In his arms, Ollie felt safe again. Eric’s embrace reminded him of last week, when Eric had held him. Kissed him, touched him. Eric felt right.
Except Eric had kept secrets from him. Total Sounds still stood between them like a knife, skinning Olivier a little at a time.
“I need someone other than you,” Olivier said, miserable.
Eric froze. “You... you do?” he asked, his voice strangled.
Olivier swiped at his wet eyes, really looking at him then. Despite his gelled hair and his neat clothes, Eric looked shaken.
“It doesn’t matter to you, does it?” Olivier said. “You’re just my brother.”
“I want to be your alpha,” Eric murmured.
Olivier stopped breathing. You do? “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
It was too much to think about, Eric being his alpha.
“I’ll have nothing else left if my shop closes, Eric,” Olivier mumbled. “Don’t you know that?”
Eric sucked in a shaky breath. “I’ll help you revive your shop.”
Would he, really? When Olivier didn’t even know how he could salvage his business? What if Eric was lying?
“I don’t know how you can.” Olivier wrenched himself out of Eric’s arms, his heart heavy.
“Wait! Ollie.”
“I’m leaving,” Olivier growled, furious at himself for wanting to step back into Eric’s embrace.
“I’ll let you leave if that’s what you want,” Eric said. “But it’s something else. You—you smell sweet. Like honey.”
“That’s got nothing to do with you.”
Except Eric grabbed his arm, pulling him back. Then he buried his nose in Olivier’s hair, sucking in a deep breath. “Yeah. You smell pregnant. I thought you took the morning-after pill.”
Olivier froze, staring blankly at him. “I did. I’m not pregnant.”
“You are.” Eric sniffed at him again, his breath hot against Olivier’s scalp. “I recognize this scent, Ollie. Don’t ask me to spell it out.”
Olivier stared at him. Eric stared back, his gaze unamused.
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
Olivier looked down at himself, at his flat belly. It didn’t seem any different from yesterday, or last week. Then he sniffed at himself, but his skin smelled like carnation and cedar, and the chill of winter. Did it smell sweet? The scents were too confusing for him to pick anything out. I can’t be pregnant.
“It’s mine, isn’t it?” Eric eyed the bonding mark on Olivier’s neck. “You don’t smell like another alpha.”
“I don’t even know if I’m pregnant!”
“You are.”
Olivier flinched. “What if I say it’s not yours?”
Eric narrowed his eyes. “You slept with someone else?”
No. But Olivier had felt ill this whole morning, and he’d thought it was just another side effect of the morning sickness pill. The sensitivity to light, to sound.
If he was carrying Eric’s child... Olivier stopped himself from thinking. He wanted that baby too much to be disappointed again.
“Even if I’m pregnant, it’s not yours,” Olivier mumbled, hiding his face from Eric. “I’m leaving.”
Eric sucked in a sharp breath, his grip growing tight around Olivier’s arm. “You fucked someone else?”
“So what if I did?” Olivier snapped.
Eric growled, baring his teeth. “You’re... You’re...”
“I’m not yours.”
Eric flinched then. Olivier looked away, guilt filling his chest. If Eric didn’t know it was his child, if Eric didn’t have to be responsible... then he wouldn’t get into trouble. He’d get to keep his job, and he’d get along with the rest of their family, too.
You’ll ruin his life, Eric’s mom had told Olivier, a long time ago. Stay away from him.
Slowly, Olivier shuffled away from Eric, his thoughts a mess.
Eric tangled their fingers together. “You drove here?”
Olivier shook his head.
“At least let me send you back.”
And let him see the sad state of Olivier’s shop? “You’re still working.”
“I’m on a fifteen-minute break.”
“Your break’s almost over.”
But Eric was still holding on to him, he was still touching Olivier, watching him.
“Ollie,” Eric murmured.
Then he stepped close and cupped Olivier’s cheeks, brushing Olivier’s tears away. Olivier froze. This close, Eric’s eyes were intent. He raked his gaze down to Olivier’s mouth, and Olivier forgot to breathe.
“You can’t,” Olivier whispered.
When Eric kissed him this time, it was slow, soft. His lips snagged against Olivier’s, and his teeth grazed Olivier’s lower lip. “You’re pregnant,” Eric whispered against his mouth. “I don’t want you to go through this alone. Tell me if you have another alpha.”
Olivier’s heart squeezed. He wanted Eric more than he could say. If he was really pregnant... he wanted Eric to hold him for a little longer.
“I need to go back,” he mumbled instead. “To... to the shop. I’ll have to get a test done. I—”
“Can I visit you? Later,” Eric said, pulling away just far enough to look into his eyes. “Just to make sure you’re okay.”
Olivier gulped. He shouldn’t. And yet... being in Eric’s arms was such a comfort. “Maybe. I don’t close until nine.”
“I’ll be there,” Eric murmured.
Ollie’s heart leaped. “O-okay.”
Eric squeezed his hand, staring into his eyes. Then he left Olivier, striding back into the store.
Olivier sank bonelessly against the wall, touching his mouth. Eric had kissed him. Worse, Eric had said he was pregnant.
Was it true?
An hour later, Ollie paced behind the counter of Olivier’s Strings, his stomach twisting.
He’d done it. He had a pregnancy test sitting on the store’s bathroom counter, and the wait was killing him. Three days of vomiting. Four days of on-and-off dizziness. He’d done an enema, he’d washed out all of Eric’s seed.
He shouldn’t be pregnant.
“Ugh!” Levi stumbled out of the bathroom. “Were you leaving the pregnancy test where I could see it? On purpose?”
Olivier grimaced. “No! I just... I just forgot you might be going in. Is it done?”
“I don’t know.” Levi squinted at the countdown timer on Olivier’s phone. “Is it?”
Olivier groaned. There was a minute left. He stepped into the bathroom, forcing himself to count down along with the phone. Three seconds, two seconds, one second.
And then he was terrified of looking, in case Eric was wrong. Or right.
“Hold my hand, Levi,” Olivier said.
Levi held his hand. With his heart thudding, Olivier peered at the pregnancy test.
There were two blue lines. He was pregnant, and with Eric’s baby, no less.
Disbelief flooded through
