Page 33 of His Prodigal Alpha

I didn’t need to ask him which night, though just the thought of it had my arousal flaring again.

I refused to let every encounter with Rex devolve into sex.We’d never form a proper relationship if all we ever did was fall into bed together. Not that we had the last time either, mind you, but I’d wanted to.

I still wanted to.

Clearing my throat, I nodded. “That makes sense. You’ve always been a shifter, but that side of you was locked away for whatever stupid mystical reason.”

Rex chuckled. “I’m coming to terms with that, yeah.” He pushed to his feet and reached for my empty plate, gesturing for me to stay seated when I awkwardly fumbled an attempt to get up. “Stay. I got this.” He grinned, then jutted his chin at the bump housing our son. “Do you have any room left in there for dessert?”

I perked up, everything else forgotten at the mention of sweet treats. “Always.”

Twisting in my seat, I watched Rex carefully place our plates in the sink before he rummaged through the fridge, pulling out a foil-covered Pyrex dish. He slid it into the oven, which I assumed he’d been pre-heating while we ate, and then he crossed the room and sat back down beside me.

“It’ll be about twenty minutes or so, depending on how well that clunker of an oven works,” he informed me.

“Whatcha makin’?” I asked, snuggling into his side when he lifted his arm in invitation.

“It’s a self-saucing chocolate pudding,” his answer had me moaning obscenely, and he chuckled.

“With vanilla bean ice cream?”

“Uh-huh.”

Salivating at the mere thought, I blurted, “Marry me.”

Thankfully, Rex laughed and rubbed my upper arm affectionately. “They do say a way to a man’s heart is throughhis stomach.” He looked down at my belly and smirked. “Apparently, I’m taking a two-pronged approach to that theory.”

The joke startled a laugh out of me and I rubbed at my stomach. “We’re joking about this now?”

He shrugged and offered me a sheepish smile. “Humor helps me process, I guess.”

Well, I could definitely relate to that. Grinning up at him, I said, “Me too.”

It was nice to have something like that in common, and I had a feeling it would help us to deal with issues in the long run, too. If we both relied on humor as a coping mechanism, at least we’d understand the best way to communicate with each other through difficult conversations. Humor usually helped to diffuse tension, as well, so he got bonus points for that.

I wondered what other things we had in common. If I was running with Ollie and Eric’s theory that we were fated mates, then it would make sense that our fundamental beliefs and behaviors would complement one another, right?

“Tell me more about you,” Rex said. “Obviously, I know the basics now. But…I want to know all the little things, too. Like…how old were you when you had your first kiss? When did you learn to ride a bike? Are you a cat person or a dog person?”

I leaned away from him so I could arch an eyebrow, and he facepalmed.

“Alright,” he conceded, “that was a dumb question.”

“You never know. I could be one of those hipster cat shifters who says they’re a dog person just to beedgyandunique.”

Rex blinked back at me. “Do those even exist?”

“People are people, no matter our species,” I shrugged. “But no. I’m definitely a cat person.” Frowning, I asked, “Are you a dog person?”

“I like all animals. Raised on a farm, remember?”

“Well, yeah, but…did you feel an affinity for cats growing up? Because I always have.” I always put it down to being a big cat inside, but what if being a shifter really didn’t make any difference after all? Or maybe, because his true nature had been locked away all his life, things were different for him.

“…no more than any other animal,” he replied after seemingly giving it some serious thought. “Even now, I don’t really prefer cats over dogs.”

I let out a scandalized gasp and clutched at imaginary pearls. “You heathen!” I accused, laughing when the hand that had been rubbing my bicep dropped to my waist and tickled me in retribution. “Stop!” I complained through giggles. “Your kid is on my bladder! I’ll pee!”

That was not an idle threat. I’d had more than one close call in recent weeks. Ollie confirmed it was only going to get worse as I got bigger, too.

---