Verena looped her arm through mine and led me out of the Alpha’s office, down a short hallway—not the public one, but one I soon realized connected to their apartment in the municipal building.

“Would you like something to drink?” she asked me as she led me through the door. “Juice, maybe? If you’ve got a pup coming, you’ll have to pay attention to your nutrition even more than ever.”

Lysoonka, did everyone know? “Thank you, I’m fine.” She looked doubtful, so I gave a polite grimace and added, “I don’t know if I could keep it down right now anyway.” It wasn’t entirely a lie—my stomach was churning like a washing machine.

“Then let’s go down to my sitting room and make ourselves comfortable.” She led me around a corner and down another hallway. We passed their formal living room, then another room I thought might have been the Alpha’s den, then another large room that was probably just for family. All the rooms had walls made entirely of glass, just like the Alpha’s office. The family room was at the corner of the building, so it had two. That was really all I took in about the place, though I could tell it was a step or three above even my parents’ apartment, and we weren’t particularly poor as packmembers went.

The room she led me to was small, but cozy and cool. Slatted blinds kept the sun out, and plump, comfortable-looking chairs invited me to curl up in them and relax. A long table ran down one wall and a set of shelves covered another. I peeked a little, trying not to look like I was prying. Mounds of cloth in all different colors filled the shelves. I saw faux fur and little plastic eyes, and stacks of thread, and bunch of other things I couldn’t identify before I was ushered into a seat near one of the windows.

“Now,” she said as she made herself comfortable on a chair beside me. “The bathroom is just across the hall, in case you start to feel unwell. This can be an unsettled time for your digestion. I know I spent an entire month with each of my pups planning how I could be no more than twenty feet from a bathroom at all times.” She smiled warmly at me, as if we shared a secret now and that made everything all right.

It didn’t. She was Alpha’s Mate and there was always more to them than met the eye. My mother had told me that when I was younger, wondering why an Alpha would mate an omega. I could see it in her now, how perfectly inoffensive she was, so kind and sweet you’d feel terrible if you lied to her or didn’t do the one little teensy thing she’d really appreciate it if you did.

At the same time, she was omega. She’d had five pups with an alpha. More than my own alpha mother, Verena knew what I was going through, what I could expect. Maybe even what I should, or could, do.

“I really don’t know who it was,” I started with, getting right to the throat of the matter. “I followed all the rules—I didn’t want to end my career this soon. I had plans. I wanted an apartment and to be able to pick my own mate when I was ready. The traditional path was never my future.”

Ma had raised me to be independent and I’d spent my entire life being told I didn’t have to let omega define me, but that it could be a wonderful thing when I was ready to embrace it. I was glad I’d been born in Nevada Ashes—in other packs, I was told, omegas mated early, sometimes even before they were legal adults, and that was their life and their only choice. Sure, some of us here took that route. But we also had the option of the houses, and the credits and freedom and power that gave an omega. I couldn’t imagine another life.

“Well, I don’t see why it needs to end, as such,” she mused, staring off into space. “I’ve been trying to convince the Alpha to let me set up a puppy-care center in one of the houses, or just behind them. Something that’s open longer hours, or even overnight. For the ones that want to keep working after they’ve had their pups. We lose too much good talent that way. But you know what alphas can be like, so darn traditional.” Her gaze fell on me again and I realized that, though I was a fellow omega and packmember of hers, I was also a lever for her to move her mate in the direction she wanted him to go. “I take it you don’t want to mate the alpha.”

I only just barely kept myself from making a huff of frustration. “I don’t know who the alpha is. I’ve never slept with a shifter. Not that I knew of, anyway. Apparently,” I gestured at my belly, “I’m not as good as telling the two of us apart as I thought I was.”

Verena pursed her lips and looked me up and down. “You know, people often put us omegas down as being too much swayed by our emotions. All instinct, no logic. But sometimes, if you listen to your instincts, they’ll lead you in the right direction. Tell me, what are your instincts saying about how you ended up pregnant? Which of the three does your body say it was?”

But I already knew: “David.” And suddenly I was so, so very angry with him. If he’d been in the room I would have gone straight for his throat. How dare he? How dare he put his pleasure above my future? I hoped he was having a good laugh about it now with his friends, because if I ever got my hands on him, I was going rip his heart out and stomp on it!

“At the very least, he should be brought to an awareness of his responsibilities in this. If he’s a feral, it might be possible for the Alpha to entice him to join us here. If he does have a pack, the Alpha will bring a council complaint against them and we can negotiate something from there.” She frowned. “They may demand you mate him.”

I stared at her, the anger still rumbling under my skin.

She laughed softly. “I’ll remind the Alpha that they already had their chance.” And just like that, the tone in the room changed. “I’ll leave it to your mother to sort out how to handle your work until you give birth. The omega bond will make it difficult for you to maintain your standing in the houses.” She gestured at my bracelet and I instinctively put a hand over it to protect it. “It’s better to take a leave and keep your rank than have it stripped for lack of performance. If you like, I can speak to her about this.”

I didn’t know what to say. It felt like I was caught in a flash flood, being tumbled over and over in the water and absolutely nothing I could do or say could save me from whatever was going to happen. Numbly, I nodded, then looked down at my hands. Suddenly, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was curl up in this too comfortable chair and sleep until it was all over and decided. “Thank you.” At least I still remembered my manners.

Verena leaned forward and put one of her hands over mine. “Don’t worry, dear. We’ll figure something out. In the meantime, you’re going to want to start on things for the baby.” She got to her feet and beckoned to me to so the same.

Curious, I followed her across the room, to stand in front of a set of shelves covered in skeins of soft yarn and bundles of fuzzy flannel cloth and denim and stretchy t-shirt material.

“Pick out a few balls of yarn and some cloth with patterns you like, we’ll start building you a supply of clothing for the pup. And curtains and blankets and all the other little things you’re going to need going forward. We’re a couple of months behind, but we’ll get you started anyway.” She showed me a cubby farther along the wall. “Put whatever you pick in here, that will all be yours and no one will touch it. We have a small group that gets together here in the morning to work on baby clothes.”

“I’m not very good at sewing,” I admitted, but I couldn’t help touching the downy softness of the balls of yarn and running my hands over the fabric.

“There will be people here to help you with that. And it’s nice to have other pregnant shifters to talk with, without the sires around to be made uncomfortable.” She giggled and winked at me, and it somehow made it all feel just a little more right. I knew at some level that in this she was being Alpha’s Mate, and seeing to the emotional health of the pack, but I realized I was also grateful for the help and the promise of support while I figured this out.

“Thank you,” I said slowly, my eyes roaming over the choices in front of us. “I’d love to come.”

“People usually start arriving around nine, once they’ve got the rest of the family off to school or work or what have you, and we usually break up just before lunch. You don’t have to come every day, though some do. It all depends on your schedule, of course. You might want to come more often to get caught up, but I’ll leave that to you and your mother to sort out.”

Ma. And Da. I held back a sigh and reached out to touch some of the fabric. “This is nice.”

“It is.” She promptly picked it up and dropped it in my cubby. “I recommend this one, as well.” And then the issues surrounding the unknown sire of my pup disappeared beneath a mountain of advice, and yarn, and cloth. And if I didn’t know what exactly my future was going to hold, I at least knew that my mornings from now until May would be spent doing my best to prepare for whatever it brought me.

I wasn’t entirely okay with that, but it was for the moment the best I could do.