Page 35 of Vawn
The corner of his mouth twitched up. “Yeah, remember how I told you suppressants aren’t always effective?”
I squeezed his hand in return. “This is for real?”
He nodded, chewing his bottom lip.
“Well.” I shifted as best I could in the bed. “I guess that means there’s only one thing to do.”
A collective gasp filled the room.
I rolled my eyes. “C’mon. Really? Just like you all knew Vawn was pregnant, you all also knew about this. Give me a break.”
Pulling Vawn closer, I reached up to cup his cheek. “This isn’t at all how I planned to do this. I wanted to do it in front of cameras, make a big spectacle of it.”
His eyes filled with terror. “You wanted to have everyone watch as you broke up with me?”
“Break up with you?” His terror transferred to me, clutching my heart. “Where would you ever get an idea like that?”
He whimpered and glanced up. “I don’t know. You’ve barely talked to me lately. And before the race, you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
Shit!
I cupped his cheek again and ran my thumb along his bottom lip. “That’s not what I want at all. I want to commit to you, Vawn. I want to commit to you in a union ceremony like your people used to do on Trid. I can’t claim you the way an alpha would, but I want you to be mine. And I want to be yours. I wanted to ask you after we’d won the race, but that didn’t go as planned.”
Tears streamed down his cheeks. “I…I didn’t expect that. You’ve been so distant.”
Pain ripped through my shoulder, and I winced as I went back to holding his hand. “I had a hard time keeping this from you, so I choose to limit how much I talked to you. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. I guess that was a mistake.” I interlaced my fingers with his. “What do you say? Would you like to be bonded to me through a union ceremony?”
He brushed his thumbs across his cheeks to clear his tears. “You’re okay with the fact that I’m pregnant? That you’re going to be a father?”
“Well, you already have Enif, and I never had a problem with her.” Was that the right thing to say? Somehow, it sounded awkward. Even more so when Vawn flinched.
Ret chuckled. “When Ojo first talked to me about committing to you, he asked if I thought he’d make a good father.”
“Wait.” Vawn turned to his oldest brother. “How long have you known about this? About Ojo having these feelings?”
Ret raised his eyebrows. “Since before you started worrying that something was wrong. Why do you think I told you to stop worrying?”
Shit.He really thought I was going to end our relationship? I squeezed his hand to get his attention. “I’m sorry for making you worry. I wouldn’t have planned it like this if I had known it would hurt you in any way.”
Tears continued to stream down his cheeks as he shook his head. “I’m just relieved. I thought I would leave this planet brokenhearted. But….” He sniffled. “You’re alive. And you don’t want to end things. And I’m pregnant.”
Utahn came up to Vawn and handed him a tissue before rubbing his back. “Then how about you stop crying and give Ojo an answer.”
Vawn turned to his best friend and let him wipe his face. “You knew, too?”
Utahn winced. “We all did. Even your fathers. Only you and Enif didn’t know.”
Vawn turned to me and swatted the tube holding my leg still. “I can’t believe you did this. I want to be your mate for life, but only if you promise to never keep secrets from me again.”
I chuckled. “I promise.” Though I hoped he wasn’t referring to sweet surprises, because I planned to do them as often as possible when we were mates.
The rest of the Kaddim family entered the room, with Enif running up to her father and tugging at the hem of his shirt. “Poppa said you and Ojo were going to be mates. Does dis mean he’ll be my daddy number tree?”
Vawn ruffled her hair. “Yes, I believe so. But I think we’re going to have to come up with a different name.”
Enif bounced around, giggling and squealing. “Ojo will be my Dado.”
“I guess you’ll need this.” Genj stepped forward and handed me the small tattered envelope I’d been carrying in my pocket for the past few days. “Ret made the staff of this facility search until they found it in your shredded flight suit.”
