little Red?”
“I’m about to throw this weak wannabe oolong into your face.”
Dom pursed his lips.“Well, about the tea…”
Ell cleared his throat.He was already down to his underwear.“Marcus, just give me a moment, okay?”
I nodded.Not that I really had a choice.I watched Ell shift.It looked as if he were bending over, only for his arms and legs to change length and grow fur.Yup, this would never get old.
“Scoot back, Little Red,” Dom said, then actually moved my chair for me.
Ell padded toward me and looked right at me.With me sitting, he was still big enough to easily reach my face.Much like the other two, he sniffed me all over.
I didn’t really mind it so much now.I’d missed Ell, I realized, and without putting too much thought into it, I put my arms around him.If they were going to tell me to leave or that something was wrong with me and they didn’t want me anymore, this might be the last time I got to feel them in fur.All of them were really soft.
I felt Ell breathe under my hands, and then he changed, becoming a man keeling right in front of me and staring up into my eyes.
He took my hand in his.“Marcus, this is going to be a lot to take in.I didn’t think it was possible that you were… We’ll explain.Marcus, you’re pregnant.”
We stared at each other.I turned to look at Dom, who was smiling, and Linc, who’d stopped right in the middle of pacing.
I tried to laugh, but they were pretty good actors, keeping their faces this straight.
“Guys, that’s funny!Is this like hazing?Or is it code for something?Oh, is it like a werewolf compliment for, um, you know, bottoming?Ell, you didn’t have to rush back from the hospital just for a prank though.You could’ve texted.Would’ve still been funny.”
He squeezed my hands.“This is no prank, and you are most definitely pregnant.We didn’t even dream it might be relevant, but within the human population, you used to have what we tend to call omegas.We didn’t tell you because there haven’t been any for a good century now.”
“Am I supposed to pretend this is serious?We should go back to playing Twister.The rules were a lot easier.But okay, I’m following along.We have alphas, betas, and omegas, and the rest of the Greek alphabet just feels left out by werewolf nomenclature, I assume.”
Ell rubbed my fingers.I barely even noticed that he was still naked.“This is real.It’s also serious.Omegas were all male, all human, and all unable to shift.The last one anyone heard of was an omega in Spain with an alpha wife.Our generation and even our parents’ generation never even met anyone who met one, that’s how rare it was to find an omega.But maybe we were wrong to assume there were none left out there at all.”
Linc started pacing again.“You wouldn’t know unless one ran into a werewolf.Or decided to go on a hike and took a tumble in our woods.This is…this is unexpected.”
