Under the Giant Oak

I moaned. "Ronnie, stop." We were on the couch in a very provocative situation from what started from only a kiss.

He kissed up my neck, only stopping to bite the skin. "Why?" He asked with my pale skin in between his teeth.

I had to stop my ragged breathing enough to speak. "You're hurt." I replied.

He ran his hands under my shirt, and I could feel the cloth of the couch on my back. His rough fingers skimmed over the flesh of my stomach, and it was all I could to do not to groan. "I don't care." He whispered, his breath hot over my ear.

"Linda will be here for dinner soon." I said into between ragged breathing.

His extended canines ran over my pulse point. "We can make it quick." He pressed an open mouth kiss to where his favorite place to sink his teeth into on my neck. I could feel the pin prick of his fangs push against the skin, and I knew that if he bit me, Linda wouldn't come over to a pretty sight. So, I made a cheap move. I pushed the palm of my hand against his side, right on his ribs. He hissed, grabbing my hand and sitting up. "What the hell was that for?" He growled.

"Oh, sorry," I replied, pulling my head from his. "I must have forgotten you were stabbed four times."

He narrowed his eyes, knowing that I was right. "Max." He said shortly.

"I told you to stop," I said in my defense. "And, until I can touch you without you having to stop me because of pain, we aren't doing anything more than the occasional kiss."

"You cannot be serious." He said in shock.

I shimmed my way from under him, and stood up. "Oh, I'm dead serious."

"I can't believe this. You're telling me what to do? You're the fertile!" He exclaimed.

"Yes," I said. "But, you are the injured one."

He slouched into the couch, crossing his arms over his chest with little pain this time. "Can't believe I can't ever fuck my own fertile." He muttered under his breath. I was barely able to make it out.

"And, I can't believe that my dom is pouting like a little child." I replied over my shoulder, walking over to the kitchen.

After checking on the delicious blood infused roast with homemade bread and blood butter, there was a knock on the door. I went to check on it, ignoring my still pouting mate on the couch. I opened the door to see Linda shivering hysterically. I let her in and she quickly hugged me before removing her coat, and her hat, and her gloves, and her scarf, and her second coat. Damn, this girl is easily cold.

"Satan, it's cold out there, and the wind is blowing like it decided to run a marathon!" She exclaimed.

I laughed. "So, the walk from the bus stop must have been nice."

"Just joyful," she responded. She glanced over at Ronnie before looking warily back at me. "What's wrong with him?"

"Oh, you know," I said. "I denied him sex because of his injuries, so now he is sulking."

She nodded. "I've done that before. One day, I was like 'No, Oli. We aren't going to have sex today.' And, it seemed like he went off to pout somewhere, but in reality, he was planning his revenge. Yep, still the most interesting weekend I've had."

I chuckled softly. "Yeah, well, I made a point today, so I don't think he is secretly plotting. But, then again, I've been wrong before."

We settled ourselves into the kitchen, chatting away like the fertiles we are. She was sitting at the table, and I was standing over at the counter each of us had mostly eaten food. We had been picking at it for a while now. Our talking seemed to get in the way. I gave Ronnie a plate in the living room, since he decided to leave us gossipers alone for a while. There was a possibility he was in the basement with his next poor victim.

"So, how's Oli?" I asked after our conversation seemed to morph into something along this line.

She sighed. "Well, I don't really know. We had a fight the day before he went on a business trip, and I ignored his calls."

"What happened?" I asked shocked.

"It's a long story," she said. I gave her a look, and she sighed again. "It started at the dinner Friday night that we ended up going to for his work. You know, that really dull thing you only had to suffer through once that I get to go to every single week. It was going fine at first. We were being our typical charming selves to all of the boring people that will maybe give Oli money to expand his business that we don't really need. Well, there was this one fertile there. Her name was Lindsay or something like that, and she was un-mated. She was acting a little too friendly with him for a majority of the night."

"So, you yelled at him for flirting?" I asked.

"Not really, when we got home we were talking, and he said something completely innocent which made me snap at him for being over friendly with her. One thing lead to another, and I was screaming at him for getting to know some of his fertile fans a little too well. He was screaming back, saying I signed up for this when we got mated. That lead to me reminding him why I almost left him because he was becoming too wrapped up with work and with fertiles he didn't know and with never spending a lick of time with me. He said it wasn't his fault that he was successful, and that I couldn't deal with the pressures of it. I then proceeded to slap his face and call him an insensitive bastard. I left the house and only came back when I knew his plane had left." She described.

"What did he say that made you snap at him?" I asked.

"He said 'It was a damn shame that such pretty fertiles weren't mated yet" She responded.

I scoffed. "Well, that was kind of a douche bag thing to say to his fertile."

"He meant well," she stated. "I know that, but my hormones had been going crazy for a while, making my emotions get the best of me."

"Why?"

"Well, Max," she said. "I'm seven weeks pregnant."

My eyes widened to three times their original size. "What?" I asked with nothing but pure shock in my voice.

"Yeah, I started throwing up a few weeks ago, but it wasn't in the morning. I had always been a little more susceptible to becoming sick because I had somewhat of a human body for such a long time because magic and shit. So, I thought I just had some weird sickness that some anti-bacterial that would make it better. I went to the doctor. They ran some tests and told me I was pregnant. That was two weeks ago."

"Does Oli know?" I asked.

"No," she said. "I haven't found the right moment to tell him. Hell, I don't even know if he wants kids!"

"You have to tell him, Linda." I said.

She nodded. "I know I do, but we just got into a fight. We still haven't apologized to each other. I mean I called him a bastard, Max. A bastard! He hates that more than anything."

"Then call him!" I exclaimed.

She looked up at me. "Call him? Don't you think telling your mate you're pregnant is something you should do in, I don't know, person?"

"Well," I said. "You can call and apologize and then be like 'Oh yeah, I'm pregnant!"

"You can't be serious." She said. Is it just me, or is everyone saying that today?

"Just do it. It will make you feel better, I promise." I said.

She sighed, running her hands over her face. She lifted her hand out to me, and I smiled, handing her the phone. She dialed his number quickly holding it up to her ear. It was loud enough to where I could hear the rings. One, two, three rings went by before he picked up the other end.

I heard a short, gruff "Hello?"

"Hey, Oli," Linda said, glancing up at me. I gave her a reassuring smile. "It's me, Linda."

There was something along the lines of "Oh, hey."

She hesitated. "Um, look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

"No, no, I shouldn't have acted like that with that woman." He said. The phone was muttered, but I could clearly make out the words now.

"You have a point." Linda laughed slightly. "But, I shouldn't have called you that, and I shouldn't have over reacted like that. My hormones are just insane right now."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she said. She looked up at me and I whispered for her to tell him. "Actually, I have something to tell you about that."

"What is it?" He sounded concerned, but it could have just been the phone.

"Well, um, Oli, I'm pregnant. We're going to have a baby." She said.

There was a pause. "Really?"

Linda smiled. "Really."

"That's just . . . wow. You're pregnant? That's . . . I don't even know."

"Are you happy?" She asked.

"Damn right, I'm happy!" He exclaimed.

She laughed. "Good. I'm happy, too."

I smiled. There was nothing wrong with this moment for them. It doesn't matter if they fought. It doesn't matter if they hated each other for that moment in time because right now, in this moment, there was nothing that could make them happier. For them, it was pure perfection, but I knew, the next nine months were going to be pure hell.