Slow Birth Page 7

  The silence in the room echoed off the windows, and Jason came around the side of the chair to squeeze Vale’s shoulder in support.

  “Excuse me?” Xan said, blinking. “Did you say Vale is pregnant?”

  “I did.” Urho’s strong mouth drew into a straight line, and he regarded them all seriously. “This is obviously a problem, one that is both private and communal in that we all love and admire Jason and Vale, and will—”

  “What in wolf’s own hell, Jason?” Xan snapped, interrupting Urho again. “You know he can’t have children. Why would you knock him up?”

  Jason’s head and shoulders curved, but he didn’t let go of Vale’s shoulder as he said, “It was an accident.”

  “An accident?” Xan scoffed.

  Irritation flashed in Vale. No one could fault Jason for what happened. Not while he was around. Vale raised his palm. “What’s done is done. Now all that’s left is to deal with what’s happened.”

  “You’ll have an abortion, obviously,” Xan said, nodding firmly and casting an approving glance toward Urho.

  He’d been there when Urho had performed the surgery on Jason’s pater that had saved the man’s life four years earlier. He also knew that Urho was the doctor responsible for performing an abortion on Vale when he was a young, unmatched omega.

  “No,” Vale whispered. “That’s not going to happen this time.”

  “Excuse me?” Yosef asked, his white eyebrows shooting to his hairline. “What are you saying, Vale?”

  Rosen straightened where he sat, gripping Yosef’s hand until his knuckles went white. Xan looked a little woozy where he stood.

  “Please,” Jason whispered. “Please reconsider.”

  Vale shook his head. “Urho’s examined me, and he thinks—”

  “I don’t care what he thinks!” Jason exclaimed, coming around to kneel at Vale’s feet. “I only want you. I don’t need this from you. I don’t even want a ch—”

  Vale put a hand over his mouth. “Shush, before you say something you’ll regret.”

  Jason’s blue eyes went wet, and he ducked his head, resting his forehead on Vale’s knee. He shuddered as Vale ran his fingers through his blond hair soothingly. It was hard to be strong like this. He needed Jason to step up, to get past this, to support him. In time, he knew he would…until then, he’d offer what comfort he could.

  “I don’t understand,” Yosef said again. “Vale can’t survive a pregnancy. We all know that.”

  “Historically, that was true,” Urho said. “Before Jason.”

  “So, you’re saying things have changed?” Rosen murmured, lifting his chin. It was dark with late afternoon stubble and flecked with some blue paint he hadn’t entirely scrubbed free. In all likelihood, he’d been pulled away from his oil painting by Jason’s phone summons.

  Urho said, “For reasons that are best kept private, it does seem that there is a new elasticity to Vale’s scar tissue and passage that wasn’t there before. I have several theories as to why that is, but the fact remains that it is, unexpectedly, true.”

  “I can’t carry to full term, most likely,” Vale said as calmly as possible, wanting to minimize the sound of danger for Jason’s sake. But Jason scooted closer, burying his face further in Vale’s lap, his body shaking as Vale went on. “So, Urho will induce labor early, and we’ll hope the child survives.”

  “That’s sick,” Xan spat, widening his stance and glaring. “You can’t do that. Not to Jason.” He shot a pointed glance at Jason, where he curled by his Vale’s feet. “Look at him. Think of what losing you would do to him.”

  Vale’s heart softened. “I think of almost nothing else.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

  Vale barely restrained a flare of temper, but he managed to hold it back. “It hasn’t been an easy decision, but I trust Urho. He wouldn’t put the odds on me surviving if he didn’t believe it with his whole heart.”

  Jason lifted his head then, his face blotchy with tears and his mouth wobbly. “He doesn’t put odds on you surviving, he puts odds on you probably not dying, and that’s not at all the same thing.”

  “Darling, you can’t ask me to give this up. Unplanned as it was, as terrified as we both are, this is our only hope. This one, beautiful mistake that we’d never, ever make again.”

  “Don’t get poetic on me,” Jason whispered fiercely. “You’re willing to risk destroying yourself—us, me—for something that, according to Urho, is just a bundle of cells with a tiny little heartbeat.”

  “But he’s ours,” Vale said urgently. “Our bodies knitted together to make a new life. How can we choose to end it?”

