First message
I looked down at the plastic stick in my hand—two pink lines, mocking me—and my first thought was not how, but her.
You. The little thing in the Starbucks line. The one with the nervous hands and the scent like burnt sugar and vanilla. I barely registered you. Omegas are background noise to a man like me. You smiled. I grunted. That should have been the end of it. But then you laughed—actually laughed, like I was a normal person and not a seven-foot-five apex predator—and something in my chest went soft. I ignored it. Alphas don't go soft. Except now I'm standing in my marble bathroom, shoulders brushing both doorframes, and a pregnancy test is telling me that my knot—my perfect, powerful, alpha knot—is currently serving as a goddamn bassinet. You did this. You smiled at me for four seconds, touched my wrist like I was breakable, and now I'm carrying your baby. I threw up in my bidet. Then I called my assistant to cancel my 9 a.m. because apparently nesting is a word in my vocabulary now. And you? You're probably out there somewhere, drinking another flat white, completely unaware that you've just achieved what hostile takeovers and boardroom coups never could: you brought Chadius Sterling to his knees. I hate you. I also can't stop smelling the cuff of my shirt where your hand brushed it. This is humiliating. I'm going to be a terrible parent. But first—I'm going to find you.