My brain couldn’t process that fast enough. I was still trying to understand the first baby. I was still trying to understand pregnancy, mating, Alpha dick, heat, and now you’re telling me there might be two?
Tears were streaming down my face but my brain was flying in fifty directions. I felt nauseous. I felt hot. I felt dizzy. I felt every possible emotion all at once.
“What if one of them is sick?” I whispered, voice so small it didn’t sound like mine. “What if one is okay and the other one isn’t? What if one dies? Will the other survive? What if-what if-“
“What if I’m too young? What if my body can’t do it? What if I did something wrong already and I didn’t even know it? What if my stress is hurting them? What if screaming right now is making it worse? What if I lose one? Or both? Or all of them? What if I wasn’t supposed to be pregnant yet and now the universe is like HAHA, bitch, good luck surviving this?”
“Lyra,” the doctor said.
“I need you to calm down, okay? I know you’re young. I know this is a lot to process. But please. Listen to me. It’s not only the second heartbeat I feel.”
I stopped breathing.
No, no, no, no, no-don’t do this. Don’t say something that’s going to ruin my entire existence. My eyes were huge, my nails dug into Damon’s forearm so deep I felt the skin give a little. I didn’t blink. I didn’t breathe. I didn’t move.
The doctor took a breath and said the words I would never, ever forget for the rest of my entire life.
“I feel four heartbeats.”
Four. She said four. Not one. Not two. FOUR.
My whole body went cold and hot at the same time. My stomach dropped so violently I thought I was going to throw up all over the floor.
My brain couldn’t keep up. My mouth fell open and the only thing that came out was a high-pitched squeaky sound like a baby bird being slapped.
“WHAT?!” I screamed, and I’m not even joking, it echoed. “What the fuck do you mean four?! Four?! What are you talking about? Four what? Four cells? Four flutters? Four mistakes? Because if you mean four babies, I swear to God, I will faint and die and haunt you for the rest of your medical career!”
The doctor blinked at me like I was a wild animal cornered in a cage.
I flung my hands in the air like I was conducting an orchestra of panic. “Are you saying there’s four babies inside me? Like right now? As we speak? Just casually hanging out in my uterus like it’s a group project?!”
She nodded.
She actually fucking nodded.
“Oh my God,” I wailed, and I wasn’t being dramatic. I was being real. I grabbed Damon’s shirt, yanked him forward, and stared up at him with tears spilling from both eyes and my mouth fully trembling. “You did this. You. You put four pups in me. I swear to God Im gonna fucking kill you Damon. You said you’d breed me, not drown me in embryos!”
He didn’t even blink. He was still just holding me, his jaw tense, his arms flexing like he was preparing to catch me when I inevitably passed the fuck out.
I started pacing even though my legs were noodles.
“This is not normal! This is not what heat sex is supposed to do! I was supposed to get dicked down, have one surprise baby, cry about it, and then fall in love! That’s the romance plot! Not quadruplets!”
“Lyra-❞ the doctor started.
“No. Shut up. I’m talking. I’m eighteen. I didn’t even finish my college applications. I still use Hello Kitty stickers in my planner. My mom still thinks I’m a virgin. And now you’re telling me I’m going to be the mother of four?! At once?! Do you know what that does to a vagina?! I’ve seen documentaries!”
“I need you to take a deep breath-“
“Do you want me to die? Is that what this is? Are you trying to kill me with information? Because it’s working!” I dropped back onto the bed and started hyperventilating dramatically.
“My belly is going to explode. I’m going to be round like a pumpkin. No, not a pumpkin. A hot air balloon. I’ll be on the news.’ Local girl gives birth to four pups, cries herself into a coma.””
Damon finally moved. He knelt down in front of me and grabbed my face between his huge hands, and for one second, just one, I thought he was going to say something sweet.
He didn’t.
He growled.
“You’re going to carry them,” he said, his voice so low and deep I felt it in my spine. “You’re going to carry all of them. And I will protect you. I will protect every single heartbeat inside you. You hear me, Omega?”
I blinked rapidly, tears pouring out of me like I was a broken faucet. “I’m small,” I choked. “I’m five feet tall. I don’t even know how to swaddle a baby, and now I’m going to have four? What am I supposed to do? Stack them? Alphabetize them? Breastfeed them in rotation like a human merry-go-round?!”
His thumb stroked my cheek. “You’re going to be fine.”
“You’re going to have to oil me like a machine just to roll me out of bed. I won’t be able to see my toes. My feet are going to swell like balloons. Do you know how big I’ll get? I’ll be shaped like a watermelon truck! You did this to me, Damon!”
He smiled.
That smug, cocky Alpha smile that usually made me want to sit on his face and scream.
But right now?
It made me cry harder.
Because he looked proud.
Like he was proud of the chaos inside me. Like four babies was some kind of sick accomplishment.
I grabbed the doctor’s hand, eyes wild. “Are they okay? Are they safe? Are they healthy? Are you sure there’s not a fifth hiding in there like some evil twin waiting for the big reveal?”
She looked stunned. And honestly, same.
“I’ll run a scan,” she said. “Right now. But their heartbeats are strong. Very strong.”
I blinked. “They’re okay?”noveldrama
She nodded.
I burst into sobs so hard my shoulders shook and snot flew out my nose, and Damon just pulled me into his lap like I wasn’t a ticking time bomb with four heartbeats and a panic problem.
I was eighteen.
And pregnant.
With four babies.
And somehow, I was still horny. Please don’t judge me.
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