14. Chapter 14

After an eight-hour day of masquerading as Andrea’s mate, Lena expected to spend the whole night making it up to Kara. Any other alpha would have required a good ego-stroking after an event like that, but Kara continued to prove she was the better person by turning a bad situation into a special and memorable evening. Once they returned to their rental, Kara lit candles all around the rooftop pool, and they made love in the water under the starlight. Waves crashed over the edge with Kara’s thrusts, and when Lena emerged from them, she was dripping down her legs for more than one reason.

For four consecutive days, Kara kept her naked and in slick condition for uninterrupted sex, and Lena had to wonder if her mate’s alpha was just beginning to assert herself.

At some point during their stop at home, Kara picked up the Replyk-A she purchased months before, and if she needed to pull out for any reason, she slipped the silicone cock inside of Lena in her stead. Towards the end of the week, they went to the store to buy groceries and other necessities, and they agreed beforehand that Kara would run in while Lena stayed in the passenger’s seat with a full pussy.

By day five, Lena no longer bothered with putting on a complete set of clothes, and when they decided to go for ice cream that afternoon, she stepped outside without her bra or panties. She wore a belt with an oversized shirt of Kara’s, and her hair was still tousled from taking it hard in the kitchen right beforehand. It reminded her of being young and in college, especially when the alpha who was serving them began treating her like she was all of twenty.

“What flavor can I get you, sweetheart?” The alpha asked softly, holding up the scoop and giving her eyes.

“I’ll have the same as my mate,” Lena replied and clung to Kara’s arm, breathing in the traces of possessiveness in the loving security of the scent.

The alpha smiled at Lena as she handed over a cup with an extra scoop in it. “Ah, the beauty of young love and trying out each other’s favorites.”

Lena chuckled privately at the assumptions their server made, because there was a certain beauty to first time romances, but they couldn’t compare to the beauty of experience. She had learned so much about herself in recent years, and even more about what she needed in a partner. Kara was the living embodiment of decades of longing, and she linked their fingers together with a grin before exiting the ice cream shop.

They strolled down a boardwalk near the strip of stores where they purchased their treat and found a spot on the sand to lay out a towel. With it being the off-season, no one was around to witness how Kara opened the top five buttons on her shirt and positioned her. Kara kissed her bare shoulders and her nipples, sucking them with lips that were still cold from their treat.

“Going to put a baby in you,” Kara husked against her claims and popped her mouth over Lena’s swollen nipple.

“That would make baby twenty-three, then,” Lena teased with both of her hands tangling into Kara’s messy beach hair. “I’ve been counting the number of times you said that this week.”

She paused to glance down into Kara’s eyes and considered sharing her suspicions about her recent symptoms long before her mate’s birthday.

The opportune moment seemed to pass as Kara sucked her nipple harder, and she groaned at how red and tender it was afterwards. Twinges of satisfying soreness led her to grasp the back of Kara’s head and pull her mouth back to her breast.

“In my defense, have you seen how gorgeous you are? Now that my claim is on your neck, I feel so much more in tune with your body and desires.” Kara kissed her again, following the curve of a clavicle up over her collarbone and shoulder. She bruised the skin with a slow and possessive suck and palmed at Lena’s bare breasts.

“How would you really feel if we were to get pregnant right now?” Lena whispered noncommittally, and pouted her lips without an awareness she was doing it. She only realized when Kara caressed a thumb over her bottom lip and kissed the tension away.

“Honestly?” Kara asked in the breathless aftermath of tangling tongues and sucking on Lena’s pout. “Nothing would make me happier than finding that out. Don’t get me wrong, I love our relationship, but the thought of seeing you grow every day with my pup? I can’t get that out of my head now that you’ve told me how much you want that. I keep thinking about how excited Natty will be, and though they’re never going to admit it at first, Andy and Sophia will be so protective of their new sibling. I can’t wait to add to our family.”

The joy that Kara radiated when she spoke was so pure and honest that Lena almost regretted asking the question. She wanted all of that with Kara, exactly how the alpha imagined it, and yet guilt threatened to dampen her mood when she realized she couldn’t bring herself to confide in her mate about her symptoms.

Not only was she afraid of disappointing Kara, but another fear was lurking behind all of her excitement and holding her back. She ran a finger over the place where Kara’s lips had been and thought about all of her other pregnancies. The first took place when she was fresh out of graduate school. Intellectually, she had been so far ahead in life, and yet far too immature to recognize the toxicity in her own relationship.

Andrea was at her beck and call for the first five months of the pregnancy, and after that she started seeing a barista from their favorite local coffee shop. It took Lena an additional five months to figure that out, and she still remembered the crushing feeling of walking into that shop with an infant cuddled to her chest just to find Andrea kissing someone else.

Three years later, when Andy was in pre-school and Lena was pregnant with Sophia, a similar set of circumstances presented themselves. Andrea began flirting with Lena’s birthing coach, and soon after bringing their second daughter home, they separated for the first time. It lasted just two months, but for almost ten years afterward, Lena uncovered more than a dozen secret affairs that Andrea initiated.

There were times that Lena dared not re-live in her mind – the miserable year of the divorce and the subsequent fling she had with Andrea that resulted in Natty – but she recognized that most of the worst moments of her life coincided with her three pregnancies.

Lena hadn’t known how much the pattern of past events would influence her feelings like this, or how it would paralyze her when it came to a simple matter like taking a pregnancy test.

Kara deserved her complete honesty, and she knew she would have to work through her complex issues sooner than later, but for the time being, Lena retreated back into the happy moment with her mate. She changed the subject with seductive distractions before Kara detected her emotional state.

“It’s hard to believe that your rut ended a day ago when you’re still so insatiable. I’m starting to think the reason you wanted to take this romantic stroll on the beach was just so you could get your hands on me.” Lena cupped Kara’s erection through her shorts to palm at the bulge with insistent squeezes that mimicked the spasm of her cunt.

She grinned at how Kara tugged down the fly on her pants, her eager and expectant scent drifting down the beach with the breeze.

“What did you expect when you left wearing my shirt and nothing else? I only have so much self-control,” Kara teased in return, turning Lena onto her side so that her back was turned just enough to hike up her shirt. She smoothed her hand over Lena’s bare backside with a quiet rumble of approval and rubbed into the apex of her thighs to gather the nectar that collected between her pussy lips.

Lena whimpered at the self-assured way Kara handled her, confident in the knowledge that she had the right to fuck her right then and there on the quiet beach. She raised her leg up so that her mate could drape it over her thigh and groaned at the sudden rough thrust that forced Kara’s cock deep into her heated cunt.

