Page 4 of Alpha Talk

1)Meet true-mate in some epic way. During a battle is the best but any high stress time will do.

2)Fuck as soon as possible. It’s even better if it’s inconvenient for everyone else in your life. This is what it’s all about anyway. Make sure you get your claiming vows and bite them hard to show you’re in charge. If you don’t conceive a baby the first time, you’re probably a failure.

3)Keep having kids until your brain and your house explode.

4)Have more kids.

5)Keep having kids until your door shows up. Never stop. Never breathe and if one of you ever makes a mistake in your relationship it’s the end of the world because you’re prefect for each other with no work needed.

“Alpha?”Cody popped into my thoughts. We didn’t use our mating link a lot during working hours and I usually kept my side of things closed off when I was in a session of any caliber.

“Everything okay, babe?”I asked, glancing around the room before grabbing the broom to sweep. I hated leaving any of the group rooms even slightly untidy. If you let one thing slip on Monday by Friday the whole place looked like a frat house. We had cleaners come in every Sunday morning, but I would hate for them to think we were all pigs.

“Yeah. You just… You went tense there for a minute. Don’t worry. I didn’t hear anything. I just felt you.”

“Coil got a bit close. Thought he wanted to fight but he wanted to ask weird teenager questions,”I chuckled.“This is one I wish I could tell you because you’d laugh. Though, it makes me want to write Wrynn Heart-Hemlock and ask him if he includes some stuff in his Omega Studies curriculum. They use that shit here too. So, either he doesn’t, or Coil slept through that class.”

“Probably the latter,”Cody chuckled.“Want me to come help clean up?”

“If you haven’t eaten yet you can meet me here and we’ll swing by that new little pizza place on Cro---”

“Okay,”Cody said, almost too quick.

“You’ve eaten already, haven’t you?”

“I’m still hungry, though,”he said, and I could almost see him biting his lip.

The broom clashed to the floor, and I almost fell over a chair on my sprint to the door. Cody had struggled to find an appetite for as long as I knew him unless he was pregnant. Some days were better than others but growing up where he had shaped his views on food in ways I’d never fully understand.

“Are you running?”Cody asked over our mating link.

“To you.”

“Stop and get pizza?”he asked, his tone raising an octave.

“Anything for you,”I told him for the millionth time since we met, and I still meant it.

Chapter Three

Cody

We knew most of our friends celebrated the news of pregnancy by practicing to get pregnant next time but we sat on the floor between the sofa and the coffee table with our pizza, sodas, chips, and chocolate bars planning for the future. I ate more than Micah did, which was rare. The last time I did that I was chest feeding the twins. He beamed at me as I chomped into a slice of pizza, taking half of it in a single bite.

“The doctor says I should be fine,” I said after I swallowed, more to remind myself than him. “I was last time after everything was said and done.”

“And the likelihood of it being twins again is slim,” Micah reminded me, pushing a lock of hair behind my ear.

“I know you’re going to hate it, but I’m cutting my hair before our pup is born. No one is playing chimpanzees in the trees with my hair,” I chuckled.

“I’ll miss your hair, but I’ll still have you,” he said and kissed my temple.

“And I don’t want to shut down Alpha Talk and Dark Soul yet,” I reminded him.

“I know. We keep life as normal as possible. We were both stuck inside too much last time around. We’ve already reinforced the porch swing to be a sort of bed if you have to lay up again.”

“You make me sound fat,” I laughed.

“No, I’m just paranoid something will happen to you and the baby. I said it back then and I’ll say it now, I wouldn’t survive in a world where you didn’t exist, Cody. I can live without a lot ofthings and without a lot of people, but you’re not one of them. You’re still my world.”

---