Page 6 of Alpha Talk

The whole first year after our girls were born, I hoarded large pallets of canned food and dried meats and fruits. I hoarded blankets, buying more than they could ever use. I hoarded everything I thought they might need some day in case those days came back. In case even money couldn’t fill our stomachs again.

“We can---”

“Let’s go to the healer,” I said before he finished his sentence. “I know we can lead the support group. Let Silas do it. It’ll be good for him and his empty den.” I manage a smile for Micah. I was too raw from memories of my first pregnancy to dive into anyone else’s trauma today. Under different circumstances, I wouldn’t even leave the house. I’d drag Micah into the bedroom and keep him there all day: romping or not.

“We could do that and go to the healer tomorrow,” Micah grinned at me. “I’m sure Clyde will squeeze us in whenever is good for us.”

“I know he will,” I nodded. “He’s a good guy.”

“Hell, I’ll call Barry and remind him of when he cut off my hand and say he needs to come out here,” Micah laughed.

“Don’t,” I whispered. “Xenos is pregnant again too. About to have his baby. Don’t do that to them. We live with it every day. Don’t drag them back into the past too. It’s ours.”

“Our curse and blessing,” Micah said, squeezing my hands again.

I moved onto his lap, straddling him. His chair was larger than average and custom made just for this reason. Almost every seat in the house was wide and sturdy enough to hold us in this fashion. My knees fit with extra room on either side of him without biting into the edges of the chair.

“We’re okay,” I whispered. “We’re safe.”

“And sound,” Micah whispered back and pressed his lips to mine. “We can do this. We’ve raised enough kids. A few months of the hard part and then we have our pup. Harder for you than me, I know,” he added the last part before I could say anything. “I’ll be here, though. Whenever you need to stop working, I’ll stop too. Or I’ll stop first and go to work with you.”

We sat there with our foreheads pressed together, blocking out the world for a long time. There was something about his scent that still smelled like home. Wherever he was, I wanted to be. We didn’t move until our hearts slowed down and synced up and whatever mechanism of the true-mate magic that allowed our nervous systems to co-regulate did its job.

Chapter Four

Micah

I hated going anywhere near a healer almost as much as my mate did. More than once, I had whacked Clyde with my stump when he asked to see it. I’d taken care of it myself for years without letting any more of it fall off. It was a good thing that Clyde grew up with bigger assholes than me and learned to duck. It was more wrestling around than anything, but some healers wouldn’t have taken it so well. Usually, if we weren’t close to healers who already knew my history, I wouldn’t go in as a patient. I didn’t like it when Cody did either.

I trusted Clyde. He wasn’t going to eat anyone unless they fucked around with his mate, Ashley, or their kids. Cody trusted him too, but I knew everything to do with pregnancy set off bits of his anxiety. It was a mine field we would have to navigate again.

Clyde had his own practice now and we preferred to see him there. It was less busy than the hospital with fewer people to snap our photos and post online that they spotted the ‘asshole’ Grim Howler. As soon as we were inside the room, Cody stripped down and pulled on the hospital robe as if he might change his mind if he didn’t do it in a hurry. I guarded the door out of habit.

Not long after our girls were born someone tried to snap photos of him in the changing rooms at a department store. That was one of the times I probably should’ve been locked up somewhere. I busted out three of the journalist’s teeth with his own camera phone.

“Don’t beat Clyde up with his magic wand,” Cody teased me as he hopped up onto the examination table. He stretched outon his back and I fussed with his robe to ensure his dick wasn’t peeking out.

“He’s gonna see it all anyway if he’s forgotten how it looks,” Cody teased.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked him, entwining my fingers through his.

“I am. I’m not afraid of this part. This part only goes one way. We see the jellybean and then Clyde tells me how much trouble we’re in for,” he said. “Then we go home and face the trouble.”

“It’s not gonna be all trouble,” I said and ran my fingers of my freehand through his hair. “Not entirely.”

“I know,” Cody said.

“You smell calmer than I expected,” I observed.

“It’s you. Coregulating works. That research isn’t faulty. It’s why The Cuddle Club works and why our exercises at Dark Soul work. True-mates, best friends, siblings sometimes. Anyone with deep connections – coregulation works. It’s as if we can do the work for each other but not ourselves. Or maybe it’s easier to be calm when our ‘person’ is calm.”

“Knock knock,” Clyde said from the other side of the door before it swung open.

“On a scale of one to ten how bitey is he today, Cody?” Clyde said in lieu of hello.

Everyone said Clyde was a raging dickhead before he met his true-mate. That he raised hell and harassed omegas at Hemlock Academy. I didn’t know him back then. I met him right as the war began to groan and grumble. He’d never been anything except a pain in the ass who loved his mate and kids and tolerated most of the rest of us.

“Eh, three probably. Though, more likely to bite me than you,” Cody smirked.

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