After so many days, she had gotten accustomed to having regular rut sex, though she was still sensitive from an earlier pounding. The glide of Kara’s shaft was smooth and created an excess of slick inside of Lena that made a wet sound they could hear over the rush of the waves. She coiled an arm around Kara and positioned her cunt to take a barrage of thrusts that rocked her forward and spilled her breasts into the cool air. Kara was quick to grab them, pinching and rolling her aching nipples without losing the frenetic rhythm that brought them together.

The sensuous friction of Kara’s tip rubbed into the hidden creases of her cunt, and Lena grunted, raw and sultry when it pressed into her cervix. She imagined Kara’s alpha demanding entrance with every fluid stroke and whined at the warmth of Kara’s mouth on her claim. The subtle pressure of teeth finding purchase in the marks did unspeakable things to Lena’s omega and she writhed in pleasure.

“Bite harder, oh god, right there, now lick it,” Lena begged, overwhelmed by the onslaught of blissful sensations.

The resounding chuckle from her mate sent vibrations through her throat and Lena whimpered at the languid tease of Kara’s tongue flicking across her claim.

There was nothing sexier than experiencing Kara in complete control of herself, except perhaps the moments when she couldn’t control herself at all.

The slick clutch of Lena’s canal tightened in recurrent spasm, and she pushed back to give her mate as good as she was getting it. “You know I’m not wearing any panties, and you’re going to come inside me, aren’t you, Kara?”

Kara groaned at the constant, salacious slap of her cock opening up Lena’s cunt. “Haven’t stopped thinking about it since we left this morning.” She reached around to grasp at the crest between Lena’s legs and to play with her excited little clit.

With her hand dominant and firm on Lena’s pussy, she battered harder into it to make her claim known. The harsher the thrusts, the more Kara prodded at her cervix and flooded it with seed that slid out of her in a rush.

Thick and frothier than sea foam, the remnants dripped from Lena’s entrance, and Kara pushed it all back inside.

“I don’t need to knot to keep you full, or get you pregnant,” Kara husked and sucked on her earlobe as she settled a hand over Lena’s womb. “I bet you’re weeks along already.”

It must have been Kara’s touch that coiled her up tight inside and brought her to instant climax, because Lena whined, and her pussy grasped in spasm around the full girth of Kara’s shaft. Her warm walls latched onto it for so long that she knew she would ache inside.

Kara caressed her cunt through the orgasm and kissed her throat until she came down from it to rest heavily on her side.

“Whenever we have the house to ourselves, I want you to dress like this — no panties or bra,” Kara dictated. “Just one of my shirts that you can take off when you’re ready to breed.”

“I suspect even if our house was filled with guests, you’d find a way to sneak into my cunt.” Lena’s breathless accusation brought a smile to both their faces, and she reclined onto her back to recover. Content and still periodically convulsing, Lena knew her brief reprieve would last less than a minute before Kara pounced again.

“After our tryst at Andrea’s, I’m pretty confident I could, and more importantly that you’d let me,” Kara didn’t give Lena the chance to play coy and settled between her thighs with an erection that refused to diminish.

Lena propped herself up on her elbows to witness the heavy swollen tip eclipse her pussy. It amazed her when Kara eased it between her glistening lips to push it through the blissful constraint of her muscles. The effortless plunge immersed Kara in her liquid satin and Lena groaned at the pleasure reflected on her mate’s face.

The motion of Kara’s hips was as lazy as the waves lapping at the sand, and Lena bared her throat as her toes curled. The restless coiling of heat in her abdomen prickled her skin with sweat and she gasped at the light caress of Kara’s thumb massaging into her clitoris.

“I thought this was meant to be quick, so nobody caught us,” Lena whimpered, forsaking modesty at the first brush of Kara’s lips across her breasts. She tugged the shirt open until it was held only by the slim belt fastened around her waist and exhaled her praise when Kara tongued her sensitive nipples.

“If I didn’t make love to you the way I wanted, I’d regret it all day. Some things are worth the risk,” Kara confided, tracing her lips upward to capture Lena’s in a kiss.

They shared shaky breaths between reverent kisses and Lena undulated in time with the steady rock of Kara’s pelvis. It was Kara’s ability to bring sweetness to even their raunchier moments that Lena loved the most.

The irresistible clasp of her cunt was stroking up and down Kara’s cock and a knot swelled inside of her entrance without completing its formation. From the onset of its expansion, Lena stretched herself around it and moaned into Kara’s mouth the more it spread her apart.

With endurance and speed, Kara held her leg aloft by the ankle and continued plunging into her open cleft. They both leaned back to stare at the slim strip between her legs that was vibrant and agape from sex.

“Fuck, you look so good.” Kara grunted in satisfaction and guided her glans back into Lena’s restricting warmth.

Lena folded her legs up towards her chest and Kara’s shallow thrusts pushed out her lower belly. The rigid bulk of it was visible inside of Lena and she pictured it sliding through her cervix into her womb. Pumps of seed shot into her with another deep thrust and Lena’s contracted around the thick viscous heat of it all.

“Fill my cunt, Kara,” Lena whimpered as the hard throbs persisted and threatened to pour out of her. “I need so much more.”

Kara bottomed out with the last surging jet, spent and completely focused on keeping her creamy release as close to Lena’s womb as possible.

There was no hope of making it back to the car with such a deluge of seed inside her cunt, and the second Kara pulled out, rivulets followed. Lena pressed her thighs together not to stop the mess, but out of pure omega instinct to prevent it from spilling out.

“We’ll continue this at home,” Kara promised, riveted by the blushing crease of Lena’s pussy saturated in her arousal. She fingered it lightly, dipping between the tender folds to swirl her seed around Lena’s clit, so that the next breath she took was an elated gasp.

The prominent length of Kara’s cock jerked at the quiet cadence of Lena’s moans, and she caressed her so close to another orgasm that Lena whined in betrayal at the denial of getting it. She pouted dramatically while Kara tucked her cock into her shorts, and released a tempting sexually submissive scent to bribe Kara’s alpha into complying with her desires.

It nearly worked, if Kara biting her lip was any indication, and Lena relented before her promiscuous nature landed them in trouble.

“All of your self-restraint is putting me to shame,” Lena playfully huffed, finally doing up the buttons on the shirt. She accepted Kara’s hand to help her onto her feet, and managed one step towards the water with the idea of washing herself off.

“Oh no you don’t,” Kara rumbled against her cheek like she could read Lena’s mind, and then scooped her up with the towel covertly draped over Lena’s legs. The makeshift skirt concealed any traces of Kara’s essence that might have coated Lena’s inner thighs, and Kara grinned down at her, pleased with her crafty scheme to keep Lena covered in seed.

Lena wasn’t entirely sure if she should be mad or impressed, though given how content heromega was, there was only one answer. She nuzzled under Kara’s jaw and delivered soft, smitten kisses to the bite on her alpha’s shoulder during their walk back to the street.

Kara’s chivalry didn’t end there. She managed to open the passenger door to carefully coax Lena into the seat with her bare ass on the beach towel so the upholstery didn’t stain.

