Heat Race - Tanya Chris Page 0,97

farm. Having a real shower was amazing. Jack Henry was never going to take that for granted again.

Elias got in bed on one side of him, and Saul got in bed on the other. They worked together to strip him, lifting him and turning him to get at his clothes until he was as naked as they were. Jasper remained at the foot of the bed, so that now the lineup had been reversed and it was Jasper surveying them.

“Every one of you is a miracle,” he said, still standing there as if he couldn’t bear to break the spell by moving. Then he flashed them a feral grin—one through which his fangs clearly showed. “Let’s get this party started.”

ELIAS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elias thought he felt it—the moment when the child was conceived. None of them were inside Jack Henry at the time, though they all had been. It’d been Jasper most recently, knotting Jack Henry, which was a trick Elias couldn’t help being jealous of. But it wasn’t until after Jasper withdrew, when they were all panting and momentarily soft, that something new raced through the bond.

“You feel that?” Elias found just enough energy to pick his head up off the pillow. Jasper lay next to him, on his back with Jack Henry splayed out on top of him and Saul on his other side.

“Baby,” Jack Henry murmured sleepily, as if he’d already known.

“I think so.” Jasper stroked down Jack Henry’s back soothingly, trying to lull him into sleep.

Conception meant they were done for the night, right? Not that Elias ever got tired of fucking his mates, but he was exhausted. He couldn’t even count how many times he’d personally filled Jack Henry or how many of his mates’ loads he’d sucked back out of him. They were all awash in sperm but most especially Jack Henry who must be absolutely sloshing with it. All of their DNA was floating around in there together, and maybe Jack Henry was right. Maybe a fusion happened, a special sort of alpha/omega magic. Elias could believe it. Fuck science. This was feeling. And what he felt was ours. Our pack, our omega, our baby.

“I can’t believe we did it,” Saul said reverently. He wormed his hand between Jasper and Jack Henry’s bodies as if he’d be able to feel something already. Of course he wouldn’t, but Elias found himself following suit, wanting to touch the spot where their child would grow. His hand met Saul’s and they clung to each other there, making a lump Jack Henry didn’t complain about.

“We’re going to be daddies,” Elias murmured, so overwhelmed he needed to voice it.

“Is that excitement I hear in your voice or fear?” Jasper asked wryly.

“Both?” Nine months didn’t seem like enough time to prepare. Their house was largely unfurnished, their land barren. They had no pack beyond the four of them and not much in earnings, but they had the support of their families. Four families, now that Saul had found his relatives in Woodhaven. If it took a village to raise a baby, they had a village’s worth of people to do it. And this baby would be special, would be… a prophet of a sort, the resurgence of an almost extinct species. An uber-omega, maybe, who would shepherd in a new generation of child-bearing omegas. Or an uber-alpha, like Jasper, who would grow up to form a pack of his own.

Or maybe it would just be a baby. Elias chuckled to himself.

“What?” Saul asked, making eye contact with him over the mound of bodies between them.

“I’m already dreaming big dreams for this kid. I’m going to be the worst kind of soccer dad. You’ll have to hold me in check.”

“We’re going to love the baby however it comes out,” Saul said sternly. “We’re just going to love it.”

“It might be human,” Elias warned. He wanted to get it out there before anyone’s expectations grew too big. Geneticists didn’t understand exactly how hybrids were formed, but wolf genes appeared to be recessive to the point that even an uber-alpha mating with an uber-omega didn’t guarantee anything.

“We won’t know until puberty,” Saul said, his voice low out of consideration for Jack Henry who’d managed to fall asleep.

“But it might be a girl,” Elias whispered, trying not to sound horrified. Girls were fine, of course. But what the hell were the four of them going to do with one? He could imagine a holy terror in a pink tutu running through the house with them all