Page 40 of The Pregnant Wolf Omega Next Door

Abbie barked and wagged her tail.

Zenith frowned. “Can she eat something else?”

“Raw meat or eggs. She’s more advanced as a wolf pup than a human baby. In her human shape, I can feed her from my chest, but she’s not shifting back. Guess I’m shifting then.”

Zenith perked up, eyes bright. “I would love to see that.”

Emre hesitated, feeling self-conscious again. Wolf shifters were common; no alpha had watched him like Zenith was, all warm and interested.

He carefully got to his knees and set Abbie on the kitchen floor. Then he reached for the part of him that longed to howl and run through a lush forest.

His limbs grew shorter; his face lengthened into a snout. Everything became sharper—his sense of sight, hearing, and smell. In his belly, the unborn baby shifted along with him, twitching and testing its new boundaries.

Zenith drew a slow breath, crouching. His gaze roved over Emre’s body; was he looking at Emre’s gray wolf shape, or the bald patches of his scars?

Ducking his head, Emre lay on the floor and let Abbie latch onto a nipple.

After a moment of quiet, Zenith murmured, “May I pet you?”

“Sure,” Emre said.

He held his breath, watching from the corner of his eye as Zenith sat on the floor next to them. The alpha reached over and carded his fingers through Emre’s fur, starting from the back of his ears, down his neck, and along his flank. His touch passed over some bald patches—those were numb, but Zenith didn’t seem to mind them at all.

“Beautiful,” Zenith said.

“Really?”

“Yes.” Zenith frowned. “You don’t think so?”

“I’m covered in scars.”

Zenith narrowed his eyes. “Yes, but the scars are just a part of you, not all of you.”

“They’re from a time when I was weak.”

“But you pulled through. You’re over that, and you’ve showed everyone how strong you are.”

Emre sighed. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to survive stupid crap to become stronger. All I want is a simple, happy life. Is that too much to ask?”

Zenith’s smile was wry. “I would give that to you if I could, sweetheart. It’s a different story in books. Characters suffer through trials and tribulations, and their happy ending is sweeter because of it.”

Emre made a face. “I’m not a book character! I don’t want to have to prove myself.”

“Even if you get a happy ending?”

Emre rolled his eyes. “Is there really a happy ending for us? Life happens. There’s always some kind of crap around the corner.”

“In a romance novel, a happy ending means you get a lifelong companion to share your joys and burdens with. That makes everything better, for the rest of your life.”

Actually, that sounded really good.

Maybe Emre could want that, even if he told no one else.

Are you volunteering?he wanted to ask Zenith. Promising someone the rest of your life was... crazy. Especially when they hardly knew each other.

Before either of them could speak, Emre’s belly clenched in a very familiar way.

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