Their impromptu getaway was practically at an end, yet with Kara’s hand sliding between her thighs before they even drove off, Lena was convinced it was only beginning.

“Is it terrible that I don’t want to go home?” Kara asked with a mischievous look about her that Lena simply adored. “I mean, I know we need to get back to our lives, but just getting to spend every minute wrapped up in you has been amazing. I don’t want to lose that.”

“We have years ahead to plan trips together,” Lena promised and kept her thighs apart so that her mate could touch her cunt throughout the drive. “I never got around to discussing it with you, but it’s a family tradition that I take the girls on a trip during their spring break. Sam has been tagging along for the last few years. This year, maybe it would be fun if we asked Sam and Alex to join us. We can hang out with them and also take turns with the kids.”

She bit her lip as she realized that she could have proposed much more romantic options, where it would just be her and Kara. They would have plenty of other opportunities to travel with Andy and Sophia still at boarding school, and Natty spending every other week at Andrea’s house.

Lena dragged her nails over Kara’s forearm in light back and forth caresses. “We can spend the rest of the springtime traveling all over the west coast if you want. I didn’t mean to shift the topic to our kids.”

If Kara’s head turned any faster, she would have gotten whiplash and jerked the wheel in the wrong direction.

“Are you apologizing for bringing up the family vacation?” Kara asked and took her hand. “Because I’m ridiculously excited about that and that we’ll get to create a whole bunch of new traditions with the girls. I know Alex would be happy to join us, especially if Sam is coming, and Sophia will love spending time with Ruby. Please don’t feel bad for including the kids in the discussion. Family time is just as important to me as getting you alone.”

“You really mean that,” Lena murmured, still in awe of the unconditional love Kara had for her children. The alpha went out of her way to include them, even at times when Lena didn’t imagine she would.

In spite of knowing how thoughtful Kara was on any given day, hearing her speak with conviction about family vacations provoked a fluttering sensation in Lena’s stomach that felt acutely like falling in love with the alpha all over again.

Kara grinned at her and lifted their hands up to kiss over Lena’s knuckles, and for the rest of the ride she toned down their flirtation to something far sweeter.

Given her tendency for almost driving into ditches whenever Lena provoked her sexually, it was probably for their own good, though Lena’s omega complained with particularly demanding scents when Kara neglected her cunt in favor of resting her hand on her knee while they talked about hypothetical family trips they could take.

How they didn’t pull over to rut in the backseat was baffling to Lena, considering the dense musk of Kara’s alpha commanding her to present. She settled for petting her glossy lips to flaunt how slick her pussy was until they finally pulled into the driveway.

Kara barely put the car in park when she rushed out of the front seat to collect Lena with a sultry groan that warned they would be lucky if they made it into the house before she was inside of her.

Lena certainly didn’t complain. She stripped halfway out of the oversized shirt before the key was in the lock. “If we’re not careful, we’ll be giving someone a free show.”

Kara spared her a second to push the door open and then immediately tore the belt off her waist to get her naked.

“Hey, I managed to keep my hands to myself for thirty whole minutes on the way over here,” Kara bragged, like that in and of itself was a testament of her self-restraint. She looked mischievously disheveled with her hair half out of a ponytail and her baggy T-shirt crumpled from their earlier romp at the beach.

With an impressive tent in her shorts, she backed Lena into the foyer and cupped her tender mound in a warm hand.

“Someone thinks they deserve to be rewarded for good behavior,” Lena mused with a seductive lift of her eyebrow, and tugged at the zipper of Kara’s shorts while they stumbled towards the wall.

She slipped her hand into the parted fabric to clutch at Kara’s girthy shaft and groaned in both frustration and pleasure when her cell began ringing.

Kara had pushed two fingers inside her and appeared to be blatantly ignoring the noise coming from her pocket. As tempting as it was to follow suit, Lena answered in case it was an emergency.

“Hell-ooh?” Lena exhaled down the line with her chin tipped up so that Kara could drag her teeth across her claims. She raised a knee up to drape it over her mate’s forearm and bit back a moan when Kara twisted her fingers to rub into the soft ridges of her cunt.

“Hey you, Alex hasn’t been able to get ahold of Kara all day,” Sam chirped in greeting. “We’re wondering if game night is still on, since you’ve been AWOL all week—”

“Oh fuck,” Lena spat, startling Kara, who gazed up at her with wide and concerned eyes.

“Too hard?” Kara whispered, stilling her fingers right as Sam laughed down the line.

“Lena Luthor, did you forget your own plans for once?”

“Yes,” Lena griped in agitation, her face softening at the panic that flashed in Kara’s eyes. “Nooo,” she uttered emphatically, and gave a quick pump of her hand over the solid length of Kara’s cock so that her mate would keep going.

“Of course game night is still on, Sam, we just—uuh, god—we just got back, so give us an hour and then head over?” Lena didn’t wait for Sam’s response, and hung up so that she could enjoy the full body orgasm Kara gifted her with only two fingers and the diligent work of her thumb.

She shuddered against her mate as the wet spasm of her walls clamped around the alpha, and sagged into Kara’s strong arms with trust that she wouldn’t let her fall.

“You are in so much trouble, I can’t even begin to detail it,” Lena rasped, not the least bit serious as she fisted Kara’s hair to pull her in for a kiss. She sucked on the alpha’s lower lip, nipping and licking until she was sure she heard her mate whimper, and she only released Kara when her cock jerked against her palm. “Just for that you get to bring the bags in while I take a shower.”

“Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be, I give you orgasms and I do the chores?” Kara quipped, unfurling a flirtatious and loving scent to follow Lena up the stairs while she fixed her shorts.

“Uh huh, and you get to order the food for everyone,” Lena sassed, thoroughly enjoying their back and forth. She put extra sway to her hips as she ascended the stairs, aware that her mate would watch her all the way to the top before gathering their belongings from the car.

In the time it took Lena to shower, Kara brought their bags inside and changed her clothes to a more comfortable pair of jeans and button-down shirt that brought out the blue of her eyes.

“Did any of your friends arrive?” Lena asked as she stepped dripping from the shower, dried herself and pulled on her robe.

Kara gestured back towards the bedroom door and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Winn is here and he’s helping set up the games downstairs. James is picking up Nia, and Alex called to say they’re five minutes away.”

Kara hovered next to Lena in her robe and looked ready to help her out of it until Lena side-stepped her with a slow smirk. “Well, you had better get down there to entertain our guests, or I’ll never be ready.”

“Here’s the thing—I thought because we have five minutes, we could just use each one wisely,” Kara flailed and lifted her hands up to allocate their time. “One minute to undress you and kiss you all over, three to bend you over the bed, and then you can spend the last minute getting ready—”

Lena pressed her teeth into her bottom lip, still smirking as Kara tried to bargain her way into her panties. Her body language implied she wouldn’t budge, but her scent was rich and amorous, and she settled for cupping Kara’s face and kissing her adorable smile.

