It was a month past the arrest and locking up of Tan, Hallie, and Luke. They refused to speak with anyone besides Calix and Kegan, but Calix wouldn't go speak with them, worried he'd lose control and murder the three if he tried.
The pack house was tenser than it'd ever been. No one was speaking and the heavy weight of anger hung in the house, making the children not dare to leave their parent's rooms. Even Astra had barely dared to leave her room, sensing the anger and potential outbursts that could come from anyone else in the pack.
Kegan also hadn't really left his room, but his reasoning did not lie with the intensity in the house. As the pregnancy continued, Kegan got weaker and more tired. His stomach was getting heavier, the pups growing bigger and bigger every day. He only left his room when he wanted to visit Calix in his office, get food, or when he had a doctor's appointment to monitor him and make sure that whatever he was injected with hadn't changed anything in him.
The morning sickness sucked, but it was a paradise compared to the unease that Kegan felt whenever Calix came back to their room after his Alpha duties, seeming tense at than he had when he left.
Calix hadn't been the same since the arrest of their pack mates. He couldn't believe that one of his childhood friends and top warrior was a traitor, and after seeing Tan hold a knife to Kegan's neck, he refused to see the prisoners. It wasn't good for any Alpha to terrify his pack through murdering someone without the trial and determined consequence being execution.
He was currently in his office, paperwork piled high on the desk in front of him. Calix knew he needed to get to work, but there was no motivation behind it. The heavy weight of tension in the pack house was weighing down any motivation and excitement in the job.
Truthfully, Calix loved his job as an Alpha. The paperwork didn't bother him, he got the talk and meet with people from other packs, but the weight of his own inner pack drama and issues were overwhelming.
He had only left the pack a few times, primarily to strengthen alliances with other packs should they be attacked, but there weren't many issues. Calix had grown up visiting other packs with his parents and he was always professional and admired by other pack Alphas and Lunas.
Sighing to himself, Calix pulled out a file and opened it up, before closing it seconds later. It was the file that Kai had put together on Tan, highlighting the potential danger he could be to the pack and the evidence behind it. Calix knew that the situation regarding Tan was among his priorities, but every time he tried to open the file, he remembered how distraught Kegan was and how angry the situation made the whole pack.
No one pressured him to go talk to their prisoners, so Calix refused to do it until he was completely ready. There had been no attempts to escape or issues regarding their prisoners, but that didn't mean anything to Calix. He'd wait until they tried to escape to address them. At least then he'd have a reason to beat the shit out of Luke. He didn't believe Tan would betray them on his own, so he primarily blamed Luke.
There was a knock at the office door, making Calix turn and knock the stack of files off of his desk. He groaned, dropping his head on the wooden surface.
The door opened, and Kegan walked in with a tray in his hand. "I'm sorry," he said, wincing and looking at the papers that had fallen on the ground. "Eat lunch and I'll pick those up."
"No," Calix said as Kegan set down the tray on the table in the middle of the room that Calix had put in for meetings. "You're pregnant."
Kegan scoffed, leaning down and lifting up some of the files. "I'll be okay," he said, stacking the papers on the edge of the desk. "You didn't eat breakfast, and as your mate, it's my responsibility to make sure that you're healthy enough to take care of our kids when they show up. Speaking of which, I scheduled an appointment for later today so they can tell us gender and how many, if you're available."
Calix sat down at the table, giving up trying to convince Kegan to relax. He started to eat the food that he'd been given, smiling at the prospect of learning how many pups he'd have.
"I wouldn't miss that appointment for anything, love," Calix said, holding his arms out so Kegan could step into his embrace.
Kegan eagerly stepped into Calix's arms, straddling his thigh. "Good," he said, kissing his mate's cheek. "We need a break from all of this tension and work."
Calix nodded in agreement. "I couldn't agree more," he said, reaching down and touching Kegan's stomach.
"Your hands are cold!" Kegan snapped, goosebumps forming on his skin. "And after that..."
Calix narrowed his eyes slightly. "That's either the start to a seductive sentence or you're about to introduce something I don't want to do," he said, noting the nervousness in Calix's voice.
Kegan smiled weakly. "How about both?"
"What do we need to do?"
Sighing, Kegan rested his chin on Calix's shoulder with slightly difficulty due to his stomach. "We need to go visit Tan, Luke, and Hallie. I know you don't want to, but we need to know what they've gotten themselves into," he explained, thanking the goddess that Calix didn't try to cut him off.
"They won't speak."
"They will speak to us!" Kegan whined, pulling away and making eye contact with Calix. "They said they'd only talk to us. I want to know what they did to me and what they're getting into."
