I shed my clothes in Marcus's bedroom. I was so embarrassed by my freak- out in the hallway. If I didn't stop this, Marcus was going to get sick of me and ditch me, leaving me all alone to be pregnant without an alpha. That was my biggest fear. I had only known I was pregnant for a few days, and already my hormones were getting the best of me. I had to get my head screwed on straight or I was going to drive everybody crazy.

I walked into the big bathroom again, admiring the beautiful granite. This was a bathroom I would love to be in every single day. Maybe moving in with Marcus wouldn't be such a bad thing, as long as my parents didn't find out. I shivered just thinking about it. I especially didn't want my dad finding out that I was pregnant.

I walked toward the tub were Marcus was leaning over, feeling the water temperature. I ran my hand up his side and then laid my head on his back. I stood up as Marcus stood back up, and then I climbed in, standing in the water and letting it soothe my poor legs.

"Oh God, this feels so good." I slid all the way down in the tub, leaning my head back. The water was up to my chin. I could just lay in here for hours. Oh yeah, I needed to move in with Marcus. Suddenly, my chest tightened as I thought of Lance all alone in the apartment.

He could probably afford the rent by himself, but I didn't want to make him have to do that. Besides, we had been roommates for seven years. My God, how the time flew. I definitely didn't want to leave Lance alone. We had movie and ice cream nights. We knew everything about each other. But, I also wanted to move in with Marcus, too, and not just for this hot tub. I had drooled over Marcus for three years. He was perfect. His talk about his relationship issues did give me pause, though. There was no way I wanted to be abandoned with a kid, even if we were married.

Water splashed and I opened my eyes. Marcus sat down at the other end of the tub and leaned back. Maybe I could get reacquainted with the body part of his that made me pregnant in the first place. There was nothing like seeing Marcus's body up close. He was absolutely beautiful, not to mention, he was more than well-endowed for his height.

"What are you smiling about?"

I hadn't realized I had been smiling.

"You're going to die laughing, but I was actually thinking about your body and how big of a cock you had." I knew I was blushing but I continued to watch Marcus as his eyes heated with lust.

"You keep talking like that and you're not going to be relaxing very much."

I couldn't believe this was real and not a fantasy.

"I wouldn't mind that. I began to wonder if you didn't want to have sex with me anymore."

Marcus rose an eyebrow.

"I just didn't know how you felt today. I didn't want to make you feel like you had to have sex with me."

"We're just the absolute worst at communicating, aren't we? We're going to get in a shit load of trouble if we don't fix that."

Marcus gave me a sheepish smile.

"You're right, you're absolutely right. I've lived on my own for so long, and gotten used to making all my decisions for so long without needing to think about anybody else. This is going to be an adjustment for me."

I nodded my head

"It's going to be an adjustment for me, too. The only person I've ever talked to about my decisions was Lance, and basically he was just a sounding board."

"I think that's what a partner is supposed to be, isn't it? You still make decisions, but your partner can be a sounding board. I'm not saying that you need to cut Lance of your life. You need to keep Lance in your life, he's a good friend and you've known him for a long time. I'm just saying that I think we both need to start including each other in any decision that could affect either one of us. We've got to start talking to each other and learning about each other. If you're going to keep living in your apartment for a while, then we really need to make dates, every day if we can."

I let out a sigh, releasing tension that had built up with this talk. The second he mentioned me staying in the apartment and keeping Lance as a friend, though, I relaxed. He wasn't going to force me to move in, he wasn't going to force me to cut off Lance - I didn't need to worry. That was a big relief."We come from two different backgrounds and yet we're in the exact same place regarding relationships. Isn't that funny?"

He smirked and splashed water at me.

"Yeah, except I think you've done a lot better with relationships than I have. You've actually tried to have relationships with alphas, right?"

"Yeah, it's just that they didn't ever think of me as someone who could make decisions or they tried to control everything about me. It was so damn frustrating."

"I have the exact problem. Any omegas I dated either wanted me to tell them what to do, or they didn't want to leave my side for a second and were constantly whining for things. That's a big reason why I quit trying to have relationships and focused on telling them right from the start that I wasn't into relationships." He shrugged. "It was probably an easy cop-out. You have to bill so many hours a week at work to make partner at the firm. I never really had the energy for an omega."

I frowned, not liking the sounds of that. "You have to bill so many hours to stay a partner, too?"

"Well yes, otherwise someone could make partner and then decide to work twenty hours a week and golf the rest. I need to bill so many hours a week. I'm not in a contest to bill the most hours, but I need to actually be there working. I can bring work home, too, though. I don't have to be at the office all the time."

I chewed my bottom lip. Despite all of his talk that he didn't want to end up like his dad, he sure sounded like quite a workaholic. I was a little worried.

Marcus

I rolled over, looking at Ryan sleeping. He was stretched out, arms and legs splayed wide in my king bed. I couldn't believe it. Ryan was smaller than I was, and yet he was taking up about eighty percent of the bed. He was probably spread out just because he was actually in a big bed instead of that tiny twin bed. I still couldn't believe he had a single sized bed. I got rid of my twin bed the second I moved out of the dorms.

