I had reached out to Jonah’s friend Kallie on a whim, knowing that she and him were close. She was more than happy to help. The idea had crossed her mind as well, but she hadn’t gotten a chance to get it started. She’d drafted up a petition, the woman had a way with words, thank goodness. Once she emailed it to me, I dropped off a copy to Mrs. Williams early on Saturday morning.

  Throughout the day, I received calls and texts from both of them letting me know that they’d spoken with several individuals who were outraged that anyone would think to shut Jonah down.

  We all decided to meet after my shift at the senior care facility. Frank, Alan, and Gloria would be more than happy to help make phone calls for Jonah.

  Already, people in the community were telling us that they wanted to come to the meeting. Kallie had begun making a list of emails and phone numbers to call to let people know when and where the meeting would be.

  When my shift was over, I went as quickly as I could to put the truck away and grab my personal vehicle. This morning, I hadn’t realized that my day was going to be spent at the senior care facility, so unfortunately, I didn’t have the nicest clothes. I hoped they’d forgive me.

  There were several vehicles there when I arrived, the parking lot was nearly full.

  When I walked into the lobby, I was shocked with the amount of people gathered around the area that Jonah and I, along with Frank, Gloria, and Alan had occupied just two weeks ago.

  Frank waved me over. “Dallas, you made it!”

  I grinned. “Yeah. How are things going?”

  “Splendid.” Frank clapped me on the back. The room buzzed with energy and everyone either had a pad of paper in front of them, a phone to their ear, or both. “We’ve got a lot of people for you to meet.”

  My stomach churned. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to socialize. But for Jonah, I’d do anything.

  Frank let out a two fingered whistle and all eyes turned on him. And me.

  I wanted to shrink back in on myself, but I couldn’t.

  “Hey, everybody. Dallas is here. He’s the one who’s organized all of this.”

  “Oh, no,” I said. “Kallie and Mrs. Williams—”

  “Nonsense, boy. Take credit where credit is due.”

  Two men stepped forward. They looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place them. One reached out his hand.

  “I’m Stephen, Jonah’s dad,” he said.

  Now was not the time for my hands to turn clammy from sweat due to stress, but damned if it didn’t happen anyway. I had no idea I’d be meeting Jonah’s parents today. I was not prepared for this. “Oh, my goodness. It’s so nice to meet you. Jonah’s told me a lot about you.”

  “Really?” he said with a grin. “We haven’t heard that much about you.”

  His mate, Patrick, nudged him. “Leave him alone. I don’t think Jonah’s had much time to tell us about him. How long have you two been seeing each other?”

  I ran a hand through my hair and swallowed thickly. “Just two weeks,” I said. “We… ugh… this is… new.” I clamped my mouth shut to stop myself from stammering anymore.

  “Well, we appreciate this,” he gestured to the people all on their phones with pads of paper in front of them. “This is amazing. Jonah is going to be blown away.”

  I bit my lip. “Yeah, I hope so. I hope I didn’t overstep.”

  “No, not at all,” Stephen said. “At least not in my mind.”

  “I think Jonah will see that as well,” Patrick said.

  “I sure hope so.” I wrung my hands together, unsure of what to do with myself. I was not used to all this attention.

  “Why don’t the two of you come over for dinner tomorrow night. If you’re not doing anything,” Patrick asked.

  “That would be great. I’d love to,” I said. “Obviously, I’ll have to talk with Jonah.” If I was still with Jonah. All of this had spiraled a little far, and I feared that he would think that I was trying to be some sort of alpha bulldozer taking over his life.

  “Dallas?” a tentative voice called from behind me.

  I turned around quickly, almost falling over in the process. “Jonah? What are you doing here?”

  Jonah looked around at all the people and Sebastian’s leash slipped from his hands. Sebastian trotted over to Kallie and Gloria.

  “Well,” I said. “None of us were about to watch Mr. Jones try to put you out of business. So, we figured if he can get a few signatures from people who didn’t want you in business, we could get a whole hell of a lot of signatures from people who did want you in business.”

  Everyone around us cheered, shouting words of encouragement.

  Jonah put a hand over his mouth and tears pooled at the corner of his eyes. “You organized all this?”

  “Yeah, he did!” Alan shouted.

  I chuckled. “Not quite. I called Kallie and Mrs. Williams. The three of us coordinated throughout the day, and here we all are. We’ve got close to two hundred people pledged to show up to the town hall meeting. And we’ve only just started.”

  “We have even more people who want to sign our petition,” Kallie said.

  “I can’t believe this,” Jonah said.

  I shrugged. “It’s not much. I just wanted to help.”

  “It’s everything, Dallas.”

  I stepped forward. Heat spread across my face and neck. “You don’t mind? I was afraid that it looked like I was trying to bulldoze my way around.”

  Jonah shook his head. “This is amazing. Thank you.”

  I bit my lip. My cards were all out on the table, I might as well drop the last one I had. The one that I’d been holding close to my chest. I whispered, hoping that the crowd around us wouldn’t overhear. “I love you, Jonah,” I said. “I just want to make you happy.”

