Page 58 of Alpha’s Conquest

“I’m right,” Jace guessed in a soft voice, giving me an encouraging smile. “Who was it? The one that made you afraid to love?”

“My ex-husband.” My eyes drifted to the sleeping baby and Jace’s belly. “I couldn’t give him children, and he got rid of me.” I slowly touched my stomach under the table. I thought I’d moved past all the pain over what Josh did to me, but it appeared one final scar had lingered all this time. I stared at my phone screen, my message to Marshall already forming in my mind.

Jace’s phone buzzed, and he quickly checked the screen. “It seems Alice‌ had her phone confiscated because she kept looking at houses for sale in town. I should get back to them before she quits her job at the museum and moves us all here.” We both got up and threw away our empty cups. With that done, Jace held his phone out. “I need your number. I need some new friends, and I suspect you might as well.” I typed in my number and passed the phone back. “Awesome. I will be blowing you up, so be prepared for that. Whenever we’re back in Hanford, we should get dinner. You can hear all about the craziness that happened when I met my husband.” Readjusting his son, he reached back to rub his spine. “Ahh,” he sighed in relief. “Preston barely knew how to roll over when I got pregnant again. I told Desmond we should wait a few years, but then I missed my heat and…” He trailed off and brushed a hand over his belly. “Having an intense pheromone connection is all well and good until you end up pregnant for the rest of your life.”

We chuckled together, and my eyes drifted to his belly again. Missing a heat was one of the first real signs of pregnancy for omegas. It was almost impossible for us to go into heat if we were already pregnant.

Wait…

Jace said his goodbyes and left to catch up with his sisters while I remained frozen on the sidewalk, a silent statue, unable to move, to breathe, or even think.

When was my last heat?

How could I forget? It was when Adam came over for dinner and we spent the night together. That was almost five weeks ago. Five weeks. I should’ve had another heat since then. I’d been so distracted with everything going on, I didn’t even notice I missed one. I was more than a week late. I was never late.

Maybe I was sick. There were a few diseases that could make your heat stop, and none of them were good. I pulled my phone out to look it up, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The answer, for once in my life, had to be the most obvious one. But how? My doctor told me it was unlikely I would ever get pregnant. I’d accepted it, as difficult as it had been to do so. I couldn’t speculate. I couldn’t panic, as much as I wanted to. Hope was a forbidden emotion.

With my throat thick and my stomach churning, I found a drugstore and bought a pregnancy test. Those five minutes of waiting for the results were the longest of my entire life.

Two lines.

I was pregnant.

What if the test is broken? The box had two more tests inside. Another five minutes of waiting, and they were all positive, just like the first.

Numb, I threw away the evidence in the drugstore bathroom and walked back to Adam’s home, every step a struggle. It couldn’t be. This wasn’t happening. I told myself over and over that it wouldn't happen. I’d lost every hope, given up on every dream. I’d tossed those thoughts aside a long time ago. But it was happening. To me.

I stood at the front door for a few seconds, thinking about how I would tell him. What would he do? What would he say? Would he be disappointed? My shaking fingers turned the handle, and I stepped inside the warm, green house. Adam was cooking something in the kitchen. David stood on the other side of the counter, stealing bites of food when his father wasn’t looking.

Adam’s face lit up at the sight of me. “Casey! We’re making dinner…” He trailed off, his smile falling when he saw my expression.

“Smells delicious, doesn’t it?” David commented, his hands full of stolen hamburger crumbles.

I forced a smile. “I’m going to get washed up.” I made my way to the downstairs bathroom, my knuckles clenched, waiting for him to find me.

It only took a few minutes before Adam’s large frame filled the bathroom doorway. He came into the small room with me, the door cracked just in case anyone walked by. “What’s wrong? Did something happen? Are you okay?”

I swallowed hard and let it all go.

“I’m pregnant.”

THIRTY-ONE

Adam

Adam

Pregnant. I struggled to wrap my head around what he’d just said.

Casey gazed up at me with his innocent, doe-eyed look. “Adam?”

When I opened my mouth to respond, I saw someone standing by the door, peering in through the crack. Marshall. He heard every word. He was going to assume this baby was his. “Thank you for telling me.” Casey’s already timid expression fluttered with fear. He thought I was rejecting him. This isn’t how I wanted to react. I couldn’t tell Casey how I really felt with my son standing outside the door.

“Hey, Marshall!” David shouted, making Casey jump. His eyes darted to the cracked door, but Marshall was already gone.

Taking the one opportunity I had, I leaned down and kissed Casey’s forehead. I couldn’t let him leave thinking I was upset over this. I was anything but upset. He gave me a timid smile before I went back to the kitchen. My stomach was in knots as I stirred the food and finished dinner.

A baby. He was so certain, to the point of pain, that it was impossible. And now he carried my child.