Page 19 of The Alpha: Part Three
When I come back around, I'm sitting beside Seth, purring deeper and louder than I ever have before. I think the purring is actually what pulled me back. Ben is on his back with his knees bent and Desie is perched on him with her knees planted on either side of his hips, resting against his thighs while Seth feeds her small bites of melon.
“She's not out of it yet,” Seth murmurs through his own rolling purr. “But she will be soon.” He smiles and offers me a bite of fruit.
“How long do you think it will take her to notice?” Ben whispers.
Notice... oh. Well, fuck. I guess we did it. I can smell the faint difference in her scent now. It's fuller, deeper, and as her heat fully clears her system those notes are going to become stronger. “I don't know. Are we going to say anything?”
I've always thought it was interesting that an omega's alphas know she's pregnant before she realizes it. Alphas can smell the difference in her scent within hours. Most of the time, the omega isn't completely out of heat before her alphas know, which is the case in our situation.
“That depends on two things,” Seth smiles. “Whether or not she asks me outright, and whether or not Ben can keep his mouth shut.”
~
Ben has kept his mouth shut for two weeks and Desie has yet to ask Seth anything specific that he can't avoid. But she's about to get really curious because I've seen her look more than a little sick on more than a couple occasions and she cannot stand the scent of fried chicken when she's always loved it, or really any kind of chicken. I really don't know how she hasn't realized yet.
I can't wait for her to start showing. I'll miss her heat cycles, I'd be an idiot not to, but she'll have more and we're about to have something so wonderful. Seth, in true Seth fashion, is already worrying. He's worried about the amount of stress the move is going to put on her. He's worried that the change in climate is going to be too much. He's worried that the baby will hate him. He's absolutely terrified that there will somehow be more than one baby, and that he's going to be a horrible father figure. Ben and I keep telling him that the bad shit he's been through is exactly what's going to make him a good dad.
Ben may be keeping his mouth shut, but we can all feel his need to explode. From the moment he wakes up in the morning, his bond is crackling and buzzing with anticipation. We've agreed to let Desie figure it out on her own, but the wait might kill him.
I am patiently waiting for Desie to start putting everything together. She's been kept busy with work and making sure Talia and Luca will be travel ready by the time they're ready to go back to the East Coast. That's another thing making Seth itch. He doesn't want her out of the house. He's tried more than once to convince her to stay home from her shift at the hospital. He's in for a rude awakening. Outside of a legitimate dangerous situation, Desie isn't going to stay in the house because we tell her to. Especially after everything that happened with Flores, and even he made sure she went to work. Seth's ultra-overprotective alpha caution is going to get him into a whole lot of trouble and I'm looking forward to it.
Seth is making dinner tonight. He has somehow turned a squash into spaghetti because he wanted Desie to get some extra vitamins. Talia gave him the recipe, and I should have known something was weird about it when I got a text from Trent advising me to have another plan ready in case Desie didn't care for it. At the time I thought he was just giving Seth's cooking skills a hard time, but now that I'm seeing the process... Well, I'm glad I made sure we have other options on hand.
Desie sits at her place at the table after she changes out of her work clothes and into her ratty-ass pajama pants and one of my tee-shirts. Ben puts the garlic toast on the table, giving the impression that we'll be enjoying normal spaghetti. Seth puts the serving dish in the center of the table and serves Desie before putting anything on any of our plates.
“This smells amazing, Seth,” she hums. “Thank you.” Then she takes a bite. She dutifully chews and swallows, then takes a small drink of water. “Um, this is different.”
“Is it bad?” Seth asks. “It's bad. I'll throw it out. I just thought--”
“I like it,” Ben interrupts, taking a huge mouthful.
Desie takes another small bite and chews it slowly, processing. “Is this made from squash? It feels like squash.” I can't tell if it feeling like squash is going to make her sick or not.
Seth nods. “Is it horrible? Don't eat it.”
“No, it's not bad,” Desie says, still chewing. Then she gently puts down her fork and makes a run for the bathroom.
“Fuck,” Seth hisses.
Ben laughs and keeps shoveling the squash spaghetti into his endless cavern of a mouth. “It's good. I think I might like a cream sauce next time. And black olives. Maybe ham or bacon.”
“Shut up, Benjamin!” Desie yells from down the hall. Ben keeps laughing, but he doesn't voice any more suggestions.
“Fuck,” Seth mutters again.
The toilet flushes and the sound of aggressive teeth brushing filters down the hall before Desie makes a pale return to the kitchen. She stands beside Seth and runs her fingers through his hair. “It's okay. I've just had a sensitive stomach for the past few days. The taste was great, but the texture–” She stops talking and swallows thickly.
“I'm sorry.” Seth turns in his chair and pulls her between his knees so he can press his forehead against hers. “I just wanted to make you something good. Healthy. Talia said this was full of all kinds of extra vitamins and things. I didn't mean to make you sick.” Then he kisses her stomach.
Her eyes widen and she stares at me for a moment before she looks at Ben. He winks at her.
“Oh,” she says softly. “Am I...did we...”
Seth kisses her stomach again and purrs.
“We did it,” she sighs.
Chapter ten
