Ellie’s POV

College is currently kicking my butt. Why is it that the start of second semester is so hard? Like I just had winter break so why am I struggling so much? I’m now 22 weeks pregnant, and everyone in my classes are now aware. I had been getting a bunch of stares, but it honestly didn’t matter because I always got stares, and they weren’t mean stares. Class hasn’t really been that different, but I have noticed that I’m a lot more tired than before, and I do get bad back pain. I’ve been just trying to get back on track, but my professor wanted to make life hard for me, and assigned a project. Not just any project, a group project. Well is it considered a group project if it’s only two people? Anyways this is one of the classes that is actually more geared towards my major, and is like childcare basics or something. I don’t really know if I’m being honest. We didn’t even get to pick our partner, instead the professor just assigned people together randomly.

I got paired with this Alpha male named Connor and he seemed like a cool dude. We agreed to meet up after class to get a head start on the project. I knew that my parents were busy today, and were planning to have a get together with their friends, so I quickly shot C.J a text to see if we could go to his apartment. I knew that we could meet at the library, or he even offered his dorm, but I really just wanted to be somewhere I was comfortable after all of my classes. C.J responded within minutes, and told me that I could use his apartment to do my project at.

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I opened the door at 3:00 to let Connor in. I led him to the living room, and sat down on the couch.

“Hi, how are you?” Connor asked me politely as he took a seat next to me.

“I’m doing good. The baby keeps kicking my bladder though.” I really don’t know why I said that, but he didn’t seem to mind and just laughed.

“Do you know what we want to do the project on?” He asked, and I thought that we could do our project on how effective children’s shows really are on early learning and development. Connor seemed to like the idea, and soon we were lost in the work.

Connor is actually really easy to get along with, and I could see us becoming really good friends. IN no time at all we had pretty much finished the hard work, and just had to figure out a way to present the information and get images. The project honestly wasn’t that bad, so it was no wonder that our professor gave us a couple days to work on it. Since we were almost done, and were sick of working on the project Connor and I started to get to know each other.

I learned that he also has a big family, but he only has five siblings. He was shocked to learn that I was the youngest of nine, considering he was the oldest out of his siblings. I also learned that he’s a fox shifter, and I thought that was really cool because I have never met or even seen a fox shifter before. I don’t know what happened, but all I knew is that I started to get a little angry that I had never seen a fox shifter, so Connor was super sweet and went to the bathroom to shift. He did lock the door on accident, so I giggled when I heard his yips from the bathroom asking to be let out. I then lost it even more, and started to cry in joy as he let me pet him and take pictures. Connor told me that his four younger siblings were all omegas which probably explained why he was so understanding with me and all of my craziness.

I heard the door open when C.J came home, but I was too busy hugging Connor, “Hey babe… and fox?”

“C.J this is Connor, and he’s a fox. Isn’t he so cute. I wish I was a fox” I didn’t let go of Connor, but I did look at C.J who looked a little confused, and another emotion that I couldn’t quite place.

When I finally let Connor go, he rushed off into the bathroom to go change back. He came back out, and shook hands with C.J. We then sat back down, and decided to just finish the project and get it over with.

C.J’s POV

I really don’t know how to feel about walking into my apartment, and finding my mate hugging a random fox. I was feeling a little jealous, especially when Ellie kept muttering about how cute the Alpha was. The fox went into my bathroom, and came back out as a tallish boy with mousy brown hair.

Him and Ellie then sat back down on the couch to work, and I didn’t like how close this boy was sitting to my Ellie. I knew that my jealousy is irrational, but I’m a pretty possessive person to begin with and Ellie being pregnant didn’t help. I never want to make it so that Ellie can’t have friends, but it does make me a little uncomfortable to come home and find him hugging a random Alpha. I tried to let it go, and just get started on making dinner, but every giggle and laugh I heard coming from the living room irked my Alpha just enough to keep it at the front of my mind.

I let out a sigh of relief when I finally heard that this Connor guy was leaving, and I would have all of my little mate’s hugs to myself. When the door closed, I rushed over to Ellie and picked him up into a big hug. I made sure to nuzzle his neck and kiss all around to try and get rid of the other Alpha’s scent. Ellie just giggled, and nuzzled me back in joy.

“What’s wrong C.J?” My mate could read me so well.

“My omega, not his omega” My dragon was shining through. Ellie just chuckled and gave me a big kiss.

