Chapter Twenty-Two
Titus
Nixon was mad at us. He didn’t understand how protective we were about him and our babe and his now basketball-sized belly.
“It’s just a box of drinking glasses, men. Certainly, I can lift that.”
Can and should were very different animals.
“You can do anything you’d like,” I said, trying to quell the situation. “But, as your alphas, we would like you not to. My bear is not so happy about the thought of you and glass and your belly all in the same scenario.”
He put the box down and sighed. I knew we were being a little overprotective, but it came with the territory.
“Nix, you know it’s because we love you, right?”
He nodded, but there was something else, something beneath the surface. He’d been preoccupied for a while. Randy and I had tried to get it out of him, but nothing gave. We were beginning to worry.
“I’m going to take a walk since you two won’t let me help us move in at all. Later.”
After he left, I sat on one of the stools at our new counter and put my head into my hands. Our honeymoon was definitely over, and whatever was bothering our mate needed to be all things over and finished.
Pronto.
“I found this in the laundry the other day,” Randy said, placing a worn white ticket in front of me.
“I haven’t been taking the bus anywhere. I walk in the city.”
He nodded and leaned on the counter next to me, and I leaned onto his side, letting his warmth calm me.
“Why won’t he talk to us?”
Randy chuckled, but I found nothing funny. “Maybe because we overreact when he tries to pick up a five-pound box of drinking glasses. If he’s in trouble, we would want to help, take over even. Maybe this is something he needs to work out.”
I got Randy’s logic, but my bear wasn’t having it. “Yeah? And what if wherever he’s going is dangerous and he gets into a situation he can’t handle. Where would we even begin to look?”
“I don’t know. But if we confront him, I’m afraid he’ll pull further away. I can’t lose him, and I know you can’t, either.”
My mate was right. I wrapped my arms around his waist after pulling his shirt up so I could lay my face on his bare skin. It didn’t soothe me like the three of us all being together, but it would suffice.
“We have to talk to him tonight,” I murmured. “We have to let him know that whatever is going on, we won’t fix it if he doesn’t want us to, but we will support him no matter what—especially before the baby comes.”
Randy nodded, I felt the motion. He ran his fingers through my hair and, after a while, offered a distraction.
“Let’s get all of this done and set up house before he gets back, or try to, at least. We only have a few more boxes to get from the other apartment, and let’s face it, the kitchen and the bedroom are the most important.”
I chuckled and stood up to take his mouth, not so gently. “Good idea, mate. Let’s move fast.”
We both hustled hard in the next hour, fueled on mostly by our worry over Nixon. We cleaned up the kitchen and unpacked everything. I went to the basement with all the trash and boxes while Randy made the bed and set up the bathroom for our little family.
I couldn’t help but look out the window more times than I could count and jumped at every noise, thinking it was our omega coming back home.
“Look, he’s found the bagel shop.” Randy walked over to me and showed me his phone while resting his head on my shoulder. Sure enough, on the apartment building’s cameras, there was our omega, sitting on a bench, looking up at our apartment. He had a bag in his hand, and we assumed it was bagels since he had one in his hand piled high with cream cheese.
The omega had a thing for bagels. Of course, Randy and I made endless jokes about biting the hole and licking the hole and all perverted things about holes.
It made our omega laugh, and wasn’t that what life was all about?
“I want to go down there and get him. Scoop him up and feed him those damned bagels while he lies in our bed stark naked.”
Randy adjusted himself. “That sounds like a brilliant idea. I’m going to put a pot of coffee on. I’m wanting to make this a long night.”
He swatted my ass before going to the kitchen and while the coffee pot perked.
Before long, Nixon got up, after three bagels, and made his way to the apartment. Randy and I bustled around, trying to make it look like we were absolutely chill about him being gone and eating bagels alone and not knowing how the hell to help him.
I sat on the couch and opened patient files in the middle so it looked like I had been working on them the whole time.
“Hey, I’m sorry I left like that. You both have to stop treating me like I’m made of glass or I’m seriously gonna lose my shit.” His words came out in a rush. Like he’d been down there practicing them.
Maybe he had.
“You’re right,” I said after seeing Randy’s nod. “We do. We are sorry, as well. We’re all new to this, and it’s hard to watch you do things.”
Nixon nodded and popped a bagel from his bag into the toaster.
I needed to invest in bagels.
“I know, but also I’d never put this babe in danger or me. If something happens to me, it happens to our young and I already love them so much. I don’t even know how that’s possible, to love someone you’ve never met, but I do.”
The tears in his eyes broke me. Our omega was carrying so many things, way heavier than his carbs and baby.
“Nixon, we love you, and whatever is happening, you’ve got to let us in. That’s what happens in a relationship, we all bear the burden.”
He shrugged.
Randy moved over to him and took the bus ticket from his pocket. “Omega mine, let’s start with this. Wanna share with us where you’ve been going?”