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  “Oh, you would have lost your mind years ago. I would have, too.”

  We made our way back inside. Ollie followed close behind me. I padded up the stairs, climbed into my bed, and shut my eyes. Tomorrow would bring a newer, better, brighter day. It had to.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kayden

  The next morning, I woke up not feeling any better at all. Despite having slept the entire night, I woke up exhausted. My limbs ached with every movement. I hoped to hell that I wasn't getting sick, because that meant shutting down the daycare for a day, which was never good at all. Maybe it was time I talked with Ollie about hiring a backup person. I wasn’t sure if we were quite ready for that financially, we'd have to run the numbers, but it wouldn't hurt to have a third person to help.

  I got out of bed, stretched and made my way to the bathroom to relieve myself. I went to brush my teeth, but the minute I got the toothpaste close to my mouth, the smell of mint hit me, and I gagged. I ended up emptying the contents of my stomach. Once I was done, I rinsed out my mouth, stared at my toothbrush again knowing that I was going to have to brush my teeth. Damn. I hadn't had that reaction to toothpaste in a long time.

  Over six years ago.

  I used to get that way every morning when I was pregnant with Jackson.

  Oh fuck.

  I braced myself against the bathroom counter. Oh, shit. No, no, no, no, no. This couldn't be, I was on suppressants, we used protection. We did last time too. Fuck. How could I be so stupid? My Alpha, the Alpha to all Alphas. Of course this would happen again.

  No. I hadn't taken a test yet, maybe it was just a coincidence. After all, I didn't feel well yesterday evening. It hadn't been the best day. I was under a lot of stress.

  No. I couldn't be pregnant.

  I straightened and rolled my shoulders back. I brushed my teeth, choking down the urge to throw up again. By the time I finished and went into Jackson's room to wake him up, I was starting to feel better or it was just because the taste was out of my mouth? Either way, I pushed this problem to the back of my mind. I’d deal with it later. I didn't know when, but now was not the time.

  ***

  Once I got the morning started, all feelings of nausea left. Ollie took the older kids to school and I stayed back with the younger ones at the house. When Ollie came back, we took that morning as an opportunity to go over emergency situations with the kids. Basic stuff like calling 911, stranger danger, and all that. Thankfully, the kids didn't ask too many questions about where Riley was. They were resilient after all, and we didn't have to go into many details for them. It was just another day for them. For us, it was more of a shattering to reality.

  When lunchtime rolled around, I ran upstairs to prepare lunch for the kids and Ollie stayed back in the basement. While I was up there, he shouted from the basement to grab band aids since we were almost out down there. I went into the bathroom, grabbed the band aids from the medicine cabinet and saw that there was an Omega pregnancy test.

  I looked at it. It wouldn't hurt to take one. Just to be sure. Then I would know that I wasn't pregnant, and I could go on with my day. Then again, if it came back positive, I'd have to think about it for the rest of the day.

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, for heaven's sakes. Just take it.”

  While the lunches for the kids were warming up, I waited for the test results. It was a few minutes before I got back to look at the test. Two pink lines glowed brightly on the results screen.

  Pregnant.

  Holy shit.

  Just as it had when I found out I was pregnant with Jackson, excitement coursed through me, peppering my skin with goosebumps. Another one of Turner Jeffries children. This time I’d do things a little differently. Turner would know about this child. I wasn’t going to run, wasn't going to hide it.

  Jackson would be an amazing big brother. Or perhaps it would be an opportunity for him to explore his more rebellious side. Maybe he’d throw a fit about not being an only child. I laughed at that. It was unlikely.

  Jackson had expressed interest in having younger siblings before, and he was excited for Ollie's baby, so he'd be excited for this one as well.

  Turner I wasn't too sure about. I knew he wouldn't reject the idea, but this was obviously another accident. One of our own making. Sooner or later, the two of us would have to learn to keep it in our pants.

  The timer beeped, letting me know that lunch was ready. I loaded it up on the tray and took it downstairs. Ollie looked at me a little oddly when I came back down.

  “Everything all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah, fine.” Damn him for being so perceptive. I could never hide anything from my best friend. “We can talk during nap.”

  After lunch, we got all the children settled in for story time and then afternoon nap. Some days I wished I could join the kids during nap time. But usually Ollie and I used this time to write our daily reports on the behavior charts and clean up after whatever project we had worked on that morning.

  “What is it?” Ollie whispered to me on the other side of the room from where the kids slept.

  “Well,” I said. “When I was upstairs, I saw that there was a pregnancy test in the bathroom cabinet.”

  Ollie's eyes widened. “You're pregnant.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I am.”

  Excitement practically bubbled out of his skin as he bounced up and down. He wanted to scream, I could tell, but he didn't. Thank goodness, because I didn't want the kids to wake up early.

  He wrapped his arms around me and swayed back and forth. “I'm so happy,” he said.

  “Me too. Except, now I have to tell Turner.”

  “He'll be excited too,” Ollie said. “And we have plenty of room here if he's not.”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “Well, I just assumed that the two of you would be together now.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not this again. Commitment isn't our thing.”