“Silly Alpha. Of course I’m your omega. Connor already has a mate, who by the way is a beta. Did you really think I would cheat on you?” He looked a little sad at the thought of me doubting him.

“No, I’m just being a dumb Alpha like usual. You’re the perfect omega Ellie, and I know that you would never do anything like that.” I hugged him closer to me, and carried him to the kitchen. It was time to feed my Omega and baby.

“ Mmm. The baby and I missed you a lot.” I smiled and put my hands on his stomach and I felt a bunch of little kicks against my hand. It made me so happy to feel our baby kick because it just kind of made everything a little more real. I served dinner, and we just ate and talked about our days. We were really excited for tomorrow because we had a doctors appointment and we would be finding out the gender of our baby. I was really hoping for a little boy, and so was Ellie but everyone else is wishing for a girl. There are a whole bunch of bets going on with our friends and families.

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I’m super excited, I could tell that Ellie was too because he kept letting out these adorable little squeaks. He always tells me that he does not squeak, but I think we all know that he 100% squeaks. We had just been led into the room after Ellie got measured and weighed. Ellie practically weighed nothing, but it was very obvious that the baby was contributing to a higher number on the scale which seemed to bum Ellie out a little. It was a little sad because Ellie is pretty confident in himself, so it’s really strange to see him upset over numbers on a scale. I guess I would bring it up later, for now I just held onto his hand to try and make him feel better as he was sitting.

“Hello Mr. Delaney, and Mr. Herman, how are you two doing?” The doctor walked in a couple minutes later with a smile on her face.

“We’re good. Just ready to see what we’re gonna have” She nodded in understanding before getting basic information from Ellie like how he’s been feeling, and if we had any worries before starting the ultrasound process. I always wondered what it felt like, and Ellie told me it was cold and tickled.

I could never understand how the doctor saw all these things in the ultrasound, it just looked like a whole bunch of blobs to me, but now I could kind of make out the shape of our baby. She moved the wand around a bit more to get a better angle, and smiled at us.

“It’s a boy, and although we can’t tell until the baby is born judging from its size it will most likely be an Alpha. There is still a possibility of him being an omega, or even beta, so I don’t want you guys to rule those options out” I couldn’t be happier, and I think I would still be just as happy if I heard we were having a girl instead. I didn’t really care whether it was an Alpha or not, but I couldn’t lie and say that the more primal and Alpha side of me would prefer my first child to be an Alpha. Alpha or not, I would love my baby just the same.

Ellie gave me a big kiss, and I gave him a kiss on the stomach. I couldn’t wait to share the news with our family. Walker would be so happy because he won a lot of bets which I’m sure Cassidy nor my mom would enjoy losing. On Ellie’s side of the family Mason and Max would be making a lot of money off of the adults, which will be hilarious to see. It really warms my heart to see that all of our families are supportive of us, and are really excited for the baby. I know it wasn’t planned, but this baby would come into the world with a bunch of people who I knew would back them up for anything.

When we got home, I decided to ask Ellie about earlier, “ Ellie babe, how come you looked so upset earlier at the doctors?”

He looked a little caught off guard that I had noticed, but if it made him upset of course I would notice, “Nothing, it’s just I’ve been feeling a little fat and ugly lately. It makes me feel guilty because I love our baby, but sometimes it’s hard to feel pretty with this new body”

It pleased me that he chose to be honest with me, “You will always be beautiful to me sweetheart, and I love you for carrying our baby. I know it must make you uncomfortable, but if it's any consolation I think your bump makes you look just as sexy as usual. If the weight gain still bothers you after the pregnancy just let me know and we can work together slowly to help you get rid of the extra weight.”

I tried to be understanding, but I really just wanted to tell him that he was wrong. I knew that would be wrong of me to invalidate his feelings, and another part of me was angry with myself for not making him feel attractive or not even considering that he was struggling with his body image.

Later today I shot up when I heard Ellie gasp from the bathroom, I quickly rushed in to see a very naked Ellie. I couldn’t help it when my eyes ran up and down his body lingering on his scrumptious backside for a little longer than necessary. Before I could ask him what was wrong I saw him prodding his belly button which was now popped out rather than his usual innie. I grinned at his astonished face, it was really cute. I went over to him, gave him a big kiss, took off my clothes, and made sure that he enjoyed his time in the shower and knew just how much I enjoyed his delectable little body.