Chapter 168: What if you get pregnant?

The sun continued its steady climb, filling the wrecked bedroom with brilliant morning light, but inside our private storm, time had ceased to exist.

​Position after position dissolved into a blur of raw friction, heavy panting, and the suffocating tangle of our scents. From the carpet to the edge of the wrecked mattress, every surface bore the trace of our madness.

When my legs could no longer support my weight, Reid pulled me under him again, pinning my wrists beside my head as he drove into me with an unyielding, rhythmic force that made the room spin.

​I lost count of the times his knot swelled, locking us together while our bodies shook with simultaneous climaxes.

Each release should have brought exhaustion, but the moment the physical lock receded, the raging fire in our veins demanded more. The forced heat had consumed me entirely, rewriting my DNA until my entire world narrowed down to the heat of his skin, the heavy weight of his body pressing me into the mattress, and the relentless, deep thrusts that kept the agony of my heat at bay.

​By the time late afternoon bled into evening, the fierce, blinding edge of his rut finally began to fracture.

​Reid’s thrusts slowed, turning heavy, deep, and agonizingly thorough. His broad chest heaved against my back, his skin slick with sweat as he buried his face into the crook of my shoulder, his breathing ragged and uneven. He was exhausted, his Alphan drive finally burning through its terrifying reservoir of fuel, leaving him trembling above me.

​"Kain..." he rasped, his voice entirely ruined, scraping out of his throat like crushed gravel.

​"I’ve got you," I choked out, my own voice barely a whisper. I reached back blindly, my fingers tangling in his damp hair, pulling him down until his full weight collapsed over me.

​He didn’t pull out. He stayed buried deep inside me, his arms locking tightly around my waist, pinning my back against his chest as the heavy, furious tide of his pine scent slowly settled into a warm, protective haze. My orchid pheromones, sweet and completely spent, softened in response, wrapping around him like a quiet blanket.

​For the first time in nearly twenty-four hours, the room fell dead silent.

​The silence wasn’t cold; it was thick, heavy, and profound. The floor was strewn with ruined clothes, torn sheets, and the broken remnants of the living room furniture from before I arrived.

My skin was an undeniable tapestry of his possessiveness—every inch of my collarbones, ribs, and thighs covered in dark purplish bite marks and bruises, my shoulder throbbing where he had renewed his mark over and over again without ever breaking the skin of my nape.

​Reid pressed a soft, lingering kiss to the back of my neck, his lips warm against the bruised skin.

​"You stayed," he murmured, his voice thick with a mixture of awe and residual, quiet possessiveness. "Through all of it... you didn’t run."

​I let out a soft, breathless laugh that turned into a quiet sigh, my hand resting over his where it was clamped firmly around my stomach. "Where else was I supposed to go, McCoy? You’re my player. And my Alpha."

​Reid let out a low, grounding hum against my spine, his hold tightening just a fraction.

Then, his eyes went dark for a second as he asked, "Kain, aren’t you scared you’re going to get pregnant?"

The question hung in the warm air of the bedroom, dropping like a sudden stone into the quiet silence.

​My heart skipped a beat, a cold, sharp shock cutting through the hazy euphoria of our spent bodies. The reality of what had just happened over the last twenty-four hours finally slammed back into my mind.

In the fevered chaos of his rut and my forced heat, we hadn’t used a single shred of protection. He had knotted me—spilled inside me again and again without a second thought, completely driven by his Alpha instincts to breed his mate.

​I stayed still, my hand still resting over his large, calloused fingers where they were clamped against my bare stomach.

​"Kain?" Reid murmured, his voice low, raspy, and suddenly laced with a quiet, underlying tension. He shifted slightly behind me, his chest pressing closer against my back as he waited for my answer.

​I took a slow, shuddering breath, turning my head slightly on the pillow so I could look back at him out of the corner of my eye. His grey eyes were clear now, the fevered, feral glow of his rut replaced by a deep, grounded focus. He looked at me, searching my face, waiting to see if panic would break through my guard.

