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  SLOW BIRTH

  (Heat of Love, Book 2.5)

  Leta Blake

  An Original Publication from Leta Blake Books

  Slow Birth (Heat of Love #2.5)

  Written and published by Leta Blake

  Cover by Dar Albert

  Formatted by BB eBooks

  Copyright © 2019 by Leta Blake Books

  All rights reserved.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and locations are either a product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious setting. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or people, living or dead, is strictly coincidental or inspirational. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written consent from the author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  First Digital Edition, 2019

  Kindle Edition

  ISBN: 9781626227835

  Other Books by Leta Blake

  Any Given Lifetime

  Mr. Frosty Pants

  The River Leith

  Smoky Mountain Dreams

  Angel Undone

  The Training Season Series

  Training Season

  Training Complex

  Heat of Love Series

  Slow Heat

  Slow Birth

  Alpha Heat

  Bitter Heat

  ’90s Coming of Age Series

  Pictures of You

  You Are Not Me

  Co-Authored with Indra Vaughn

  Vespertine

  Cowboy Seeks Husband

  Co-Authored with Alice Griffiths

  The Wake Up Married serial

  Will & Patrick’s Endless Honeymoon

  Gay Fairy Tales

  Co-Authored with Keira Andrews

  Flight

  Levity

  Rise

  Leta Blake writing as Blake Moreno

  The Difference Between

  Heat for Sale

  Leta Blake writing as Halsey Harlow

  Stay Lucky

  Stay Sexy

  Omega Mine: Search for a Soulmate

  Bring on Forever

  Audiobooks

  Leta Blake at Audible

  Free Read

  Stalking Dreams

  Discover more about the author online:

  Leta Blake

  Gay Romance Newsletter

  Leta’s newsletter will keep you up to date on her latest releases and news from the world of M/M romance. Join the mailing list today. Click here to sign up!

  Leta Blake on Patreon

  Become part of Leta Blake’s Patreon community in order to access exclusive content, deleted scenes, extras, bonus stories, rewards, prizes, interviews, and more. Click to find out more!

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to the following:

  Patreon and all of my patrons there. I wrote this as a gift for them, and I hope all readers of this series enjoy it, too!

  Mom & Dad

  Brian & Cecily

  Kim V for her friendship and understanding

  Keira Andrews for her generous friendship and handholding on the regular

  A.M. Arthur for loving the Heat of Love universe so much that she made up her own Omegaverse books. Look for Breaking Free!

  Devon Vesper for her dedication to this series and this book, and for her outstanding editing work

  And thank you to my readers who make all the blood, sweat, and tears of writing worthwhile! You all have my heart!

  Jason and Vale are back in this side story set in the Heat of Love universe!

  A romantic getaway turns dramatic when an unexpected heat descends on Vale, leaving Jason with no choice but to act.

  The resulting pregnancy is dangerous for Vale and terrifying for Jason, but with the help of friends and family, they choose to embrace their uncertain future. Together they find all the love, joy, and heat they need to guide them through!

  While this story follows the characters from Slow Heat, it will be most enjoyed if read directly after Alpha Heat, as it takes place contemporaneously with that story.

  For my passionate patrons

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Other Books by Leta Blake

  Gay Romance Newsletter

  Leta Blake on Patreon

  Acknowledgements

  About the Book

  Dedication

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Part Two

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Part Three

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Letter from Leta

  About Slow Heat

  About Alpha Heat

  About Heat for Sale

  Gay Romance Newsletter

  Leta Blake on Patreon

  Other Books by Leta Blake

  About the Author

  PART ONE

  Mountain Heat

  CHAPTER ONE

  The cabin looked almost nothing like Vale remembered it. The swing on the front porch he’d enjoyed as a child was still there, and the slope in the back he’d gone sledding down more than once was as steep as ever, but everything else about his parents’ old retreat in the mountains had undergone a complete overhaul in every way.

  Vale’s mouth hung open as he walked through the main rooms of the remodeled chalet. The renovators made the windows bigger, the doors taller, and the furniture more luxurious than his parents could have ever afforded. The appliances in the kitchen were even nicer even than the new ones Jason had installed in their home back in the city.

  “Do you like it?” Jason asked, swooping in behind Vale with their overnight bags and a kiss to the back of his neck. “Is it too much?”

  “No, it’s…” Vale trailed off, unable to wrangle a word to describe the place, which was pretty sad for a professor of literature and a published poet. He huffed and rubbed at his arms.

  “Too fancy?”

  “It’s lovely.”

  Vale’s in-laws—Jason’s parents, the Sabel-Hoffs—had money and taste. Two things Vale’s parents (wolf-god keep them both) had definitely lacked. Vale liked to think of his and Jason’s cluttered home on Oak Avenue as quaint, but if he were honest, it was just a mess.