  “Really?” Ollie said. “You're still on that?”

  “You don't understand. Turner and I have always been casual. When we were together six years ago it was out of convenience that we lived together.”

  “So, you two weren’t exclusive with one another?”

  I wrinkled my nose at that. “Well, of course we were. We weren't sleeping around.”

  “And you lived together.”

  “Well, yeah, but—”

  “But you never actually said the words promising to be each other’s one and only.”

  “No.”

  “Well, I've never said that to Philip either. We both just assumed that we're going to be together forever.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It's different with me and Turner.”

  “Is it though?” Ollie said. “Or are you guarding your heart from something that is completely unnecessary? Just talk to him about it, all right Kayden? Don't just operate on this assumption that he doesn't want a forever.”

  “Fine, I'll talk to him, but I really don't think that anything is going to change my mind.”

  “Either way,” Ollie said. “I'm extremely happy for you.”

  I grinned. “I know,” I said. “We'll get to watch our kiddos grow up together again.”

  ***

  Later that afternoon, when I was only left with the two kids, Molly and her younger sister, Ollie took off to pick up the boys from school.

  “I'll probably stop and get ice cream along the way, just because.” He shrugged.

  “It's been one of those days,” I said.

  “Yeah. Want me to pick up a pizza for dinner too?”

  “Might as well,” I said. “I don't feel like cooking.”

  The two of us were usually pretty good about having home cooked meals, but damn, this weekend did not allow for that sort of thing.

  “I'll get this place cleaned up and then I'm going to work on our next book. I've got an idea.”

  “Oh?” he said. “That sounds ominous.”

  “Well, I was t
hinking, what if our little Alpha and Omega characters had babies?”

  “Oh, boy.”

  “I think our readers might like that,” I said. “It’ll open a whole new market up for parents looking for books for their kids when they have a new baby on the way.”

  “That’s true, although I'm not really looking forward to drawing a pregnant wolf.”

  I laughed at that. “I'm sure it'll be great. I'll put the words on paper, you put the brush to canvas.”

  “That's the deal,” Ollie said and took off.

  I chuckled to myself. Since we'd moved out here to the country, I'd been struck by a lot more inspiration than I ever had living in the city. I was jotting down ideas for new books all the time. So much so, that we weren't able to keep up with them all. But that was a good problem to have. I even tossed around the idea of starting a new series, although Ollie and I hadn't had a lot of time to talk about it. I needed to make some time for that. Maybe tonight after the kids went to bed he and I could outline some ideas and put together a schedule for what we were going to do.

  Once Molly and her sister were picked up by their parents, I began cleaning. All the toys were disinfected and put away. Then I sat down and drafted out a few ideas for a series, some ideas for scenes that would go in the stories. Our books were popular and made us a nice little chunk of change that we could use to supplement our daycare income. It had been perfect when we were young and struggling to pay for our overpriced apartment in the city. We continued to do it because we loved it.

  It wasn't until Hooch started barking like a madman outside that I snapped out of my work. I checked the time. It past five, which mean Ollie must be back with the kids. We hadn't yet installed security cameras around the house, though it had been on our list of things to do, especially after what had happened with Philip’s dad. It'd be nice if I could see the driveway while I was in the basement. I added that to my list of things to talk to Ollie and Philip about.

  The dog’s barks turned to growls, which had me concerned. Then his yelp of pain split through the air. I jumped out of my seat. “What the hell?”

  I listened more but heard nothing. I went to the sliding glass door to go outside and that's when I saw Tom rounding the corner of the house, shotgun gun in hand.

  I couldn’t close the door in time and he forced his way in.

  He pointed the shotgun at me. “You're going to pay for what you've done, Omega,” he said.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Turner

  I was just leaving the police station and walking out to my car when I spotted Ollie pulling into the fire station, both boys loaded in the back of his car. I checked my watch. He must’ve have picked them up from school this afternoon.

  I looked both ways and then jogged across the street. I might as well say hi, maybe even go inside and chit chat for a while with Philip and Ollie. I laughed to myself. Oh, how domesticated I was getting. Such a small town thing to do, when I lived in the city I'd never even thought about interacting with people just for the fun of it.

  “Hey guys,” I said as I approached.

  “Dad!” Jackson said as he jumped out of the car, then launched himself in my arms.

  “Hey, how was your day at school?”

  “Good. We had the zoo experts come visit. They brought a snake.”

  “Whoa,” I said. “That's pretty crazy.”

  “Yeah,” Ollie said. “They haven't stopped telling me about the snakes and the raccoon, and a few other lovely little creatures that the experts brought in.”

  I smiled at that. “Well, luckily, you boys have a dog at home. That's enough pet for you guys, right?”

  “Right,” Jackson said. “But maybe we can get chicken soon”

  Ollie scrunched up his nose. “We've thought about it buddy and but it's not very high on my to do list these days.”

  Philip came out the front door and waved us over. We all stood outside the open bay door. It looked as if they were getting ready to wash one of the trucks.

  Ollie gave Philip a kiss on the lips and Philip pulled him close.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Tired, but I'm all right,” he said.

  “How was the day at the daycare?”

