Page 49 of Flight of the Omega

XX

JP woke up hungry.Starving, actually. He stared at the wall for a while, clutching at his stomach. His … deflated stomach. He’d been taut and round the last time he’d felt himself up, and now he felt a bit … flabby.

All his eggs were gone. He sat up slowly, panic setting in as he looked around the room. Where were his eggs? Where was his father, where had he taken the eggs, where—

“Hey,” Jack said, laying a hand on his shoulder and guiding him up. JP stumbled against the alpha, unprepared for the sudden wave of pain that overcame him. He felt raw, like he’d been slashed from back to front, bruised like he’d been kicked by a guy in steel-toed boots, and aching like all his muscles had been overworked for hours on end.

Jack led him to the bed, then pulled back the covers. There, nestled deep in the blankets, were ten bright blue eggs. His eggs. Their eggs.

He sighed in relief, then slumped to sit, because his legs weren’t going to hold him any longer.

“Where’s Dr. Vogel?” he asked.

“Left this morning,” Jack replied. “I hope you don’t have any more eggs hiding in there.”

JP blew out his breath. “Me too,” he murmured.

“Can you shift yet?”

JP thought about it for a moment; then he glanced over his shoulder to look at his fanning tail feathers, glimmering as they spread across the floor. “Yeah,” he said.

“You wanna shift?” Jack asked. “Sit on your eggies for a little bit, birdie?”

Part of JP wanted nothing to do with the eggs now that they were outside of them. Part of him was scared to death he’d sit on them and they’d break.

Part of him really, really wanted to settle over his eggs, spread his tail over them, his wings, fluff up his feathers, and keep them warm.

“Yeah,” he said.

Jack began the process of transferring the eggs to the nest, one at a time, each wrapped in their little blanket to keep them warm. JP tried to shake out the rust of shifting. He got his legs first, then his wings. He had trouble holding it all; he kept trying to slide back to humanoid form. Finally, though, he was in feathers, from crown to toes, and he crowed, then watched Jack transfer the last two eggs into the nest.

JP clambered into the nest almost before Jack was done setting the last egg down. He fluffed his feathers, then slowly set himself down over the eggs.

There was no cracking. No smashing. Just him, sitting on a nest full of eggs. He preened a little, then folded his wings in and tucked his head under them, intent on taking another nap.

When he woke up again, he stood up and rolled the eggs around; it wouldn’t do for one side to get too warm while the other got cold. Then he settled himself back down. He peered at Jack, who was in the corner watching him. “Seem pretty content there, birdie.”

JP cooed, then ducked his head under his wing. He was pretty happy on his nest. Happier than he’d thought he might be, at any rate. He liked sitting on his eggs, keeping them warm. Keeping them safe. His little chicks, perfectly safe under his feathers. He liked that.

Jack met his gaze again. “You sure you don’t wanna get knocked up again, birdie?”

The suggestion went through JP’s bird brain like wildfire. Yeah, he did, actually. Never mind sitting on this nest. He wanted another brood in his belly, now.

He was glad he couldn’t blush in bird form. Instead, he clucked a little, then looked down. He had to take care of these eggs before he could think of that.

Jack smirked. “Just asking,” he said. He drew a little closer to the nest. “Personally, I think we need to wait and see how many chicks we hatch out of this round. Ten hatchlings would be a lot.”

JP clucked his agreement, then preened his feathers. Dr. Vogel had said he wouldn’t go into heat so long as he was sitting on the nest; it would delay his cycle another three months at least. If he stopped sitting, then his body would start producing hormones to create another clutch of eggs, sending him back into heat. At least, that was what Amanda had said.

He sat on the eggs for two days. Then he shifted back and let Jack incubate them for a bit. Jack did a good job, considering he was shapelocked. He wrapped each egg up in a blanket, then strapped a few of them to his chest and a few to his back, keeping them close to his body heat as he sat in the center of the nest draped in blankets.

“Looks tough,” JP said.

“You make it look easy.”

“It is easy when I’m in feathers.” JP didn’t doubt he’d run into the same challenges as Jack if he stayed in humanoid form. He picked at the dinner Jack had made him before they switched. He toyed with the food, then splayed a hand over his belly.

Jack didn’t miss the move. “You still thinking about a second clutch, birdie?”