I kissed his cheek, and then went in the bathroom. I was wide awake and raring to go, but I didn't want to leave to go workout, as was my usual habit. I didn't want to leave Ryan, but this was the only time I had to go work out. It was hard as hell thinking about going down to work out while he was sleeping in my bed.

I got ready,, scribbled out a note, and put it on my pillow. Hopefully he wouldn't wake up in the next hour, but if he did, he should find the note. I took the elevator down to the basement gym. I would've liked to have had a gym in my penthouse, except all the pounding from the gym would have driven anybody living below completely nuts. I ran for thirty minutes and then did leg weights. I waved to the other regulars and ignored their winks and looks.

For how nervous I felt at suddenly being in a real relationship, I thought I was doing pretty good. I wiped my face off, drank the rest of my water now that my workout was over, and rode back up on the elevator. I hoped Ryan was awake and feeling frisky, because working out always made me horny.

I got off the elevator, but didn't hear anything. I walked to my bedroom and found Ryan still sleeping on the bed in the exact same position. I wasn't going to wake him up. He needed his sleep, being pregnant and all. I walked into the bathroom, stripping off my clothes. I had been looking forward to playing around with Ryan this morning.

I turned on my shower and relaxed under the multiple shower heads shooting hot spray from several directions. I washed my hair and lathered soap all over me. I wished Ryan was with me. I thought back to how he had looked in the shower the last time. I loved tracing the water drops running down his neck with my tongue. I loved teasing his nipples, and rubbing his balls, and sucking his cock while staring in his eyes. It wasn't until I leaned against the wall that I realized I had been stroking my own cock while thinking of Ryan.

He was so handsome, intelligent, and caring. I couldn't believe he was finally mine. Well, I hoped to make it official as soon as I could get Ryan calmed down and accepting of the idea. His beautiful ass, his long legs, his big eyes - all of it would be mine. Fuck. I thought of bending him over my desk in the office at work, with his hands tied behind his back, his legs splayed wide, me fucking him with my tie shoved in his mouth.

"Oh, fuck!" I came so hard I saw stars.

I rode the elevator up to the firm's floor worried. Ryan hadn't wanted to spend the day with me, and he didn't spend last night with me either. He had finally woken up around noon yesterday. We ate and then he wanted to go back to his apartment to spend time with Lance and put his new clothes away. I was disappointed and I didn't even want to admit this to myself, but I was hurt that he didn't want to move in with me. I understood where he was coming from, but I still didn't like it.

I walked into my section, noticing my secretary, Luke, and Amy- but no Ryan yet. Well, I was twenty minutes early which was actually late for me. I got to work on my cases, slipping into the mental zone, until my secretary buzzed me.

"Yes?"

"Mrs. Foreman is here to see you."

"Thank you. Please send her to my office." I stood up and opened my door. I glanced at my paralegal section and noticed right away that Ryan wasn't there. He must be getting coffee or using the bathroom. Mrs. Foreman walked up to me, pouting.

"Where is that delicious paralegal? I wanted to see if he was still styling his hair the way I taught him?"

"He's probably doing a quick errand. You can see him when you come back out." I was not looking forward to a meeting with Mrs. Foreman. I hoped she could keep her hands off of me.

The meeting wasn't too long. She just gave me a quick update on financial information for their joint accounts. I reassured her that everything was going well on our end and opened the door to walk her to the elevators. Ryan still wasn't at his desk, or even in the section. I was getting concerned. I honestly didn't know enough about pregnancy to know when he might need to start using the bathroom frequently. That was pretty much the only thing I really knew about pregnancies- other than that the hormones made pregnant omegas crazy.

I got back from walking Mrs. Foreman to the elevators and Ryan still wasn't back yet. "Do you know where Ryan is?" I suppose I could've texted him, but hopefully the paralegals would tell me if he was running to the bathroom a lot this morning. Or puking.

"Well,-" Amy started to answer, but Luke interrupted her.

"He said his parents had unexpectedly dropped by. He went downstairs to get them but that was-" Luke looked down at his clock, "quite a while ago."

I had a bad feeling about this. He had mentioned that he was concerned about his parents finding out about his pregnancy. But, surely they wouldn't have done anything crazy…

Luke wasn't done talking yet. "I feel bad saying this but, he actually looked scared."

Shit. I was right to be worried.

"Thanks for letting me know." I quickly walked back in my office, picking up the phone.

"Hey, heard your parents showed up. Are you okay? Do you need me to get you? Let me know how you're doing." I expected an answer pretty quickly, but after fifteen minutes I hadn't heard anything back from him.

I picked up the desk phone and called my secretary. "Did Ryan say when he would be back? Have you seen them?"

"No. He left to go downstairs in a hurry. Honestly, he didn't look well. I haven't seen him since he left."

