Landon

I had no idea what to do. I didn't want to make Mark any angrier than he already was, but he needed help. He needed to see a doctor and he needed someone to be with him. Not because he was weak or couldn’t handle the pregnancy on his own, but because he deserved to be taken care of. He didn’t have to do this on his own. But I didn’t have any idea how to convince him of that.

I knew he didn’t have food poisoning or the flu or anything like that. He was already starting to show. Pregnancies for omegas were a lot different than they had been for beta or omega females. When a female became pregnant—before the pandemic that caused all women on the planet to become sterile—they had the standard nine months of steadily growing belly, hips, and breasts. In omega males, the gestation period only lasted five months and everything happened very quickly. It was basically pregnancy on steroids. And after just two weeks I could already see Mark’s belly popping out over the top of his suddenly too-tight jeans.

"What about your brother?" I asked as we headed out to the cruiser.

"What about him?" Mark snapped.

There was that defensiveness again. He’d been like that for weeks. I’d been wanting to say something every minute of every day, but I could tell it would only make Mark angry. If only he would let me touch him, I knew I could make him feel better. I knew that my energy would calm him and make this all so much easier.

But I wasn't going to do anything without his permission. Not after what happened that night. Even though he was the one who came on to me, I could have stopped everything. I could have been a better person and told him we should wait. If I had—if I had just been able to control myself—he wouldn’t be averting his eyes every time I looked at him.

So now there was no way I was going to force anything on him. Even if he was carrying my baby. The only thing I could do was try to talk to him—show him that I cared what happened to him. That was all I could think to do to help Mark through this. That and hope that he would come to his senses and let me take care of him.

"Well, he's a doctor. Maybe he can tell you what's going on."

“I’m not going to see my brother."

"Why not? You need to see someone, Mark, and he’s family. He can help you.”

"Why? Why am I the one that needs to see someone? It's not fair."

I opened the cruiser door and slid behind the wheel. “You’re not even making sense, Mark. We both know why you need to see a doctor. So you can either pretend like you don't know what’s going on, or you can act like an adult and go get yourself checked out. Because either way you choose to deal with this, we both know what's coming out of you in four months."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Mark mumbled as I backed out of the parking space. “It could be anything. What makes you so sure?"

“Well, for one thing, you smell very different to me.”

Mark’s entire body stiffened up and his hands clenched up into fists like the other day. “Like what? What do I smell like?”

I smiled and chuckled a little. “Well, ever since you’ve been using that pheromone suppression body wash, or whatever the hell it is, you smell like one of those tree-shaped car deodorizers.”

“Gee thanks,” Mark said. “What did I smell like before that?” His voice had softened a little and sounded curious. Almost like a little kid. It was a huge relief after all the gruffness and anger of the last weeks.

I paused for a moment, letting my mind go back to that night, even though I knew it was dangerous. “Like a summer breeze blowing through a fruit orchard. Sweet and fresh and … so fucking amazing,” I said, closing my eyes for a second before I remembered I was driving. “I’ve never smelled anything like it … like you,” I said, looking over at Mark. He was actually facing me, actually making eye contact.

“That’s it?”

“Isn’t that enough?” I said, laughing out loud. “Look, Mark, I could feel it. Not just that something about you was different, but that …”

“What?” he asked, his body starting to relax a bit.

“It felt like … when we were together … that we belonged together. That we fit together perfectly.” As those words came out of my mouth I stared straight ahead at the road in front of me. Now I was the one that couldn’t make myself turn to face him. “And I don’t understand why you don’t feel it too.”

Mark didn’t say anything, and even though telling him what I’d been feeling for weeks was hard, I kept going. “I’ve never reacted to anyone like I reacted to you that night, Mark. And I’ve never knotted inside anyone … ever.”

“You knotted inside me? You didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t really get the chance. I know I should have, but you haven’t been that easy to talk to these last couple weeks. But that’s why I’m sure, Mark. I know you’re pregnant with my baby. And since your brother is an omega gynecologist, I figured—”

"I told you, Landon, I’m not talking to my brother, so forget about that. This is humiliating enough as it is without bringing him into it."

Hearing Mark say those words was like taking a knife to the chest. I didn’t know if he was just humiliated by the fact that he was pregnant, or if it was also because the baby was mine. I knew that this was a big change for Mark to be going through, but it didn’t even occur to me that the reason he didn’t want to talk to his brother was because he was embarrassed.

I drove silently for a while, trying to catch my breath because I had almost made a complete fool out of myself. I had almost pulled the car over, grabbed Mark and told him how I felt. I wanted so badly for him to know that in the last two weeks I've gone from seeing him as my best friend in the world to being madly in love with him. But there was no way I could do that now. Not if this whole thing—including my involvement—was a big embarrassment to him.