  “You sound like Pater.”

  “No, your pater admitted he had no hope of living through the birth. I plan to follow all of Urho’s prescriptions to the letter. I intend to live to see our child born, to hold him and raise him into a fine young man. To see you reflected in him, and myself, too. I won’t be giving up so easily.”

  “So why are we here?” Yosef asked gently, his hands still twined with Rosen’s and his expression grave.

  “Because we’ll need your support,” Vale said. “Jason, especially.”

  “No, you, especially,” Jason whispered. “You must be cared for every moment of every day.”

  “Ridiculous. I’m not an invalid.” Vale shrugged. “Later, as the months pass, yes, I will need to be careful, but right now I’m as fit as a fiddle. I can continue my work—”

  “No!” Jason snarled, lifting his head and glaring up at him. “I won’t have those idiot alphas at Mont Nessadare scenting you and knowing you’re pregnant—that you’re fragile.” He shook his head hard. “You’ll take another leave of absence.”

  Vale soothed Jason again, bringing his head back into his lap and gently tracing his ear. “We’ll need your help,” Vale said, meeting everyone’s eye one by one. “I can’t say when or exactly how, but you’re the friends we know we can count on for anything.”

  “We’re always here for you,” Rosen agreed.

  “For you and Jason both,” Yosef said grimly.

  “You can count on me,” Xan added, lifting his chin. “For anything at all. If I can provide comfort or support, I’m happy to do it. And Caleb will want to help, too.”

  “Thank you,” Vale said as he rubbed Jason’s shoulders. “We’re struggling with this, but we’ll be all right.”

  Jason rose then, wiping a hand over his face, rubbing away tears. “We wanted you to find out from us directly, face-to-face.”

  “And your parents?” Yosef asked.

  “Already know,” Jason replied. The way he mashed his full lips together made it clear he didn’t intend to say more on that subject right now.

  Rosen and Yosef were the first to depart. Yosef hugged Jason and whispered to Vale about pulling legal paperwork together regarding his health care if Jason wasn’t able to make decisions. Vale nodded and then accepted a hug from Rosen, too.

  Urho offered to walk Rosen and Yosef out to catch their taxi.

  Xan approached them with a sympathetic smile before it slid away from him, revealing his discombobulated confusion.

  Vale leaned forward to grip Xan’s hand. “Don’t look like that. Jason will need your strength.”

  Xan huffed. “Not half as much as he needs you, period. But I’ll do what I can.”

  Vale smiled and turned to Jason. “Why don’t you walk Xan out? If it’s all the same to you, I’ll stay here and get comfy by the fire.”

  “Are you cold?” Jason asked, his voice strained with emotion and thwarted need to caretake. Vale wasn’t cold, but he said nothing and let Jason grab a throw blanket from the leather sofa. It was important Jason be allowed to care for him now to soothe their mutual fears, and so he smiled lovingly as Jason carefully draped the blanket over Vale, taking his time to wrap him up and tuck the blanket in carefully.

  Zephyr slipped into the room. Her silvery fur was clean and fluffy, and she meowed as she trotted toward them an
d leapt onto Vale’s lap. Freeing his hand from the blanket’s wrap, Vale slipped his fingers into her fur.

  “I’ll be right back,” Jason whispered, and then turned to Xan, his expression wrecked and yearning. “Thanks for coming. I’ll walk you out.”

  Vale watched them go, hoping that Xan would be able to give Jason what he needed now: a friend to lean on, a strong heart to confide in. At least he knew Xan loved Jason. If there were a friend among the bunch who would be there for Jason if the worst occurred, it would be Xan.

  Yes, their friends had taken the news of Vale’s pregnancy better than Vale had thought they would. There’d been palpable fear and concern, but in the end, they’d all leant their support. And Vale was grateful to Xan who still loved Jason, had far too much of a crush on Urho and basically envied Vale his entire life.

  Even this. Vale put his hand over his stomach, pondering the child inside. Yes, Xan would have wanted even this baby, at even the potentially-high cost Vale faced for it.

  And that, surprisingly, gave Vale a sense of peace. It would be all right. He was sure of it.

