Page 40 of Briggs
Yes, he was a doctor and saw his patients naked. And yes, I was a shifter. But he was my boss, and that made it weird for me. And for whatever reason, he was acting like a concerned parent when it came to me lately. I couldn’t figure that out. I knew that Dr. King absolutely loved how efficient Cecil had been when it came to running his clinic, but Cecil simply wasn’t coming back. He had twins to take care of, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he and Warwick ended up having more children.
I shook my head. I was going to have a baby with my own mate. I smiled at that before taking another drink of my tea. I looked around the gorgeous bedroom that was now ours. I couldn’t believe how big it was. I had thought that Briggs’s bedroom at his other place was large, but this one was massive. There was enough room for an entire couch or a pair of chairs.There was a fireplace and an enormous walk-in closet. And the bathroom. I honestly could spend forever in there. Seriously.
Not that the place I’d been living in was terrible. It was anything but. It was drastically smaller though. But it was built with single omegas in mind. We tended to be smaller overall, and, well, these houses were designed for alphas and their families. Growing families at that. Our house had four bedrooms! That meant we could have three kids without them having to share a room.
The thing about shifter children though. They tended to not care if there were several of them in the same room. They just were built different. But we already knew we were going to use the bedroom on the right when you left the main bedroom for the nursery. It was closest, not that any baby would be in there for months yet. No, we would need to get one of those bedside things so our baby could be in here with us. It was just easier, and it wasn’t as if there wasn’t room.
I drank more tea and realized that there was only one more swallow left. I downed the rest and set the mug on the nightstand. I wasn’t sure what else to do. Maybe get up and get dressed? Briggs had been wearing shorts still as well. Should I take him a shirt, at least? We had planned on going for a run this morning, but if I was pregnant, could I still shift?
With that thought in mind, I reached out to my cheetah to see if he would come out, only to find him curled up and napping. It was so unlike him to ignore me. He’d always been there for me, watching over and protecting me when I couldn’t do that for us. But now? Nothing. The diva that he’d apparently become was sleeping as if there was nothing else to do.
Fine. I was going to ignore him in return. If he couldn’t be bothered to come out when I wanted him to, I would just plan my day without involving him. That meant we couldn’t go for a run together though. Briggs still could, but I would have to stayhere, or I’d slow him down as he walked beside me in this form. Wasn’t that just depressing for him?
I had just swung my legs over the side of the bed when I heard Briggs in the hallway. He suddenly appeared in the doorway, carrying a tray full of stuff. We didn’t have trays as far as I knew.
“What’s all of that?”
“Breakfast? You said you wanted cereal, but I know for a fact you wanted donuts. Well, thanks to your boss, you have donuts. He said they’re perfectly fine if that’s what you can keep down. And he knows you often grab some on your way to work. There are also some muffins, blueberry as well as cranberry orange.” My stomach started growling. “There’s more tea, but this is just regular tea, because it’s easier on your stomach than coffee, and juice.” Briggs stood in front of me. “Sit back on the bed, and I’ll place the tray over your lap.”
I had no idea what was going on but did what I was told. When I did, Briggs held out the tray. I took it while he reached under and pulled down legs. If that wasn’t slick, I didn’t know what was. “When did we get trays? And where?”
Briggs chuckled. “Courtesy of Dr. King. He said they will be incredibly handy when serving you meals, either here in bed or on the couch.”
“And I assume he’s the reason we have donuts and muffins too?”
“Yep.” Briggs helped me place the tray on the bed over me, and I took a deep breath.
“I can’t believe this smells so wonderful. It’s just…well, not healthy food.”
“It’s not as terrible for us as it would be for a human. But Dr. King said right now, eat what you can. If you woke up sick, then whatever it was that you felt like eating and could keep down, go for it.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I’ve heard him tell others that more times than I can count.” I offered Briggs a blueberry muffin. I knew he liked them over the cranberry orange one. “Muffin?”
“I won’t take your food from you.”
I shook my head. “There are six donuts here, two muffins of each flavor, a bowl of fruit, another of yogurt, and juice and tea. Sure, if I hadn’t just thrown up absolutely nothing, I could probably eat all of this, but right now, I’m not so sure.” I wiggled the muffin toward my mate. “Besides, there is a second muffin here for me.” I knew there was no way I would want to eat everything here. Two weeks ago? Absolutely. This morning? I’d be happy if I was able to get down a donut and some of the fruit, but I wasn’t going to say that before at least trying.
“Are you sure? I can go get my own breakfast.”
“Yeah, but you have a coffee here, and you should really have some donuts and a muffin or two with your coffee.”
Briggs sat on the edge of the bed until I pulled my legs up and crossed them in front of me. When I did, he sat in front of me the same way and stared at me. “How are you feeling?”
“Better now that I drank the tea. What did Dr. King tell you?”
“He said you would already know most things since you heard it many times at the clinic, but he gave me some pointers on how to take care of you. Small meals, anything you want at the moment, and make sure you rest.”
I sighed as I set the donut back down. “We’re not going to be able to go for our run,” I told him. When I looked back at my mate, he was blurry. I quickly swiped at my eyes. I had seen it before, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled to realize that I was most likely going to be an emotional mess while pregnant. Lovely. Briggs had to deal with not only a sick omega mate, but one that cried all of the time too.
“We don’t have to go for runs,” Briggs said. “If you’re feeling up for it, we can go for a walk around the neighborhood. Raidenlives two doors down, and although he’s probably at work, I know he and his mate would love to meet you at some point. His brother lives right next door, and although I haven’t worked as closely with Ramsey, he and his mate just had another baby a couple weeks ago. They’re probably not going to be up for company anytime soon.”
“Really? I guess I didn’t realize that Ramsey and Phineas lived so close. I remember them coming in for their appointments. Phineas was really sick, but it was because he was carrying a gargoyle baby. He looked so miserable before Dr. King started making house calls to care for him.”
Briggs held up a donut, and I took a bite. “Yeah, from what I heard, Ramsey was a complete mess because of what happened to Raiden’s mate when he was carrying a gargoyle baby. I guess they’re extremely difficult to carry, and with Phineas being a fox shifter, his gestation was short, and the pregnancy was super hard.”
I nodded while chewing. I would have to agree with that. I tried to remember all of the pregnant omegas and not-pregnant-yet omegas when they came into the clinic. But yeah, Phineas stood out. Maybe because he was so recently pregnant? Or perhaps it was because he was so tiny when compared to his giant of a mate. I wasn’t sure. But I definitely remembered Phineas.
Briggs held out the donut again, and I took another bite. It was absolutely delicious and had a touch of cinnamon in it. They were perfectly soft and squishy and just melted in your mouth. I didn’t know that the bakery could make donuts like this, but then again, Briggs had said they came from Dr. King. Maybe they were one hundred percent his doing?