  “Not bad,” Ollie said. “We went over all of the emergency procedures with the kids.” He shrugged and smiled sadly.

  “That's a good idea,” I said. “Given the…” I trailed off.

  The boys were inspecting the truck when Cam came around the front.

  “Hey guys,” he said. “I think we have popsicles in the freezer. You want some?”

  “Um,” Ollie started to protest. “We just got—”

  Philip laid a hand on his shoulder. “Let them have some popsicles. It's not that big of a deal.”

  “All right, you put them to bed tonight, then.”

  Philip smiled. “I'm off at seven, so I should be able to.”

  We stood outside chit chatting a little bit, but within a few minutes the conversation turned to the events of the past few days.

  “Have you heard anything about Tom? Did they have him arraigned? Set his bail? Anything?”

  I shook my head. “Haven't been able to find out. I’ve been doing a bit of running around today. Figured I better keep myself busy so I didn’t show up at the court house and do something I would regret. I'm not even sure where the Chief is.”

  Just then his patrol car came into the parking lot across the street.

  “Looks like he's back,” Philip said.

  “Yeah, I can ask him.” I waved at him from across the street, and he jogged over.

  “Thank God I found you,” Chief said. His tone made me tense.

  “What is it?” I said.

  He shook his head. “If I'd known this was going to happen, I never—”

  “What is it?” I ground out.

  “It's Tom. They had to let him go.”

  “What?”

  “He had a lawyer. I don’t know all of the details, I came as soon as I heard.”

  I ran a hand through my hair. “Fuck. How am I going to tell Kayden?”

  “That that's the other thing. I went by his house on my way here. I'm not too sure that he's there. I have no idea where he went.”

  “Fuck,” I said again. I turned to Ollie. “All right. I'm going to the house right now. You stay here with the kids. I'll let you know as soon as—”

  “Why don't I call Kayden right now?” Ollie said. “We can get ahold of him. Just tell him to be on the lookout for anything suspicious.”

  “Yeah, that'd be great,” I said. I pulled out my phone. I had it on speaker as I hit send. The four of us stood around, listening to it ring once, twice, three times. “What is he doing? What could he be doing that he's not answering?” I asked.

  Ollie shrugged. “I don't know. He was going to work on some paperwork and then draft our next book, but he'd have his phone on him. He wouldn't ignore it.”

  The call went to voicemail. So, I tried it again. This time it rang twice.

  “Officer Jeffries. So nice of you to finally call.” It wasn't Kayden’s voice. “I've got your Omega here. Mouthy little brat that he is. You'd think a man like you would keep your Omega in line.”

  “Don’t you fucking touch him,” I said. “Get out of there you son of a bitch. I'll kill you.”

  “Big statement for a man nowhere around while I stand here holding a shotgun on your Omega.”

  “You motherfucker!”

  Ollie gasped.

  I held up a hand, wanting everyone to be quiet. I kept my wits about me even as my heart squeezed, and adrenaline pumped through my veins. I motioned to Chief for him to call back up. I'd have the entire squad, including myself, there in a few minutes.

  “What do you want?” I said to Tom.

  “My kid back,” he said. “Why don't you come here and see if you can get your Omega from me?”

  “All right,” I said. “Don't do anything crazy. We’ll get you
whatever you want. Let me talk to Kayden, I want to know that he's all right.”

  “The little Omega is doing just fine,” Tom said. “But sure, you can talk to him.”

  Kayden’s voice came over the line. “Turner. I'm fine. Don't come here. He's not—”

  “Shut up.” I heard a loud smack and then a wail of pain.

  “You son of a bitch!”

  The line went dead. My hands clenched into fist and I resisted the urge to toss the phone on the cement and smash it. That would do us no good.

  “Fuck,” I said.

  “Let's go,” Chief said. “I'll make calls on the way. Let's just get there.”

  “All right. Keep the boys here until you hear from me. You too, Philip. You stay here with the kids.”

  Philip and Ollie nodded, their faces grim.

  I turned to jog across the street to my truck, but Ollie stopped me. “Turner, you should know… Fuck,” he said. “Kayden…”

  “What? What is it?” I said. “Tell me.”

  “Kayden’s pregnant.”

  The blood drained from my face. “What?” I said.

  “He took a test today. He was going to tell you, of course. It's just...” Ollie side. “Fuck.” A tear slipped out of the corner of his eye. “I thought you'd want to know.”

  “Thanks,” I said, and I took off running to my truck.

  ***

  We ended up in the Chief’s squad car and he drove like a bat out of hell, thank God. He blazed into the driveway, kicking up dust as he went. Our approach would not be subtle.

  “How many entrances are there into the house?” he asked.

  “One front door, a door that goes in from the garage, and the basement has a completely separate entrance, a sliding door that walks out to the backyard. They'll be in the basement,” I said. “There's a stairwell inside the house from the living room to the basement. But there's a lock on the door in the basement, so the kids can't get upstairs.”

  “What do you want to do?” he said.

  “I don't know. I can't let him stay in there for long. Let’s call them again. See what his demands are.”

  “Do you have any security cameras around the house?”