Page 16 of A Baby for the Beast
I grab some clothing and head for the bathroom, not answering him until I get the bathroom door closed behind me. He's followed me, his hand making a soft thud as he presses it to his side of the door.
"Hayley, I don't know what I did wrong, and I kind of need you to tell me so I can fix it. If I don't, Remus is going to go all fight club on us when we're alone."
"Thank you for bringing me home," I say through the door.
I'm unsurprised when his growl starts vibrating through the apartment. This is why I needed to get to the bathroom and have a door separating us. Lucas is strong enough to beat it down if he wanted to, but he doesn't seem like the type.
"Omega," he warns, but I keep speaking because I need him to know this isn't going to work out between us.
"I know you think you scent matched me, or you're just saying that to use me against Kyle somehow. It doesn't matter. But what does matter is my child, and I'm not getting wrapped up in unnecessary drama. Not anymore."
"Hayley, please, we can talk this out," Lucas says, his growl fading, his tone losing any hint of command and turning more into despair.
"We don't need to," I tell him. "I need you to leave."
"Hayley," Remus comes out for a second, but when he speaks again, it's Lucas. "We'll go, but when you need us, please call or text. We'll be there."
"Okay," I say, the word barely a whisper.
Lucas doesn't say anything else, but I can hear his labored breathing on the other side of the door. We stand like that, each of us on our own sides, until he finally steps away.
I strain, listening to the sound of rustling fabric and footsteps through the apartment. It isn't until I hear the front door click shut that I take a deep breath, look myself in the mirror, and tell myself I did the right thing. Even if it feels like it was so completely wrong.
7
Lucas
The Carters are the type of family that seems almost too good to be true. Not only are all three siblings best friends with one another and their partners, but they also make everyone they invite into their family feel welcome and loved. Usually, I enjoy family dinners on Tuesdays with them, but this Tuesday is making me want to throw hands.
I planned on telling Henry I wasn't going to make it this week, but he showed up at my apartment with Jace and Sarah in tow, telling me they weren't going to let me sulk in my own misery any longer. It either escaped all of them that I was cleaned, dressed, and on my way out of the apartment when they showed up, or they knew what I was about to do. The same thing I've been doing for the last twenty days since Hayley told me to leave.
Fuck dinner. Go find our mate. I want to watch her again tonight.
Of course, I'm all on board with Remus's plan. We've been spending most of our days in our car, outside of Hayley's apartment, and our evenings have been spent watching the bar she works at to make sure no one gives her a hard time. No one has, yet.
She works at a bar called Night Owls, and as much as I would love for it to be some skeevy place I can swoop in and save her from, it's just a sports bar that caters to mostly alphas. Some of them will try to hit on her until she turns around, and then they're suddenly uninterested. Idiots. Whatever, it's for the best because if someone were interested, Remus might have to kill them.
My training hasn't taken a backseat even though Remus and I would both love for it to. No, we've been showing up to practice, lifting, and sparring sessions. I'm pretty sure that Hayley might be willing to give me another chance after the fight with Kyle is over, and that's what keeps me going.
If she can see I still want her when there's no ulterior motive, maybe she'll believe me. She'll have her daughter by then, so she might be hesitant to let a stranger into her life, but we can be patient. We've been patient this whole time.
We're going to drop into a fucking rut soon if we don't get her.
Then you can fuck a toy like you do every time we do.
I don't want a toy. I want my mate.
"You okay?" Henry asks, leaning over so he can ask me quietly as if the whole table isn't looking at us, because Remus and I were growling up a storm, talking with one another.
I've been in my head thinking about Hayley since we left the apartment, and we've been giving off 'leave us alone' vibes, so everyone has done just that. Sure, it's kind of rude to be the raincloud amongst a group of perfectly happy people all chatting about work and what's happened in the last week since the last family dinner.
No one forced us to come the last two weeks, which is good because Remus was a little feral at the time while we were learning Hayley's normal schedule. It didn't help that last Tuesday she went to the hospital, and we thought something was wrong with her or the baby.
We called Lilah, technically Henry's sister-in-law, but again, the Carters accept everyone as family, so she might as well be mine, too. She's a nurse at an omega clinic, and while I could hear the eyeroll she was giving me through the phone, she also calmed Remus and me down when she told us it was probably a routine appointment for the baby since there's a good obstetrician's office in the hospital.
"We're good," I say, offering a small smile around the table. And because I don't want all the attention on just myself, I turn to Henry. "Have you both decided on a date to get married?"
Henry snorts and shakes his head. "Wow, you weren't paying attention to anything, were you?"