“Counter offer: you go and let our friends into the house, and whenever we can catch a few minutes alone together, I’ll let you do whatever you wish,” Lena crooned and glanced down with a meaningful flick of her lashes that would give Kara plenty to think about during their night with friends.

“That sounds very reasonable,” Kara agreed and backed off with her hands raised, like she didn’t trust them not to land on Lena and void the terms of their deal. “I’ll just go downstairs and play host and you—you can finish getting dressed.”

Lena nodded at that and turned back towards her mirror to brush on her eyeshadow and lipstick. She inconspicuously watched Kara hurry off and then pulled on a cozy sweater with a comfortable pair of black pants.

In the middle of tying her hair into a long and silky ponytail, her cell made a noise in her bag, and Lena picked it up in the hopes that it was Kara. She expected a text that would detail some filthy suggestions for what they could do while their friends were visiting, but instead she saw Andrea’s name on her screen.

It was instant blow to her libido, and Lena frowned at the messages that began coming through in droves:

Just saw you FaceTimed Natty on her iPad instead of phoning me. At least you have the decency to be ashamed of what you’ve done.

Nothing to say for yourself? I thought it was big of you to come here and help out with my father, but I should have known better than to trust Kara to be unsupervised on the premises.

God, Lena, you have the nerve to tell me to act my age, and now you’re hitting me with the silent treatment. How mature is that?

Why do you keep phoning Natty when I’m not around?

The truth is I would have been angrier about what you did, but it’s comforting to have your scent back in my bed. Did you think about me when you came?

Still haven’t heard from you. Dropping Natty off at 7 tonight. Taking her to a matinee and I’ll give her dinner while we’re out.

Lena was as slow as her phone when it came to processing the messages. It took her a minute to figure out that her service must have been spotty during their travels, and that the week-long silence from her ex hadn’t just been a sign that Andrea was taking the time to cool off.

She re-read the messages one more time and stuffed the phone back into her purse. Two pregnancy tests fell out, and Lena frantically searched the bedroom for a good hiding place.

After wandering around in a panic for a few seconds, she grabbed her bag with the tests and surreptitiously hurried downstairs to the kitchen.

She could hear Sam laughing in the other room, and the sounds of all Kara’s friends, and with Andrea’s texts still fresh in her mind, Lena made the abrupt choice to store her pregnancy tests in a large wooden herbal tea box.

Kara hated herbal tea, and Lena felt safe in her decision as she closed the lid on the box. She would have tucked it away onto the shelf, but her hands shook with a strange tingling numbness that came from almost hyperventilating.

Lena rationalized her anxiety as a normal reaction to Andrea’s behaviors, and yet her gut told her that all of her fear stemmed from holding a handful of pregnancy tests in an open space where anyone could walk in and see them.

Before Lena could stash the box of herbal tea back where she normally kept it, Sam strolled into the kitchen. Lena paused to glance at her best friend and shielded herself behind the wooden box.

“Oh, hey, how’d you know I could use a cup of tea?” Sam gestured towards the wooden box and strode over to take it. “I really need to cool it on the lattes. They make me a nervous wreck right before my heat, and it definitely doesn’t help that Alex is back in town—"

Sam slid the box free from Lena’s trembling fingers, oblivious to all of the tension inside of her.

Ripping it out of Sam’s hand could have saved Lena all of the trouble of explaining its contents, but instead she stood and watched in idle horror as her best friend opened the lid and discovered the stash of pregnancy tests.

“Well, I could stick one of these in hot water, but I’m not sure I’d want to drink that,” Sam cleverly remarked and stepped closer to whisper in her cute small voice that she reserved for times when Lena needed gentle guidance. “Lena, why do you have a bunch of pregnancy tests hidden away in a box of tea? Wait – are you pregnant? Kara doesn’t know about this, does she?”

With every question, Sam’s voice went up in pitch, and Lena latched onto her arm and dragged her outside onto the sunny patio before anyone overheard them. She removed the tea case from Sam’s hands and glanced down at her secret bounty.

“For some reason, now that Kara has claimed me, I’m afraid to take a pregnancy test,” Lena admitted and shut the lid to protect herself from staring too long at her own insecurities.

Too many emotions hit her at once, and she found it impossible to deflect them all. “I want a baby with Kara, but every other time I’ve been pregnant in the past, Andrea has ruined the experience with her cheating escapades. It’s unfair to compare Kara to her even in the slightest way, and yet there’s this part of me that’s just been conditioned to expect my relationship to fall apart just because it’s happened every single time I’ve given birth. You know that with Natty I even went into the delivery room alone—"

Her voice broke from recalling the past, and from all of the anger and hurt she repressed. Much to her embarrassment, she started to cry — not a soft and quiet trickle of tears, but a deeper sob that came from her chest, where her heart still ached with deeper feelings of betrayal and worthlessness. Sam must have sensed it coming, because she grabbed onto Lena and held her through slow gasps of breath and quiet sniffles.

“I might not be able to predict the future, but if you are pregnant, I know Kara is going to be right by your side every step of the way.” Sam rubbed soothing circles over Lena’s trembling back and continued whispering reassurances. “Kara isn’t going to miss a single minute of it. Think about this past year: when has she ever failed to show up for you or one of the girls? I’ve been friends with her and Alex for a long time, and she’s always been here for me and Ruby. She’s never once forgotten Ruby’s birthday, even though she isn’t her kid.”

Lena wiped her eyes with her thumbs and pouted her bottom lip as she blinked to end the deluge of her tears. She kept the box of tea tucked under her arm and lowered her gaze to the patio in shame for letting her emotions get the best of her. “You’re right, and I have so many reasons to be happy. I’m just overly emotional—”

“No, don’t do that,” Sam cut in, harsh in spite of how hushed she remained so nobody would find them outside. “Don’t excuse the trauma Andrea inflicted on you like it’s nothing. I saw the way she wrecked you, Lena. Her vicious indifference was often worse than her vile rants, and it’s not your fault, okay? It’s a normal response given all the years you endured with her, and Kara will totally understand.”

“I don’t think I’m ready to tell her how at odds I feel within myself,” Lena blurted, the weight of that confession forcing her shoulders down until she felt smaller for even saying it out loud. “We’ve finally decided we want to expand our family, and here I am too scared to even take a test. Meanwhile, Andrea’s dating someone new and still hasn’t told her father we’re divorced.”

Sam blinked over at her with wide, baffled eyes and laughed in horror at that. “I’m sorry, what? I can’t believe she hasn’t told her father yet, especially after so many years of treating you like a side piece in your own marriage. She must still think she can wheedle her way back in—”

Lena delicately plucked at her fingernail in distress and breathed out all of the air she was holding in her chest. “You’re right, and I don’t know how to handle it, other than with lots of wine and therapy. Did I mention Andrea is seeing a therapist again? I wonder what they even discuss when every day there’s a new horror I have to face.”

