“Could you please stop pacing? You're wearing my rug thin and making me dizzy. I think even Betty is going to be dizzy.” My dog was watching my mate walk circles in the living room with the most perplexed look I'd ever seen on a dog.

“I can't help it,” Nick moaned, throwing his hands up. “I'm nervous. Why hasn't Dean called me yet? He said he would call as soon as the asshole was gone.”

“I'm sure he'll call any minute now.”

“Why are they taking so long?” Nick asked, exasperated. He was right, Rhys and his husband were taking quite some time to talk things out. Dean had let us know when the jerk arrived nearly two hours ago, and then we'd left for the birthing class Nick's friend Kade had signed us up for. I had no doubt that Rhys had timed this meeting exactly so we wouldn't be around when jerkface showed up. It was probably for the best; I might not have been able to stop myself from punching the sad excuse for a man if I saw him around.

But we'd gotten back from birthing class now and it seemed they still weren't done.

“We could start painting the nursery to distract ourselves,” I suggested, without much hope.

As expected, Nick shot the idea down. “As if I could focus on that now.”

I nodded. Birthing class had been a disaster too. When the instructor told Nick to focus, he snapped and refused to go on until I took the role of the partner giving birth for a while.

Let's just say that I was glad that wasn't really going to happen because I would probably just pass out during birth. Whoever said omegas weren't tough didn't know a thing about labor and delivery.

Speaking of omegas, though, I might just have something to distract Nick after all. “How would you feel if I told you I got the last chapter of the comic book script ready?”

“You do?” Nick whirled around to stare at me. “You said you didn't know how to end it yet!”

“I had some time to think when you and Kade took his kids out for ice cream yesterday.” Summer was upon us now and Nick claimed all the baby inside him wanted to eat anymore was ice cream.

“You were supposed to be at work.”

“I did work. On the comic.” I grinned at the incredulous look on his face that soon turned into one of excitement. He was really into our comic project. I was glad I could come up with a story he liked. It truly was a collaboration, though. I hadn't read too many comic books and didn't know the conventions of the genre as well as Nick, which made his feedback on the storyline invaluable.

“What did you come up with?”

“Oh, I thought our superhero could taunt the alpha villain so his big ego makes him overlook the trap the omega laid out in the second-to-last chapter. Or is that not epic enough?” I took the storybook pages out of my desk's drawer and showed them to him. “I figured we could have a showdown on the last few pages.”

Nick ripped the pages from me and looked through them, his eyes flying over the lines and crude drawings. “You know, I really don't mind how it ends as long as the villain gets his face smashed in,” he said honestly. “He deserves every bad thing that's coming to him.”

I had to agree with him there. We'd made the guy a total scumbag. And if his beliefs lined up with those of the Vinists in a way… Well, that was total coincidence. “This is perfect.” Nick set the pages down on the desk. “I wish I was a superhero,” he declared on a sigh.

I gave him a short kiss. “You're growing a tiny human in your belly. That makes you a superhero to me.”

“You know that's not what I mean,” he said, but I got him to smile anyway.

Before I could say anymore, his phone rang. Finally. Nick spent about five minutes on the phone with his brother and his smile didn't falter—a good sign, I hoped.

“The asshole's gone,” Nick told me when he was done and I swore I saw every little muscle in his body relax as the tension drained from him. “No one's hurt.”

“That's good.” I gathered my mate in my arms, knowing he could use the support even if nothing bad had happened. The whole day had been stressful and he complained that he wasn't getting enough sleep these days as the baby made him get up to pee all night.

“Yeah, really good.” Nick exhaled. “I hope Rhys doesn't want to see the guy again.”

“Me too. I hope that's the last we heard of the asshole.” Especially as we had other things to focus on now. I dipped my head to kiss Nick's cheek. “When you draw the last pages, I can pass the comic along to the publisher, get things going,” I said to cheer him up. “Perhaps we'll even hear back before the baby's born.” Although, maybe not. Nick had become huge. I felt like the kid could be born any day now, even though I knew we weren't due until the last week of August, which was still a month away.

“I don’t care what happens first,” Nick said. “I’m looking forward to both.”

“Yeah, so do I.” I pressed Nick closer to me, feeling that he was absolutely right. Who cared what came first? I was looking forward to both, the birth of our kid and to embarking on a new adventure in publishing with Nick.

I was looking forward to spending the rest of my life with him.