  Jason was not going to budge about Vale continuing his work as a teacher on a campus full of alphas. Not while he was pregnant, anyway. Vale knew that. If Jason would be more positive in general about this entire pregnancy, then it was a concession Vale would happily make. Staying home to grow their child, eating Jason’s food, enduring his pampering. Napping. Reading. Writing. He’d happily do all of that if Jason supported him.

  He’d call the headmaster of Mont Nessadare tomorrow and let him know the situation. They’d find someone to cover his classes easily enough. There had long been a list of alphas waiting for his job to come open. This was, perhaps, their chance because Vale couldn’t say if he would want to go back to teaching after the baby came. He never thought he’d be able to have a child, and the miracle of it seemed like something he didn’t want to miss even a single second of. And yet, he’d never considered himself the kind of man to walk away from an interesting career.

  When Jason returned, he apologized for the delay by saying Urho had waylaid him on the sidewalk. He didn’t tell Vale what they’d talked about, but it seemed clear that whatever Urho had said finally made Jason understand that, despite his fears, this was going to happen, and he’d better start acting as an alpha should.

  Because with only a bit of the strain leaking through his strong demeanor, Jason did just that.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  After that day, Jason was an exemplary alpha. There were no more tears or pleading speeches. Instead, he helped Vale impart the news of his sabbatical to his boss, and then went with him to campus to clear out his office. Jason insisted on carrying every box, and indulging Vale’s every whim, including stopping by his favorite grilled cheese food stall on their way back home.

  Vale could almost pretend that they had planned this pregnancy. He could almost convince himself that Jason was happy. But there were cracks in which the fear slipped through, despite his baby alpha’s best efforts.

  And that, Vale believed, was only human.

  One afternoon, Jason started a casserole in the oven, played with Zephyr, and then went out to his garden to putter around, cleaning up fallen autumn leaves and babying the winter-ready flowers he’d already planted. He sang softly under his breath—a ballad from the latest musical they’d attended at the theater.

  Vale listened to him through the partly open window that let in a cool breeze. Urho had closed it during his last visit, claiming the dampness might harm him, but Vale knew that was an old omega’s tale. He felt better with the air circulating, the scent of autumn in the air, dispelling a bit of the heat from the banked fire. He lounged on the sofa, watching Jason move through the garden and admiring his alpha’s fine form.

  “Come here,” Jason said from outside the window. He pushed the sash up all the way and ducked down to stick his head in the room. “Come on. Now.”

  Vale chewed on the inside of his lower lip to keep from smiling. Once, forever ago now, Jason had come to him at that very window and dared to break courting protocols for just a few minutes of Vale’s time and his words. Oh, Jason had been so young then. And Vale had been the one who’d been afraid.

  He rose from the sofa and went to the window, his heart fluttering. “Yes?”

  “Kneel,” Jason said in a very no-nonsense way. All command but no cruelty to it.

  Vale’s nipples rose beneath his loose t-shirt, and his cock began to stiffen. This, too, brought back some fond memories from their early days. Filthy and fond as fuck. “Now what?” he asked, breathlessly.

  “Open your mouth.”

  Vale complied, his heart trip-hammering, and blood rushing to his prick. If this was what Jason needed to feel in control, to step into his alphaness, then Vale would give it eagerly.

  Jason produced a brown fig, broken open and ripe. He placed some of the gooey center on Vale’s tongue. Its sweet flavor burst in his mouth, and he let it sit there, waiting for Jason to tell him what to do next.

  “Well, eat it,” Jason said with a laugh. His eyes, which had looked so sad before, twinkled for the first time since their mountain trip. “Were you expecting something else on your tongue? Something bigger?”

  Vale chewed and swallowed, narrowing his eyes. “Brat. You know I was.”

  “Open again.”

  Vale complied, but irritably this time. He didn’t want figs. He wanted Jason’s cock and his jizz and the pleasurable orgasm Jason was sure to give him in return. And he wanted the reassuring tenderness that would inevitably follow.

  Jason placed more of the gooey fig center in his mouth, and Vale ate it without being told. “Good. Now lick my fingers clean,” he said with a hint of gruffness to his voice, and that sparked Vale’s cock back to life.

