Alpha’s Badass Mate novel

---- Adom dropped the slippers by the side of the bed and crawled up onto the mattress to drape himself across Ashly and press his nose into the crook of his mother's neck. Ashly hugged her adorable son close and inhaled deeply against his hair, her whole body relaxing visibly. Alex set the tray of food on the bedside table and then sat on the edge of the bed. "We thought you'd be hungry. Adom prepared it himself." "Did he? My smart son," Ashly said fondly, dropping akiss on Adom's head.

After a moment, he sat up against the headboard and made grabby hands for the tray. Adom shifted so he could remain tucked against Ashly's side and went quiet, cheek to cheek and eyes wide and serious. "What happened to my adorable panda?" Ashly teased, which made Adom pout hard. "Tam not a panda mom, but you neglect your health again. We are going to have a long conversation after you are fine. Alex nodded his head. "I am with you, baby; we are going to have a long talk with your mom.".

Adom points his small finger towards Ashly and nods his head. He is serious. Ashly and Alex try hard to hold themselves back from bursting into laughter. Adom ---- will pout if they laugh at him, but hell, their son is a really adorable panda. Alex then set the tray on Ashly's lap and resisted the urge to ask how she was feeling.

Either his thoughts were just that obvious, Ashly was a mind reader, or they'd been thinking about the same thing because Ashly said, "I already made an appointment with my doctor. I feel fine," she admits, pointing her chopsticks at Alex threateningly , "but just to be sure, I'm going to go get checked out." "Thank you so much, baby," Alex said, feeling embarrassed over his worrying. Ashly had taken care of herself just fine for the last seven years, and she knew her body best.

If she said she was fine, Alex needed to trust that she was fine. The trouble was, From now on, can you not say you're fine when you're "« clearly not? I want to trust you. But last night, baby, I am sorry, but I am worried, so please tel-"" "T know," Ashly interrupted her mate. "It was stupid. I wanted to help, and I really didn't think it was that bad until it was." "Okay," Alex agreed, even if he didn't want to. He heaved a relieved sigh. It had been a long morning.

He hadn't slept at all the night before. He didn't think coffee was going to cut it anymore. "As long as we're on the same page," Ashly smiled at him and ate her breakfast. ---- Afterwards , Alex set aside the tray and then settled himself against his mate's free side, pressing his face against Ashly's neck to inhale her mint-and-pine scent. Adom whined softly and crawled across Ashly's lap to squish himself into the miniscule space between them.

Alex tugged them both in close, squishing Adom further until he giggled and squirmed into a more comfortable position. Alex dropped a kiss on his son's hair and breathed deeply. Apples and cinnamon. Like Brandon's homemade pie. According to Ashly, this was what Alex smelled like too. He couldn't really smell himself the same way, so he'd have to take Ashly's word for it. It explained, though, why he hadn't been able to identify Adom's smell at first. He was used to it already.

But for Ashly, it had been a constant reminder of what he was missing. Adom smell reminds him of his mate from seven years ago. It was pretty rare for a child's scent to exactly match one of their parents. Combination scents were more likely, with unmatch ing scents from the same scent family being the most common. If Adom had smelled like another spice, like wood or herbs, that would have been much more expected than what they got -a tiny clone of Ashly ---- with Alex's exact scent, an improbable combination of the two of them.