While the rest of the city was being hung over on the morning of New Year's Day, I slunk out of my apartment to visit the drug store and get myself one or two or three pregnancy tests. Couldn't trust just one, could I?

The lady behind the register shot me a funny look as she scanned my items—three pregnancy test sticks and a bag of gummy bears—but I decided to remain silent. We'd just celebrated New Year's Eve, she'd probably get a lot of customers like me over the following weeks.

Once back home, I took my purchases to the bathroom with me. Well, aside from the gummy bears, didn't really need those yet. Those were comfort food for later.

I unpacked one of the sticks, gave the instructions a cursory glance—I had to pee on a stick, how hard could it be?—, and got down to business.

When I was done, I waved the stick in the air and counted the seconds, trying not to think about anything. If I did, I knew I would only panic. In a moment, I would know whether or not I was pregnant, and then I could decide to freak. Or not. I wasn't sure yet how I was going to react.

I'd never seen myself as a parent, not really. But who knew? Maybe with the right alpha by my side it wouldn't totally suck.

Thirty seconds passed.

Taking a deep breath, I made myself look at the stick.

A blue line.

Wait, what did that mean? I sprinted over to the trash can and pulled the box the stick had come in out of it. Maybe I should have studied the instructions a little bit more closely after all.

A blue line means you're pregnant. Congratulations!

I read the small text three times before I could believe it.

Holy shit.

I was pregnant.

What was I supposed to do now? I stared at the stick in my hand. And then I did the first thing I could think off: I took another test. I'd bought three after all. Maybe one of them would turn out to be negative.

After the second test was positive too, I didn't bother with the third one. I'd just keep that for next time.

Next time.

Dear lord, was I already thinking about next time?

Chiding myself, I left the bathroom to slump on the couch in the living room. There, I grabbed my phone. I was going to explode if I didn't get to tell someone about this. Preferably someone who'd gone through this before. I remembered having to buy a pregnancy test for Kade roughly two years ago when he was pregnant with Hope. Yes, Kade was the perfect person to talk to. He'd know what to do, or at the very least, he wouldn't mind if I rambled at him trying to sort out my thoughts.

And he wouldn't tell anyone before I was ready to break the news.

I thumbed through the contact list on my phone and hit dial on Kade's name.

He picked up after only a few rings. “Nick?”

“I didn't wake you, did I?” Considering it was a Sunday, it was still pretty early.

“No, Hope did that well before you could. Actually, I'm more surprised that you're up already.”

“I had something I needed to do.” I sucked air in through my teeth. “Remember when you woke me to buy you a pregnancy test? I had to take one too, only I didn't have anyone to buy one for me, so I actually had to get my ass out the door myself!”

“I'm sorry... wait, what? Are you telling me you took a pregnancy test this morning?” He paused. “Hold on a sec.” I heard the creaking of stairs in the background as he moved about the house, probably going somewhere he wouldn't be overheard. Maybe his basement studio.

“I did take a pregnancy test this morning. Well, actually I took two!”

“And?” I couldn't see my friend in front of me, but his excitement was clear in his tone. He knew I wouldn't have called him if either of those tests had turned out to be negative.

“Both positive,” I confirmed his suspicions.

“Oh wow. I didn't even know you were trying! Wait, you weren't trying, were you?”

“Not at all.” I'd always insisted on condoms after that first time, and Zander had seemed only too glad to go along with that request. “I wish I could say I don't know how this happened.” I sighed.

Kade laughed. He actually laughed. I forgave him only because I knew he'd been in my shoes too. He laughed out of sympathy. With me rather than at me. “It was your heat, wasn't it?”

“Yeah.”

“Don't feel too bad. Going into heat makes the smartest people do the most stupid things. It's a force of nature.”

“I know that.” I pushed some hair back from my forehead. “But what do I do now?”

“That depends.” Kade's tone of voice grew cautious. “Do you want to keep it?”

“I...” To be honest, I hadn't even thought about that. Kade was right that omegas had options these days, but... This was my baby, Zander's baby growing inside of me. I couldn't terminate it, could I? No, I couldn’t. I wanted to meet this kid. Actually, that thought kind of excited me. Would they look more like Zander or more like me? I couldn't wait to find out.

“Nick?” Kade prodded. “I'm sorry. I get if you need more time to think. I know you never wanted to be a parent.”

“No, but I'm keeping it.” Time to man up, right? I'd made my decision. That didn't mean I wasn't super anxious about all this, just that I was going to go through with it anyway. I hoped Zander would see it the same way. He'd said he didn't care what happened as long as we could be together. That should extend to raising a child together, right?

“You haven't told your boyfriend yet, have you?” Kade asked as if reading my thoughts.

“No, I only just found out and I needed to talk to someone unaffected, I guess.”

“Unaffected? Me? I'm super affected by this! You're my best friend and you're going to be a daddy! I'm so excited for you! You need to come back here so I can nag you 24/7 with baby name suggestions and helpful parenting advice.”

In spite of the tension that had taken hold of my body, I had to laugh. All of this felt so surreal. Being pregnant, having to name a baby… “You'd love to nag me, wouldn't you?” But it would be nice to go back to Oceanport. If only so I could tell Zander about my pregnancy in person.

And then do other things to him in person.

It was decided, I had to get to Oceanport.

Preferably before I started showing.