  This renovation was the work of the Sabel-Hoffs, and while he couldn’t complain about any aspect, it was a little bittersweet, nonetheless. It didn’t feel like it was his anymore. And, most likely, it wouldn’t be for long. This was a final trip to say goodbye before they placed the chalet on the market and the funds from the sale deposited in an account that was ostensibly Vale’s. Though technically, it, like everything of his since they contracted, would be Jason’s.

  As Vale stood aimlessly in the living room, gazing at the familiar view, Jason moved deeper into the chalet to put their things away in the master bedroom. Vale wasn’t sure he was ready to look quite yet. His parents’ old, rundown bed, rocker, and chest of drawers would be long gone, and his old little room, which had consisted of a twin bed with a star quilt, would have been overhauled, too.

  He wondered what had become of the quilt.

  “So?” Jason said, returning to the living room emptyhanded with a worried expression on his face. “Talk to me. We don’t have to sell it, you know. If you wan
t to, if you like it, or it’s important to you, then we can keep it. Just say the word.”

  Vale rubbed his arms again. The air in the cabin was cold, and yet he felt hot. Emotions did weird things like that, he found. “Everything’s so new. There isn’t even any dust yet.”

  “If we keep the place,” Jason said with a wink, “I’m sure you can easily change that.”

  Vale stuck out his tongue like a child. Housekeeping wasn’t his forte, no. But neither of them enjoyed having beta servants in their space. Jason hadn’t grown up that way, and neither had Vale, so they were on the same page as far as that went. Which also meant they lived in a grimy state of moderate disrepair by Jason’s parents’ standards—fine, by most of society’s standards. But they were happy, so neither of them particularly cared.

  “Vale,” Jason whispered, stepping closer. “Did we go too far? Change it too much?”

  Vale shook off his maudlin feelings and gave Jason a smile that went far to relieve his baby alpha’s worry. “Nonsense. It’s beautiful. It was a rundown hovel before. Take me back to the bedrooms. I’d like to see the changes there.”

  Jason’s fingers were warm and strong as he took Vale’s hand and tugged him along the hallway. “This way, then.”

  Originally there’d been three rooms at the back of the chalet. One had been Vale’s small room, a second had been used as his father’s office when they summered up here, and the third had been the master bedroom—the domain of his father and pater, boasting the best views of the mountains.

  “We combined these two rooms,” Jason said, motioning to his right. “They were both so small by today’s standards that the architect thought it would be easier to sell the place if we combined them for a bigger space.”

  He opened the door, and Vale peered in. The far side of the room would have been his original bedroom, and he saw that the renovators removed the rose wallpaper his pater had put up for him when he was young. The side of the room closer to the door featured a big window that his father’s desk used to sit under, though it, too, had been enlarged. They had painted the walls a bright, clear cream color, and the space fairly glowed with the light coming in from the windows. There was a bed, also with cream coverlets, and a modern chest of drawers along with a matching desk, table, and a mint green settee completing the space. Simple, lovely. Nothing like his old summer home.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured again before pulling his head back out and straightening his shoulders, steeling himself for the next bit.

  “And this way is the master bedroom, of course. We’ll stay in here.”

  Vale stepped into the room this time and blinked at the change. The window that overlooked the most spectacular view now took up the whole wall. The entire back section of the cottage had been removed to allow maximum exposure to the glorious whitecapped mountains and the crystal blue lake.

  He sucked in a breath, almost unable to draw his eyes away until Jason swept his hand around the room and said, “This is where we’ll sleep tonight.”

  Vale pressed a hand to his mouth as he took in the big bed. Not his parents’ bed, that’s for sure, but in the middle of it was his old star quilt, worked into a larger quilt that covered the massive mattress. “Oh. That’s my…”

  “I know,” Jason said, touching Vale’s shoulder. “We’ll take that with us when we go. Unless you want to keep this place, and then I guess it can stay.”

  “You thought of that?” Vale wasn’t surprised. Jason was the most thoughtful of alphas.

  “No, Pater did. But I thought it was a great idea when he mentioned it. We’d come up together to see what he thought regarding the place’s potential, and he spotted the quilt on what must have been your bed. He thought you might like to have it.”

  Vale smiled. Miner was a good pater-in-law, even if he was sometimes annoyingly demanding of Jason’s time. But who wouldn’t be? Jason was perfect and wonderful. Vale was demanding of Jason’s time, too. “Thank him for me.”

  Finally, he tore his eyes away from the quilt and looked around the rest of the room. Miner had clearly had his hand in this as well. The furniture was expensive, modern, and perfectly tasteful. Aside from the big bed, there was an armoire, a tan chaise lounge, a writing desk, and a vanity with a mirror.

  “The bathroom got an overhaul, too,” Jason said, opening the en suite door and flipping on the light. “A big tub and a natural shower.”

