“No, but thanks.” His heart thuds against his ribs. I just need you.
Felix shuts the door behind him, and Kade stares at where his face was, touching the empty skin on his chest.
42
Felix
Breakfast passes far less awkwardly than Felix expects.
He steps out of the house to let the musky scents dissipate from his skin. By the time he enters the kitchen, Mrs. Brentwood has diced potatoes going on the stove, and some eggs boiling in a pot. “I really do hope you slept fine,” she says, looking pointedly at his belly. “Kade meant well when he offered his bed, you know.”
“I know,” he mumbles, looking at the floor. It would also save them some embarrassment if they keep all sex behind doors. “I’ll think about it.”
When Kade joins them in the kitchen, he looks sourly at his mother. The expression melts away when he glances at Felix, though, and Felix fidgets, wondering if he caused Kade to relax. If Kade truly wants him around, despite what Felix has done.
They sit down at the table, plates of potato hash and boiled eggs between them. Kade talks about the programs he has to adjust for work, and Mrs. Brentwood tells Felix about her garden.
“Feel free to paint in the backyard,” she says. “Some of the succulents are blossoming again.”
After breakfast, Kade rides out with Felix to a strip mall nearby, where they hire a trailer for the day. It takes them an hour to pack Felix’s things into boxes, and five trips to move all of it into Kade’s garage. The baby squirms in Felix’s belly as they unload the last haul, and Kade watches when Felix touches the curve of his abdomen.
“What should I name it?” Felix asks.
Kade fumbles a cardboard box. The plates inside rattle.
“Sorry,” Felix says, wincing. “I mean, I don’t know what to name it. I’m not good with names.” Besides, Kade should have a say too, shouldn’t he, if the baby is also his?
“We don’t even know if it’s a boy or girl,” Kade says, but a dark red tint fans across his cheeks. “Why are you asking me, anyway?”
Felix lowers his head, pulling open a box of clothes. “I... thought you might have a better idea than I do.”
Kade shrugs, his gaze lingering on Felix’s belly. “We still have to get clothes for it, right? Maybe you’ll have a better idea when we’re there. Or you could ask my mom.”
Felix sighs, tracing his finger over the tape on the box. “I’m glad about moving in.” Kade glances up, his eyes bright. Felix shrugs. “I mean, your mom knows a lot about caring for children, right? I figure I could learn something from her.”
“Oh.” Kade hauls the rest of the boxes onto the garage floor, his fingers smudged with dust. His shoulders sag a little. “Yeah, she has plenty of experience with that.”
Did I say something wrong? Felix cringes. Maybe he accidentally offended Kade’s mom. “Anyway, thanks for helping me move. And for letting me stay here. I really don’t want to bother you.”
Kade rolls his eyes. “When have you really bothered me?”
“I... don’t know.” Aside from five years ago? Felix riffles through his memories, remembering the wrong-number prank calls he pulled on Kade, the ice cubes down his shirt, distracting him at work with silly farting noises... “The time I caught a duck and it shat on you?”
Kade laughs. He dusts his hands off, striding over to take the box of clothes from Felix. “I’ll move your stuff in for you.”
“This is light enough,” Felix says, but Kade wraps his hands around the box anyway. Then he lowers his face over Felix, so his lips hover an inch away, and his warm breath feathers over Felix’s skin.
When Kade kisses him, his lips slide soft and insistent. Felix doesn’t know why he’s doing this, but it feels good. Kade’s kissing him, Kade’s helping him move, and he’ll never have enough of this.
He nips at Kade’s mouth, sliding in. Kade’s tongue tangles with his own. It feels like love and concern and affection, and it steals the breath from Felix’s lungs.
Kade pulls away sometime later, his lips glistening. His eyes are dark, beautiful and mahogany, and Felix can’t look away.
“You look good like that,” Kade rumbles.
“Like what?” His pulse stutters.
Kade shrugs. His gaze rakes over Felix’s face, though, and he pulls away, taking the box of clothes with him. “Go help my mom with stuff. I’ll move your things inside.”
“Okay,” Felix says, feeling as though he should protest. But his body is starting to ache with the pregnancy, and maybe it’ll be better to let his alpha lift the heavy boxes instead. “How about I follow you around and give orders?’
Kade snorts, but he grins, his eyes lighting up. “Yeah, sure. Whatever you want.”
And so Felix follows him into the house with a smile, the unease in his limbs trickling away.
Felix tosses on the couch late that night, drained and restless. His sleeping clothes catch and pull on his skin, uncomfortable, and the couch is too warm. When he turns, his skin sticks to the wooly blanket. Maybe he should have asked for a different one instead.
He squirms on the couch, sighing when he finds a comfortable spot.
Through the day, Kade had moved his things into the house. Three boxes of clothes in his bedroom, a crate of framed paintings in the guest room upstairs, and four boxes of painting supplies tucked against the garage wall.
Kade never once mentioned rent, or how long he’ll allow Felix to stay here. Felix looks down at the shadowed bump of his belly, smoothing a hand over it. I guess we aren’t moving away from Meadowfall now.
And he doesn’t want to, either. Kade has offered Felix his home. Felix isn’t strong enough to reject him, when his alpha welcomes him in his arms, in his bed, and he has a family here that he hasn’t