  He grinned and cupped my face. “I love you, too, Dallas. This means so much to me. You are so amazing.” He pressed a kiss to my lips, and I wrapped my arms around his waist, picking him up in the air. I didn’t care about our audience now. Around us, they all cheered. I sat Jonah back down.

  “Oh, and surprise, I met your dads.”

  Jonah chuckled.

  “And they want us to come to dinner tomorrow.”

  He laughed even harder now. “I guess we can make that work.”

  “C’mon,” I said grabbing his hand. “I think the two of us ought to make some phone calls, too.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jonah

  I stared at my closet for a long time, unsure of what to wear for this fateful meeting. The silly petition, which in the past two weeks had failed to garner any more signatures, seemed less stressful now while my own petition, the one started by Dallas and our close friends, continued to grow.

  Dallas came into my bedroom. We hadn’t officially moved in together, but he hadn’t stayed more than two nights at his own place in the past two weeks.

  “Everything all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I just can’t think of what to wear.” I laid a hand over my stomach.

  “Feeling all right?” he asked.

  I looked at him and smiled, hoping to assure him that I was fine. “Yeah, just little queasy.”

  “Nervous for tonight? You know everything’s going to be fine.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m not nervous. I just can’t seem to shake this nausea lately.” A thought occurred to me then. Nausea that I couldn’t shake, and I was tired, more tired than usual, which I had attributed to having Dallas at the house since the two of us didn’t keep our hands off each other. Which only made me realize what else could happen to an omega who couldn’t keep his hands off his alpha.

  “Hold that thought,” I said. I went to the bathroom and rummaged through the cabinet. I found the box I was looking for.

  “Jonah?” Dallas called from the bedroom. “Is everything all right?”

  “Everything’s fine. I just I just want to check something.”

  “Okay.” His voice sounded uncertain. He’d just have to be patient; in a few moments I’d know more and I could fill him in on what I was thinking.

  I followed the instructions on the box as best as I could and then waited. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait the full three minutes before two lines appeared. I checked the box to make sure I was reading it right. Then looked at the stick again. Then back at the box.

  “Dallas!”

  The door whipped open as if he hadn’t moved away from it. “Is everything all right? What’s going on?”

  I held the stick out to him. We hadn’t talked about this at all. We barely talked about moving in together. Everything was still so new. We’d only been together a month and here we were.

  “A baby?” he said.

  I nodded.

  “That’s the nausea?”

  I nodded again.

  His face lit up brighter than a Christmas tree. “A baby,” he said. And he laughed. “We’re going to have a baby.” His smile was infectious.

  “Yes,” I said, happy tears coming to my eyes. “We’re going to have a baby.”

  “This is so amazing!” he said. “I never would have—”

  “Me neither. I mean, we used protection, right?”

  “Yeah, but I guess it didn’t take.”

  I hugged him, wrapping my arms around his middle.

  He laughed. “You’re going to have a belly like mine soon.”

  I smiled. “Bigger than yours.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll try to keep up with you.”

  I laughed and kissed him. “I love you so much Dallas.”

  “I love you, too, Jonah.”

  “I guess we’ve got some planning to do.”

  “I’ll say,” he said. His phone went off and he looked at it. “It’s Kallie. She says we better get to the town hall. It’s pretty packed already.”

  “Oh, shit, really? We’ve still got a half an hour. I’ll get dressed.” I grabbed the first clothes that I could find, my hands still shaking knowing that I was carrying Dallas’s child.

  He helped me into his truck, though I told him it was unnecessary. Then the two of us left.

  The smile never left his face or mine.

  “What are we going to tell your dads? Do you think they’ll be disappointed?” he asked.

  “About having a grandchild? Hardly.”

  Dallas looked at me with concern on his face. “Well, we’re not formally mated or married or living together.”

  “We can fix all of those things, Dallas. Well before the baby arrives.”

  “Would you… would you want that?” he asked tentatively.

  “Would you?” I replied.

  He grinned, his smiling splitting his face. “More than anything.”

  “Me too,” I said.

  Dallas pulled into the parking lot of the town hall. “Man, Kallie hadn’t been kidding.” The parking lot was full, and we had to park across the street and walk over. Many people were already seated as we walked in.

  I waved at Mrs. Williams and Dallas’s boss.

  Kallie, Adam, Gloria, Frank and Alan were are all there as well. And many other people I knew from the dog park and around the community. Since starting this petition, I had procured three more clients who were all bringing their dogs to me full time. If we kept up this pace, I would have to hire help, which was a good problem to have.

  My training classes were also full and booked solid for the next two months.

  I didn’t see Mr. Jones or his daughter anywhere. As the meeting was called to order, I still didn’t see them arrive.

  When the discussion of Mr. Jones’s petition came up for debate on the agenda, I stepped forward to defend my position.

  No one came forward on his side.

  “Is Mr. Jones here?” the city manager asked.

  There were murmurs throughout the room, but no one stepped forward.

  “Coward probably couldn’t show his face,” Frank shouted before Gloria shushed him.