“Andrea is a narcissist,” Sam concluded, throwing her hands up and pacing to work through her personal hatred. “Textbook narcissist. I bet her therapist is an enabler who tells her just what she wants to hear and then bills her two-hundred bucks for the session.”

“Probably.” Lena lifted her shoulders in a shrug as Alex walked through the back door.

“Hey, Kara sent me to grab you,” Alex muttered and swung the auburn bangs out of her eyes to glance between them. “Is everything okay?”

Lena’s panic prevented her tongue from working fast enough, and fortunately Sam picked up on that and tucked her hair behind her ear. The shameless flirtatious tactic distracted Alex, who suddenly only had eyes for Sam, and Lena exhaled a soft breath as her friend coaxed Alex back into the kitchen.

“I was just catching up with Lena about her little staycation, and I was begging her for some tea, in case I need to be your designated driver tonight,” Sam intoned with a meaningful glance over her shoulder. She motioned with her chin for Lena to grab one of the herbal teas and stash the box out of sight before anyone realized she was still clutching it like a life raft.

“Tell Kara I’ll be there in a minute,” Lena called after them and set about filling the kettle to make two mugs of calming chamomile tea.

She would thank Sam later for providing her with an excuse for missing the first few minutes of game night, and the words of wisdom she had truly needed in that fragile moment.

The time alone gave her the chance to compose herself and the sound of laughter soothed her anxiety. She followed it into the living room to pass off a mug to Sam, and then saw the way Kara’s face lit up at the sight of her.

“There you are!” Kara announced with a grin, opening her arms in happiness to bring Lena over to the couch where she had saved her a spot. “Tell these misguided friends of mine how wrong they are for thinking that the best Disney soundtrack is Frozen.”

“I’m afraid to ask what I’ve missed,” Lena drawled in amusement, with a suspicious squint at the way everyone seemed so animated over the debate.

Nia sat forward as if to appeal to Lena and tried to sway her by insisting, “Let It Go is hands down one of the most iconic songs—”

“Hakuna Matata!” Kara blurted like Nia’s reasoning offended her on a personal level. She set her beer aside and took a breath as if to launch into her own argument and was met with a chorus of dramatic sighs from Winn and Nia.

“You can’t even compare the two,” Winn sputtered with a shake of his head, and Sam laughed when Nia immediately jumped in to try anyway. “For starters, The Lion King is so old.”

Kara audibly gasped and clutched at her chest, and the adorable faux hurt expression on her face inadvertently triggered Lena’s fiercely protective mate instincts. “Well, hold on, Let It Go might be iconic, but everyone can sing along to Hakuna Matata without needing a vocal coach to hit the notes.”

Lena’s no-nonsense seriousness stalled the debate and Alex choked slightly on her beer while Kara turned to gaze at Lena like she had just said something profoundly moving. “That’s what I’ve been saying.”

“God don’t encourage her delusions, this is how she ropes us into singing contests.” Nia’s exasperation was comical, and she playfully shoved Kara when the alpha gloated via her pheromones.

“This has happened before?” Lena asked, getting up to speed with the hilarious though chaotic energy of the group of friends. She enjoyed seeing Kara so at ease with people who obviously adored her, and basked in the attention Kara gave her by leaning into the alpha’s side to wrap herself up in the loving musk.

“Sooo many times,” Alex admitted with the kind of mischievous smirk that made Lena wonder if she was just as much a culprit in this as Kara.

“It’s not my fault you all have bad taste,” Kara boldly announced to taunt her friends with exaggerated attitude.

“Speaking of bad taste, where is this mystery alpha you’ve been seeing, Nia?” Winn asked, effectively piquing everyone’s interest. All eyes shifted to Nia, who turned a very embarrassed shade of pink and flipped him off for putting her in the spotlight.

“We’re just, you know, keeping it casual,” Nia explained tactfully while studying her cuticles. “I extended an invite, but it was a little last minute.”

“Inviting someone to game night isn’t my idea of keeping it casual,” Winn insisted with his thumbs sagely steepled and a smirk on his face.

“That’s just because we would have to ask questions,” James piped up in his rumbling baritone. “Suss them out a bit. It’s our duty as your friends.”

Lena sipped at her tea and took solace in its calming warmth. She chose not to glance around too much and give away the fact that she was feeling self-conscious about turning down Kara’s invitations to hang out with friends in the past.

After months of serious dating, she should have put in the effort instead of keeping herself at a distance out of concern that their relationship would end. It made her reflect on her current situation and how much she would miss out on if she didn’t overcome her lasting trauma. She leaned into Kara’s shoulder and tucked her feet up onto the sofa with her arm wrapped around her middle in self-comfort.

“You could always do what I did and just show up to game night with a mate,” Kara remarked and took a handful of popcorn from a huge bowl on the table.

“It’s definitely not that serious yet,” Nia stressed and hunched over a little guardedly as she scrolled through her phone.

Kara picked up on that energy from her and turned towards Alex to put the spotlight on her. “And how about you? Do we get any updates on you and Sam?”

Alex shifted under the unwanted pressure of declaring her relationship status in front of a whole room of people. She gritted her teeth together and gave Kara a wide-eyed look of warning. “We’re still figuring it all out.”

Sam blushed from being the subject under observation and decided to offer her own input. “We’re trying to pick up where we left off as friends first.”

To hide the disappointment that crossed her face, Alex took a swig from her beer and smiled. “Right. Friends. Really good friends.”

The mixed scents between them were of shy attraction and conflicted feelings, and Winn jumped in with charade cards to save them all from the awkwardness they caused. “On that note, let’s all pretend we’re other people, places and things! That’ll help.”

After a few rounds of the game, they all began loosening up and laughing together over Kara’s competitive enthusiasm. Nothing seemed too outrageous for her to act out, and Sam was in stitches at how Lena participated, calling out things faster and faster just for Kara to throw her hands up in victory or fist bump her after her correct guesses.

“I never knew charades could be so intense,” Lena admitted and drank the rest of her tea after a heated round where she had to act out several movies.

They slid into the lead by three points, with Alex and Sam vying for their spot.

“You’ve never seen these two as a team,” Sam responded, glancing between Alex and Karawith a chuckle on her lips. “They practically dominate the game, and no, that’s not as fun as it sounds. They’re insufferable together.”

“You’re just jealous because we have a chant.” Kara’s smug smile brightened when Alex began to nod, and Lena watched them in bewildered silence as they appeared to drift closer together, fueled no doubt by good humor and the buzz of alcohol.

“Okay, I need to hear this,” Lena concluded and scooted over to where Sam was already flushing from secondhand embarrassment.