  Vale saw what Jason meant by natural when he entered to find that, like in the bedroom, an entire wall of the bathroom was now glass. A sliding glass door in the shower allowed someone to open it and step naked into nature if they wanted. Vale laughed under his breath. Of the two of them, he was more likely to use that feature. Though, perhaps not this trip. The weather was already so chilly.

  He lifted his shirt and let in a waft of that cold air, hoping he cooled down soon.

  “The laundry is behind the kitchen, and we added a separate outbuilding for all the storage.”

  “It’s stunning,” Vale said, taking Jason’s hand and pulling him out of the bathroom and down the hallway. “Let’s get the groceries in before they spoil, and then we can take a walk around the property. I can show you all my old haunts.”

  “I’d love that.” Jason lifted Vale’s hand to his mouth and kissed his fingers. “I want to see everything from your point of view.”

  Vale turned at the doorway and pulled Jason close. “And I want to share it all with you.”

  Every day with Jason was new and beautiful. They rarely argued and still desperately fucked. He knew that Érosgápe were obsessed with each other in ways few other humans could understand. But now he knew for himself how beautiful it could be, and he couldn’t imagine the emptiness of living any other way.

  Jason’s scent, his laugh, his very way of breathing made Vale tingle with lust and shake with love, and when they came together physically, the world meant nothing outside of the pleasure they took in each other’s arms.

  Bittersweet or not, being at the cabin with Jason more than made up for any sense of loss he had in the changes made. Being with Jason was always perfect.

  Jason loved the way the cool air made Vale’s pale skin pink up. His Érosgápe’s cheeks were rosy, and his eyes glowed as they finished their trek around the mountain property.

  “The lake was always too far to go alone,” Vale was saying. They followed the winding path of the babbling spring that led down to the bright blue waters below. The trees overhung the area with fading green leaves, autumn coming on soon. “But I played in this brook all the time. I’d turn over the rocks looking for creatures. I bet little Jason would have loved to play here with me.”

  “He would have.” Jason loved playing anywhere with Vale now.

  Vale knelt beside the fresh stream and took the clear water into his palms and splashed his face and beard. He gasped when the shock of the water soaked into his beard and grinned up at Jason. “Here, you do it.”

  “No way. It’s freezing out here as it is.” Jason laughed and held Vale’s coat out to him. “Put this back on before you catch your death.”

  “You’re acting like your pater,” Vale said with a wink. Then he frowned. “You’re really not hot at all?”

  “No! It’s cold as wolf’s own hell, and you’re being ridiculous. Here.” He shook the coat at Vale again.

  Vale slid it on but didn’t button it, his brow furrowing thoughtfully.

  “What?”

  “We’re going back to the city tomorrow?” Vale asked, looking up at the sky and then around at the tall, creaking trees.

  “That was the plan. But if you want to stay a few days, we can.”

  “No,” Vale said quickly. “I think it’s best if we go back tomorrow.”

  “Oh.” Jason didn’t exactly know why, but he felt a bit crestfallen. It was only now, in this exact moment, that he realized he’d held out hope that Vale would fall in love with the work on the cabin and they could stay to fuck sweetly for a few days—a second
bonding-moon of sorts—and returning for sexy vacations throughout the year. He knew Vale loved the sea as much as he did, but whenever they went on those trips, so many others insisted on coming along. He’d imagined this place as a retreat for just the two of them.

  Vale, of course, sensed his change of mood and turned, taking his hand. His palm was rather warm, but it was probably from all the walking. Vale was a sedentary sort, usually. It was remarkable he managed to stay so trim. Good genes probably. “It’s beautiful, and I want to come back,” Vale said. “It’s just that there’s business I need to attend to in the city.”

  “What kind of business?” Jason asked.

  Vale shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

  A bear then lumbered out of the woods only a short distance away, and Jason grabbed Vale, placing a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. They stared intently at the bear as it lumbered into the stream, took a drink, and then headed off in the opposite direction from the house.

  “I can’t believe your pater and father let you play alone out there when there are bears!” Jason said when they’d safely reached the house again.

  “I don’t remember seeing any when I was young,” Vale said. He laughed and immediately pulled his coat off as soon as the door was open. He slung it over a chair as was his wont, and Jason scooped it up to hang on the coat rack by the door. “I must have been too loud and scared them off with all my fantasy games.”

  Jason gathered Vale close, relief and anxiety threading together. “You’re safe,” he reassured Vale. Though, really, he was reassuring himself.

  Vale kissed his neck. “Oh, baby alpha, you’re so sweet.”

  “Do that again, and we won’t have dinner for hours,” Jason murmured, sliding his hands down to cup Vale’s ass. “I’ve wanted to get you out of these clothes and see how your body likes the fresh air ever since we arrived.”

  “See how my body likes the fresh air?” Vale laughed again. “I’m sure my body is exactly the same as when I arrived.”