Page 60 of The Coyote's Veterinarian Omega

I sighed, letting my eyes flutter shut. “I don’t know. I need time to think about it.”

“Okay,” Cam said gently. One of his hands found mine, twining our fingers together. “Well, no matter what you decide … I’m right here. Okay?”

He gave my hand a squeeze, and something like relief flooded me. “Okay,” I breathed, and for the moment, everything was.

Cam

Wyatt was pregnant. wyatt waspregnant!

My head was spinning. My mate was expecting a pup, which made me a proud papa-to-be.

It wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about. Sure, I knew that people grew up, hooked up, maybe got married, had kids, but I hadn’t really … thought about it as something that could happen to me. Or would happen to me.

If I thought about it too long, I realized I’d hadnoplan for the future at all. I’d left high school behind me nearly a decade ago now, with no real thought about what I might do for therest of my life. It had been too much, too big to contemplate when I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen—even though I had guidance counselors and teachers and even Dad and Cal pushing me a little bit, asking me what I wanted to do with my life.

At first, it had been cool not to have a plan. I was a rebel.Everyone else, they had a plan. Even Cal had had dreams—he’d wanted to go to the big leagues of sport.

He’d abandoned that plan when Dad got sick. Instead, he’d stayed on the ranch and looked after Dad and the rest of us brothers. Just like a pack leader was supposed to.

And, one by one, my brothers—and my friends, my classmates, my peers—had all drifted off to far-flung places and bright new futures.

I’d stagnated. An eighteen-year-old who shrugged and said, “I dunno, man,” every time he was asked what school he was going to go to, what he was going to study, what kind of career he wanted, was cool. He was bucking the establishment.

A guy pushing thirty who still lived in his natal home, with no job and no income and no education? That wasn’t cool.

Before Wyatt showed up, I’d been careening right into loserdom, if I hadn’t arrived there already. Oh, sure, I guess people could’ve argued that I was helping around the ranch or whatever. That was probably a thing that happened in the past, brothers sticking around to help tend the farm, but nowadays, it wasn’t necessary. Cal had the ranch hands, and if he needed more, he could just hire someone else. He didn’tneedme, not like I needed him and the farm.

But now, I had a mate and a house of my own, and I was thinking about a career, planning for it, taking steps for it. And to top it all off, there was a pup on the way.

I could have thrown my head back and howled. I wanted to shift into my fur and dash outside, sing my coyote song to everyone who would listen—probably Cal and Cody and Connor, who were back at Rocky Ridge for the summer.

My brothers would want to know. They’d be happy for me.

I barely restrained myself. Wyatt was quiet and pensive, still mulling all of this over. I didn’t want to tell everyone the good news, only for Wyatt to decide itwasn’tgood news, not for him,and he wanted to do something about it.

The thought sat like a rock in my stomach. In my mind, keeping the pup was the only option, but I wasn’t the one who got to decide that. So I kept my mouth shut and gave Wyatt space when we plonked ourselves on the brand-new leather sofa and turned on the brand-new 85″ flat screen on the wall.

Wyatt’s eyes widened. “Wow,” he said, slowly turning to me. “How much is in that trust fund?”

I laughed a little. “Not much now,” I said honestly, scratching at the back of my head.

I’d have to talk to Cal. If we were expecting a pup …

Well, I knew Uncle Cal wouldn’t leave his nibling out in the cold.

But that could wait. It would wait, especially since Wyatt curled up next to me, invading my space like a very welcome blanket. I opened my arms to him, and he laid his head on my chest. I could feel the tension melting out of his body as he settled against me.

“What do you wanna watch?”

“Hm,” he said slowly. “You pick.”

I grimaced. “You like … superhero movies?”

“Never been a big fan.”

“Lord of the Rings?”

“Always was more of aHarry Potterguy,” he admitted.