Speaking in unison, Alex and Kara began jeering at their friends with the cockiest smirks on their faces, and waving their hands through the air like they had worked out a dance routine. “Danvers sisters, yes we can! If you can’t do it, Danvers can!”

“I can’t believe I’ve been thinking about sleeping with you,” Sam muttered around the rim of her cup, only to freeze when the laughter suddenly died and she became aware of everyone gawking at her.

Nia was first to issue a quiet, “I totally called it,” with Alex quickly following that up with a hushed, and hopeful, “You have?”

“Oh, fuck all of you for the worst possible timing,” Sam hissed, actively ignoring the way Alex postured and slinked closer on the couch to place a confident hand on her thigh.

Lena hid her smile as she noted that Sam didn’t remove it. Sam did pick pick up Alex’s beer to take a sip before passing it off to the alpha with a defeated and bashful lip bite.

“I’d say that was pretty great timing, actually, maybe even the best,” Alex informed Sam with a subtle squeeze to her thigh that culminated in the omega lacing their fingers together. “Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it, too.”

“Whoa-kay, guys, I don’t need to hear this,” Kara called out to block out any other intimate details that they might try to share. She waved her hands in front of her face the way a child might try to bat away words and cringed at the information she already overheard.

“I’m fine with it,” James remarked with a jovial shrug, only to wince as Nia slapped him on the arm. “Hey, I was joking.”

“No, you weren’t,” Winn stated like he had any authority on what James might be feeling, and promptly changed the subject before Sam died of mortification. “So, is this pizza actually coming or did Kara lie just to get us all here sooner?”

“I would never lie about food, but let me go call them, because I thought it would be here by now.”

The excuse to extract herself from the room was one Kara leapt at, and she hurried off, oblivious to the way Lena’s eyes tracked after her.

Seeing an opportunity to cash in on a moment alone, Lena stood up abruptly and lilted, “I’ll find us some snacks in the meantime.”

She was far less concerned about finding anyone treats in her pursuit of giving Kara one of her own, and stalked after her mate with a naughty plan forming in her mind. The risks of fooling around seemed insignificant when she considered Kara’s cheerful and attractive demeanor.

Finding Kara on the phone as she paced the length of kitchen couldn’t have been more perfect for enacting her sexy plot. Without uttering a word, Lena sidled up to her mate and unzipped her pants.

“No, we—we ordered three large pepperoni pizzas—and, umm,” Kara faltered mid-sentence, her jaw going slack the second Lena’s warm palm wrapped around her stiffening cock to pull it free.

“Two veggie deluxe,” Lena supplied as she sank onto her knees to press sticky lipstick kisses to the head of Kara’s cock. She stared up at her mate with lustful eyes and flicked the tip of her tongue over the sensitive divot that would soon be dripping for more.

“Two veggie deluxe,” Kara repeated. “We’ve been waiting about forty-minutes. When can we expect our order?” Her high-pitched ramble came out in a wheeze and she blindly slapped her hand onto the island behind her for leverage when Lena took the first inch into her mouth with a quiet moan.

Lena curled the velvet flat of her tongue around the thick circumference of Kara’s glans with her fuller sucking. The lower she pushed her lips onto Kara, the more she could feel excitement shoot through the shaft. Her plush bottom lip caught on the rim, stimulating it with slower pulls that she lengthened by holding her breath.

Kara must have received a response from the pizza place, because she clicked the phone and put it down on the counter to grip Lena’s hair.

“I’m afraid I can’t go more than a couple of hours without sucking your cock,” Lena whispered with a mouthful of her mate’s arousal and more sliding down her chin.

She took her time to run her tongue over the groove and slurped just around the head before giving it deeper gulps into the back of her throat. Her neck quivered as she challenged herself to keep it near her tonsils, and Kara groaned in surprise from her complete submersion in Lena’s wet warmth.

“You think it’d be suspicious to call it a night and send everyone home with their own pizza when they arrive?” Kara gasped before sinking her teeth into her lip to stifle the sound of her pleasure. Her wild eyes honed in on Lena’s mouth, and the subtle push of her hips forced Lena to relax her jaw.

Lena would have laughed if her mouth wasn’t so full, but she kept her lips stretched tight around the impressive shaft. She lavished attention on each of the strong veins that pulsed against her tongue, and then sucked leisurely just to swallow around the sensitive tip that tried to breach her throat.

It would be wiser to do this fast, to have Kara trembling and panting in release before any of their guests found them like this, and yet Lena wanted to continue this seduction for as long as possible. She loved how Kara submitted to her with just the lightest lick.

“Fuck my mouth like you’re inside me,” Lena uttered with a soft moan on the back of her tongue and her eyebrow sharply raised.

She moved her lips over her mate, sliding her tongue in impassioned caresses while she also puckered. Kara pitched her hips with care not to push too deep, and soon Lena tasted the first spurts of pleasure in the hollow of her cheek.

Kara groaned from her abrupt finish and guided Lena back onto her feet to face her towards the countertop. Lena whimpered as the alpha bared her ass and slid into her cunt like they were all alone in the house.

“Kara, quiet,” Lena gasped as she heard their resounding noises of sex—the loud strike of her mate’s thighs against her backside and the wet sound of her slick opening.

“Sorry,” Kara whispered, sounding anything but as she kissed the nape of Lena’s neck and increased the tempo of her thrusts. She palmed at Lena’s backside with a firm hand and then followed the curve of her hip down to the wet apex of her thighs to cup Lena’s cunt.

The friction of Kara’s fingers slipping over her clit brought Lena’s knees together and she moaned in spite of her own warnings. Kara tried to silence her with a hand across her mouth and Lena debased herself by doing something she had never done before. She pouted her lips and sucked one of Kara’s fingers into her mouth, whining at the rougher strokes Kara gave her in return.

“After the week we’ve had, I don’t think we can go back to doing this just twice a day,” Kara grunted, using the power of her quads to slam all the way into Lena’s contracting heat. The wide glans rubbed into her cervix and Kara pinned her over the counter to assert herself sexually.

Lena rested her arms over the marble surface and whined from the penetration that made her feel too full. The hard slam of her hips into the cabinet was just what she needed to chase off the negativities that hung over her throughout the day. Her cunt acclimated to the girth inside of it and Kara placed a hand on the arc of her back to thrust.

For all their friends knew, they were raiding the cabinets in search of snacks. It sounded like she was banging them shut, save for the raspy moans that accompanied Kara’s rougher slams.

“Oh fuck, harder, make me come,” Lena pleaded with the quietest whine of desperation and a strong grip on the counter in case Kara took her faster.

Lena undulated into Kara as the alpha trapped her clit between two fingers and caressed the length of her slit with every buck she gave.

