Page 39 of Rogue If You Want To
Otto was the final performer, and he read a poem he’d written. He spoke of him and me, both of us lost and finding one another. His words spoke of fear, pain, and the betrayal of his family. I couldn’t stop the tears, and I huddled at the back so my sobs wouldn’t detract from what my mate was saying.
My mate ended with a line about found family. He didn’t stay on stage as people stood and clapped but headed to me and fell into my arms.
“I love you so much, and you were so brave to reveal your pain.”
“Love you too.” He rested his head on my chest, the bump between us rubbing on my belly.
Creven thanked Otto for all his hard work, all the performers, and the people who helped put the show together. Otto and I slipped outside and strolled to the stream.
We removed our shoes and dangled our feet in the water.
“We found our place, Otto.”
He patted my chest, and I put a hand over his heart. “We sure did.”
22
OTTO
Was I the size of a house? No, not even close. Did I feel like I was? A thousand percent.
I was at the point in this pregnancy where I didn’t even bother trying to get pants up over my belly. Doing so only left me feeling crappy about myself, and when I did succeed, it was uncomfortable. And my shirt? There was not a chance in this world of getting it to come down low enough to reach my pants waistband. It wasn’t happening.
It was safe to say that I looked absolutely ridiculous with my belly hanging out over my pants, my shirt so short that you just saw my lower baby bump, but not low enough to be a crop top and a fashion choice. Nope. I looked ridiculous.
The thing was, you’d never know how ludicrous I looked by hearing my mate’s words. He constantly told me how sexy I was, kissing my belly, nipping at my mating mark. And at first I thought he was being nice, knowing that it was frustrating me, trying to make me feel good. But then I overheard him tell Creven about how lucky he was to have such a hot mate.
It wasn’t unusual for my mate to talk about my looks or about being lucky with me, but with other people? Yeah, that was new.
He thanked the goddess openly for us coming together, never bragging about my looks. I assumed it was the same reason I didn’t brag about his—I didn’t want other people checking out my mate. This time was different, and I felt guilty overhearing it, especially when Creven responded with, “Tell me about it. When my mate was about to have Oak… I couldn’t keep my hands…”
I walked away so fast, not wanting to get caught overhearing. But that stuck with me, and it got me through the past week when I could no longer even pull my shirt down where I wanted it.
“I need you,” I called to Torin who was working in the kitchen.
He’d picked up some wire attachments to put in the cupboard after I dropped the onion powder for the fifty billionth time. They were designed to hold the spices and make them easier to access, and I was overly excited about them. Adult life was interesting like that… the mundane becomes the thrill.
Torin was so sexy when he was doing things around the house, and I could watch him all day… except I needed to pee.
“What is it?” He was already there, not wasting a single second.
“I want to get up out of my chair, and this is embarrassing, but?—”
“I got you, mate.” He helped me up, and most importantly, kept my balance. It wasn’t the getting up and down that was especially difficult. It was staying up once I was upright, my center of gravity so different from day to day.
“I need to use the bathroom.”
“And then… maybe cinnamon rolls?” He knew me so well. At first, I used to think he was the one who loved them best, but now I was pretty sure we were tied in our admiration.
A few minutes later, we were going into town. It was still a lot to get used to, being around humans so much and not staying hidden on pack lands, in my old sheltered world. Although I suppose sheltered indicated protected, and I wasn’t protected there. Isolated world was probably the more accurate description. In any case, I was liking this new freedom of mine a lot.
There weren’t a ton of shifters I interacted with when I came to town, but there were some, and they always treated us well, not like we didn’t belong or that we were somehow on their turf. I knew there were some alphas around that weren’t the most welcoming, but that hadn’t been my experience yet.
“I can smell them already.” The door to the vehicle was barely cracked open, and the scent of cinnamon goodness wafted in.
“Stay there, mate. Let me come around and help you out.”
There had been a time when I’d have argued that I didn’t need help getting out. I gave up on that when I started to admit that I needed assistance to get out of my stupid chair.
