“It’s so good to see you again.” I pulled Jace into a half hug—his pregnant belly preventing me from anything more. He looked so radiant.

“You too, my friend.”

We took our seats in the new bakery one of his friends from Omega House had started. Everything smelled and looked delicious, as anyone seeing my plate could attest to. A muffin, croissant, and éclair were a well-rounded breakfast... or so I tried unsuccessfully to convince myself.

“I…” Jace began reluctantly as I took a sip of my tea, the coffee snob in me unable to accept their drip coffee as a decent choice of beverage. “I wanted to apologize for disappearing all those years ago. I handled things poorly.”

I thought back to that day, the day our tests came in. I had never believed I’d be an alpha upon maturity, it just wasn’t who I was, but I held out hope I’d be a beta and have an easier path in my chosen field. But I had showed everyone who thought omegas couldn’t make good lawyers, at least briefly, as I graduated top in my class and poised for partner.

Jace, on the other hand, had been banking on being an alpha. He had scholarships lined up, his entire future planned out and everything had been yanked out from under him with that one little test result. We both dealt with the same thing differently, but lost contact along the way.

“You reacted the only way you could. Everyone knew you were an alpha.”

“Except I wasn’t.” He rubbed his belly as if to amplify his point.

“Exactly. No one could’ve handled it any better than you did.”

“You became a lawyer.”

“Not the same thing. I hoped I was an alpha, but was sure I was a beta. Big difference. Speaking of which—guess who got his reciprocity?” I’d gotten the email verification only an hour earlier and was about to explode if I didn’t tell someone, anyone. I wanted Parker to be the first, but I didn’t want to interrupt his work, so I was waiting until lunch time. Not that I didn’t have the text ready to send as soon as the clock struck noon.

“That’s amazing.” He popped the last of his muffin into his mouth, brushing the crumbs off of his growing belly. “And part of why I asked you here.”

“So not for my dashing good looks?” I laughed as I polished off the éclair.

“More to ask you to consider coming down to Omega House.”

Omega House was for omegas in need. That wasn’t me. Was he worried that Parker wasn’t a good match for me? He knew Parker outside of his relationship with me, so that made no sense.

“I’m happy with Parker.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Thanks” felt wrong. And “okay” even worse.

“No. Not that, dumbasss,” He threw his hands up in exasperation. “I mean to look around and see if you might consider applying for a new grant position we have.”

Grant positions, where salaries go to die and long hours are only matched by lack of respect in your professional community.

“I already have a job offer at Fisher & Finkel pending my reciprocity which is in. Partnership track.” It hadn’t been my first choice of firms, but given my connection to my father’s firm I was left with less choices than I would’ve liked. No one wanted to hire from their competition. That said, it was a solid offer in a place I could thrive. I hadn’t given them the definitive yes, but I was going to take it. I’d be a fool not to.

“Which is amazing, but please consider at least checking it out.”

A pleading pregnant childhood friend seemed to be my kryptonite.

“Tell me more.” I sighed as I dug into my muffin. Darn, I was hungry.

He preceded to tell me all about the new position. Its focus was on helping omegas at their facility. Many of them needed to get proper identification, to sever their legal ties to abusive alphas, to apply for emancipation, etc. All easy things any lawyer could do. As Jace explained it, the problem was not that there were no lawyers who could handle it, but that many of the omegas froze when an alpha probono lawyer strutted in. Jace’s hope was that having an omega would open the door so they could utilize the legal system to make their lives better.

I couldn’t find fault in his logic and found myself agreeing to meet with them the next day. It couldn’t hurt to check it out.

“I can’t even tell you how happy that makes me. And we even have a nursery for when the baby comes.”

“That’s not in our immediate plans.” I didn’t go into our past, it wasn’t the time nor the place.

“Oh,” Jace drank his tea down. “Sorry, I assumed with the tea and all the food and the glowing.”

“You’re fine,” I reassured. “It’s actually a good thing you brought it up. We need to pick a better date for the interview. I nearly forgot about my heat.”

“And when does it start?”Jace was looking far too smug for my liking.

“Personal much?” I sassed as he quirked his eyebrow. He wasn’t letting it go. “Fine. Tomorrow.”

“And you’re feeling all the pre-heat sensations so strongly you nearly forgot?”

He was right. Crap. I felt normal. Hungry, a bit tired from all my Parker time, but not at all the neediness that usually came right before my heat. Either something was wrong with me… or I was pregnant. Dare I allow myself to hope?

“I can’t be pregnant.” But even as I said it, I began to believe it was a lie. A baby. Was this my second chance with Parker?

“Did you have sex?”

“Yes. But not during my heat.” That hadn’t prevented my first pregnancy. Shit, that time I had never even had a heat.

“Then let me tell you a story.” And Jace went on to tell me all about his pregnancy as my mind wandered to how I might tell Parker.

The first time, I had come to him in tears, panicked about the future. This time would be different. This time we would celebrate and the tears would be happy, not fearful.

As my alarm went off at noon, I hugged Jace good-bye, promising to be at the meeting the next day and shot Parker my original text. I didn’t want to tell him until I was sure.

Off to the drug store I went.

I was going to be a dad. I could feel it.