  Closing his eyes, Vale knelt by the window and sucked all the sweet, seedy fig from Jason’s fingers, his tongue working over the digits, and hollowing his cheeks so that the soft insides rubbed against Jason’s flesh. There was the taste of flesh, fig, and autumn dirt, and he squirmed as slick burst from his hole, wetting his underwear and opening his hole for Jason’s use.

  “Ah, you like that,” Jason murmured. “I smell you opening for me.”

  Vale nodded.

  “You want me to fuck you, baby?”

  Vale whimpered, his whole body going tight all over with need. Nipples taut, cock hard, balls rising up…yes, he wanted that. But he kept sucking on Jason’s fingers, letting the way his eyes rolled back into his head, and the scent of slick leaking freely to answer for him.

  Jason pulled his fingers loose, and as he’d done once before, climbed in through the window to kneel with Vale on the carpet. “Get your shirt off and pants down.”

  Vale obeyed quickly.

  Jason dragged him close, body to body so that he could feel Jason’s big cock shoved up against his stomach. The softness of Jason’s work shirt against his torso and the roughness of his jeans against Vale’s balls was intoxicating. “Repeat after me.”

  Vale swallowed, confused, but nodded.

  “I’m healthy and strong.”

  Vale murmured the words back.

  “I’m going to live a long time for my Érosgápe.”

  Vale leaned closed, took a long sniff of Jason’s neck, scenting his delicious, one of a kind odor, and whispered, “I’m going to live a long time for you, baby alpha.”

  “Forever. With me.”

  “Yes. Forever.”

  Jason growled and slipped one hand around Vale’s waist to hold him steady, before sliding his other hand between Vale’s legs and pressing all four fingers into Vale’s wet hole. It was tight, and a surprise to be invaded so thoroughly by most of Jason’s hand, but Vale relaxed and let it happen. Jason worked his thumb in next, and then the widest part of his hand, letting Vale use gravity to take it fully inside. Then he curled his fingers together and, with a sigh of relief, he let Vale rest there on his fist.

  “Feel that?”
<
br />   “I don’t see how I couldn’t,” Vale replied breathlessly. His cock ached in the space between their bodies, and he hunched his hips forward to get contact causing Jason’s fist to move inside him, too. “It’s all so much.”

  “Make yourself come on my hand.”

  Vale whimpered, but wrapped one arm around Jason’s neck, and let his other drop to take hold of his cock. He jerked it quickly, not wanting to hold back, eager for a quick rocket to glory.

  Jason carefully twisted his hand around inside, the position making it difficult, but the movement was enough to send Vale into the sky. He threw his head back, groaned, and shuddered hard as his body clenched on Jason’s fist, and his cock erupted between them. Cum striped over Jason’s soft flannel shirt and Vale crowed as his nipples sang in pleasure, and his asshole convulsed on Jason’s wrist.

  “Mmm,” Jason murmured, leaning low to nuzzle Vale’s neck. “Smells so good.”

  Vale’s breath came in harsh, short pants, his body zinging with residual pleasure, and he scrambled to cling to Jason’s shoulders as he moved his fist around inside again. “Oh, darling, you feel so good.”

  Vale’s thighs began to shake as Jason withdrew his hand, a gasp leaving Vale’s lungs in a whoosh as he felt the frustrating emptiness. “Jason, please.” He didn’t know what he was begging for. He’d just come, he was in his alpha’s arms, and he felt fantastic. But he wanted more.

  “Elbows and knees,” Jason said, spinning him around.

  Disoriented Vale complied, pushing his ass up into lordosis position.

  “Wolf-god, you kill me,” Jason whispered. The sound of his zipper was very promising, and Vale pressed his face to the carpet as he waited.

  Jason always felt so right inside him. Thick, wide enough at the base to make Vale break out in a sweat every time, and long enough to brush against his womb even when it wasn’t descended for heat.

  “Hang on,” Jason said with a growl. “I’m gonna work you open.”

  Vale gasped as the first thrust took him to a higher plane of reality. Chills broke over him in blissful rushes. His nipples positively ached with pleasure as Jason pummeled his ass, working his big dick deep, again and again. Jason focused the head of his cock toward the area inside where Vale had once been too tender and tight to find pleasure, but now Jason fit easily, and Vale shook and trembled, legs shaking, hips vibrating, and stomach muscles twitching, as Jason fucked him toward an anal orgasm.