Page 96 of Glitterati Omega

“About what?”

She rubbed the back of his hand. “Let’s start simple. Are you having one baby or two?”

“One,” he huffed. “That’s all we saw on the ultrasound, that’s—”

“Ah-ah-ah, that is not what I meant. You think you know because you saw it on a screen, because science says. I am saying something different. What doyouthink?”

“I told you—”

She shook her head. “Not with your mind, not with your science.”

Rupert considered her, then slowly looked away. “I …” He thought, briefly, about how sick he’d been, how very different he’d felt about this one from all the other times he’d been pregnant before. He’d thought it was just because it took, because he carried past ten weeks, but now that he thought about it, he’d never been that tired or that sick. He’d never felt quite so pregnant quite so quickly either. He’d thought maybe that was because he’d known what they were doing. But the lingering nausea, the aches and pains, even the strong, steady thump of the baby’s heartbeat on the doppler …

He shook his head. “It’s silly,” he said.

Mama Thandiwe snorted. “All right,” she said, “think what you want then.” She pointed at his belly. “It’s a good thing the body doesn’t care what you think, that it just does what it needs to do.”

She got to her feet. “That’s enough lessons for now. You eat something and rest.”

,

It was almost dark when Rupert managed to haul himself up from the mattress. He sat there for a minute trying to catch his breath, contemplating how much he really wanted to go into the kitchen.

He felt a little nervous, actually, like he’d swallowed a bunch of butterflies. He didn’t want to face Ndileka at all. She was probably right to hate him. He was a wretch, in more ways than one. God, he’d made an ass of himself, crying like that. What, did he think he’d win her over by wailing about how difficult his life was, how bad she’d made him feel? Ugh.

With a sigh, he got to his feet, wincing at how swollen everything was, then shuffled out to the kitchen.

Winston was sitting at the table, reading. He glanced up as Rupert leaned on the doorframe, huffing. He put a hand on his back. He wasn’t sure he could do another twenty weeks of this.

Winston closed up his book. “Ready for dinner?”

“Where is everyone?” Rupert asked, glancing to the door.

“Mother and Mama Thandiwe have gone visiting. They left dinner for us.”

Rupert huffed again, then made his way to the bench, sitting down heavily beside Winston. “Are you all right?” the alpha asked after a moment.

“Tired. Sore. Rather pregnant.”

“I’d noticed,” Winston said warmly, then leaned over and kissed Rupert’s cheek. “I meantemotionally, love.”

Rupert sighed. “I’m … I’m very upset about how your mother is treating us,” he said finally, gazing at the wall. “I’m trying to understand, but I don’t. I guess I couldn’t possibly—I don’t understand why we all can’t get along. It doesn’t make sense to me, but then, I’m white.”

He turned to look at Winston. “She’s not wrong,” he said, “that I should have … had a better understanding before we got into this.”

Winston took his hand and twined their fingers. “I don’t think it matters quite so much,” he said softly. “It is very clear to me that you love the baby.”

“And I love you,” Rupert said. “I love you both a good deal, but I … I didn’tthinkabout what you have to live with or what the baby will face, because it never affects me.”

He sighed heavily, leaning back and placing both hands over the bump. Winston watched him, then said, “You don’t love the baby any less for it, do you?”

“God!” Rupert cried, turning to face him. “No—it’s nothing like that! I just … I wish that we didn’t even have to talk about it, because it didn’t exist. But it does, so we do, and that’s … that’s good, I suppose, even if it is difficult to hear about or understand.”

“Mm.”

“I … just hope that your mother can accept us,” he said, turning back to Winston. He worried his lip, then said, “I want to know that our baby has a … a lot of love.”

“Of course they do. They have you.”