I hung up the phone, chewing the inside of my cheek. I didn't have Lance's phone number. I didn't even know where Lance worked. However, I knew someone who could find out anything. I called the private investigator we used for case work and asked him to find out Ryan's roommate's cell phone number and where he worked. The guy was good and hopefully would give me the information within an hour. I tried to calm myself down.

If he hadn't checked out with the secretaries, and hadn't even told the paralegals he was going to show his parents around, it certainly didn't look good. Plus, if he was going to show his parents around, wouldn't he have brought them upstairs? Dammit.

I was not going to get anything done until the P.I. called me. I didn't want to tell anyone how worried I was. I thought I was crazy for thinking his parents would do something, but on the other hand he had been scared of his parents. Luke and my secretary both said he looked scared. I rubbed my hands through my hair while pacing. This was stupid, only five minutes had gone by.

I turned around to go down to Eric's office, but that wouldn't do any good because I didn't want to tell anyone else my suspicions until I had proof. Plus, Eric had work to get done. Telling Eric my fear that Ryan had been kidnapped by his own parents was absolutely ridiculous. Hell, it sounded even crazy to me.

I forced myself back in my chair and started going through the documents that Mrs. Foreman had dropped off.

My phone rang, jolting me out of the zone. I glanced up and saw that forty five minutes had passed by. The caller ID on the phone showed that it was the P.I. I felt sick as I picked up the phone. "Yeah, were you able to get anything?"

"I've got his roommate Lance's place of employment, their phone number, and his cell phone number." I let my breath out, so relieved.

"You need me to do anything else?"

Now that he mentioned it...

"Yes, actually I think I do. Could you look up and find out the names of the parents of Ryan Hodges? He's an employee here, an omega. His parents came to see him and then suddenly he's been missing for over three hours now. He looked scared when he went to meet them. He's also mentioned before today, that his parents would upset with him if they found out his current condition." I sure as hell didn't want to tell the P.I. that Ryan was pregnant.

"Will do. I suppose this is a rush too?" I told him it was more than a rush, then hung up. I called Lance's number immediately. I didn't even pay attention to where he worked. I just hoped it was a corporate environment and that he would be able to answer the phone immediately.

"Hello? This is Lance." I let out another sigh of relief even though I felt like puking.

"Hey it's Marcus Sutton, Ryan's boyfriend. How well do you know Ryan's parents and how he gets along with them? They showed up unexpectedly a few hours ago. Ryan went to meet them and hasn't come back. I can't reach him by phone."

Lance swore. Now the acid in my stomach was burning a hole. "How did they find out? His parents are bad news. They are nice, I guess, but they are very old fashioned and fundamentalist. They believe in extremes."

Son of a bitch. Fuck. That explained his hang-ups"Would they have taken him anywhere? They wouldn't force him to get an abortion or anything crazy like that, would they?" I sounded absolutely insane.

"Well, I don't think so. Then again, they are pretty hell-bent on people being married before even having sex. They were strongly against, and are still against, Ryan working in the law profession. They wanted him to be a preschool teacher."

A preschool teacher? Well actually, I could see that. Ryan would be a perfect preschool teacher, but he had a brilliant mind, and as far as I knew loved working in law.

"Why do you think he's been gone for hours and not answering his phone? Have they ever done anything crazy to him before?" I heard a gasp on the phone. My chest tightened.

"Yes, actually they have! I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. He was dating an alpha our sophomore year in college. One they didn't like. His parents came a few days early before Thanksgiving and took him home. He came back two weeks later. They wouldn't let him come back to college until he called the alpha and told him they were broken up. Whatever they said to the guy, he avoided Ryan like the plague after that."

Oh my God. They were fucking crazy.

"Do you think Ryan would've been able to hide his pregnancy from them?"

"Not a chance in hell. I don't know what the hell his mom's deal is, but she would always look him up and down the first second she saw him to make sure he hadn't gained any weight or was pregnant."

Son of a fucking bitch! I wanted to kick something except everything in my office was solid and I'd probably break my foot on it.

"Do you know their address? Do you know where they live?"

"He never invited me there. He was too embarrassed. I know it's some small podunk town not too far away. Maybe a few hours."

"I've got someone looking for that information right now."

"You're going to do something, aren't you?"

"You're damn right I am. I need to go to your apartment to see if he's there. Then I'll go to his parent's house. I need to let you go now."

"You're probably going to need somebody else with you when you go to his parent's house. They probably won't let you take Ryan easily."

"Don't worry, I'll have my driver with me and he's an ex-Navy officer. I could use your help here. Have you ever seen his parents?"

"Yes, I met them when they've shown up at college and at our apartment."

"Great. I want you to go to any place you may think he might have been taken. I'll check the apartment, and if he's not there I'll let you know. Check out any local places, a church in his parent's religion, anything you think of. I have a feeling that they took him home if that's what they did before, though."

I got off the phone with Lance feeling more scared than I had ever been before in my life.