Page 62 of Breeding Clinic

“Okay.” Inside, I’m panicking. On the outside, I try to hide it by staying busy. I pull the serving dishes down from the cabinet. “Why don’t you set the table? Dinner is almost done. They should be up soon.”

Kat grabs the stack of dishes from the cabinet and carries them out to the dinner table. I plate our food. Gabriel and Liam come upstairs with perfect timing. They see Kat and both greet her with a kiss.

Once we’re all seated, I can’t bring myself to eat. Neither can Kat. She moves her food around on her plate. Liam watches, paying attention to those small details like he always does. Typical alpha, perfectly in tune with the dynamics of his pack. He sees the strain, and gives me a questioning look. I shrug in response, stabbing my fork into a roasted carrot. I don’t know what the problem is or how to fix it. When she doesn’t really listen to Gabriel’s funny story from work, Gabriel finally notices something is amiss.

Kat puts her fork down and the room gets quiet. “This is awkward and I don’t know how to bring it up so I’m just going to say it.”

Shit. She doesn’t want to do this anymore.

The thought terrifies me. And not just because she’s carrying our baby. But because I like her. I never thought our pack needed an omega until I saw how perfectly she slotted into place. I like that her presence gives me an excuse to cook more.To try new recipes. I like watching movies with her. Picking out a new book for us to buddy read. Hearing her laugh at Gabriel’s stories. Watching the three of them play together.

“I found a house,” she says. “It’s a little more of a commute for you guys, and it’s old but it’s been updated. It’s on septic and well water, that’s something I’ve never dealt with before, and the roof needs to be looked at, but the kitchen is amazing. You’d love it, Matthew. The basement has lots of room for hobbies and storage. It has five bedrooms, two baths, and there’s a tree with a swing out front. I think it would be perfect for us.”

I blink, too surprised to really understand what she’s saying. “You found us a house?” Were we house shopping? I glance at the others who are also as surprised as I am. I guess we weren’t house shopping.

Her eyes flick between us, gauging our reactions. “I know we’re not an official pack yet, but I worry about how long it’ll last on the market. I want to show it to you guys and make an offer.”

Liam puts his fork down and frowns. “You want to buy a house?”

“Yeah. We’ll need the room for all those kids.” She pulls out her phone and taps on it, then hands it to him.

“Does that mean we can get a dog?” Gabriel asks.

Liam flips through the photos of the house. “It’s a beautiful house,” Liam says. “But we can’t afford it.”

Liam hands the phone to me. My eyebrows rise at the price. He’s not kidding. It’s on the market for almost a million dollars. Even if we put up the bar and her house as collateral, we wouldn’t be able to get a mortgage. Not without raiding our retirement funds. It really is a beautiful house, though. I can see why she likes it. And the kitchen makes my heart ache to walk away from it. It’s enormous with an industrialsize fridge and a double oven that would make holidays a breeze.

I pass the phone to Gabriel, who looks at the listing and nods. “It’s very nice.”

“So here’s the thing…” she says, fidgeting with her hair. “I can.”

“You can what?” Gabriel asks, handing her phone back to her.

“I can afford it,” she says. “But I asked my lawyer to draft a pre-pack agreement first. I don’t want to make an offer without that.”

“You can afford it,” Liam repeats to her, his eyebrows drawn together.

“Yes. My settlement from my pack dissolution was generous. The money made me sick. I bought my house and let the rest sit in the bank. Never looked at it again. My books do well and they make enough for me to live off. So it’s all sat collecting interest.”

So that’s why she wants me to reach out to my cousin. The one who doesfamilylaw. Relief hits me. “I can ask Ryan to look it over. And I can ask my uncle about the real estate deal. If he can’t help us, I’m sure he can recommend someone who can.”

“Thank you,” she says, smiling once more.

“So I can pick out a dog, right?” Gabriel asks. “I’d like one to go running with.”

We all look at Liam, who’s still processing. “We haven’t even seen this house yet.”

“I drove by today,” she says. “The outside looks exactly like the photos. I can find a real estate agent and get us an appointment so we can see the inside. If that’s… what you want.” She stabs a carrot with her fork and fiddles with it. “Is that what you want?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Liam asks, frowning.

Kat shrugs. “I don’t know. I wasn’t part of your original plan. You might not want to move, or…”

“No, you weren’t part of our plan.”

Kat deflates, her shoulders rounding. She sets the carrot down on her plate and wipes her fingertips on her napkin. Then she stares at her plate. “Right.”

Liam reaches over and takes her hand from her lap, squeezing it. “You’re so much better than any plan I could have come up with, kitten.”

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