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CHAPTER 35
“Pregnant?” I gapedat Madeline. They had just returned from Cancun this morning and she was now sitting on the couch next to Marcus after dropping the bomb of a lifetime. I had been ecstatic when Marcus had told me that he had fixed things with our beta, but I hadn’t been expecting her to put a paper bag full of positive pregnancy tests on the coffee table and inform us of our impending parenthood.
Adair was just as shocked as I was as he held a positive pregnancy test in his hand, looking from the test to Madeline and back to the test again.
Between the two of us, my shock wore off first. It was quickly replaced by excitement as I practically launched myself at Madeline with a whoop. I inhaled her sugared cherry scent deeply and hugged her to my chest. The past two weeks had been some of the longest of my life, but now that I had her again I was sure as shit never going to let go of her.
“A baby?” I wanted to ask a million questions. How far along was she? Was she feeling okay? Did she have a doctor’s appointment? Was she okay raising a baby with us? My eyes took in her face, which had a golden glow from her two weeks in Cancun, and then they trailed down to the column of her throat where the redness of a healing bondmark lay.
“No fucking way.” I blurted and I looked over at Marcus who wore a sheepish expression on his face.
“What?” Adair asked from behind me, and he came to join us on our end of the couch. It didn’t take his eyes long to see what I was seeing, and they widened with shock.
“You two bonded?” He croaked with surprise.
Madeline nodded, suddenly looking a bit shy, and I watched Marcus place a comforting hand on her back like he could feel her nerves, which I guess he actuallycouldfeel her nerves thanks to the bond mark.
I was feeling a completely mixed bag of emotions. Excitement and jealousy warred in my chest. Excitement because Madeline waspregnantwith our child, and had chosen to take a permanent step with Marcus, which meant that she would inevitably take that step with us. But I was also jealous because I wanted to be the first to bond with her and to learn about her pregnancy.
“Does that mean you’ll stay with us?” Adair asked, his eyes looked a bit shiny. He was close to tears, I realized and reached up to cup the back of his neck. He leaned into my offered comfort and smiled at me.
Madeline nodded, her own eyes also filled with tears. “If you’ll have me?”
Adair dove in for a kiss, and I patiently waited my turn. The sheer relief I felt when her lips finally touched mine nearly made me cry too, even though I wasn’t usually prone to tears.
After we broke apart from the group clump that was part-kissing and part-hugging, Madeline wiped at her cheeks. “So, are you two okay with the baby?” She asked, her brown eyes flicking between Adair and I.
“Of course we are.” I replied pressing my hand to her stomach. It was just barely distended under my palm, but that didn’t matter. Madeline was going to have a baby.Ourbaby. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better outcome to the chaotic mess that we had been dealing with ever since Madeline left two weeks ago.
“I’ve wanted to see you round with our child ever since the moment you first took my knot.” Adair’s expression was intense, and I watched Madeline’s brown eyes heat in response.
“No,” I waved a hand in between them until they both blinked at me in confusion. “No sexy-time until your doctor says it’s ok.”
“You can’t be serious.” Madeline was looking at me like I’d grown a second head. “It’s totally fine. I’ve been having sex with Marcus, and I feel fine.”
“Lots and lots of sex. You two will have to catch up.” Marcus said smugly and Madeline elbowed him in the ribs.
I wasn’t going to be swayed that easily, though. “I’m as serious as the plague, you are about to see a whole lot of overprotective Daddy Rio.” I needed to order baby books on Amazon so that I could learn everything that I needed to know about our little coffee bean.
Madeline finally gave in with a sigh. “Fine, you’re right...” She trailed off, and I could see a glitter of humor in her eyes as she continued. “You know, this was not how I thought that I would start calling you Daddy, but I guess all's well that ends well.”
Marcus, Adair, and I stared at Madeline in shock as her joke registered in our brains. Adair was the first to burst into laughter and Marcus and I soon joined him.
“Please schedule your doctor's appointment as soon as possible, honey, because I would love to see how Rio reacts when you call him Daddy without any of your clothes on.” Adair wiped a tear out of the corner of his eyes. I opened my mouth to protest, but the image of Madeline crawling towards me naked with the word Daddy on her lips nearly made me forget all about the sex-ban that I was pushing.
Madeline, thankfully, already had her phone out. “I am one step ahead of you guys. Let’s just hope my OBGYN has an opening....” Her hot eyes met mine. “And let’s just hope it’s soon.”
“And there’s the baby’sheartbeat,” Dr. Alwin, Madeline’s new obstetrician, said as she moved the wand across Madeline’s stomach as the too-fast thud of a heartbeat came through the speaker. The three of us were clumped around her head, our eyes glued to the little tiny screen where a little blob was being shown.Ourlittle blob.
As the wand continued to move, the blob transformed. “There’s the head and look, tiny little feet too.”
I just watched in absolute awe and when Madeline’s hand slipped into mine, I knew that my mouth was probably still agape when I looked down at her. She looked nervously happy as she glanced between me and the screen, and I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
“How far along am I?” Madeline asked Dr. Alwin, who was busy taking measurements of the baby. After she finished, the printer on the bottom of the sonogram computer whirred to life and printed several different angles of the baby.
“Well, based on measurements, you’re thirteen weeks or so along. I would put your due date in the last week of November or the first week of December. I’ll be able to get a more firm date as I measure growth over the next month or two.” The woman said, holding out copies of the sonogram for us to take.
“A holiday baby.” Adair commented quietly as he looked down at the picture.
“Absolutely perfect.” Marcus chimed in, his eyes glued to Madeline’s face, and I watched him lean over and press a sweet kiss to her forehead. The Marcus that I had seen over the past week since he and Madeline returned from Cancun was like night and day from his previous self. He laughed more easily and was more affectionate. He also hadn’t immediately returned to the office, which was unheard of for the workaholic alpha. No, Marcus had taken an extended vacation with the blessing of Aria, who was running things while he was gone.
“What about sex?” Madeline asked and, at some point during my distracted thoughts about Marcus, the doctor had cleaned up the clear gel from her stomach. Madeline had pulled her shirt back down and smoothed a hand over her stomach, a gesture that I’d seen her make countless times when she thought no one was looking.
“Sex is fine, but just be aware that once you hit six months knotting will be a big no-no. There won’t even be space for it, so get it out of your systems now because those last three months you alphas will need to be gentle with her.” Dr. Alwin replied, leveling a stern look at the three of us.
Fifteen minutes later we were walking out of the office with a prescription for prenatal vitamins in hand, and a list of books that the doctor suggested that we read. We had a few months to get ready, but I was pretty sure that those months would pass in the blink of an eye.
