After I’d flipped through every magazine in the waiting room a second time, I organized them into neat little stacks and sat there twiddling my thumbs and glancing at the clock.

I thought about pulling out my phone, but then I’d just be tempted to change my relationship status on Facebook and I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for that. Was there a certain time you were together before people did that? Did we do it right away? Hell if I knew. I’d just have to ask Houston. That little shit would know if anyone did.

I reached up to scratch the back of my head and tried not to look at the clock on the wall for the umpteenth time. Kyle had been back there for over half an hour, and I was getting antsy.

Were they doing tests? Examining him and finding a monster tumor? What if he’d agreed to be mine at long last, only to have fate cruelly rip him from my arms? Shit. What if Fred really had done more damage than anyone had known? I mean, Kyle was banged up pretty bad after that, so it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility.

When he finally came out after another grueling twenty-minute wait, he was so quiet and withdrawn that my mind went back to the dark places of possible illnesses. Kyle shot me a nervous smile as he opened the door and led the way to the parking lot.

Had I been right? Was it possible that Fred had hurt him worse than we’d realized? Or maybe Kyle found out he actually did have, like, ball cancer or some shit. Wait, no… I was pretty sure that it would take longer to diagnose cancer; surely they’d have to run tests, right? And those probably took time to come back. Plus, you probably didn’t puke from ball cancer. Not to mention the fact that I’d have noticed a lump when I was handling them last night, right?

I followed Kyle silently to the car, my mind racing as I searched for answers but not coming up with any and also not wanting to prod. After I closed the door for Kyle, I walked around to my side and slid in.

Kyle still hadn’t said anything, so I stuck my key in the ignition and reluctantly started the car. I’d just begun backing out of the space when he finally spoke.

“Stop the car, Dallas. I have to tell you something, but I’m not sure how so I need to just spit it out before I get too into my head and freak out too much to tell you.”

Without hesitation, I pulled back into the spot and put the car in park. I looked over at Kyle hesitantly, bracing myself for the horrible news that was surely about to come my way.

Kyle took several deep breaths, pressing his palms against his stomach before tilting his head just enough to glance over at me from the corner of his eye. “Apparently what’s wrong is the last thing that I would’ve expected.”

My heart raced as his voice trailed off. I held my breath and waited for him to continue. His voice was so quiet that I almost missed it when he found the courage to finish his thought. “The thing is that… I’m pregnant.”

It took me a second to register his words, and then my heart did a complete one-eighty as desperate fear turned to complete joy. I threw back my head and laughed, pounding the steering wheel gleefully and chortling like a madman while I fought to regain control. Kyle was looking at me like I’d lost my mind, but I just shook my head and laughed harder as tears of happiness streamed down my cheeks.

“You don’t understand… I was braced for horrible, life-changing news. I mean, I was waiting for you to tell me something really bad, but this? Oh, hon. This is fantastic. Still life-changing, but in the best way possible.” I stopped for a moment as something occurred to me. “Wait, I thought you said you were infertile.”

“I thought I was, but obviously something’s changed,” Kyle said with an obvious smile of relief.

I puffed out my chest like a cocky alpha. “I can tell you what changed. You found yourself a real alpha who was potent enough to do the job.”

Kyle rolled his eyes, blushing furiously as his cheeks and ears turned bright red. “Hmm. About that. You see, there’s one more thing, and you’re not gonna like it. The doctor says that sometimes omegas can still have a heat cycle if the pregnancy is still in its early stages.”

I froze in horror as it slowly dawned on me what he was insinuating. “Wait, are you saying that maybe the baby isn’t mine? It could be… his?” God help me, but I couldn’t even bring myself to say the fucker’s name.

He shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know, Dallas. I hope it’s yours. I’m only saying that we don’t absolutely know for sure and we can’t find out until the baby is born. I mean, we could find out later in the pregnancy, but I don’t want to do that. The doctor said that the tests are invasive and could possibly cause a miscarriage. I’d rather wait, you know?”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “Either way, I’m on board to be the best dad ever if you’ll let me.”

Kyle leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Thank you for that, but I’d still like to take our relationship slowly, you know? I mean, we’ve just started out and now there’s a baby on the way? I don’t want our entire relationship to be based on my pregnancy. And before we make permanent plans with the baby, I need to know that things are solid between us. Please don’t think that I’m saying no, because that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

I grabbed his face and kissed him quickly to stop his nervous ramble. “Kyle, it’s okay—I get it. You have every right to feel that way and I love that you want to make sure that things are secure now that there’s a baby involved. If anything, hearing you say that just makes me respect you more than I already did.”

As I looked into his shining eyes, I knew in that moment that I would do whatever it took to show this man that I genuinely cared for him and truly didn’t give two shits about who was the biological father of our baby.