Page 6 of The Pregnant Wolf Omega Next Door

“That makes sense. How does your character treat the shopping cart?” Emre watched Buttwheel clunk around the living room on its bad wheel. “Carts have feelings. The longer you spend being nice to them, the more loyal they will be to you. If you treat them like dirt, they won’t obey your commands.”

Zenith hummed thoughtfully. “So if a bad guy tries to send a baby away in a cart...”

“If it’s a random cart, it won’t go far. It doesn’t have any reason to obey. But if you spend time walking with the cart up and down the grocery store aisles, and let it carry lots of things for you, the cart is going to take the baby wherever you want it to go.” Emre shuddered and added, “Actually, that’s really fucking creepy, if a bad guy did that.”

“Hmm. I can work with this. Thanks.” Zenith’s couch creaked, and the typing started up once more.

Emre couldn’t help feeling a little proud for helping, even if the subject matter unnerved him.

What kind of romance novel was Zenith working on, that involved bad guys kidnapping babies with shopping carts? How wasthatpart of a romance?

He managed to keep his mouth shut for as long as he could. But his curiosity won out in the end.

“Why is there baby kidnapping in your romance novel?”

The typing stopped. Emre cringed. You weren’t supposed to interrupt an author while they were writing, right?

After a pause, Zenith replied, “The people who commissioned me to write this, they requested it.”

“Who the Hell wants baby kidnapping in their romance novel?!”

“My friends.”

Emre gaped at the wall. “Your friends?!”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” Zenith murmured. “And a bit of a secret. Amongst my friends, there are two alphas who have been... heading toward a bonding for a long time. At least, everyone else is convinced they are. There’s even a huge betting pool on when they’ll get together. One of my friends, Crush, commissioned me to write a book about them because they’re taking so long. It’s a gift to his omega.”

“Oh. That’s... kind of sweet,” Emre said. “But also kind of creepy?”

Zenith laughed. “And that’s why this is a secret. I took the job because it pays a hefty commission. Couldn’t afford to turn that down.”

That would explain why the alpha was living in a tiny apartment.

It didn’t explain his huge, comfy-looking leather couch, though.

“And the baby kidnapping?” Emre asked. “They wanted that in the book?”

Zenith sighed. “Have you heard about the recent increase in baby kidnappings? Dual-species kids are especially at risk. My friends and brothers have been tracking down these operations. The alphas in question, Uriel and Bruiser, they have been helping with the efforts. I agreed that it would make their story more believable by including some of real life in there.”

Emre glanced at Abbie, who was tumbling across the floorboards. Suddenly, he couldn’t remember if her biological alpha father was anything but a plain human. Some species hid their existences really well.

He bit his lip. Abbie was just a normal wolf pup, right?

Right.

He only realized he had been quiet for too long when Zenith cleared his throat.

“Anyhow, I’ll get back to writing. Thanks for your help.”

“Anytime,” Emre said. “It’s not like I have anywhere else to be.”

Zenith didn’t reply, but Emre didn’t have anything to say, either. He didn’t want to distract the alpha from his work.

“Wa wa,” Abbie said, grabbing the balled-up cookie wrapper from this morning and handing it to Emre.

Emre’s heart swelled. With some difficulty, he scooped Abbie into his arms and swung her into the air. She squealed and giggled, little feet kicking.

“You’re amazing,” Emre said fervently, blowing a raspberry against her belly. Abbie laughed infectiously.