  I stood awkwardly at the microphone, prepared with notes to defend my business.

  “Based on the lack of support for Mr. Jones petition, not to mention the lack of substantial reasons for wanting Mr. Anderson’s business shut down, the council will not be discussing this matter. Unless anyone here wants to argue in favor of Mr. Jones?” the city clerk eyed the crowd, giving the attendees a chance to come forward if they so wished.

  No one moved.

  I couldn’t believe it was as simple as that.

  The city manager banged the gavel and the crowd cheered.

  I looked through the familiar faces, friends and loved ones who supported me, until my gaze landed on Dallas. The love of my life, the father of my child. I smiled and he smiled back.

  “Thank you,” I said, though he likely couldn’t hear me over the crowd cheering.

  Epilogue

  Dallas

  I woke up to a growling dog, which nearly had me leaping out of the bed in fear. Sebastian never growled. I sat up, looking around the room frantically. I felt the other side of the bed to find that it was empty.

  “Jonah?” I called. No answer.

  Sebastian growled again, then barked.

  “Where is he boy?” I got out of bed and followed Sebastian into the living room.

  Jonah lay on the floor with his pregnancy pillow wrapped around him.

  “Jonah? Is everything all right?”

  Soft music played from his phone next to him. “Everything’s fine,” he said. “Contractions started about three hours ago. They are a few minutes apart.”

  “What?” I said. “Three hours ago? Why didn’t you wake me?”

  His eyes remained closed and his breathing even. “There was no point to alarm you. This is all part of the process.”

  “How about we go to the hospital?”

  “Nope. We have to wait until they’re a little bit closer together.”

  “Okay,” I said, trying to match Jonah’s level of calm, but failing. “When will that be?”

  He picked up his phone and checked it, then clutched his stomach. “Now,” he moaned. “It’s now. That’s the strongest one I’ve had yet and they’re less than a minute apart.”

  I bent down and scooped him up in my arms.

  “Dallas! Calm down. We have plenty of time. There’s no need to freak out.”

  “I’m not freaking out,” I said. “I’m remaining totally calm.”

  “Clearly,” he said. “Put me down. Go get dressed. You can’t take me to the hospital naked.”

  It was then that I took stock of myself. I did feel a distinctive breeze over my dick. I was naked.

  “And call my dads, so they can take care of Sebastian today.”

  “Okay.” I sat him down on the couch as gently as I possibly could. He clutched at his stomach and I winced. “Sorry!”

  “It’s fine. Everything’s fine. Just a contraction.”

  I rushed to the bedroom and threw on the first clothes that I found. A pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I couldn’t go wrong with that combination. Jonah’s bag was already packed and in the car. We’d known that the baby would arrive any day now, being that he was three days overdue, so we were prepared. At least I thought we were.

  How could I have slept through him getting out of bed? I knew how. I had learned to sleep through it, because it seemed like for the past four months, he had been up three to four times a night just to pee. He had gotten good at climbing out silently and then back in without me realizing. I hated that he wasn’t getting enough sleep, but he positively glowed with his pregnancy.

  I grabbed my keys and hit the remote start so the truck would be warm when we got in. Then I texted his dads.

  “Do you need anything?” I asked Jonah. “Water? Food? I don’t know.”

  “I’m fine,” he said. He rubbed his belly. He opened his eyes and looked at me with a big smile. “Are you ready to meet our little girl?”

  I nodded. Jonah was sure that it was a girl, though we had decided to keep the gender a surprise, being that neither one of us cared either way.

  “Let’s go then,” he said and tried to get up. After two attempts, he finally held out his hand to me. I grasped it and pulled him forward. Once he was standing, I scooped him up into my arms again.

  “I can walk to the car. Walking is actually good for labor. It helps speed things along.”

  “We can speed things along when we get to the hospital. But for now, let’s keep things moving slow.”

  ***

  Since we were already pre-registered at the hospital, everything went smoothly when we arrived, and we were in one of the triage rooms within fifteen minutes. The nurse hooked up the monitors to Jonah’s belly and watched the screen. She turned to Jonah with a quizzical expression.

  “How are you feeling right now?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re having a pretty strong contraction.”

  ‘Oh, yeah,” he said. “They’ve been like that for the past hour.”

  She raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything more. I held his hand. “Well, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be admitting you. I don’t think these contractions will be slowing down.”

  Jonah grinned and squeezed my hand. “We’re going to meet her. She’s going to be here.”

  My heart leapt in my chest and my throat constricted.

  “You’re going to be a great dad, Dallas. Don’t you worry about that.”

  I did worry though. Our baby would come out tiny and perfect, while I was huge and clumsy. What was I going to do with a delicate little baby except maybe stare at her? I could think of worse ways to pass the time.

  Four hours later, Jonah’s calm demeanor slipped away, and he screamed through the contractions, squeezing my hand with all of his might.

  “Why did I think I could do this naturally?” he said. “This is really, really painful.”

  “You’re doing great, Jonah. You are so amazing.”

  “Fuck that,” he said. “I don’t want to be amazing. I want to be doped up.”

 

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