Calix growled. "We know they're working for Leon, what more do you want?!"
"If they're working for Leon, why would they help me escape? Why even protect me? They were combined packs at the time that I went back, so they could've easily kept me there and their war with you would've been the same as any would be now. And if Hallie was working with them, they'd have a witch on their side, so how much help would she be if she's trapped here?!"
Calix opened his mouth, then shut it, before opening it again. "You're bringing up some very valid points, but I'm going to ignore them because I hate the witch and Tan held a knife to your throat."
"He was so upset about it! He didn't want to!" Kegan argued, pouting in Calix's lap. "Please? We can't just let them sit there for another month! Plus, Luke and Tan have been separated the whole time! It's probably killing them!"
Calix stood up, setting Kegan down in his seat and towering over him, brows furrowed. "How are you like this?" he asked, making Kegan's eyes widen in surprise.
"Like what?" he inquired hesitantly.
"You were attacked by both Tan and Luke. Yet, you care about their wellbeing even though they're traitors and not to be trusted?"
Kegan shrugged. "Every time I think about them being separated, I think about being stuck in the other packs without my mate to protect me. Traitor or not, no one deserves that fate," he said, looking at the clock on the wall. "Please think it over while we're at the doctor's office?"
Calix couldn't do much else besides promising he'd think about it. He finished up his lunch, feeding Kegan at the same time just to make sure that his mate was healthy and full, before they got up and headed out of the pack house.
They got to the doctor's office and Kegan and Calix were lead to the room where they'd give him an ultrasound. Kegan was gripping Calix's hand so tightly that he was worried for his mate's circulation in his hand, but Calix didn't complain and kept his mouth shut the whole time.
"How are you feeling today, Luna?" the doctor asked, taking Kegan's pulse and checked him all over physically. "Your vitals all look normal."
Kegan shrugged. "I'm okay," he said as she lifted up his shirt and checked the stretching of his stomach. "Still having morning sickness."
The doctor hummed. "That's normal, don't worry," she said, grabbing the gel and lathering it on Kegan's stomach. "So today we'll find out gender and how many you're having."
"Okay," Kegan whispered, so excited he was almost shaking. He looked over at Calix and saw his eyes glued to Kegan's stomach, and there was excitement coursing through him as well.
Moving the device around, the doctor pushed slightly, her eyes on the screen. "So we have one here... another here..." she paused, narrowing her eyes at the screen. "And there's the runt of your litter."
"Three?" Kegan asked hopefully, nearly screeching in joy when the doctor nodded.
"Do you want the genders, Luna?"
"Yes!" Kegan said joyfully, glancing over at Calix and seeing tears in his eyes. "Right, Calix?"
Nodding and sniffing, Calix leaned over and kissed Kegan's cheek. "Of course, love."
The doctor began to move her device again, pausing on the first blob on the screen. "This one here is a boy... the next one is a girl..." she stopped on the runt, looking to Calix and Kegan. "We may have to wait for a few minutes because this little one is on its side."
Calix tapped on Kegan's side. "Come on, pup, turn over," he said softly, making Kegan scoff.
"I'm not a door!"
"A door?"
"You're knocking on my side," Kegan clarifier, making Calix wiggle his eyebrows playfully. Kegan narrowed his eyes in confusion when Calix gave him the playful look. "What?"
"I knocked on your side and I knocked you up, too," he said childishly.
Kegan rolled his eyes, but the doctor just snickered.
"Actually, the pup did just turn over."
"And?"
"You're having two boys and one girl," the doctor said. "You'll be able to tell whether they're Alpha, Beta, or Omega a few months after they're born, as you know."
Calix nodded, completely speechless.
They finished up with the doctor, Calix not speaking at all until they left the office.
"I can't believe it," he whispered.
Kegan grabbed his hand, concern written all over his face. "What? Are you okay?"
Calix grinned so wide that Kegan was sure his jaw hurt. "I'm ecstatic! We're having three pups that'll be here in four short months! I'm just... when I didn't find you for five years after I turned eighteen... I didn't know if you existed. But now..." he passionately kissed Kegan, inhaling his amazing scent. "I have a mate, and I'm going to have children, and hopefully the issues with the other plans will come to an end soon so we don't have to have our pups growing up in an uncertain environment."
Kegan smiled, before it fell off his face. "There's one way to start making things more certain," he said, and Calix instantly growled, knowing what he was talking about.
"I'm not ready to talk with them."
"If you're not doing it for the pack, do it for the pups," Kegan said, and he could see the resolve in Calix's eyes. "So their lives can be better."
Calix sighed, pulling Kegan toward the prison facility. "Fine," he grumbled. "For the pups."