Page 43 of His Prodigal Alpha

I don’t know why, but that was the moment something seemed to click for me.

Maybe it was his patience. Maybe it was his lack of expectations. Maybe his empathy. Maybe just the fact that we could have a silly conversation about an old TV show without having to talk through justifications of our opinions.

Whatever it was, I was a goner for him.

But that thought was a double-edged sword, because he was so warm and sweet, and I was…not. I kept my cards close to my chest. I was prickly and moody. I was so terrified of giving anyone control over my heart —of letting them hurt me— that I’d built a wall of snark and sass around myself.

Rex could do so much better than me.

And yet I was selfish and I had fallen hard for him.

When I started yawning, Rex clicked the little red power button on the remote and then helped me off the couch. I waddled into the bathroom to pee for the twelfth time since we’d first sat down, and after washing my hands and brushing my teeth, Rex switched out with me.

“I wish the bathroom was bigger,” I grumbled, passing him the toothbrush that now had a permanent spot next to mine in the cup next to the sink.

Rex hesitated before he said, “The one in my cottage will be.”

We hadn’t really discussed the future beyond agreeing that he’d set up his second bedroom as a room for our son — an acknowledgment that he’d be sharing custody more than anything else. But there was a weight to his words now that I heard loud and clear. He wanted me sharing his bathroom. He wanted me sharing his home.

Deep down, I wanted that, too.

I couldn’t deny that, as things stood, Rex had all but moved in with me. Even though he didn’t always spend the night, he would come over after work to either take me out for a date or, if I was too tired, he’d spoil and pamper me in my apartment. He would even cuddle me to sleep on the nights we didn’t have sex, and then he’d let himself out.

I was getting used to his constant presence. Relying on it, even.

I liked it. A lot. And so did my puma.

Having his scent permeating my home was comforting in ways I couldn’t quite explain. Waking up without him was easier to bear when I could scent him in my sheets or on the couch. Ollie told me that those feelings would only intensify after I gave birth, because there would be some primal need to have my mate protecting our cub at my side.

However, even for all of that, we hadn’t even been dating for a full month. Things had obviously been accelerated courtesy of the baby in my belly, but I’d only really just started to enjoy my independence from my old pack once I got to Shifters Sanctuary, with the preceding months spent full of anxious energy as I tried to make my way here.

Even if ninety-nine percent of me screamed “Yes!” to the idea of moving in with Rex, there was still that tiny sliver of doubt telling me I needed to slow my roll.

A baby did not mean we had to live together, no matter how convenient having someone to share the load with seemed. Even if my puma demanded that I nest with my alpha, my human brain said it was too soon. Or maybe that was my fear talking.

Rex held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender andoffered me an easy, lopsided grin. He also gave me the out I was looking for, saying, “Just for those nights you come to my place, I mean. Once it’s properly livable, we can alternate runnin’ up the utility bills between both our homes.”

He didn’t seem hurt or disappointed that I’d quite obviously hesitated over his real meaning, and I kicked myself for worrying that he might. Over and over, he assured me that he would take things at whatever pace I needed, and yet I always got all up in my head about how to let him down gently.

I knew that was a carryover from the way I’d been raised, but I still hated that I did it. I trusted Rex. I had fallen for Rex. I wanted him to know those things. I didn’t want him to think he needed to always walk on eggshells around me.

I wanted to give him a reason to stay with me. Not with our kid, but withme.

Meeting him halfway, I bit my lip and replied, “It will be nice to not feel like I’m sleeping in the living room and kitchen every so often.”

My studio apartment had its pros and cons, after all. I liked it because it was the first place that had ever been my own space, not governed by anyone else, but it was tiny, and I knew it wouldn’t work in the long run. Not once the baby got too big for his bassinet. But those were future problems.

“Less convenient for midnight snacking, though,” he said thoughtfully, but then he shrugged and added, “but I’ll be happy to walk down the hallway and get snacks for you anyway.”

And there went my heart again, beating rapidly inside my chest.

I wassucha goner for him.

* **

“So…” Ollie’s tone was suggestive as he sat on the edge of my desk in Eric and Brandt’s clinic. He waggled his eyebrows and leaned forward for privacy, though there weren’t any people in the waiting room at that moment, not that it would have made a difference with shifter hearing anyway, “tell me: how’s Rex with rope? Inquiring minds want to know.”

I blinked at him from where I was trying to make sense of the note Brandt had left for me. Did that say Mrs. Peterson wanted an appointment for Thursday? Or was it his lunch order? Pepperoni on rye, maybe?

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