Quiet, intermittent growls puffed against her cheek, and she whimpered at the torrent of claim pheromones. Kara rarely used them on her and the added rush of feeling the expansion of a knot beginning to form pushed Lena right into a bliss that made her beg.

“Please—please, darling, so close.”

“You’re taking it so good, Lena, I can’t wait to feel you come,” Kara praised, her hips jerking to a stop as the final slick ripple of Lena’s cunt tightened with enough pressure to pull another release out of her erection.

The flood of warm seed prolonged Lena’s orgasm and she made pitiful sounds that encouraged Kara to pump into her again. Their need for one another would consume them if they didn’t control themselves, but Lena was hardly in the right mind to deny her mate the use of her cunt when her omega was so close to her heat.

She whined as Kara pulled out, and she was ready to present right there on the floor if only Kara would let her.

Fortunately, her mate was smarter than that and dragged Lena towards the door that led to the garage.

“Five more minutes, then we’ll go back,” Kara promised, already positioning Lena over the hood of her car to eagerly spread her cheeks. She groaned at the creamy mess of Lena’s labia and spread her pussy lips with her thumbs to get a better look at her cardinal entrance that still twitched from climax.

Her ragged little cries reverberated in the garage, but no one in the house would hear her whines or her loud moan as Kara pushed in deep. Kara knew every need of her omega and rubbed her to another orgasm before her eyes acclimated to the dimmer light around them.

“I don’t know how I lasted this evening without you touching me,” Lena admitted. “It’s like your rut has made me even more yours.”

If they behaved like this for years down the line, she would have to get accustomed to having more pups, because they could never continue on like this without consequences. Seed trickled down her leg as Kara locked her in place against the hood of the car and sank her knotted cock into Lena’s sex-spread cunt.

“I can feel when you need me inside you now. I know before you even say anything,” Kara confessed, ramming her length into Lena so swiftly that the car shook from the force. If the alarm went off, Lena wasn’t convinced they would even stop, and the thought of their friends finding them fucking over the hood wasn’t enough of a deterrent to quell her lust.

She stretched over the polished surface, her hot breath fogging the paint job, and curled her fingers into the ridge of metal near the wipers.

“I want you to keep my cunt full, Kara. I’ve never needed this so badly, it’s all for you.” Lena whined, the sharp staccato of Kara’s thighs jolting Lena at an unforgiving pace.

Kara mounted her with one knee raised up to drill into Lena’s sopping canal, and bit along her shoulder as she cleaved a path into her intimate silk. The bulbous swelling of her knot stimulated the delicate striations of Lena’s walls and coaxed them into rapturous contractions.

“Lena,” Kara groaned into the crook of her neck, humping upwards to drive her cock deeper as the first thick blast of seed splashed against Lena’s cervix.

Each hot pulse poured Kara’s essence close to Lena’s womb, and she whimpered at the sloshy sensation and pressed back to grind into the broad glans. Such wanton behavior might have shamed someone else, but it felt so important to let Kara experience how insatiable she was for her seed.

The pleasurable ache of a growing knot would have satisfied her omega and kept her in a state of bliss if not for the urgency at which Kara pulled out before it took hold. The impossible stretch of her cunt releasing the sizable girth was both exhilarating and overwhelming, and Lena might have sulked if Kara hadn’t spun her around to kiss the pout off her lips.

“I know I tell you this all the time, but I love you so much,” Kara murmured into her mouth, her hand settling between Lena’s thighs to lightly stroke her cunt until the euphoria lessened and their common sense began to return.

Kara helped her by pulling up her panties and Lena fixed her pants while her mate tried to hide her cock away.

“You better take a trip to the bathroom with an ice pack if you want to conceal that,” Lena remarked, only half serious as she ducked down to check her makeup in one of the wing mirrors. Satisfied that she didn’t look half as bad as she expected, she stood up with the intent to grab a bunch of snacks when the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get the pizza, and you get the everything else,” Kara blurted. The plan was more of a panicked deal that she sealed with a kiss to Lena’s cheek, and then she rushed off before anyone else decided to grab the food.

By the time Lena finished gathering up bowls of chips and platters of healthier snacks, Kara came into the living room with all of the pizza boxes, and the bell rang again.

Lena figured that the delivery person forgot something and hurried out to the foyer, only to find Natty taking advantage of the chance to push the doorbell.

“Momma!” Natty flew at her legs while Andrea hung back near the top step of the porch.

“I wasn’t expecting you until seven,” Lena uttered and bent down to collect her youngest child.

Natty slipped her arms around Lena’s neck and whispered into her ear, “I didn’t eat my dinner, because I fed it to Frederico.” She hoisted up a new stuffed dog with spots like a beagle and a few extra markings around the muzzle.

Lena guessed that it was tomato sauce, given the matching reddish blotches on Andrea’s black and white silk blouse.

“Why don’t you go and find Kara, and ask if you can put Frederico into the magical portal in the laundry room?” Lena whispered back as she set Natty down and stared at her quiet ex.

Neither of them would speak to each other with their little one in hearing range, and Lena was grateful that Natty lingered to hug her, and that in those spare moments, Sam joined her at the door.

“Hey Andrea, you’re looking like a murderer,” Sam remarked in lieu of a compliment as she glanced meaningfully at the stains on her shirt.

“And you look like you’re covered in some different kinds of stains.” Andrea pulled a smile onto her lips to go with her catty comment and eyed the paler dabs of color on Sam’s top.

“Okay, we’re not going to have an argument at the door,” Lena intoned and put her hand out to shut it before another fight could ensue.

Andrea caught the door before it closed and blinked at Lena. “I don’t want to fight with you. I meant what I said about going to therapy, and even though you absolutely defiled my house, I’m not going to make a scene. Before I go, I was just hoping to schedule a meeting with you to discuss our girls. I’ve been talking to Andy this week and she’s not happy at school. I think it’s time we consider making some changes for the fall.”

Lena hesitated in case her ex added an extra punch of vitriol to her request, but when none came, she nodded agreeably. “How does Thursday of next week look for you?”

“I can do Thursday,” Andrea replied with a sedate glance over the agenda on her phone. “Let’s meet up at Cafe Estrellita for lunch. I know you love their margaritas.”

Lena choked on an excuse as to why she wouldn't be drinking, especially with her ex. “Oh—um, I don’t day drink anymore, but I love their enchiladas, so count me in.”

Sam wrangled her back from the door before she made any other foolish plans, and she just managed to blurt an absurd “See you then” through the remaining crack between her and Andrea.

“Oh, God, thank you,” Lena breathed in relief and clung to both of Sam’s arms as she recovered from too much Andrea exposure. “It’s like my mind just vacates when she’s in my vicinity. I don’t know what I was thinking agreeing to have lunch with her.”

Sam patted her on the hand to prevent her from going into another fugue state of panic. “You were thinking that this is your ex-partner who you share three children with and you know very well that Andy hates her boarding school. It’s the first time Andrea has been even slightly willing to budge on the question of their schooling.”