“You got it,” I said as I gripped the steering wheel. “I won’t bother you about it anymore.” But even as those words came out of my mouth I knew they weren’t true. There was no way I could sit by and let Mark go through all this alone, even if he didn’t want me to have anything to do with the pregnancy or the baby. I’d have to find some way to help him, even if I had to go against his wishes. I couldn’t sit by and watch him suffer like this. It was killing me to see him so miserable.

I promised myself I wouldn’t say anything more that day, but the subject was going to come up again. It was going to be obvious to everyone down at the precinct very soon that Mark was carrying a baby, and when that happened, he would have to let me help him.

* * *

After questioning some suspects that seemed loosely connected to the fertility clinic arsons, we responded to a call on a stolen car parked outside an abandoned warehouse. That was starting to sound like the m.o. of the fringe group that was under suspicion. They seemed to be squatting, or at the very least spending a lot of their time, in some of the abandoned warehouses in Old Town.

After we ran a check on the plates, a big part of me wanted to tell Mark to stay in the car—that it would be no big deal for me to run in and check things out. But I knew there was no way that was going to fly. We both got out of the car and quickly moved up against one of the walls near some dumpsters. I didn’t know if there was anyone inside, but after what went on at the last empty warehouse, I wanted to play it safe.

“You wanna take the front or the back?” he asked as he reached under his jacket and pulled out his gun.

“We could go in the front entrance together,” I said, trying to sound natural—like I’d ever said anything like that to Mark in the five years we’d been on the streets together. “There’s probably no one in there.”

“You’re joking, right? What if there is? They’ll see us both coming in and head out the back.” Mark scowled at me for a moment, then continued. “I’ll go around back. Give me a minute to get down the alley.”

I stood there behind the dumpster and watched Mark head down the narrow space between the two dark buildings, then disappear around the corner. I knew he would be pissed, but I got on my phone and asked for backup. I had a bad feeling about those guys that had taken shots at me last time, and we were within blocks of that warehouse.

After I made the call, I headed down the alley and followed the path Mark had taken to the rear entrance. I knew it wasn't a very effective way to go after these criminals if they were actually in there. But suddenly I was way more interested in making sure my mate was safe.

Just as I turned the corner of the building, I noticed a metal door closing. That had to have been Mark. I ran up before the door shut and grabbed it, then slipped into the dark building without making a sound. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but before they did, a massive blast of gunfire filled the room.

I jumped behind a column and looked around the dark room to see if I could locate Mark or any of the shooters. As my eyes got used to the low light, I spotted Mark behind another column just ten feet way. The shooters had obviously spotted him too because that column was getting completely blitzed by gunfire. I couldn’t see where the shooters were, but I could tell from the angle of the chunks of cement that were falling off the column that they were up above us. They had to have been somewhere on the scaffolding that surrounded the main floor.

Mark looked right at me and gave me a hand gesture that seemed to ask what the hell I was doing there. I motioned for him to stay where he was, then stepped away from the column and aimed high. I quickly spotted one of the shooters and pegged him with my first shot. Then I jumped back behind the column.

I watched in horror as Mark did the same thing. He stepped out from behind his column and fired up into a section of the building that I couldn’t see. I reacted within seconds. I’m not sure there was a single thought in my head other than to protect my mate at all costs. Pure alpha instinct came over me as I ran towards Mark and lunged at him, grabbing him around the shoulders and bringing him down to the ground so that I could cover his body with mine.

It felt like everything was happening in slow motion. As soon as our bodies hit the ground, I watched two bullets put massive holes in the column right where Mark had been standing. I rolled over and aimed my gun where the shots had come from, and after squeezing the trigger five times in quick succession brought a second shooter down. I glanced wildly around the room, aiming my gun in every corner until I was sure that the threat of more bullets raining down around us was completely gone.

I lay there, trying to catch my breath for a minute when I heard Mark scramble to his feet.

"What the fuck, Landon?" he yelled. I looked up at him and his eyes were filled with fury. “I’m not even capable of doing my job anymore? Is that what you think? You have to fucking protect me?”

"No, that's not it all! You don't understand, Mark—“

"Oh, I understand, all right,” he said as he brushed his clothes off. "I understand that I'm a second-class citizen to you now, just like to everyone else. All I am to you is an omega that needs to be made pregnant, then swept aside so he can take care of the house and kids!” Mark yelled as he stalked to the metal door we’d come in through. He pulled the door open, then turned around and looked right at me. “Well, you can go straight to hell!” Mark kicked the door so that it crashed into the wall before it slammed shut, causing a thundering echo to bounce off the walls of the empty warehouse.

After he disappeared outside, I sat up and put my head in my hands. I didn’t understand how something I’d wanted for so long could be going so incredibly bad.