Luke followed Gage in a daze. He was pregnant. Was he really pregnant? How had this happened? He knew how it happened, but... for fuck's sake how did it happen? Alice's guess that they hadn't been careful enough with emotions riding high and claws popping out made the most sense, but he wanted to smack myself for not being more careful.

Not that Luke didn't want to be a dad. Even though he'd only found out just a few minutes ago, he felt fiercely protective of the little life growing within him, even though at the same time, it all felt completely surreal. 

They made their way out the back door and down to the lake where Gage stopped and pulled Luke into his arms.

"How are you feeling?" Gage asked gently.

"Scared? Excited? Terrified? Excited? Did I mention scared?"

Gage chuckled, and everything seemed a little less crazy and dire.

"I'm sorry, I should have been more careful," he said, his voice low and sorrowful.

"No, it was as much my fault as yours, so let's not start that. How are you feeling?" It had suddenly occurred to Luke that Gage might not be ready for children, now or ever. It was something they'd never talked about.

"Excited. Scared. Excited," he flipped Luke’s words. "Mostly excited, though also a bit numb. I have a feeling it will take a while for the emotions to really hit."

Luke took a deep breath. So they were on the same page. That...that helped ease the stress.

"Alice threw a lot of questions at you there at the end."

Gage loosened his arms and took Luke’s hand, and they found a dry spot right on the edge of the lake. "Yeah, she did."

"What are your thoughts?" Luke deliberately framed his question as open ended as possible. He had grown up with the unfortunate habit of assuming everyone came at everything from the same mindset as he did, and it had caused some pretty intense misunderstandings. It had taken a while to train himself to approach things with an open attitude, and he still failed. And even though he kept his questions open, people still astounded him when they came at problems and issues with a completely different view than he did. But he was learning.

"Is it too late to run away?" Gage asked.

"Not if you take me with you." Luke bumped his shoulder. That, at least, Luke could understand. Feeling like you wanted to run away and leave the mess for other people to deal with. But he knew Gage wouldn't. And neither would Luke. Running would feel worse in the end.

Gage sighed and laid his head on Luke’s shoulder, then skootched closer to wrap his hands around Luke’s middle. "This is crazy," he said.

"You're telling me. And I highly doubt there's a bump there yet. There's no way I could be more than three weeks along."

"I know everyone always says there's no good time for a baby..."

"But this is a really awful time?" Luke finished his sentence.

"Yeah, basically."

"I know. But, I don't know, maybe in some ways it makes some options clearer? Like, there are definitely things we're not going to do."

"Right," Gage nodded. "Like there's no way I will mate you while I'm still a member of the Cherry Creek pack right now."

That surprised Luke. "Really?"

"You know my pack is more old fashioned. I can't imagine you staying home all day to cook and clean and teach the children."

Luke shuddered at the thought. "Fair point." He hadn't considered the logistics of actually getting mated as he assumed, given from Gage’s attitude until now, that was a ways in the future. It wasn't uncommon for wolves to mate soon after meeting each other, but Gage moved slowly, and Luke appreciated that about him even as it frustrated the hell out of him. But it was looking like the baby was going to speed up their timeline a bit. But should it? 

"You realize you don't have to mate me just because I'm pregnant," Luke said. It killed him to say the words. If that was where Gage's head was, then it was extremely important to say it. Luke didn't want to get stuck in a relationship filled with resentment.

"I wouldn't," Gage said, wrapping his arm around Luke. "But the baby has definitely prompted an evaluation of my priorities."

"Like?" Luke couldn't help but prompt.

"Like the feasibility of staying with Cherry Creek. Even if Mark isn't targeting Sean, and if he wasn't the reason my parents died, I've been unhappy there for a while. I think my parents were too. They'd just started to open up with me about some of the disagreements they'd been having with the pack, and it seemed like it had been going on a while. I was so relieved for Jess when she found Cole."

"Thanks to Sean, right?" Luke rocked into Gage.

"Yes, thanks to Sean. And I found you thanks to him, too."

Luke could hear the fond exasperation in his voice. "What's it like to have a kid brother who knows more about your love life than you do?" he teased Gage.

"He better not know more about my love life anymore," Gage growled, nibbling on Luke’s ear. "He's not allowed to watch Rated R movies yet. And I don't even want to think about anything beyond that." He made a hacking sound and shivered.

Which, honestly, was probably the best policy. Luke wasn't sure how well seers could control their focus, but Sean seemed smart enough to know when to keep certain information to himself, so if that was one of the things he couldn't help but see, Luke trusted him to never let on. And he certainly would never ask.

Turning back to the real topic, Luke asked, "So if you don't intend on me joining Cherry Creek, what are you thinking?" He had his suspicions, but he didn't want to force his expectations on Gage.

"I think I'm going to accept your alpha's offer."

Luke couldn't suppress his yell of excitement and he turned to tackle Gage in a hug. He was relieved to see a real smile crinkling Gage’s eyes. 

"I thought you might like that."

"Not going to lie," Luke said, in between peppering Gage with kisses, "the excitement is kind of turning me on."

"Are you sure that's not the pregnancy hormones?" Gage joked, before claiming Luke’s lips in a strong, slow kiss.

Luke gasped when Gage broke away for air. "Maybe part hormones. Mostly excitement, I think, though."

"Hmm, whatever it is, I want to take advantage of it for a while. We've decided at least one of our major questions for now. The others can wait." His eyes smoldered with growing passion.

Luke sighed like it was an imposition. "I suppose, if we must." But he certainly didn't argue when Gage flipped him to his back and kept Luke quite occupied until dinner.