Lena frowned at how she had failed to persuade Andrea that their daughters would be much happier at any school other than the private academy that took them away for months at a time each year. “I know, and that’s my fault, because I send Andy back when I know she loathes the teachers and most of her classmates. She’s smart enough to make her own decisions about school and she needs to me to stick up for her. I’m literally the worst parent, aren’t I?”

“Uh, heck no, do you even hear how Andy talks about you?” Sam asked and wrapped an arm over Lena’s in support. “Your kids know you’re on their side, even Sophia. You’re just having a really rough day. You’re a great mom to all of your pups, and you’ll be a great mom to this one, too.” She moved her hand onto Lena’s abdomen, like she had no doubts about the potential pregnancy.

Lena clung to her best friend and reflected on all that Sam did to help her through her difficulties, both past and present. “Did I ever tell you how grateful I am that you bring so much good into my life?”

“Funny, I could say the same about you.” Sam’s smile softened as she tugged Lena into an embrace and rubbed comforting circles against her spine. “Come on, Natty will be wondering where you are.”

Nice though the sentiment was, Natalia didn’t appear bothered that Lena had been missing, because Kara and Alex were plying her with pizza and all of their friends were listening as she recounted her adventures with Frederico. The plush had a few extra grease stains around its fluffy mouth from where Kara offered it bites of her own slice, and Lena hung back just to watch how her alpha doted on their little one.

“He doesn’t like these,” Natty advised their friends and picked the toppings off her own slice, which she munched first before sharing with her companion.

“Next time, I’ll order him plain cheese,” Kara promised and patted Frederico on the head like he was real.

They all dug into the pizza, and then Natty helped out with the party by grabbing several pairs of her dress up shoes and necklaces. She decked Alex out in rhinestones and put a tiara on James, and participated in a few rounds of charades as Kara’s partner. Kara incorporated Natty as more than just a prop, whispering ideas into her ear that the three-year-old was capable of executing.

By eleven o’clock, their friends started to head out and Natty had fallen asleep on Kara’s chest. She was far too deep in dreamland to notice when Lena carried Frederico off to the laundry. While she was pouring detergent into the compartment on the machine, Sam came to hug her goodbye and gripped her hand in parting as if to remind her to call any time.

The last to leave was Alex, and Lena wandered back to the living room where Kara was whispering to her sister.

They must have put Natty to bed, since they were discussing her as Alex gathered her coat.

“It seems like you have a really good thing here with Lena and all of the kids. Natty is adorable. She has the charisma of a Danvers.” Alex smiled, oblivious to Lena’s presence and how she was unwilling to interrupt their moment.

“You could have this with Sam, you know,” Kara encouraged and placed a hand over Alex’s shoulder to give her a pep talk. “You could have gone home with her tonight. I saw the wistful looks she gave you when she said goodnight.”

“I don’t want to hook up.” Alex shrugged, her eyes soft and wounded as she stopped to glance down at her boots. “She knows I want a relationship, and it seems like she just wants something casual for now.”

Lena scoffed at that and then stoically folded her hands in front of her to pretend like she hadn’t been eavesdropping.

After all Sam had done for her, Lena worried her meddling wouldn’t be appreciated, but she followed her heart and decided to give Alex a few pointers. “Maybe she needs to be reminded that taking a leap of faith can be worthwhile.”

“She’s right,” Kara readily agreed and held her hand out to beckon Lena closer to participate in the conversation. “Sam’s not the casual type, and the fact that she’s still soft on you after all these years means whatever she wants with you certainly isn’t a fling.”

“Speaking as someone who had to overcome a failed relationship that resulted in children, don’t be put off when she keeps her walls up. It’s not because she wants to keep you out, it’s because she’s afraid that once she lets you in again, you might leave.” Lena hoped her soft voice soothed the sting of that information as she reached out to place a comforting hand on Alex’s arm. They weren’t close yet, though Lena had every hope that they would be some day.

“I can’t blame her for being hesitant,” Alex confided with a nervous chew at her lip. “I just don’t want to push her into something she might not be ready to explore.”

“Sam’s a big girl. She’s not going to do anything she isn’t sure about, and I’ll be surprised if she hasn’t already texted you by the time you get home,” Lena intoned, content to lean into Kara when her mate draped an arm around her waist.

Vibrations from the phone in Alex’s pocket seemed to confirm Lena’s guess. She smiled at the palpable excitement it inspired and stepped back with a newfound bravery expanding her chest. Her breathing came easier as she worked out a plan to steal a few minutes to herself so that she could take a pregnancy test.

“Why don’t you go ahead and see Alex out?” Lena proposed with her hands clasped together in a point towards the door. “I just want to clean up a bit.”

Her alibi sounded convincing, and Kara was clueless about her plot as she hurried over to kiss her. “I’ll meet you upstairs in a few minutes?”

Lena nodded and picked up a few pizza boxes to put near the trash in the kitchen. She carried them off, but rather than wipe down the counters and stick the leftovers in the fridge, she went to the shelf where she stashed the tea box. With a test and a disposable plastic cup, she closed herself into the downstairs bathroom.

Nerves be damned, she peeled back the wrapping and hurried through the steps on the pamphlet inside.

The digital read-out took minutes, and Lena’s hand shook as she plucked the stick from the cup. The tiny word Pregnant brought flutters to her stomach, and she put her hand on the doorknob, ready to call out to Kara and ruin the surprise. She opened the cabinet under the sink and tucked the test away in a bundle of toilet paper, then cleaned up after herself in a hazy state of distraction that resulted in her flicking the lights off and on twice.

For about five minutes, she wandered around downstairs and calmed herself by doing all of the tasks she told Kara she would be doing. She peeked through the window to check on her mate, who still hovered by Alex’s car, catching up on years of lost time with her sister.

“I’m pregnant,” Lena rehearsed and turned at the unexpected sound of footsteps. Natty scurried down the stairs with her caticorn under one arm and a rhinoceros in the other.

“Mommy, I want to sleep with you and Kara tonight,” Natty sulked and shoved her toys at Lena so she could lift them all up.

The adorable scrunch of her daughter’s lips said she wasn’t prepared to be bargained with and Lena chuckled, lifting her youngest with a knowing glance out the window. “I think that’s a great idea. Why don’t we go and find a story for Kara to read to us while she says goodnight to Auntie Alex?”

“Will it have dinosaurs?” Natalia asked with big, wide eyes that drooped when she yawned into the fluff of her caticorn.

“Only if you want it to,” Lena informed her little one, and tucked Natty against her as she retreated up the stairs to browse the bookshelf in her daughter’s room.

Kara found them not ten minutes later, nestled under the covers with a book waiting for her on her pillow, and Lena knew just from the smile that brightened her mate’s face how different this pregnancy would be.