Gage slid his hand down Ulric’s belly, his eyes darkening. “Yeah? What about them?”
“You... ever thought about a uterus implant?”
“For me, or you?”
Ulric blinked. He hadn’t thought Gage would consider it for himself, too. “You’d want one?”
Gage cracked a smile. “Let’s just say I’ve been thinking about you knocking me up.”
Ulric turned to gape at him. Gage? Having a kink like that? “So... so we’re really serious about this,” Ulric said. “Me and you.”
Gage laughed. Then he rubbed his thumb over the scent gland on Ulric’s wrist, where his marking was. “I made a promise, didn’t I?
Ulric’s heart skipped. “Yeah. You did.”
Over the past few months, Ulric had thought maybe Gage might get tired of him. He’d thought maybe Gage might want him to lose weight. But Gage hadn’t mentioned his extra chub at all—he’d only encouraged Ulric to eat his vegetables, and exercise more. Remember, I just want you to be healthy, Gage had murmured in bed one night. So I can have you for a long time to come.
“You’re okay with having kids?” Ulric blurted.
“I want a family with you, babe.” Gage kissed his neck. “I want us with little ones running around. Is it okay if we have more than one?”
Ulric’s heart tumbled. “Yeah. Of course.”
Gage smiled, drawing circles on Ulric’s belly. “What if we do this together? Both of us.”
“You mean us... getting pregnant? At the same time?” Ulric’s thoughts went sideways. He hadn’t considered that. “Is it possible?”
“I don’t know.” Gage grabbed his cousin as he walked past. “Hey, Jes. We have questions.”
Jesse stopped next to them, eyebrows raised. Over the past months, his scent had changed from cinnamon to birch.
“That doctor friend of yours,” Gage said. “Is he accepting new patients?”
Jesse glanced at Gage’s hand on Ulric’s belly, his eyebrows crawling up. “It’ll be a long process. You know that, right? Might take a few years. He’d have to get your stem cells, modify them, and then cultivate new organs from those so your body won’t reject them. And then he’d have to put those in you, stitch you up, and you’d have to heal before you can even begin the pregnancy.”
It sounded a little daunting. Maybe it’d be more expensive than Ulric could afford.
When he glanced at Gage, though, he found his alpha looking thoughtful. “We’ll think about it,” Gage told Jesse. “Thanks.”
Later that day, as they were driving home, Ulric asked, “Still want to go through that process?”
“I think it’ll be pretty pricey,” Gage said, biting his lip. “I’d have to—”
“Not another job.” Ulric frowned.
Gage smiled. “I was just gonna say that I could stop ogling all those fancy gym upgrades. And... maybe we might have to move into a cheaper place.”
Ulric had grown fond of their neighbors. If they didn’t have a better choice, though... “We could.”
King jogged by with his dog just as they’d parked in the driveway. “Hey.” King waved. “We’re having another get-together in a couple weeks. You guys in?”
Gage and Ulric exchanged a look. “We might be moving out,” Ulric said.
“That’s a bummer.” King seemed disappointed. “What happened?”
“We’re saving up for a family,” Ulric answered. “Although it’s a bit more complicated than that.”
“Tell me,” King said.
So Ulric told him about the experimental process, the organ implants, and the eventual pregnancy, feeling like maybe he was overloading King with too much information. Just because he and Gage wanted to knock each other up.
“You know, I think there might be other folks in your situation,” King mused. “You said Nate might know this doctor?”
They were getting more and more people involved in this, which wasn’t what Ulric wanted. He winced. “It’s fine, really. We’ll manage.”
“I’ll have a chat with Nate,” King said. “Don’t worry about it.”
He disappeared down the street, leaving Ulric and Gage staring after him in bewilderment.
“What did I do?” Ulric mumbled.
“Possibly a very good thing.” Gage tugged him closer, kissing his ear. “Do you think we’ll have two boys, or two girls?”
“At the same time?” Ulric gulped, thinking about both of them with swollen bellies. “You know we’re going to attract stares. Maybe not so much me, because I’m already fat—”
“You’re perfect.”
“—but you have a job at the gym, Gage.” Ulric grimaced. “Are they going to be okay with you getting pregnant?”
Gage shrugged, kissing Ulric again. “It’ll be a while yet. We’ll deal with it when that happens, babe.”
Ulric still wasn’t convinced.
“Here, let me show you how I’ll knock you up,” Gage whispered. He pulled their bodies flush, a sweet friction that distracted Ulric from his thoughts. “Lots of time to practice.”
Ulric gave in. Maybe it was because of his job, but Gage demonstrated things very well. Especially in the bedroom.
He followed Gage into the house, setting his worries aside.
31
Making Babies
“Are you able to do a few sit-ups for me?” Dr. Rutherford asked, waving them over to an exam bed
Gage nodded for Ulric to go first; Ulric frowned. “You first,” Ulric said. “You’ve been doing way more than you should.”
Rutherford fixed Gage with a chiding stare. “You should have let your body heal.”
“I felt fine. Was starting to hurt when I stopped working out after the surgery.” Gage got on the bed, doing a set of ten easily—just to prove he could. He liked working out; it loosened his muscles and helped him sleep better. And, now that he’d had an open-body surgery, it felt good to know he was back in shape.
Rutherford listened to Gage’s heart, before checking his abdomen. “You do seem to have healed well. How are you coping with the hormones?”
“Not bad.”
Some time before the implantation surgery, Rutherford had given them increasing doses of omega hormones, to let them adjust to the hormonal cocktail that came with having omega parts.
It felt... strange. Gage had been noticing different things—he’d been thinking maybe they needed some prettier curtains in the house, and he’d been wanting to put on some flowing lacy clothes. Jesse had let Gage borrow his bottles of nail polish. Coloring his nails felt really weird, but
