Page 28 of The Pregnant Wolf Omega Next Door

“And I don’t have an omega to spend my money on,” Zenith pointed out patiently. “Let me help you.”

He did say he was saving up for an omega, but since there wasn’t one in his life yet... Emre was going to be a little selfish, and put his pups first.

“Okay,” he said. “Thank you.”

Zenith smiled. “I’ll keep all of you safe.”

It was such a relief to hear, that Emre went boneless. “Thank you. And thanks for the offer to stay over. We don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Plenty of space for all of you here.”

“With the single bedroom and the living room?” Emre looked around doubtfully. “Between Buttwheel and Abbie, I think we’d distract you so much, you wouldn’t be able to work.”

Zenith shrugged. “We’ll see. If it gets bad, I can take a couple days off. I haven’t done that ever since I got here.”

“Oh. A day off sounds good.”

“See? It’ll work out,” Zenith said with another smile. “Try not to worry about it.”

Emre sat back, feeling lost. For a long time now, he had survived with only himself to depend on. Then Abbie had come along, and everything was a bit of a struggle—especially when he’d made the wrong move and gone home with Ronald. After Emre had escaped with his pup, he’d been a lot warier around alphas. Then he’d ended up in Cartfalls, pregnant again, and some kind strangers had given him enough money to rent his apartment.

With the discovery of Abbie’s second species, everything felt shaky once more. What if she wrecked the apartment somehow? Hell, what if the unborn pup had a second species too?

Zenith’s gaze was patient and kind. “Want a hug?”

Emre sagged. “Yes.”

Zenith stood and scooped Abbie off the kitchen table. With his other hand, he grabbed her blanket off the couch. “Hey, Buttwheel. I have a job for you. Watch Abbie for now, yeah?”

He lined the bottom of Buttwheel’s cargo basket with the blanket and set Abbie in there with some toys. Then he came back to Emre, helped him to his feet, and pulled him into a warm, sideways hug.

Up close, Zenith was all warmth and strength. He wrapped himself around Emre; Emre shuddered and melted into him, burying his face in Zenith’s chest. Zenith felt like a safe harbor, like Emre could shelter in his arms forever and not leave.

“You’re doing great,” Zenith murmured, rubbing Emre’s back. “If I discovered something like that about my kid, I would be freaking out.”

“Who says I’m not?” Emre said weakly.

“I guess you are. But you’re pretty amazing at holding yourself together.”

“No one else is going to,” Emre said.

Something sad flickered through Zenith’s face. He pulled Emre even closer, as though he was trying to fold himself around Emre.

“I want to help,” Zenith said fervently. “You can lean on me, all right? No one says you have to be strong all the time.”

“But you are,” Emre said.

Zenith shrugged, giving a wry smile. “I’m not. No one is. We are all human, and that means sometimes things affect us, and we have moments of weakness. Or moments of strong emotion. Not that strong emotions mean someone is weak.”

“What was your moment of weakness?” Emre blurted. Then he cringed. “Wait, forget I asked. That’s intensely personal.”

For a heartbeat, Zenith looked thoughtful. Then he smiled. “I’ll tell you that some other time.”

Emre whined. “Why?”

“To encourage you to stick around for longer.” Zenith grinned.

That handsome smile weakened Emre’s knees and made his heart skip.