Page 31 of Hybrid Forgotten

I can’t tell her that I figured out I’m meant to be a stay-at-home dad.

I can’t tell her I’ve started a list, and I’ll be starting a bunch more of them soon enough.

One list always rolls into multiples. I’ll have them segmented, and I’ll branch off into all kinds of adjoining items that I need to know, or research, or buy.

And that’s before we’ve even gotten onto baby names.

“We should head back before we’re late,” Dante tells Amanda, getting up and leaving his empty plate on the table.

She glances at her phone. “We have a little time.”

“Not if you want to walk like our Alpha clearly thinks we should.”

Right.Sean’s been having to remind Dante when to cool it with his magic. It’s not something that’s supposed to be used for trivial things, and our Omega is way too used to using it whenever he can’t be bothered walking, or going to the store, or whatever else.

It’s not safe to use it all the time. It would only take one mistake for the wrong person to notice him.

That would put all of us at risk. I don’t think he fully grasps that idea.

He’s way too used to doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

If there’s one thing he’ll learn when Amanda accepts the blessing, it’s that we have to be on the same page with every little thing. There’s not room for risk when it comes to looking after kids.

He’s going to have rein himself in.

Chapter seventeen

Amanda

Therestoftheafternoon at the academy flies by. Rachel hugs me before we leave the building and Carter catches up to her. She doesn’t say anything else about the blessing, but I know she’s happy for me, even if I’m in shock about what it means, and I can’t quite bring myself to take it seriously.

Trouble is, I can tell myself to forget about it, but that’s not practical.

I’m with my mates all the time, and I’m almost always physically close to at least one of them.

And from what I can tell, the blessing is a gift that lingers until it’s been accepted.

If I actually decided I didn’t want to have kids anytime soon, I would have to ask Rachel and Cheryl to help me decline the offer, and the thought of doing that leaves me cold inside.

Not every shifter is lucky enough to have a child blessed by the Goddess, Artemis.

I can’t help wondering what makes my pack so special.

I mean besides the obvious.

Why did she choose us?

“Amanda, wait!”

I turn at the gates to see Dante headed my way. He must have gotten held up leaving his last class. Usually, I’d wait for him, but considering Parker asked me to meet him at the gates today, I already told him I’d see him when I got home.

Dante isn’t usually one for public displays of affection, but today he makes sure to give me a swoon-worthy kiss that steals my breath, eliciting a few claps and rowdy noises from our passing classmates. My cheeks flush as he breaks the kiss.

“Too much?” he whispers, gazing into my eyes.

“No,” I admit. “It was perfect.”

It wasn’t chaste, but it wasn’t over the top.

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