in his eyes and the fairness of his skin. His hand in Jasper’s father’s was a small and graceful thing with clean, closely trimmed nails, in contrast to his father’s gnarled paw tipped by claws that never did come clean.
“Consider this your home now,” his father said.
“I’m bringing them out to the cabin,” Jasper told him.
“Not a fit place for the little one, is it?”
“I’m not a flower.” Jack Henry crossed his arms over his chest. Jasper flinched. He didn’t mind Jack Henry’s independence, but what would his father think?
“Well, you done told me,” his father said with a grin. “Seems you got yourself a strong crew, Jasper.”
Jasper flushed with pride. He knew his father loved him, but his praise came slow. “Thanks, Dad.” He shook hands with his father, which was what passed for a hug between them, then led his pack outside.
“What now?” Elias asked.
“My place. Our place,” he corrected.
Elias had said the bond ought to be expanding, and Jasper had an idea for how to expand it. Maybe it was the moon, maybe it was his father’s approval, but he was ready to fuck, to gather his pack around him and claim them all over again.
JACK HENRY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As soon as Jack Henry caught the scent of Jasper’s arousal, he was hard too, blood roaring into his dick like a flash flood. He’d been barely out of touching distance from Jasper since they woke up, and the constant contact and hot scent of alpha had kept him on the edge of horniness all day. Considering the amount of cock he’d gotten last night, he ought to be good for a while, but a taste was a tease. His body clamored for more, and Jasper’s body signaling it was ready to give more had his body making itself ready to receive.
Saul and Elias caught the scent of slick in the air, and all three alphas took a step toward him. He took a step back, raising his hands to ward them off as he did. They were intimidating as a unit, and the way his body made choices for him without consulting his brain had him throwing up walls.
“Something wrong?” Jasper asked.
“No, not really.” He let his arms fall to his side. “It’s just that you guys are scary when you do that synchronicity thing.”
“Must be the bond.” Jasper looked at Saul and Elias as if he were pleased by them. “Maybe it’ll come in handy one of these days, but for now, I was only looking to fuck. If that’s something you’d like to do.”
“You know it is.” Damn his body giving him away.
“So, guys?” Elias cleared his throat. “That thing we need to talk about? We’d better talk about it first.” He explained his concern as Jack Henry listened with increasing disbelief.
“You’re saying I could get pregnant?”
“I’m saying it’s possible. You might need to be in heat, but the moon’s still mostly full, and who the fuck knows? I’m a history geek, not an obstetrician.”
“Did you know about this?” Jack Henry demanded of Jasper. Despite Elias’s semi-assurance that he couldn’t have gotten pregnant last night because he hadn’t been claimed yet while they were fucking, he felt like he should’ve been warned about the possibility.
Jasper ran a hand through his hair, the ends of which were tangled from being blown around on the bike. Jack Henry wanted to groom him while also being a little angry at him. Maybe more than a little.
“It’s been almost two hundred years since an omega got pregnant.”
“It’s been almost two hundred years since anyone shifted,” Elias pointed out. “You’re an anomaly. Jack Henry might be too.”
Jack Henry blew out a lungful of air. Too many unanswered questions, and the logical part of his brain knew it wasn’t reasonable to expect Jasper to have all the answers.
“I think it’s kind of exciting,” Saul said.
“For you.” Jack Henry looked down at his stomach, which lay smooth and flat under his Henley. He tried to imagine it distended with a child and couldn’t.
“Don’t you want to have a baby?” Saul asked him.
“I’m nowhere near being able to answer that question.”
People with externally female genitalia probably started imagining getting pregnant even before puberty, either anticipating it or rejecting it, perhaps going back and forth between the two mindsets at different points in their lives but always aware of the possibility. Jack Henry had only ever thought of baby-making from the opposite side. If he hadn’t presented as an omega, his most likely future would’ve been with