Page 25 of His Prodigal Alpha

Eventually, Damon started to drift off to sleep in my embrace.

“I’m gonna go,” I told him, ignoring the voice at the back of my head which demanded I stay and snuggle with him all night long. “But,” I picked his phone up from where it sat on the lone bedside table and passed it to him, “unlock it so I can put my number in. Just in case you need anything. And I meananything. You wake up at some ungodly hour craving pickles and ice cream, and I’ll bring ’em.”

“You’ve changed your tune pretty quickly, haven’t you?” he asked, his voice slurred with sleep, unlocking his phone and handing it to me as requested. “It’s okay. You can still be freaked out. It took me a while to,” he paused to yawn, blinkingrapidly, “to, um, to get used to the idea.”

“I’m sure I’ll go back to panicking when I’m alone again,” I admitted lightly, “but it doesn’t change the fact that this is happening. You’re…you’re pregnant,” I swallowed roughly and forced myself to continue, “with my kid. I wanna take care of you. Both of you.”

“You’re sweet,” he yawned again, closing his eyes.

“Looks like I’m not the only one changin’ his tune quickly, hmm?” I mused, more to myself than to him. He made a vague, muffled sound of agreement and rolled onto his side, facing the window with his back to me. Once again, I had to fight the urge to crawl back into bed beside him and spoon against him like I had just been doing for God-only-knew how long.

Be patient, I told myself,it’ll come.

It was a pity that I’d never really been good at being patient.

Setting Damon’s phone back down on his bedside table, I pulled his blankets up over him and then made my way to the door, twisting the lock on the handle before I shut it behind me. I tested that it was locked properly before I made my way down the hallway and the narrow flight of stairs which led to the ground floor.

Leaving the building, I just about had a heart attack when the shadows moved and spoke in a low, dry voice, “Well, it didn’t take you long to patch things up, did it?”

Clutching my chest, I glared into the darkness, Beck’s shape coming into focus as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been sittin’ out here for the past couple of hours. That’s creepy, man.”

He chuckled and stepped forward, shaking his head. “I promised Ollie I’d check up on Damon. He’s new to the pack, but he’s one of us now. And with his condition…”

I bristled at the idea of someone else watching out for my pregnant mate, then did a double take at my own inner monologue.Mate?I wondered, concerned at how natural the word felt when, even as late as this morning, I never would have thought it part of my vocabulary.Mine?

I’d been in this tiny town for less than twenty-four hours and I was being confronted by more shifter instincts than I had in the six months I’d spent avoiding even thinking about what I really was deep down inside.

“He’s fine,” I replied gruffly, trying to be grateful that my…no, thatDamonhad someone else looking out for him. “He’s sleeping.”

Beck nodded, seemingly unruffled by my curt response. “Ollie slept a lot, too. Growing whole other people inside them takes a lot of energy.”

I didn’t know what else to say other than, “Mmhmm.”

Beck’s lips twitched and he observed me knowingly, tilting his head to the side. Instead of asking any probing questions about my feelings on the insanity of the day’s events, or even about my intentions with Damon, he asked, “Wanna try shifting?”

“Uh…”

“I just figured it might be easier for you without an audience.”

His statement reminded me that he had been in my shoes not all that long ago. Even though he seemed so at ease with being a part of this strange new world, there had been a time where it had been new to him, too.

Nevertheless, I shook my head, ignoring the voice inside me that begged to try. Some part of me felt trapped, restrained, inhibited. I was terrified of what releasing it might mean for me. Would I lose the sense of who I was? Would I becomemore animal than man? Where did the line between the two beings begin and end?

“Can we talk?” I asked instead. “About when all of this happened to you? I just…” I paused, licking my lips as I considered my phrasing carefully. “I just need some answers. Reassurance, even. I know that you’re happy with Ollie and you seem settled into life as a shifter, but…”

“It’s scary,” Beck finished kindly. “I get it. Not to mention, I had nine months of lead-up before the kids were born. You’re only getting three or four.”

“Yeah…” Panic, which had receded while I was in a happy, relaxed bubble with Damon, made my heart thump wildly. It had been so easy to get lost in a fantasy of domestic bliss when I’d been in Damon’s bed, locked away from the outside world. But now, reality was setting back in.

It was like my brain was on a roller coaster, dipping and swerving and doing loop-de-fucking-loops over the subject of my impending fatherhood. I was giving myself whiplash.

The fantasy was all well and good, but in reality? I knew nothing about raising babies. I was a forty-two-year-old perpetually single gay man who had never planned to settle down. I didn’t have a house, let alone a crib or any other baby-related items. I’d never even gotten a dog because it was too much responsibility!

Suddenly, I realized that I would need to organize somewhere to live with the space for a small boy to grow. There would be education to consider, too. Clothing, food, social activities…pets?

Did shifters even bother owning pets when they were able to turn into animals themselves? And, hey, did any of ’em ever moonlight as pets? Like, say, if they werehouse cats or regular dogs?

Fighting the urge to pull out my phone and Google ‘how do I know if my cat is a shifter?’, I got the feeling I was overthinking things. Or maybe I was just trying to distract myself.

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