​"I take my suppressants and heat inhibitors regularly, Reid," I said softly, my voice raspy from hours of screaming, but steady. "They usually render my cycle completely infertile... but when an Alpha goes into an intense rut like yours, those synthetic blockers can fail."

​Reid’s jaw tightened, his fingers twitching against my stomach.

​"Are you scared?" he asked quietly, his thumb rubbing a small, possessive circle right over the skin of my lower belly.

​I looked down at his hand resting over my stomach—the place where he had driven himself into me, the place where his scent now lingered so heavily that it felt permanent.

A strange, complex wave of emotion washed over me. I was the Captain of a professional hockey team. My life was built on strict secrets, rigid discipline, and a career that depended on no one ever finding out I was an Omega. A pregnancy right now, in the middle of our semifinals run, would blow my entire life to pieces.

​And yet... looking at him, feeling the fierce, protective warmth radiating off his heavy frame, the sheer terror I should have felt didn’t come.

​"If I said yes," I whispered, turning in his hold until I was facing him, my eyes locking onto his, "would you be scared?"

​Reid didn’t hesitate. His expression softened, a rough, genuine warmth breaking through his tired features as his hand slid from my stomach up to cupped the side of my face, his thumb gently wiping away a stray strand of damp hair from my forehead.

​"Not for a single second," Reid rasped, leaning forward to press a firm, lingering kiss against my forehead. "If there’s a baby in there, Kain, then it’s ours. I’d take care of both of you. My mother, the league, the media—I’d burn it all down before I let anyone touch you or what’s mine."

I stared at him, the weight of his words hovering in the air between us before I snorted, a tired, disbelieving laugh escaping my lips as I swiped his hand off my cheek with as much force as my exhausted limbs could muster.

​"You dummy," I muttered, my voice raspy as I buried my face into his shoulder, giving him a sharp, warning poke right in the ribs. "I still have my career ahead of me. We can’t let that happen... You know that."

​Reid winced slightly at the poke, but a low, quiet chuckle vibrated through his chest as his arm wrapped tighter around my waist, pulling me flush against him so I couldn’t retreat an inch.

​"I know, Cap," he murmured, his deep voice softening, the cocky, protective Alpha smoothing back into the partner who knew every single sacrifice I had made to stand where I was. His lips pressed a soft, lingering kiss against the top of my damp head. "I know. You worked too hard for your ice to let anything—or anyone—take it from you."

​"Damn right," I mumbled against his skin, closing my eyes as the sheer, overwhelming fatigue finally began to claim my body. "I’m not trading my captain’s C for a permanent maternity leave in the middle of the semifinals. As soon as we can actually stand up, we’re getting my emergency contraceptives checked."

​"Whatever you need," Reid promised softly, his broad hand resting flat and steady over my back, his thick, frozen pine scent wrapping around me like an impenetrable shield. "I’ve got you, Kain. Now close your eyes. We both need to sleep."

​I didn’t argue. Surrounded by his heat, anchored by his hold, I finally let my mind go completely blank, drifting off into a deep, heavy sleep right in the middle of our ruined sanctuary.

When consciousness slowly returned, the harsh glare of the late afternoon sun had faded into a soft, amber twilight.

​I stirred, a sharp, collective ache radiating through every single joint in my body. My lower back felt like lead, my throat was raw, and the skin along my shoulders, chest, and inner thighs burned with a dull, throbbing heat.

My body felt entirely hollowed out—completely spent, sore, and thoroughly claimed.

​Worse than the muscle aches, however, was the hollow, gnawing pit in my stomach. I was starving. Absolutely, painfully starving.

Beside me, the bed shifted. Reid was already awake, sitting up against the headboard with a heavy sheet pulled loosely over his waist.

His blonde hair was a chaotic mess, his broad chest littered with fingernail scratches and bite marks where I had lost my mind in the haze of heat. He looked exhausted, but his grey eyes were clear, dark, and utterly peaceful as he watched me wake up.

"Evening, Cap," he rasped, his voice still ruined and deep.