'Marc!' We burst into his office, in no mood to wait around. I don't actually see much except for a quick glance at Randy hidden behind the Alpha, who is facing us with a dangerous glint in his eyes. It's clear we interrupted something.
Neither me nor Raph dare move for the moment. The air is full of tension as no on even so much as twitches. My eyes are trained on the Alpha's face, careful not to connect to his eyes, and my hand is securely around Raph's wrist.
It's only when I see Randy's hand on Marc's arm that he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and eventually relaxes his stature, but when Randy goes to step around him, Marc's hand comes around quicker than I can even compute to stop his mate from doing so. His protectiveness over Randy is ridiculously massive and I never experienced it before, so we will have to tread very carefully now.
'What do you want?'
I can tell he's still strung, so I don't move any closer, staying where I am.
'Someone was watching us by the lake.' I say immediately.
'What?' Marc's voice is sharp, almost angry.
'Just now. We came straight here. It wasn't anyone from the pack either, it must have been one of the scouts.'
He lets out an almost annoying sounding sigh.
'I can't do anything about that, you know that. Not now. They have the right to snoop, if we mention this, they will put a tighter leash on us as well.'
'Marc, let's get them out now.' I say pleadingly.
Raph next to me stiffens up, I can see him looking at me out of the corner of my eyes, but I don't turn to him.
'We can't push it anymore. They'll get suspicious eventually, it's better to do it now.'
'We can't.'
'But we're wasting time!' The moment the agitated words leave my mouth I know I've made a mistake. The room is dead silent and Raph's hand is around my wrist now instead. I keep my eyes ahead of me, feeling the dangerous tension in the room and I know I'm only alive because Randy intervened. He has both hands on his mate's arm, but the Alpha's muscles are tense and his face full of fury. I don't even dare breathe as I await what comes next.
'Get. Out.' He barely manages to articulate with his teeth pressed together and bared.
We don't immediately move, both Raph and I only taking small steps at a time backwards, never turning our backs to the Alpha and never making a hasty move.
The door shuts out the tension with a quiet click and I breathe out. We don't waste any time dawdling around and leave immediately. Right now, we shouldn't be even remotely close to the Alpha, so we decide to head home for now, our proper home.
'What were you thinking?!' Raph eventually sneers at me.
'I wasn't.' I say quietly. I know I was being stupid, but I couldn't help myself. Sometimes, being friends with the Alpha makes it hard to hold back when I have to.
'No shit. He could have killed you. He completely lost it in there.'
He is pacing now, up and down right in front of me in the middle of the woods.
'Calm down, it's fine.' I try to stop him from aimlessly marching and actually finishing the way home when he suddenly turns towards me.
'No, it's not fucking fine! I couldn't have protected you, we talked about this! What the fuck were you thinking trying to challenge an Alpha like that!'
'I wasn't chall-'
'The hell you weren't!'
'Okay, so maybe I was, but it was an unconscious thing, I just wanted to get my point across. I'd never challenge Marc.' I try to reason. I can see it's not working well, but he doesn't even grace me with an answer anymore and actually finally starts heading towards our house again.
On the way I try talking to him again and airing out some of the tension, but he wouldn't even let me touch him, let along acknowledge me, so I decide to play dirty.
'So... you're showing, huh?'
I slow down while I wait for the volcano to erupt and for him to beat me senseless. I look at his back as he immediately stops and mentally brace myself for impact.
Right as I'm getting to 2 in my mental countdown, he actually squats down, bends his head down and wraps his hands around his mid section.
'I am?'
I don't miss the obvious happiness in his voice and for a moment, I'm not actually sure how to deal with it. Instead of answering, I slowly circle him and then squat down at his side, facing him, with a bit of space between us. Taking my time, I study his face as he has his full concentration on where his giant belly is and I briefly wonder why he needs confirmation. It's not like he can deny it. I smile while I watch him be so happy by simply being with this unborn child and I watch the love radiating form his eyes and once again I find myself overcome with a yearning to see him carrying our baby in his arms.
'Yeah, you're showing. You're beautiful, the both of you.' I say quietly, but he hears me and looks up slightly, only for a giant, genuine smile to take over his features. It's so contagious I can't help but smile back and scoot over to hug him and our baby from the side.
He leans his head into my neck, my hand in his hair in the other one securely resting on his baby bump.
When I'm quiet and concentrating, I can pick up all three of our heartbeats, even though it isn't nearly as quiet as it is by the lake.
I close my eyes and hum in appreciation. Every time I wonder if leaving all those years ago was worth it, what I have in my arms is the only confirmation I need to know that it was.
However, suddenly the form in my arm starts moving and before I know it, I'm hugging a very pregnant - but even more beautiful for it - wolf to me. He whines quietly and in the process accidentally nips my skin with his teeth in the process.
I flinch back on habit and the next thing I know I have said giant wolf sitting in my lap and licking my neck, right where he'd broken the skin.
He only stops whining when I reassure him for the nth time that I'm fine and actually physically move him off me.
As I walk, he's right next to me, panting as we finally make our way home, sometimes running around me like an excited pup and I'm once again left to wonder whether his wolf actually has a personality of his own sometimes.
The moment we get home he falls over. Like a lead, straight to the side, full on falls over into our mattress. He looks up at me exhausted and I sigh.
'No wonder you're this tired. What are you doing running around like that when you're pregnant.' I say while turning to go check what we left in the kitchen.
'Well, you could have carried me.' I hear his stubborn reply. Apparently our little trouble maker decided to shift back.
'Not like you would have let me.' I turn back around to see him lying in the same position he fell into, just as a human. And so I stay where I am, lean against a tree root and stare, enjoying the show my unmoving mate is giving me just by lying there.
Eventually, I can't help but comment.
'You look delicious like that.' He's lying on his side, one leg stretched out and the other pull up a bit, with both of his arms above his head. He tilts his head towards me, hums and opens his previously closed eyes.
'Pregnant or lying here naked?' He asks, his eyes now trained on mine.
'Both' I say without hesitation, because somehow, with everyday he's pregnant, he's becoming even more beautiful and sexy.
'Well, would you like to return the favour?' he asks with a suggestive smirk and I decide to tease him a bit.
'I'm afraid I'm not nearly pregnant enough for that.'
As predicted, he scoffs, but then almost immediately, his smirk comes back.
'Well, why don't you let me change that?'
He pulls up his outstretched leg and slowly pulls it away from the other one, giving me an unrestricted view. I stare.
He doesn't say or do anything more, simply lies there, open and seemingly ready with his eyes on mine at all times.
I take a step towards him without losing eye contact.
'I swear, one of these days you are going to be the death of me.' I sigh, knowing exactly that I can't resist when he's being this playful and flirtatious.
I take another step towards my beautiful mate and I can feel the excitement building in both of us. It's in the air and all around us and it feels simply perfect.
With my next step I let my sweats drop to my feet and close the distance between us.
Immediately, I'm on my back. Of course.