XIX

"Do you know where Baekhyun is?" Kai asked Chanyeol, who was just making his way to his office.

Chanyeol stopped in the hallway. "What do you mean?"

"He told me and hour ago he was going to be 'right back'." Kai rolled his eyes. "Obviously he wouldn't tell you, what am I even asking?" the alpha grumbled and walked away still mumbling under his breath.

Chanyeol frowned. They had come to work together this morning, where could his mate be?

As if on cue, Chanyeol's cellphone started ringing. It was Baekhyun.

“Baek? What’s going on?” he asked. He felt something was off.

“You have to come home right now,” Baekhyun whispered shakily, as if he was containing the urge to start crying.

“Why? What happened?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“...Not over the phone. Come home. Now.”

“Are you okay?”

“Just come home quickly!!!” Baekhyun yelled and ended the call before the alpha could answer.

Chanyeol stared at his phone for a few seconds, perplexed.

He quietly gathered just the necessary items from his desk to leave the building as quickly as possible. He knew Kris wasn’t going to let him go if he asked him, so he had to escape. He hoped Baekhyun had a truly good reason to make him do this, because otherwise he was going to be very angry.

He had been so worried about Baekhyun lately. The omega hadn’t been himself ever since Christmas. Their relationship had been going smoothly, with the normal occasional quarrels, and Chanyeol was terrified of everything falling apart again.

He would never admit it to anyone, and he could barely admit it to himself, but he was scared of Baekhyun sometimes.

Scared of his reactions when he had to tell him something he might not like. Scared of his ideas when he wanted to do something crazy. Scared of waking up one day to an empty bed and realize Baekhyun had either left him or, his worst nightmare, ended his own life.

Chanyeol's immediate reaction was to try and control the omega as much as he could, because even if he wanted with all his heart to trust him completely, he just couldn’t. He couldn’t trust him when Baekhyun wanted to go out and drink until three am and then let his drunk friend drive him home. He couldn’t trust him when he overdosed in dangerous substances just so he could escape a natural process of his body. He couldn’t trust him when he was unable to even make tea in a kitchen without burning a finger.

Chanyeol knew Baekhyun had taken care of himself before, in college and afterwards, but somehow he felt Baekhyun had survived by mere luck.

*

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol called out after he entered the house. “Baek, where are you?”

“...the studio,” came the faint reply from the second floor.

Chanyeol went upstairs and into Baekhyun’s studio. The omega was laying down with his eyes closed, curled up in a ball on his couch. Chanyeol came closer to him and brushed his brown bangs away from his face. “Baek?”

“There’s something on my desk over there... Look at it,” Baekhyun said in a whisper without opening his eyes.

Chanyeol opened his mouth to ask, but closed it again and contained a sigh. He walked over to the desk and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the pregnancy test over it. He took the stick in his hands and gaped at the small green positive sign on it.

“What...?”

Baekhyun was pregnant? Baekhyun? His mate? Expecting a baby? It couldn’t be true, could it? Well, he had the proof in his hands.

Wait.

He was going to be a father?!

Chanyeol’s heart thumped with excitement. He flashed a bright smile, until he looked up, saw Baekhyun’s state of misery and realized the reality of the situation:

His mate hadn’t planned this, at all.

“...How could this happen? We used protection during your heat,” he said, rolling Baekhyun’s chair until it was besides the couch.

“It was that time in the early morning... When I woke you up...” Baekhyun said, finally opening his eyes.

Chanyeol saw they were red and swollen. “Oh.” He sat down and regarded the omega for a long time before he spoke again. “How do you feel?”

Baekhyun sighed. “Betrayed. Confused. Angry.”

“Betrayed? You don’t think I wanted to impregnate you on purpose, do you?”

“Of course not. I mean betrayed by my own body." He made a pause, and regarded him like he was searching for something in Chanyeol's eyes. "And how do you feel?”

The alpha looked for the right words. “I guess very surprised. And confused, too. I’ve always wanted to be a dad, but I don’t want you to feel sad about it... A pup shouldn’t have to deal with one of their parents hating them.”

“How can you say that?!" Baekhyun exclaimed on the verge of tears. "How can you say I would hate an innocent child who didn’t have anything to do with anything?! What do you take me for, Chanyeol!”

“I’m-I’m sorry, you’re right. That was a ter