Page 49 of Fur-Ever Home

"Is it really that bad?" I asked.

"You smell like you've thrown up at least three times today. Is your tummy still upset?"

I didn't even care when he spoke to me like I was a child. I cuddled against him, though I was careful not to wipe my face on his shirt.

In the bathroom, he wetted a paper towel and dabbed at my mouth and cheeks while I scrubbed my hands in the sink. I loved the way he took care of me. It was the same way Pops had looked after me as a child, but I'd hated it then.

"Feel better?" Connor asked.

"Depends. Do I smell better?"

"You smell …" He inhaled deeply and looked alarmed.

"I thought so." He had the same sense of smell the shifter janitor had. He knew. Worse, he didn't want me to be pregnant. This was all too soon.

"Oh my goddess, Ben!" Connor picked me up and knocked the breath from my lungs. Then, he twirled me around until I thought I would be sick again, all the while chanting, "You're pregnant!"

"Put me down!" I tapped at his beefy arms until he relaxed his hold, and I slid back to the floor.

"We're going to have a baby!"

I nodded. "We are."

"Did you tell your boss?"

"I quit."

Connor blinked at me like he didn't know what the word meant.

"He wanted me to fly to Chicago tonight for that worthless conference Brian is attending. I refused to go, and then I got sick at work. This fabulous janitor lady told me I was pregnant, so I … quit."

Pops barged into the bathroom and pulled me from Connor's arms. "That's how the best omegas in our families do it!" His hug wasn't quite as hard as Connor's, but I still gasped for air when he let me go.

"Would you all stop that? I need to breathe for two!" I bent over my knees, and another wave of nausea sent me into the nearest stall.

Afterward, Connor helped me clean up again, and then he escorted me to his office with Pops on our heels. I'd never been to Connor's office before. Even though I had much to discuss with him and Pops, I took a moment to gush over it. "This is really nice! I love the wolf painting behind your desk, and the view! What a great view!" It mostly looked out onto scrub brush beyond the parking lot, the freeway in the near distance, and the mountain range beyond, but at least we could see the mountains through the haze today.

"Thank you." Connor tried to hide his blush with a quick head nod, but I noticed. He'd told me he didn't think he deserved this job or the office, but Pops couldn't stop raving about his performance at our family dinners.

Pops pulled us into another hug once he closed the door behind us. "I'm so proud of both of you."

"You're not mad?" I asked.

"Why would I be mad?"

"I quit my job, just like Dad did."

"That job was a placeholder. You've always been destined to work here."

I growled in frustration. "But I don't want to work here."

"You didn't want anything handed to you," Pops said, "and that's fair. We would have started you at the head of the foreign finance department, and that might have been too much at first, but you would have grown into the position."

I blinked at him. This was the first I'd heard of the job he'd planned to give me. I'd interned with Barclay Foods the summer of my senior year of college and already had a job lined up before I graduated. I'd worked my way up from accounting desk clerk to Finance Manager. Now, something like Foreign Finance Manager sounded like a lateral move, but "Foreign Finance would still be a handout."

"It would be a well-deserved position for the son I put through school," Pops countered. "A son who's been doing similar work for the last five years without a promotion."

What he didn't say spoke louder to me. We both knew the reason I hadn't been promoted. Mr. Danbury was still holding out hope that Brian Avery would become the CFO the company needed, all because Brian Avery had married Ginny Danbury, Mr. Danbury's only child.

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